Nursing Home Innovations Grant Board

The Nursing Home Innovations Grant Board (NHIGB) makes recommendations for the approval of grants, funded by Civil Money Penalty funds, that benefit residents of nursing homes. Colorado Legislature, in Senate Bill SB14-151, has directed this Board to identify projects that will be recommended for funding on a yearly basis. Projects must be at least 1 year, and not more than three years, and directly improve the quality of care or quality of life for nursing home residents.

Traditional Grant Opportunity - Apply for a grant 

A complete application includes:

• CDPHE RFA Cover Sheet and Signature Page
• Application Submission Checklist
• Cover letter
• Nursing Home Innovations Grant Board Civil Money Penalty (CMP) Reinvestment Application
• CMP Reinvestment Application Budget Worksheet
• Financial Risk Assessment Questionnaire
• Letters of Support
• Additional documentation, if required. 
• All applications must be complete, meet all criteria and include all required attachments specified in the Request for applications (RFA) in order to be considered. Click on the apply for a grant link for the RFA, application, budget worksheet, guidance documents and additional information.

Project categories

• Consumer Information
  • Projects that share information about resident and resident representative rights, the nursing home care process, and generally anything useful that ensures quality care in nursing homes.
• Resident or Family Council
  • Projects that focus on resident and family council development or improvement in resident centered services.
• Direct Improvements to Quality of Care
  • Projects that directly improve care for nursing home residents.
• Cultural Change/Direct Improvements to Quality of Life
  • Projects that enhance a resident’s self-esteem and dignity. Culture change is the common name given to the national movement for the transformation of older adult services, based on person-directed values and practices where the voices of elders and those working with them are considered and respected.
• Training
  • Training that covers material that directly benefits nursing home residents.

Criteria

Measures should directly benefit residents of nursing homes by fostering innovation and improving the quality of life and quality of care at the communities.  This could include the following:

• Consumer education to promote resident-centered care in nursing home communities.
• Initiatives in nursing homes related to the quality measures promoted by the federal centers for Medicare and Medicaid services and other national quality standards.
• Education and consultation for purposes of identifying and implementing resident-centered care initiatives in nursing home communities.
• Each project must be portable, sustainable, and replicable in other nursing homes. This includes requiring PowerPoint presentations, handouts, and other materials developed for the project to become public information.
• The project must include a plan for measuring results in quantifiable terms. 
• The project must be at least one year (12 months) and completed in no more than three years (36 months).
• No state agency nor any other governmental entity, with the exception of a facility that is owned or operated by a governmental agency and that is licensed as a nursing care home under section 25-1.5-103(1)(a)(I)(A), may apply for or receive a grant hereunder.
• Any work product from a grant-funded through the nursing home penalty cash fund will become the intellectual property of the state of Colorado and will be made available without charge to all nursing homes in the state.
• In accordance with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services guidance, projects for capital improvements; to pay for items or services that the nursing home is already responsible for (required services and supplies); or to fund projects that are unrelated to improving the quality of life of nursing home residents will not be considered.
• A public presentation must be provided at the end of the grant project per the direction of the Board.

COVID-19 Grant Opportunity The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued guidance for Nursing Home Visitation. Recognizing that considerations allowing for visitation in each phase of re-opening may be difficult for residents and their families, CMS has developed this application template for requests for the use of Civil Money Penalty (CMP) Reinvestment funds to provide nursing homes with in-person visitation aids.

COVID-19 In-person Visitation Aid Request Resources