Are there funding or reimbursement advantages to being considered a frontier area?
Most of the programs that frontier areas can access for grants and enhanced reimbursement are available through shortage designations, including the Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) and Medically Underserved Area (MUA) designations, rather than through a designation as a frontier area. The Community Health Center program gives special consideration to sparsely populated or frontier areas. One program that is specific to frontier is the Frontier Extended Stay Clinic (FESC) Cooperative Agreement Program. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) also has a project for the FESC model, the Frontier Extended Stay Clinic Demonstration Project. Frontier communities are rural and so qualify for many rural-specific funding programs, such as the Office of Rural Health Policy’s Rural Health Care Services Outreach Grant Program and Rural Health Network Development Grant Program. For additional funding programs available to frontier and other rural areas, please see our Funding s
