Evidence-Based Tele-Behavioral Health Network Program

This notice solicits applications for the Evidence-Based Tele-Behavioral Health Network Program (EB-THNP). The two-fold purpose of this program is to use telehealth networks to increase access to behavioral health care services in rural and frontier communities and to conduct evaluations of those efforts to establish an evidence-base for assessing the effectiveness of tele-behavioral health care for patients, providers, and payers. The range and use of telehealth services have expanded over the past decades, along with the role of technology in improving and coordinating care. Traditional models of telehealth involve care delivered to a patient at an originating (or spoke) site from a specialist working at a distant (or hub) site. A telehealth network consists of a series of originating sites receiving services from a collaborating distant site. For the purposes of this NOFO, telehealth is defined as the use of electronic information and telecommunication technologies to support and promote long-distance clinical health care, patient and professional health-related education, public health and health administration. Telehealth modalities to be used to support clinical treatment may include video conferencing, the internet, store-and-forward imaging, streaming media, and terrestrial and wireless communications.