Rural Health Transformation Program
The Rural Health Transformation (RHT) Program was authorized by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (Section 71401 of Public Law 119-21). All states are eligible to apply for this funding, and the State of Ohio will submit an application. If awarded, it will manage the funds which can be utilized to address the federally established strategic goals outlined below. The RHT is administered by the Centers for Medicaid and Medicaid Services (CMS).
Visit CMS’ Rural Health Transformation (RHT) webpage for details on the federal program.
Strategic Goals
Make Rural America Healthy Again
Support rural health innovations and new access points to promote preventive health and address root causes of diseases. Projects will use evidence-based, outcomes-driven interventions to improve disease prevention, chronic disease management, behavioral health, and prenatal care.
Sustainable Access in Rural Communities
Help rural providers become long-term access points for care by improving efficiency and sustainability. With RHT Program support, rural facilities work together—or with high-quality regional systems—to share or coordinate operations, technology, primary and specialty care, and emergency services.
Rural Health Workforce Development
Attract and retain a high-skilled healthcare workforce by strengthening recruitment and retention of healthcare providers in rural communities. Help rural providers practice at the top of their license and develop a broader set of providers to serve a rural community’s needs, such as community health workers, pharmacists, and individuals trained to help patients navigate the healthcare system.
Innovative Care for Rural Residents
Spark the growth of innovative care models to improve health outcomes, coordinate care, and promote flexible care arrangements. Develop and implement payment mechanisms incentivizing providers or accountable care organizations (ACOs) to reduce healthcare costs, improve quality of care, and shift care to lower cost settings.
Tech Innovation to Improve Service Delivery to Rural Communities
Foster use of innovative technologies that promote efficient care delivery, data security, and access to digital health tools by rural facilities, providers, and patients. Projects support access to remote care, improve data sharing, strengthen cybersecurity, and invest in emerging technologies.
Eligible Activities
- Promoting evidence-based, measurable interventions to improve prevention and chronic disease management.
- Promoting consumer-facing, technology-driven solutions for the prevention and management of chronic diseases.
- Providing payments to healthcare providers for the provision of healthcare items or services.
- Providing training and technical assistance to develop and adopt technology enabled solutions that improve care delivery in rural hospitals, including remote monitoring, robotics, artificial intelligence, and other advanced technologies.
- Recruiting and retaining clinical workforce talent to rural areas, with commitments to serve rural communities for a minimum of five years.
- Providing technical assistance, software, and hardware for significant information technology advances that are designed to improve efficiency, enhance cybersecurity capability development, and improve patient health outcomes.
- Assisting rural communities to right size their healthcare delivery systems by identifying needed preventive, ambulatory, pre-hospital, emergency, acute inpatient care, outpatient care, and post-acute care service lines.
- Supporting access to opioid use disorder treatment services, other substance use disorder treatment services, and mental health services.
- Developing projects that support innovative models of care that include value-based care arrangements and alternative payment models.
- Designing additional activities to promote sustainable access to high-quality rural healthcare services, as determined by the CMS administrator.
- Designing/implementing other programs that support sustainable access to high-quality rural healthcare services.
Informational Call
An informational was held on Thursday, Sept. 25.
Associated documents for informational call