Sunday, May 11, 2025
5/11/2025
Fiscal Year 2023 Capital Assistance for Hurricane Response and Recovery Efforts (CARE) - Funding Opportunity: FY 2023 Capital Assistance for Hurricane Response and Recovery Efforts (CARE) HRSA-23-122 Applicant: Rural Health Care, Inc. d/b/a Aza Health (AH) Applicant Address: P.O. Drawer 817, Palatka, Florida 32178-0817 Applicant Contact: Laura M. Spencer, CEO Website: www.azahealth.org Contact Info: Phone: (386) 326-7340 Fax: (386) 325-1086 E-mail: lspencer@azahealth.org Rural Health Care, Inc. d/b/a Aza Health (AH), established in 1977, is a private, not-for-profit Community and Migrant Health Center located in Palatka, Florida (Putnam County). AH operates 15 full-time primary care sites and an administration site in a 6-county area (Alachua, Clay, Flagler, Putnam, St. Johns and Volusia) in North Florida. While AH offers services to all residents of the service area regardless of ability to pay, its target population is the low-income, uninsured and underinsured populations. In 2022, AH served 39,458 total (unduplicated) patients. Of those patients, 91% had incomes at or below 200% of the federal poverty level, 15% were uninsured and 51% were Medicaid recipients. In 2022, Hurricane Ian negatively impacted access to primary care services at all AH sites. Although no AH sites suffered structural damage from the storm, many AH sites experienced power outages ranging from 1 to 3 days. AH proposes to utilize CARE funding to conduct minor A/R activities to permanently affix generators large enough to run the entire facility at 3 of AH’s sites (2 service delivery sites and AH’s admin site). Two of the proposed sites (Palatka Dental and Admin) are located in Putnam County. Putnam is centrally located in AH’s service area; is contiguous to the 5 other counties in AH’s service area; is an interior (not coastal) county; and, is historically less likely to suffer catastrophic damage or be included in mandatory evacuations. Putnam County is, however, a federally designated rural county and typically suffers widespread, long term power outages after a storm. The 3 other AH-owned Putnam sites already have generators installed. The third proposed site (Keystone) is located in southwestern Clay County. Clay is also an interior (not coastal) county and is historically less likely to suffer catastrophic damage or be included in mandatory evacuations. The proposed site, however, is located in a rural portion of the county and typically suffers widespread, long term power outages after a storm. Installing generators at the 2 proposed service delivery sites (Palatka Dental and Keystone) would allow them to accommodate both patients and staff from AH sites closed due to storm damage, evacuations or power outages to ensure access to primary medical and dental services for underserved populations in the AH service area. Installing a generator at AH’s Admin site would ensure access to support services housed in Admin (transportation, case management and care management) for underserved populations in the AH service area and also allow for continuity of key business operations (payroll and purchasing). AH is seeking $490,000 in CARE funding to install the full building generators at the 3 AH sites to improve AH’s ability to respond to future disasters. The completion of these 3 proposed generator projects will allow AH to have sites operational to provide access to primary care services (medical, dental, mental health and pharmacy) and to provide access to support services (transportation and case/care management) for the vulnerable populations we serve and alleviate congestion at hospital emergency rooms during disasters.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).