Learn how the national Rural Health Transformation Program is being implemented in Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma.

The Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP) was established by the passing of Public Law 119-21 on July 4th, 2025. This landmark $50 billion federal investment will be utilized to reshape healthcare across rural America, ensuring that all citizens have access to quality, affordable health care options. States are using funding to improve infrastructure and create funding opportunities for local organizations. The key strategic goals of the RHTP include:

• Make rural America healthy again. Support rural health innovations and new access points to promote preventative health and address root causes of diseases.
• Sustainable access. Help rural providers become long-term access points for care by improving efficiency and sustainability. 
• Workforce development. Attract and retain a high-skilled health care workforce by strengthening recruitment and retention of healthcare providers in rural communities.
• Innovative care. Spark the growth of innovative care models to improve health outcomes, coordinate care, and promote flexible care arrangements.
• Tech Innovation. Foster use of innovative technologies that promote efficient care delivery, data security, and access to digital health tools by rural facilities, providers, and patients.

All 50 states applied for RHTP, and all 50 states were approved to share the $50 billion. Starting in fiscal year 2026 and ending in fiscal year 2030, $10 billion will be available every year. 50% of these funds will be distributed evenly between the states, and 50% of it will be allocated by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) based on factors such as rural population, the proportion of rural health facilities in the state, and the situation of certain hospitals in the state.

Each approved state will decide how to distribute their funds in a way that meets at least three of the usage guidelines set by the RHTP bill. These guidelines include: 

• Prevention and Chronic Disease: Funding programs that use evidence-based methods to prevent and manage chronic conditions.
• Provider Payments: Making payments to healthcare providers for services, particularly as part of new, innovative payment models. 
• Consumer Tech Solutions: Promoting technology that patients can use themselves to manage their health. 
• Training and Technical Assistance: Helping rural hospitals adopt advanced technologies like remote monitoring, robotics, or artificial intelligence. 
• Workforce: Recruiting and retaining healthcare professionals in rural areas, with a requirement that they serve in the community for at least five years. 
• IT Advances: Providing funds for significant upgrades to information technology, including software, hardware, and cybersecurity. 
• Appropriate Care Availability: Assisting rural communities in determining the right mix of healthcare services they need to be sustainable. 
• Behavioral Health: Supporting access to mental health and substance use disorder treatment. 
• Innovative Care: Developing new models of care, including value-based payment arrangements. 
• Fostering Collaboration: Creating strategic partnerships between rural facilities and other providers to improve quality, financial stability, and access to care.

For information about the federal side of the RHTP, see this official webpage from Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services. To learn about state-level Rural Health Transformation Programs in Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma (PulseTRC’s region), see below.

Rural Health Transformation in Kansas

Click here to view the official website for Kansas’s Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP).  

The state of Kansas is working to use RHTP funds to improve the health of rural Kansans by expanding primary and secondary prevention programs, securing local access to primary care, building a sustainable rural health workforce, enabling value-base care and harnessing data and technology. Heading the program is the Kansas Division of Public Health. The DPH RHTP office will collaborate with the Kansas Rural Health Innovation Alliance to support rural healthcare organizations and communities they serve to ensure growth in healthcare access and outcomes in those areas.

Kansas was awarded $221 million to implement their first year (through September 30th, 2027) of Rural Transformation. This funding will go toward five key initiatives, which include:

• Improving rural Kansas’ health outcomes and transforming the delivery system by implementing and sustaining initiatives that promote preventative health care and address root causes of diseases,
• Enhancing rural health care providers’ efficiency and sustainability,
• Attracting and retaining a highly-skilled health care workforce,
• Sparking growth of innovative care models in rural communities that improve quality of care while reducing costs, and,
• Fostering the use of innovative technologies to increase access to care for rural Kansans

Kansas’s RHTP initiatives include the Evidence-Based Practice Program. KS DPH is contracting University of Kansas Health Care System Collaborative on the Evidence-Based Program to help rural hospitals and clinics build and maintain the infrastructure to implement and sustain evidence-based practices and report on performance measures that demonstrate quality of care.

Applications for two grants, the Regional Partnership Grant Program and the Rural Emergency Hospital Grant, were open back in March but are now closed. They will open up for applications again in each of the next four grant years. Make sure to sign up for emails from Kansas DPH on their website, and PulseTRC’s newsletter, for updates on Rural Health Transformation Program funding opportunities.

Rural Health Transformation in Missouri

Click here to view the official website for Missouri’s Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP).  

Missouri’s RHTP is led by the state Department of Social Services (DSS), through its MO HealthNet Division, in collaboration with the state Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) and the Department of Mental Health (DMH).

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) approved $216 million for Missouri’s first year (through September 30, 2027) of the push to strengthen rural health across the state.    The state will use this funding to implement the foundational element of Missouri’s Rural Health innovation– Transformation of Rural Community Health (ToRCH) Care.  According to MO DSS, ToRCH Care is “[a] foundational element of Missouri’s program is a statewide network of healthcare “Hubs” designed to bring care closer to home, make clinical and non-clinical services more seamless, and ensure that no rural resident is left behind”. 27 Hub groupings, each including 3-5 Missouri counties, will “collaborate to understand and track local needs, coordinate care through connected referral systems, and implement programs targeted to improve community-specific needs”.

On May 15th, MO DSS released an application for organizations to become Hub “Anchors”. Hub Anchors will be crucial in serving as “neutral coordinator of their respective Hubs, hosting Hub staff supporting governance through a Leadership Board, and ensuring coordination workflows function effectively.” The DSS website also now shows a map of the 27 designated Hub areas.

As part of Missouri’s RHTP, DSS has also announced an Invitation for Bid (IFB) for the new ToRCH Care Strategic Minor Renovations (Horizon 1) program. According to DSS, “this funding opportunity supports the design, modernization and strategic renovation of existing rural hospital facilities as part of Missouri’s Rural Health Transformation Program. Rural hospitals on DSS’ distribution list should have received the bid, but the IFB is publicly available and can be accessed by any interested hospital”. Bids are due by 2 p.m. Thursday, June 4.

Meet the people involved with Missouri’s RHTP and learn more by attending a local ToRCH Care Roadshow, linked here.

Make sure to sign up for MO DSS’s emails and PulseTRC’s newsletter to be updated on Rural Health Transformation Program funding opportunities.

Rural Health Transformation in Oklahoma

Click here to view the official website for Oklahoma’s Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP).  

Oklahoma’s State Department of Health has received over $223 million to transform rural healthcare across the state. According to the program’s official website, the State is working toward a “future where every community—no matter how small or remote—has access to high-quality, locally grounded care that is connected through technology, supported by regional collaboration, and sustained by a strong rural workforce.” Through consultation with rural communities, hospital systems, native tribes, and community associations, six key initiatives have been identified to bring quality care closer to home for rural Oklahomans:

• Innovating the Care Model: Bringing care closer to home. This includes telehealth, transportation support, expanded care teams and investments in local health infrastructure.
• Moving Upstream: Strengthening community-led prevention and wellness. This includes chronic disease prevention and management programs and supports that help people stay healthy.
• Growing the Next Generation of Rural Talent: Building a stronger workforce pipeline. This includes “grow your own” initiatives, training placements and recruitment efforts that bring more providers to rural communities.
• Facilitating Regional Collaboration: Helping local partners share resources and work together on operations, technology and coordinated care.
• Shifting to Value: Supporting the transition to value-based care through technical assistance, infrastructure development and quality incentive programs.
• Building Health Data Utility: Investing in technology that improves data sharing and care coordination, including EHR upgrades, interoperability and advanced analytics tool

Oklahoma has presented several Rural Health Transformation Program funding opportunities, three of which are still available for application until mid-June. Even if applications are currently closed, make sure to take notice in case they are re-opened for application in the next four years.

• Community-Led Wellness Hubs: Microgrants (closed)
• OSDE’s ROOTS Competitive Grant: Rural Opportunities for Optimal Transformation in Students’ Health (due May 25, 2026)
• Rural Regional Reorientation (RRR) Program (due June 12, 2026)
• Chronic Disease Management Program (due June 8, 2026)

Although RHTP is a 5-year investment, Oklahoma’s plan is designed with sustainability in mind, assuring true rural health transformation by creating durable improvements that will improve health for generations to come.

Make sure to get involved virtually or in person by attending an upcoming meeting from OK RHTP, linked here.

Additionally, sign up for OK SDH’s emails and PulseTRC’s newsletter  to make sure you’re getting relevant updates.

If you are looking for resources about how Rural Health Transformation could include telehealth services in Kansas, Missouri, or Oklahoma, contact PulseTRC by clicking here.