Your FY2027 Readiness Package

HiQuity Solutions

19 hours ago

2 min read

Updated: 1 hour ago

The Forecast Period is the Application Period Now

Three dates to plan around, and what we're recommending now.

For most of the agencies we work with, late August through September was budget month, review month, and reset month, with only a short breath before the new fiscal year takes off. To the teams who have secured federal awards in this year's earlier rounds (so far), congratulations!! That work was done on tighter timelines than any of us are used to, and we are incredibly proud and happy to have been a support in this. This year's NOFOs arrived grouped rather than staggered, which forced agencies to choose between priorities and in some cases to sit out entirely.

In a couple instances, specifically with the MAT applications, clients felt that the 10-point lead to priority states was too high an obstacle to surmount.

In four instances, even when an agency’s long term goals were a match for the application, the turnaround windows precluded a successful application due to a lack of aligned MOUs with the program models and not enough time to get those into place. We're all still waiting on the awards for the SAMHSA CCBHC-IA and -PDI opportunities. They shared an August 17 deadline, but in a first (according to Dr. Rhonda Bohs, our Strategic Impact Specialist) the window for award has been pushed to November 15. With the projects themselves starting November 30, that 15-day gap between award and start becomes a real operational hurdle.

Another first, according to Dr. Bohs, is the early visibility of the next funding cycle already in play - SAMHSA forecasts have been posted earlier than they’ve ever been. Our discussions now center around what that means for an agency standing up several programs at once.

If you take away only one thing from this letter, let it be this:

The time between a forecast and its NOFO release is now where the real application work needs to happen: frameworks, data systems, budgets, and partner agreements can no longer be built inside a single application window.

As we continue client debriefs on what went well and where there's room to improve, here is what belongs on your leadership calendar.

Three dates to plan around

November 15: Expected CCBHC-IA and PDI award notices.
December 11: The earliest date the federal rewrite of grant rules (2 CFR 200) can take effect. See our Grants Compliance Series.
January 1, 2027: The deadline for states to have Medicaid work requirements in place. Because a diagnosis alone won't qualify a patient for the medical frailty exemption, expect new documentation and data workflow demands.

How We're Meeting the Changes at HiQuity

We are formalizing our FY2027 Readiness Package as a service offering and adding two ongoing services: federal grants compliance monitoring and performance intelligence (program evaluation).

You can run the readiness review with your own team; reply here and we'll send a checklist. Or we can lead it with you, from confirming what you already have in place to walking your team through planning and implementation.

What do you most need help with right now? We're with you in the work.

SCHEDULE YOUR FY2027 PLANNING CALL