Telehealth Focused Rural Health Research Center Program | HRSA 20 023

Opportunity Information: Apply for HRSA 20 023

The Telehealth Focused Rural Health Research Center (TF RHRC) Program is a federal funding opportunity from the Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), through the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP). It is designed to strengthen the national understanding of how telehealth is working in rural America by funding two dedicated, multi-year research centers that focus specifically on rural telehealth policy and health services research rather than clinical care delivery. The program is intended to generate practical, decision-ready findings that can guide federal, state, and local leaders, as well as rural health systems and providers, as they decide where to invest in telehealth and how to design telehealth models that improve access and outcomes in rural communities.

This Notice of Funding Opportunity (HRSA-20-023) will support two separate Telehealth Focused Rural Health Research Centers under cooperative agreements, each funded for a four-year project period. One center is evaluation-focused and the other is evidence-focused, reflecting two complementary needs: (1) a comprehensive, ongoing evaluation of nationwide telehealth investments in rural areas, and (2) targeted research that expands the evidence base on what telehealth services work best, for whom, and under what conditions. Because these are cooperative agreements, awardees should expect substantial federal involvement, with FORHP working closely with recipients to shape priorities and negotiate the mix of original research versus other products such as syntheses, measures, and updates to existing work.

The evaluation-focused center is expected to conduct and maintain a broad, thorough assessment of telehealth investments across rural populations and geographies. The emphasis is on understanding the real-world impact of telehealth funding and implementation by examining access to care, costs, patient and provider experiences, and clinical effectiveness. Beyond basic utilization questions, this evaluation is meant to help policymakers understand how telehealth investments influence wider health system goals and rural realities, including population health indicators, total health care spending for both payers and patients, quality of care, value-based care approaches, workforce challenges, business strategies used by rural organizations, and changes in clinical care delivery models. The underlying idea is that a careful national evaluation can highlight what is working, where gaps remain, and what course corrections could meaningfully improve rural health access and outcomes.

The evidence-focused center is expected to produce clinically informed, policy-relevant health services research that fills key knowledge gaps about telehealth in rural settings. Its role is to expand the evidence base by studying how rural telehealth affects access, health outcomes and indicators, costs to payers and patients, quality, value-based care, and clinical workflows. This center may also take on studies that compare telehealth services to in-person care within the same clinical domain, evaluate how federal or state policy changes shape telehealth availability and use, and assess cost-effectiveness. The opportunity highlights several priority topics that may be especially relevant in rural contexts, such as tele-emergency services, tele-behavioral health (including substance use treatment), and remote patient monitoring, while still allowing flexibility to address emerging needs and policy questions.

Across both centers, awardees are expected to produce products that are useful to non-technical audiences, not just academic publications. That includes conducting policy-oriented health services research, updating trend analyses and existing rural telehealth research, performing literature reviews and syntheses, and translating findings into publicly available, plain-language policy briefs. Applicants must also be prepared to develop evaluation or performance measures and to refresh prior analyses so that decision-makers have timely, current information rather than outdated snapshots. All funded research outputs are expected to be made publicly available through the Rural Health Research Gateway (ruralhealthresearch.org), reinforcing the program goal of broad dissemination and practical utility.

The program is explicit about what it does not fund: it does not support biomedical research and it does not pay for the delivery of health care services. Instead, it supports infrastructure and applied health services research focused on how telehealth is organized, financed, implemented, and experienced in rural communities. In line with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) framing, the work centers on how people access care, what care costs, and what happens to patients as a result, with the broader aim of identifying effective ways to organize, manage, finance, and deliver high-quality care while improving safety and reducing errors.

Key administrative details from the notice include: the funding instrument is a cooperative agreement; the activity category is health; the CFDA number is 93.155; HRSA expected to make two awards; and the ceiling amount is $950,000. The notice was created February 11, 2020, with an original application closing date of May 1, 2020. Eligibility is listed as "Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification)," signaling that prospective applicants must consult the full NOFO to confirm the specific eligible entity types and any requirements related to partnerships, experience, or capacity to carry out a national-level rural telehealth research agenda.

• The Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Telehealth Focused Rural Health Research Center Program" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.155.
• This funding opportunity was created on Feb 11, 2020.
• Applicants must submit their applications by May 01, 2020. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $950,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 2 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for HRSA 20 023

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