Community Health Aide Program: Tribal Assessment & Planning | HHS 2021 IHS TAP 0001

Opportunity Information: Apply for HHS 2021 IHS TAP 0001

The Community Health Aide Program: Tribal Assessment and Planning (TAP) opportunity is a discretionary grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Indian Health Service (IHS), aimed at helping Tribes and Tribal Organizations figure out whether and how they can successfully implement the Community Health Aide Program (CHAP) in their own communities. Rather than paying for full program rollout, TAP is meant to fund the upfront groundwork: a structured assessment of feasibility and a practical plan for integration. The central idea is to give Tribal entities the time and resources to evaluate readiness, identify what will get in the way, and map out realistic steps and partnerships needed to make CHAP work in a way that fits local priorities, geography, and culture.

A key feature of TAP is its emphasis on regional and community flexibility. CHAP is not treated as a one-size-fits-all model; instead, the grant supports Tribes and Tribal Organizations in designing an approach that is unique to their local health system and community needs. The work supported under this grant focuses on identifying “feasibility factors,” meaning the real-world conditions that determine whether CHAP can be integrated into an existing Tribal health system and sustained over time.

The program’s objectives fall into three main areas. First, applicants are expected to assess whether CHAP can be integrated into the Tribal health system, including how it would fit within the current health care workforce. This typically involves looking at how CHAP roles would complement existing clinical services, how supervision and referral pathways would function, and what changes would be needed in staffing models, workflows, and coordination between community-based providers and clinics or hospitals.

Second, TAP requires identification of systemic barriers that could prevent full integration of CHAP into the current health care system. The grant specifically calls out several categories of barriers that should be examined in a detailed way. These include clinical infrastructure barriers (such as availability of supervising clinicians, clinical protocols, telehealth capacity, medical record access, and oversight systems), workforce barriers (recruitment, retention, pay scales, scope alignment with other roles, and burnout risks), certification issues for providers (what credentials are required, how certification would be obtained or maintained, and how credentialing aligns with state or regional rules), training requirements (where training would come from, costs, scheduling, travel, and long-term training pipelines), and the inclusion of culture in services delivered by CHAP providers (ensuring care models reflect community values, language access, traditional practices where appropriate, and culturally grounded patient engagement).

Third, the TAP opportunity expects applicants to use the findings from the assessment to plan partnerships across their geographic region to address the barriers they identify. This is a practical planning component focused on how a Tribe or Tribal Organization would build the relationships and systems needed for implementation and sustainability. The grant highlights partnership planning related to reimbursement (how services would be paid for and billed, including the strategies needed to make funding sustainable), training and education partnerships (working with training hubs, educational institutions, or regional CHAP training entities), clinical infrastructure support (arrangements for supervision, quality assurance, protocols, and care coordination), implementation costs (startup and ongoing operational needs), and the overall approach to integrating CHAP into the broader health system rather than having it operate as a disconnected add-on.

Administratively, this funding opportunity is listed as HHS 2021 IHS TAP 0001 under CFDA 93.382, with IHS as the administering agency. Eligible applicants include federally recognized Native American tribal governments and Native American tribal organizations, with additional eligibility categories noted in the source text as “Others” depending on the specific clarification in the full notice. The opportunity was originally posted on August 5, 2021, with an original closing date of September 6, 2021. The award ceiling is $260,000 per award, and the agency anticipated making approximately 9 awards. Overall, this grant is best understood as a planning-and-readiness investment: it supports Tribes and Tribal Organizations in doing the careful assessment and partnership development needed to decide whether CHAP is feasible locally and, if it is, to lay out a clear and culturally appropriate path toward implementation.

• The Department of Health and Human Services, Indian Health Service in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Community Health Aide Program: Tribal Assessment & Planning" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.382.
• This funding opportunity was created on Aug 05, 2021.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Sep 06, 2021. (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 $260,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 9 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for HHS 2021 IHS TAP 0001

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