Rural Residency Planning and Development (RRPD) Program

Background
The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Rural Residency Planning and Development (RRPD) Program aims to improve and expand access to health care in rural areas by developing new, sustainable rural residency programs, including rural track programs (RTPs), that are accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). The program addresses physician workforce shortages and challenges faced by rural communities. The program provides start-up funding to RRPD award recipients to create new rural residency programs that will be sustainable long-term through viable and stable funding mechanisms, such as Medicare, Medicaid, and other public or private funding sources.
Rural residency programs are accredited physician residency programs that train residents in rural training sites for greater than 50 percent of their total time in residency, focusing on producing physicians who will practice in rural communities.

Grant Details
The program has two pathways: General Primary Care and High Need Specialty Pathway, and Maternal Health and Obstetrics Pathway. The eligible specialties in the General Primary Care pathway are family medicine, internal medicine, preventive medicine, psychiatry, and general surgery. The Maternal Health and Obstetrics Pathway supports the development of new rural residency programs with a focus on training to provide high-quality maternity care and obstetrical services in rural areas. Eligible specialties in this pathway are obstetrics-gynecology and family medicine with enhanced obstetrical training.
The program aims to establish a new rural residency program accredited by ACGME by the end of the period of performance, finalize a validated program sustainability plan that includes ongoing funding streams to sustain long-term resident training once the program is established, and develop a graduate tracking plan and publicly report on residents’ career outcomes after graduation for at least five years.

Eligibility Requirements
Eligible applicants include domestic public or private nonprofit or for-profit entities such as rural hospitals, community-based ambulatory patient care centers, Native American tribal governments or organizations, health centers operated by tribal governments or organizations, graduate medical education consortiums including institutions of higher education like schools of allopathic medicine or osteopathic medicine or Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).
Applicants must propose rural residency programs that will train residents for greater than 50 percent of total residency training in a clinical training site physically located in a rural area as defined by CMS and/or FORHP.

Period of Performance
The period of performance is from August 1, 2024 through July 31, 2027 (3 years). The total available funding is estimated at $11,250,000 for up to 15 new grants with each grant potentially receiving up to $750,000 over the 3-year period subject to the availability of appropriated funds.

Grant Value
$11,250,000 is estimated to be available for up to 15 new grants with each grant potentially receiving up to $750,000 over the 3-year period subject to the availability of appropriated funds.