Non-supplantation
New capability, not a substitute for existing funding
Grant funds are meant to add capacity, not to pay for what another source already covers. For community paramedicine that distinction is usually clean, but it has to be stated clearly in the plan.
The principle
Non-supplantation means federal funds should supplement, not replace, funds already available for an activity. In practice a reviewer is asking one question: would this cost have been paid by someone else anyway?
Scheduled, preventive home visits by community paramedics are typically not a billable service under existing reimbursement in most states. The coordination infrastructure and the evaluation work behind them are new costs attached to a new program, which is exactly what the funding is for.
How to describe it
Say this
- Funds establish a new community paramedicine service line and the coordination layer it requires.
- Costs cover implementation, configuration, training and evaluation for a program that does not exist today.
- Emergency response funding, billing and staffing remain funded by existing sources and are unchanged.
Avoid this
- Describing the spend as replacing an existing contract or an existing budget line.
- Moving already-funded ambulance or ePCR costs into the subaward.
- Leaving the boundary between emergency operations and the new program implicit.
Facts beat templates
Last reviewed:
DispatchCare is positioned as new program infrastructure plus evaluation. It does not replace an ePCR, a CAD or a billing system, and it is not a substitute for an existing billable service.
Questions buyers ask
DispatchCare is positioned as new program infrastructure plus evaluation, not a replacement for existing billable services.
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