Health Center COVID-19 Testing Supply Distribution Program, Funding Updates, and More! HRSA PHC Digest

April 1, 2021

Announcing the Health Center COVID-19 Testing Supply Distribution Program
To support President Biden’s National Strategy for the COVID-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness and following on the successful announcement of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Mask Distribution Program, HHS and the Department of Defense (DoD) have partnered again. The Health Center COVID-19 Testing Supply Distribution Program will supply health centers and look-alikes with free rapid testing supplies, including point-of-care analyzers and test kits. This initiative again recognizes health centers as vital partners in community-based outreach efforts. The goal of this initiative is to ensure that health centers have access to supplies, materials, and real-time information needed to support COVID-19 testing.

The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) will send a separate communication to health center and look-alike project directors and provide instruction on ordering needed supplies to provide rapid testing throughout the coming months. Health centers are encouraged to respond to the request for information projecting their testing needs. HRSA will work within provided resources to meet the demand across the program.

Over the next few days, HHS expects to add a new category to our COVID-19 FAQs webpage with FAQs about this program.

What’s New?

Fiscal Year 2022 Project/Designation Period Extensions
As you heard during last week’s Today with Macrae, HRSA will extend the project/designation periods of health centers in a 2- or 3-year project/designation period that ends in fiscal year (FY) 2022. Health centers receiving this extension will complete an FY 2022 Budget Period Progress Report/Annual Certification instead of a Service Area Competition/Renewal of Designation (SAC/RD) application.

Your health center will soon receive an extension if:

  • Your project/designation period ends between October 1, 2021, and September 30, 2022, AND
  • You did not receive an extension last year, AND
  • You are not currently in a 1-year project/designation period.

For questions about extensions and FY 2022 required applications/submissions, contact the SAC or RD TA Teams via the BPHC Contact Form.