COVID-19 in Healthcare Relief Grants

Senate Bill (SB) 8, 87th Legislature, 3rd Called Session, 2021, appropriates funds to the Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) for grants to support Texas healthcare providers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic:

• $75,000,000 for rural hospitals (SB 8, Section 12);
  • $38,000,000 ($250,000 per rural hospital) via direct awards;
  • $37,000,000 distributed via a competitive award process, or Request for Applications (RFA);
• $200,000,000 for nursing facilities (NF) (SB 8, Section 33);
  • $90,000,000 ($75,000 per licensed facility) in direct awards;
  • $110,000,000 distributed via a competitive award process, or Request for Applications (RFA);
• $178,300,000 million for Assisted Living Facilities (ALFs), home health agencies (HHA), Intermediate Care Facilities for Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities or related conditions (ICFs/IID), and providers of Community Attendant Services (SB 8, Section 33) distributed via competitive award processes (RFAs).

Funding Utilization Report: Required for All Beneficiaries of COVID-19 in Healthcare Relief Grants

Per Section 2.7 Required Report of all seven of the COVID-19 in Healthcare Relief Grant (CHRG) Requests for Applications (RFAs), beneficiaries of an award must submit a Funding Utilization Report to HHSC by the due date listed in the RFA. “Beneficiary” means the party receiving funds under any funding agreement awarded under the RFA.

Beneficiaries of any of the seven CHRG RFAs can now access and submit their Funding Utilization Reports. The URLs and deadlines for each of the RFAs are below; further instructions for the reports can be found through the respective links below.

Compliance with Reporting Requirements

SB 8 directs HHSC to prioritize awards to providers that comply with the reporting requirements prescribed by Rider 143, SB 809, or equivalent reporting requirements established by HHSC. Providers who are required to submit the reports and are compliant with all SB 809/Rider 143 reporting will receive one extra point on the scoring of their RFA application. Applicants’ compliance will be determined by HHSC on the 15th calendar day after the respective RFA solicitation posts.

To submit the required initial and monthly reports, providers can submit directly through an online form with the following links:

• Initial Period Form (Jan 2020 – Aug 2021)
• Ongoing Monthly Form (September 2021 onward)

Providers with multiple entities may also use an offline reporting template from the PFD website under the Monthly SB 809/Rider 143 COVID-19 Reporting dropdown and submit the completed form to the PFD Survey Inbox.

To confirm compliance, please check the healthcare institution list on the PFD website under the SB 809/Rider 143 COVID-19 Reporting Healthcare Institution List dropdown. PFD updates this compliance list weekly.

Open Enrollment for Support of Consumer Directed Services Applicants

In Open Enrollment, Section 8.2, HHS will post a list of all FMSAs that have enrolled via this OE on the HHSC website to notify potential applicants to RFA No. HHS0011792 of the availability of support services. The enrolled FMSAs are listed here:

Interested applicants should rely on the information in each individual RFA because the RFAs may have additional or different information than what is provided on this site.