Rural Health Transformation

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RHT Program fundi​ng consists of $50 billion dollars ($10 billion per fiscal year) to be distributed to states ​​from fiscal year 2026 through fiscal year 2030. 

$25 billion will be distributed equally amongst all approved states. The remaining $25 billion will be ​allocated by the United States Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) based on a variety of factors, including:

• The state's rural population
• The proportion of rural health facilities in the state
• T​he situation of certain hospitals in the state
• Other factors specified in the CMS Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO)​​
  
  

​​Funding Uses​

RHT Program funds must be used for three or more of the following approved uses:

• Promoting evidence-based, measurable interventions to improve prevention and chronic disease management.
  
• Providing payments to health care providers for the provision of health care items or services, as specified by the administrator.
• Promoting consumer-facing, technology-driven solutions for the prevention and management of chronic diseases.
• Providing training and technical assistance for the development and adoption of 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 5 years.
• Providing technical assistance, software, and hardware for significant information technology advances designed to improve efficiency, enhance cybersecurity capability development, and improve patient health outcomes.
• Assisting rural communities to right size their health care delivery systems by identifying needed preventative, ambulatory, pre-hospital, emergency, acute inpatient care, outpatient care, and post-acute care service lines.
• Supporting access to opioid use disorder treatment services (as defined in section 1861(jjj)(1)), 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, as appropriate.
  
• Additional uses designed to promote sustainable access to high quality rural health care services, as determined by the administrator:
• Investing in existing rural health care facility buildings and infrastructure, including minor building alterations or renovations and equipment upgrades to ensure long-term overhead and upkeep costs are commensurate with patient volume, subject to restrictions in the funding policies and limitations.
• Initiating, fostering, and strengthening local and regional strategic partnerships between rural facilities and other health care providers to promote quality improvement, improve
  
  

Important Dates​

• July 4, 2025: H.R.1​ was signed into law, establishing the RHT Program.
  
• September 15, 2025: CMS posted the Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for the RHT Program.
  
• November 5, 2025: States which choose to apply for RHT Program funding must do so by this date.
• December 31, 2025: CMS​ must ap​​prove or deny applications by this date.
  
  

Why RHT Program Funding Matters for Nebraska

​​​With 37% of Nebraskans liv​​ing in rural areas, RHT program funding ​​has the potential to make a significant impact in our state. 88 out of Nebraska's 93 counties are rural, with 30 of these ​classified as frontier counties.  ​