American Rescue Plan Act: Medicaid HCBS Grants Supporting Quality and Innovation
The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) provided qualifying states with federal funding for Medicaid home and community-based services (HCBS) activities. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) invested some of these federal funds to implement a statewide HCBS grant opportunity.
With the goal to enhance, expand, and strengthen HCBS, DHS provided $30 million over two funding rounds across Medicaid HCBS programs. Funds were distributed geographically across the state in both urban and rural areas, and support diverse organizations and populations. Funded projects reflect a wide range of ways to positively impact Medicaid program members and participants, direct care workers, families of individuals receiving services, HCBS providers, and more.
To assess the impact of these investments, DHS partnered with Public Consulting Group (PCG) to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the HCBS grantee projects. The evaluation used a mixed-methodology approach—including grantee reports, surveys, and focus group—and identified key successes, challenges, and lessons learned. The findings provide valuable insights that will shape future HCBS policy and best practices in Wisconsin.
Wisconsin HCBS Innovation Grants Evaluation Report (PDF)
2024 Wisconsin HCBS Innovation Grants Summit
In October 2024, approximately 300 grantees, HCBS providers, DHS decision makers, care recipients with lived experience, and other collaborators came together for a two-day working conference. Attendees shared lessons learned from the grant experience, took home practical and actionable ideas, and together shaped the future of HCBS in Wisconsin.
The goal was to promote innovation, collaboration, and communication between groups and organizations that rarely have such a chance to work together. Organizations around the state are serving HCBS clients in new and exciting ways and the summit provided an opportunity to meet other people working in the same space and connect.
Learn more about the 2024 Wisconsin HCBS Innovation Grants Summit
Get involved in the community of success
Celebrate success
Grant-funded projects have excelled in creativity and have made positive impacts in Medicaid HCBS programs. Check out the real results from our grantees!
See the Medicaid HCBS Grant Awards Briefing
On November 28, 2023, we shared the impact the grants have made across Wisconsin in a webinar.
ARPA HCBS grants dashboard
Use this dashboard to see overall awards and impact, or to see individual project summaries and goals.
The present view of the dashboard shows statistics for all grant awards. You can also:
- Filter by project reach: choose a value in the Project Reach dropdown
- Filter by county served: choose a county or counties in the County dropdown, or click on a county on the map
- Filter by round awarded: choose from the first or second rounds of grant funding
- Filter by awardee: choose an awardee in the Awardee Name dropdown
- Filter by project objective: select a bar chart area in the Project Objectives section
- Filter by program: select a bar chart area in the Impacted Medicaid Program section
To view more data and explanatory text, hover over the map, charts, and graphs in the dashboard.
- Project reach: The geographical reach of each project. This filters other data in the dashboard.
- Statewide projects impact many counties across Wisconsin.
- Regional projects impact several counties across the state.
- Local projects impact several cities or areas.
- Location-only projects impact one facility or place.
- County: The location of the awardee's main office or facility. This filters other data in the dashboard. Checking the county only will include statewide projects. If you want to exclude statewide projects, filter out the statewide projects under project reach.
- Round: The round of funding the project was awarded in. This filters other data in the dashboard. DHS awarded Round 1 in November 2022, and Round 2 in June 2023. Selecting "All" will include data for both rounds.
- Total grants: The number of funded projects. This number changes based on filters you choose.
- Budget request: The total amount of funding for awarded projects. This number changes based on filters you choose.
- Project objectives: The main goal of awarded projects. These change based on filters you choose, and also filter other data in the dashboard.
- Impacted Medicaid program: The Wisconsin Medicaid programs impacted by the awarded projects. These change based on filters you choose, and also filter other data in the dashboard.
- Awardee Name: Names of organizations that received grant awards. This filters other data in the dashboard.
- Awardees and project descriptions: The name of each grant awardee, and a short description of their project. These change based on filters you choose.
- Urban and rural projects: The percent of projects that impact urban or rural areas, or both. This changes based on filters you choose.
To download and print a PDF of the dashboard:
- Filter the dashboard to the county and date you need.
- Select Download at the bottom of the dashboard.
- Select PDF.
- From the Include menu, choose This View.
- Select Download.
- Open the PDF and print it.
Archived applicant resources
Resource documents
- Questions and answers
- Grants Opportunity Overview, P-03294 (PDF)
- Tips for Using GrantsConnect (PDF)
- Scoring Criteria (PDF)
Information sessions
- Round 2 Overview
- Improve Your Grant Application
- View the Improve Your Grant Application session slides in English (PDF), Improve Your Grant Application session slides in Hmong (PDF), and Improve Your Grant Application session slides in Spanish (PDF)
- View the presentation companion document (PDF)
- Watch the recording of the Improve Your Grant Application session (opens external video)