Rural Health Transformation Program | CMS RHT 26 001

Opportunity Information: Apply for CMS RHT 26 001

The Rural Health Transformation (RHT) Program is a federal funding opportunity from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) designed to help State governments strengthen rural health systems by improving access to care, raising quality, and achieving better health outcomes. The program is built around the idea that rural healthcare challenges cannot be solved only by supporting individual clinics or hospitals in isolation. Instead, it pushes for broader, ecosystem-level changes that modernize how care is delivered across rural communities. To do that, the RHT Program emphasizes innovation, strategic partnerships, infrastructure development, and investments in the healthcare workforce, with the State serving as the main organizer and driver of change.

At the core of the opportunity are five strategic goals that States are expected to advance through funded projects. The first goal, "Make rural America healthy again," focuses on prevention and addressing the root causes of poor health, not just treating illness once it becomes severe. Funded efforts under this goal are expected to rely on evidence-based and outcomes-driven interventions, including programs that improve chronic disease management, strengthen behavioral health services, expand prenatal care, and generally increase access points for preventative services. In practical terms, this could include creating new community-based pathways to screening, early intervention, and ongoing management for conditions that disproportionately burden rural populations.

The second goal, "Sustainable access," targets the long-term viability of rural providers and facilities so they can remain dependable access points for care. Rather than short-term fixes, the program encourages changes that improve operational efficiency and financial sustainability. One major strategy highlighted is collaboration: rural facilities can work together, or partner with strong regional health systems, to share or coordinate operations, technology platforms, primary and specialty care capacity, and emergency services. This emphasis reflects the reality that many rural providers struggle with thin margins and limited staffing, and that shared services and regional coordination can reduce duplication while maintaining local access.

The third goal, "Workforce development," addresses one of the most persistent barriers in rural healthcare: attracting and keeping a skilled workforce. The program supports State-led strategies to improve recruitment and retention of clinicians and other health professionals in rural areas. It also promotes care team redesign so providers can work at the top of their license, reducing bottlenecks and making better use of available staff. Importantly, the program recognizes that rural care depends on more than physicians and nurses alone, and encourages building a broader workforce that can meet community needs, including community health workers, pharmacists, and patient navigation roles that help individuals access services, follow care plans, and overcome barriers like transportation, cost, and system complexity.

The fourth goal, "Innovative care," is about expanding and scaling new care delivery and payment approaches that improve outcomes and coordination while controlling costs. The program explicitly points toward developing and implementing payment mechanisms that reward value, such as incentives for providers or Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) to reduce unnecessary spending, improve quality, and shift care into lower-cost settings when appropriate. This goal aligns with broader health system trends toward value-based care, but places a rural lens on it, recognizing that rural communities often need more flexible arrangements to make innovative models workable given distance, workforce constraints, and smaller patient volumes.

The fifth goal, "Tech innovation," aims to modernize rural care delivery through technology that improves efficiency, security, and patient access to digital tools. Projects may expand remote care options, strengthen data sharing across organizations, and improve cybersecurity, which is increasingly critical for smaller facilities that may lack robust IT resources. The opportunity also leaves room for investment in emerging technologies that can support rural providers and patients, with an emphasis on practical improvements to care delivery and system resilience rather than technology for its own sake.

From an administrative standpoint, the opportunity is a discretionary grant using a cooperative agreement structure, which generally means the federal agency expects to have substantial involvement in the funded work compared with a standard grant. Eligible applicants are limited to State governments. The program is listed under CFDA number 93.798, and the funding opportunity number is CMS RHT 26 001. The original application closing date is 2025-11-05, and CMS anticipates making about 50 awards. The award ceiling is listed as 0, which typically signals that the published notice does not specify a maximum award amount and applicants should rely on the full notice of funding opportunity for budget expectations, limits, or any per-State allocation approach.

Overall, the RHT Program is best understood as a State-led push to redesign rural healthcare delivery in a coordinated way, combining prevention-focused health improvement efforts, stronger and more sustainable provider networks, targeted workforce strategies, expanded value-based and innovative care models, and technology modernization to expand access and improve outcomes in rural America.

• The Centers for Medicare Medicaid Services in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Rural Health Transformation Program" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.798.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2025-09-15.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2025-11-05. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 50 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments.

Apply for CMS RHT 26 001

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