Primary Care Training and Enhancement: Training Primary Care Champions | HRSA 18 013

Opportunity Information: Apply for HRSA 18 013

The Primary Care Training and Enhancement: Training Primary Care Champions grant opportunity (HRSA-18-013) is a discretionary grant program run by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), under CFDA 93.884. Its central goal is to strengthen the primary care workforce by creating fellowship-style training programs for practicing, community-based primary care physicians and/or physician assistants. These fellows are expected to become "champions" who can lead real-world health care transformation in their local settings while also improving how primary care is taught and mentored in community-based training environments.

The program is built around the idea that transforming primary care is not just about adding clinical skills, but about developing leaders who can redesign care delivery. HRSA points applicants toward a set of transformation characteristics described by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), emphasizing modern, system-level primary care performance. In practical terms, the fellowship programs supported by this funding are meant to prepare clinicians to function effectively in integrated or virtually integrated delivery models, where providers across the continuum work together rather than operating in isolated silos. A major theme is care coordination across providers and settings, meaning fellows should be equipped to reduce fragmentation between primary care, specialty care, hospitals, behavioral health, and community services, and to improve transitions of care and follow-up.

Another key focus is patient engagement and measurable improvement in patient experience. The opportunity highlights the expectation that transformed systems show quantifiable results, not just good intentions. Training programs under this grant would therefore be aligned with methods for improving patient-centered care, shared decision-making, communication, and service design, while also tracking patient experience data to demonstrate progress. The announcement also underscores the role of health information technology as a transformation tool, signaling that fellows should be able to use electronic health records, registries, clinical decision support, telehealth tools, and reporting systems to improve quality and outcomes rather than treating IT as a documentation burden.

Workforce optimization is also central. CMS and HRSA frame transformed systems as places where providers practice at the top of their license and board certification, which usually implies deliberate team-based care. Fellowship training supported by this program would be expected to help physician and PA champions lead efforts that delegate appropriate tasks to nurses, pharmacists, behavioral health clinicians, community health workers, and other team members, improving access and efficiency while maintaining quality. Alongside that, the opportunity calls attention to population health integration, meaning the delivery system should not only treat individual visits but also manage panels of patients, use risk stratification, address preventive care gaps, and track chronic disease outcomes across the practice population.

Data-driven improvement is another recurring expectation. The opportunity explicitly notes that transformed systems use data to drive health system processes, which points to competencies in quality improvement, performance measurement, workflow redesign, and the ability to turn dashboards and reports into practical operational changes. In other words, the fellowships are meant to create clinicians who can lead continuous improvement cycles and help their organizations make decisions based on evidence, metrics, and outcomes.

HRSA adds an additional transformation characteristic that goes beyond the CMS list: addressing social determinants of health. This is an important signal that HRSA expects primary care champions to understand and respond to non-medical drivers of health such as housing instability, food insecurity, transportation barriers, employment, education, and social support. Programs funded under this opportunity would likely emphasize building partnerships with community organizations, integrating social needs screening and referral workflows, and designing care models that better fit the realities of underserved or high-need populations.

From an administrative standpoint, this funding opportunity was created on November 13, 2017, with an original application deadline of January 30, 2018, and it anticipated making around 10 awards. The listing shows an award ceiling of 0, which typically means the ceiling was not specified in the summary field and applicants would need to consult the full announcement for detailed budget limits and expectations. Eligibility is summarized as "Others" with clarification in the full text, suggesting that eligibility may include specific types of institutions, training entities, or community-based organizations that meet HRSA requirements, rather than being open to all applicants without restriction.

Overall, this grant opportunity is designed to fund fellowship programs that turn experienced community-based primary care clinicians into transformation leaders and educators. The intended impact is stronger primary care capacity on the ground: clinicians who can guide integrated care, coordinate across settings, engage patients, use health IT effectively, build high-functioning teams, manage population health, apply data for improvement, and address social determinants of health as part of routine care delivery.

• The Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Primary Care Training and Enhancement: Training Primary Care Champions" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.884.
• This funding opportunity was created on Nov 13, 2017.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jan 30, 2018. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 10 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for HRSA 18 013

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