Public Health and Health Systems Partnerships to Increase Colorectal Cancer Screening in Clinical Settings | CDC RFA DP20 2002

Opportunity Information: Apply for CDC RFA DP20 2002

The grant opportunity "Public Health and Health Systems Partnerships to Increase Colorectal Cancer Screening in Clinical Settings" (CDC RFA DP20-2002) is a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cooperative agreement designed to raise colorectal cancer (CRC) screening rates in clinical settings, especially for populations ages 50 to 75 whose screening levels fall below national, regional, or local benchmarks. The program focuses on practical, clinic-centered improvements that help more eligible patients get screened on time and, just as importantly, ensure that patients with abnormal results receive appropriate follow-up colonoscopies. In practice, this funding is meant to help public health entities and partners work directly with health systems and primary care clinics to strengthen routine screening workflows and reduce gaps in prevention.

A central requirement of the award is that recipients build active partnerships with health systems and individual primary care clinics and implement at least two evidence-based interventions recommended by The Community Guide. The four intervention options are client reminders, provider reminders, reducing structural barriers, and provider assessment and feedback. The intent is to move beyond general awareness campaigns and instead embed proven strategies into everyday clinical operations. Client reminders typically involve contacting patients who are due or overdue for screening (for example by mail, phone, text, or patient portal notifications). Provider reminders prompt clinicians and care teams during visits or through electronic health record tools to order or recommend screening. Reducing structural barriers targets real-world obstacles that keep patients from completing screening, such as transportation challenges, complicated scheduling, limited clinic hours, language barriers, or difficulty understanding instructions. Provider assessment and feedback uses performance data to show clinicians and clinics how they are doing on screening measures and helps drive targeted quality improvement.

Another major element is technical support and implementation capacity. Recipients are expected to establish partnerships with organizations that can provide expertise to support implementation of these interventions in primary care clinics. This can include groups with experience in quality improvement, health information technology, practice facilitation, data analytics, or population health management. The goal is to ensure clinics are not left to figure out implementation on their own, but instead receive hands-on support to adapt interventions to their workflows, staff roles, and patient populations, while still maintaining fidelity to what makes the interventions effective.

Before selecting and rolling out interventions, the program requires a formal assessment of each participating clinic's capacity and readiness to implement EBIs. This assessment is used to identify practical realities such as staffing constraints, workflow bottlenecks, electronic health record capabilities, current screening processes, patient outreach capacity, referral patterns, and existing relationships with endoscopy providers. Recipients then use the assessment results to choose the most appropriate interventions for each clinic rather than forcing a one-size-fits-all approach. This step is meant to improve implementation success by matching strategies to a clinic's starting point and addressing barriers early.

The opportunity also emphasizes follow-up after abnormal screening tests, recognizing that screening only prevents deaths when abnormal results are acted on. Recipients must provide resources to partner clinics so they can support completion of follow-up colonoscopies after a positive or abnormal screening test. This may include strengthening referral pathways, addressing scheduling delays, improving patient navigation, clarifying responsibilities between primary care and specialty care, and reducing logistical and financial barriers that commonly prevent timely diagnostic colonoscopy. By focusing on follow-up, the program aims to improve the full screening continuum, not just initial test completion.

Strong data reporting is a required deliverable. Funded recipients must collect and submit high-quality clinic-level data, including baseline and annual CRC screening rates. This expectation signals that the program is performance- and outcomes-oriented, with an emphasis on measurable improvements over time at the clinic level. It also implies attention to data quality, consistent definitions, and the ability to track screening status accurately across patient populations and across years, which is often a major challenge in real-world clinical environments.

Administratively, this is a discretionary federal funding opportunity issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services through the CDC, specifically within NCCDPHP. The funding instrument is a cooperative agreement, which generally means substantial federal involvement is expected during the project period, often through guidance, collaboration, and reporting requirements. The award ceiling listed is $900,000, and the funding opportunity anticipated approximately 35 awards. Eligible applicants are broad and include state, county, and local governments; tribal governments and tribal organizations; public housing authorities; K-12 school districts; public and private institutions of higher education; nonprofit organizations with or without 501(c)(3) status; for-profit organizations (including small businesses); and other entities as allowed in the eligibility language.

Overall, the grant is structured to drive clinic-level change by combining partnerships, evidence-based interventions, readiness assessments, implementation support, follow-up care coordination, and rigorous clinic-level data reporting. The program is clearly geared toward improving equitable screening uptake among under-screened groups while strengthening the systems that make screening reliable, trackable, and actionable in everyday primary care.

• The Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control - NCCDPHP in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Public Health and Health Systems Partnerships to Increase Colorectal Cancer Screening in Clinical Settings" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.800.
• This funding opportunity was created on Jan 14, 2020.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Mar 17, 2020 Electronically submitted applications must be submitted no later than 1159 p.m., ET, on the listed application due date.. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $900,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 35 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, For profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses, Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification), Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility.

Apply for CDC RFA DP20 2002

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