Assistance program
Cooperative Agreement to Support Navigators in Federally-facilitated Exchanges
$395.3 Million committed in FY2018–FY2026
- Agency
- Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Health and Human Services, Department of
- Assistance
- Cooperative Agreements
- CFDA number
- 93.332
- What it does
- Each year, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) awards funding to organizations who serve as Navigators in states with a Federally-facilitated Exchange (FFE). This posting reflects a new 5-year funding opportunity, anticipated to start August 27, 2024. Funded projects will be expected to operate as Navigators year-round, using the funding from CMS to conduct outreach and education in their communities—raising awareness among the remaining uninsured about the coverage options available to them, help consumers find affordable coverage that meets their needs primarily in the Health Insurance Marketplace, and to assist consumers beyond the enrollment process—ensuring they're equipped with the tools and resources needed to utilize and maintain their health coverage all year. Navigators are required to provide targeted assistance to underserved and vulnerable populations within the FFE service area (state), which is critical to improving access to health care coverage for communities that have been historically disenfranchised and disproportionately impacted by significant health disparities. In furtherance of Executive Order 13985 on Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government, CMS encourages applications from organizations that are members of, or have a history of trusted ties with, the community(ies) and population(s) that they expect to target as Navigators, if awarded.
- Who benefits
- Navigators are required to assist all consumers who contact them seeking assistance with health care enrollment and post enrollment needs through the federal Marketplace. For purposes of this funding opportunity, Navigators are expected to target priority populations (vulnerable or underserved) who are members of communities which have been historically disenfranchised and disproportionately impacted by health disparities and inequities. Priority populations are often affected by social determinants of health (SDOH)— geographic location (e.g., rural or urban), gender, or sexual orientation and health-related social needs (HRSNs) — housing instability, housing quality, food insecurity, employment, personal safety, lack of transportation, and affordable utilities), all of which can have a major impact on people’s health, well-being, and quality of life.
Committed by fiscal year
* FY2026 is year-to-date — the fiscal year is still in progress, so its total is still filling in. The striped band and dashed line mark that provisional stretch.
Top recipients
By dollars committed.
How to read these numbers
- Committed through this program
Money committed under this assistance listing (its CFDA program), counted in the year each action happened.
- How it's paid
Most programs pay out one way — a grant, or a direct payment to individuals; the flow bar only appears when a program genuinely mixes types.
- Some recipients aren't itemized
For entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, the government reports one aggregate instead of naming tens of millions of people, so the recipient roster isn't part of the public record.
- Awards, counted once
An award count is the number of distinct awards with at least one action that year — each counted once, however many times it was amended.
- The colored bars
Every bar on this page splits by how the money moves:
Direct payments