Some states using Rural Health Transformation funds to implement new technologies

Louisiana and a handful of other states set aside money from their share of the $50 billion federal Rural Health Transformation Program to quickly invest in new technologies, mirroring private industry moves (Source: “States bet big on rural health startups, with a Silicon Valley twist,” Kaiser Health News via Lorain Morning Journal, Sept. 24).
 
Lawmakers added the rural health program to offset more than $900 billion in reduced Medicaid spending expected over 10 years from Republicans’ sweeping 2025 tax and spending law. But rather than filling the budget hole, the rural program’s assignment is to find new approaches for revitalizing rural communities where doctors are in short supply, and hospitals have been downsizing and closing for decades.
 
The federal government doled out the first-year rural health program awards to states this year, with pots ranging from $147 million in New Jersey to $281 million in Texas. (Ohio received $202 million, among the lowest in the nation per rural resident.)
 
Modernizing technology infrastructure is a key pillar of the federal rural health program, and the catalyst money epitomizes the administration’s strategy to move fast and experiment with new technology.

Earlier this year, HPIO released a policy explainer on Rural Health Transformation Program funding in Ohio.