Section 6104 CAA, 2026: State Studies and Health and Human Services Report On Costs Of Providing Maternity, Labor, and Delivery Services

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is offering a cooperative agreement to fund a national technical assistance (TA) entity This entity will support states, U.S. territories, Washington D.C., and small rural hospitals in collecting and

CMS seeks applications for a national, centralized technical assistance (TA) entity to support small rural hospitals and states in providing accurate hospital-based financial data to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) with minimal administrative burden, as well as analysis of that data. Each state, U.S. territory and Washington D.C. will provide data on costs and payments - across Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, and private insurance - from a representative sample of applicable hospitals, and will conduct analyses including factors impacting cost, expected changes in expenditures and reimbursement, and comparisons of payment rates across types of coverage and payment methods. The TA provider is expected to help identify challenges in providing this information, offer solutions, and provide remedies.

One application may be submitted per eligible applicant.

Funding should be used to provide nationwide technical assistance (TA) to states, U.S. territories, Washington, D.C., and hospitals that require support to report rural hospital-level maternal health data required for submission to the HHS Secretary. This data may include the costs of and payment for rural hospital labor and delivery services. TA will also be used to support states in analyses of this data including comparisons of payment sources and methodologies and as analyses of the effects of demographic, geographic, and local economic factors (as defined by the HHS Secretary) on the cost of providing maternity, labor, and delivery services at applicable rural hospitals. Funds may be used to identify challenges hospitals and states have in providing the data, determining how to overcome these challenges and implementing trainings, Q & As, etc. to support accurate data reporting and analysis.

Cooperative agreement funds may not be used to duplicate or supplant existing federal or state funding for programs or systems that result in the same outcomes as funding under this cooperative agreement.

Eligible applicants will submit their applications via Grants.gov. Applicants must show their ability to provide TA to all states/U.S. Territories/DC and to hospitals when necessary; prior experience with hospital cost reports and rate data is required. Experience working with rural health and underserved populations is necessary. All applications that meet the eligibility and responsiveness criteria will undergo a merit review.

Successful applicant will receive a Notice of Award (NoA) certified by the CMS Grants Management Officer. The NoA is the legal document authorizing the cooperative agreement award and issued to the applicant as listed on the SF-424. It is available to the applicant organization through the online grants management system used by CMS and recipient organizations.

Contact the Centers for Medicaid & Medicaid Services for application deadlines or refer to the NOFO.