Allowable Investments Search Tool

In general, SHIP allowable investments include activities to assist small rural hospitals with their quality improvement efforts and with their adaptation to changing payment systems through investments in hardware, software and related trainings. This includes aiding with value and quality improvement.

Unallowable investments include, but are not limited to, travel costs, hospital services, hospital staff salaries, or general supplies. Hospitals should contact their State Office of Rural Health (SORH) with questions regarding the appropriateness or fit of a certain activity or hardware/software purchase. For additional clarifications, refer to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).

This tool classifies a number of example investment activities as Allowable, Unallowable, or PO Pre-Approval. This is not a comprehensive list. It is only intended to provide examples of allowable SHIP activities.

These links filter the list of investments using an is one of operator. The items in the list will match at least one of the selected keywords (selecting multiple keywords increases the number of results). Selected keywords are bold and preceded by a minus sign (-). Click the links to select or deselect keywords.
Outpatient Surveys
Unallowable

Costs associated with completing outpatient (i.e. ambulatory surgery, emergency department, medical practice, outpatient services) surveys do not qualify as a SHIP allowable investment.

Outpatient Surveys
Unallowable

Surveys completed for medical clinics, ambulatory services, emergency room, specialty clinics, home health,  and other outpatient services are NOT an allowable use of SHIP funds. This includes OAS-CAHPS and CG CAHPS.

Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA)
Unallowable

Costs or fees associated with completing a Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) do not qualify as a SHIP Allowable Investment.

Updated: May 20222

Related Resources
Financial Hospital Assessments
Unallowable

SHIP funds cannot be used for financial assessments, therefore would not be allowable. See language under Use of Funds.

Provider-Based Clinic Quality Measures Education/Training
Allowable
Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) Investment

Education/training for provider-based rural health clinic quality improvement reporting, including patient satisfaction survey scores, is allowable.

Related Resources
Computerized Provider Order Entry Implementation and/or Training
Allowable
Accountable Care Organization (ACO)

Any educational trainings that support provider use and implementation are allowable.

Related Resources
ICD-10 Training
Allowable
Payment Bundling (PB)

Any training to support coding and reimbursement, documentation, or documentation improvements that result in increased coding compliance are allowable.

Related Resources
340B Drug Pricing Program Training
Allowable
Payment Bundling (PB)

A 340B Drug Pricing Program training intended to increase efficiency or quality improvement in support of Prospective Bundling and Prospective Payment Systems initiatives is an allowable investment.

Refrigerator or Refrigeration
Unallowable

Refrigerators used to keep and store medicines or medical supplies are not an allowable use of SHIP funds.

Still looking?
Contact us at ship-ta@ruralcenter.org if you can't find your proposed investment activity in this list.

This project is/was supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under grant number UB1RH24206, Information Services to Rural Hospital Flexibility Program Grantees, $1,560,000 (0% financed with nongovernmental sources). This information or content and conclusions are those of the author and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by HRSA, HHS or the U.S. Government.