The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) provided nearly $100 million to 1,980 rural health clinics across the country to support outreach efforts to increase vaccinations in rural communities.
They will use these resources to develop and implement additional vaccine confidence and outreach efforts and work to get more people vaccinated and protected from COVID-19 in medically underserved rural communities. The funding was made available by the American Rescue Plan and is being administered by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) through the Rural Health Clinic Vaccine Confidence (RHCVC) Program.
HHs said the rural clinicals are well positioned to disseminate information about how and where to get vaccinated at the local level, and coordinate with existing vaccination sites and public health partners to identify strategies to increase vaccine confidence among key populations. The clinics will also use this funding to improve health literacy, focusing on vaccine safety and the benefits of broad vaccination for rural communities.
HRSA is making grant awards to rural health clinics based on the number of certified clinic sites they operate, providing approximately $49,500 per clinic site. The term rural health clinic is a special designation given by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to clinics in rural underserved areas.
HRSA also awarded a $750,000 cooperative agreement to the National Organization of State Offices of Rural Health to provide technical assistance to the clinics participating in this program.
