The Rural Health Transformation Program: Securing the Future of Rural Healthcare

From 2026 to 2030, RHTP will distribute $50 billion. Half of these funds will be distributed equally to all states that apply. However, the other half will be distributed at the discretion of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator. That means states that apply for the program by submitting a comprehensive plan for using the funds could receive higher amounts than those that struggle to do so. This encourages state governments to work with local providers to determine the best use of the money.

Understanding how to allocate these funds can help government officials secure a higher share of the funding, while healthcare providers can receive a much-needed financial boost to their operations.

Using RHTP Funds: Key "Allowable Activities"

The RHTP outlines the exact directions the provided funds should be used to improve rural healthcare. From our perspective, at least three of them could be aligned with implementing technology. They include:

• Supporting healthcare providers with advanced technology to improve efficiency, strengthen cybersecurity, and enhance patient outcomes.
• Promoting strategies and digital tools to prevent and manage chronic diseases.
• Guiding rural communities in identifying the right mix of services to meet their healthcare needs.

These "allowable activities" can encompass a wide variety of tasks and strategies. Building a plan requires digging deeper into opportunities that can be seized.

1. Improving Efficiency and Outcomes with Technology

Technologies are rapidly changing healthcare delivery. The adoption of complex, AI-driven solutions has replaced manual labor, reduced errors, increased patient satisfaction, and much more. Advanced tech can improve efficiency further and affect patient outcomes.

Improving Efficiency

Technological solutions have been improving efficiency for many years. As they become more advanced, they show better results. In 2025, around 96% of healthcare CEOs believe that investing in technology is worth the cost, even if it doesn't immediately lower costs.

The new funding from RHTP can help boost efficiency by using technologies to:

• Automate administrative workflows
• Adopt telehealth platforms
• Implement predictive analytics
• Strengthen cybersecurity tools
• Integrate electronic health records (EHRs)

In addition to maximizing efficiency, these tools can help rural healthcare create a stronger foundation for patient-centered care.

Improve Patient Acquisition and Intake

Patient intake automation can be highly useful even if the number of patients is low. Taking advantage of easy-to-use web forms and automated phone calls can free up hospital staff and reduce human error.

These tools also streamline appointment scheduling, verify insurance, and create a smoother first interaction for patients. As a result, patients feel more satisfied with medical services and feel encouraged to return for follow-up care.

Referral Management

Referral tracking can easily be automated with the right solutions. Without the need to manually go over referrals, healthcare facilities save time and avoid issues with insurance compensation. Hospitals can use data management platforms to keep track of all relationships with other providers and optimize outreach efforts.

Provider Credentialing

Provider credentialing is a tedious process that often takes up too much time. If you digitalize credentialing, you can reduce paperwork dramatically. This can decrease human error, which, in turn, expedites approvals.

Credential management systems don't just speed up new physician onboarding. They allow you to track credentialing timelines and avoid facing unexpectedly expired credentials.

Revenue Cycle Management (RCM)

Using technologies in the revenue cycle management process to handle claims and billing can reduce errors and speed up reimbursements. You can use a data management platform to automate the reimbursement process and transfer the necessary digital documents directly to the recipients.

Since staff is always limited, these technologies can free up time to focus on other revenue-driving activities.

Supply Chain Management

The supply chain management process in rural areas is often slower compared to urban healthcare facilities due to the distance and low demand. It's often delayed even further by the need to make and track manual orders. An ability to centralize contracts, suppliers, and inventory can reduce manual intervention and improve resource management. Technology can help:

• Track supply levels in real time to avoid medication and equipment shortages
• Automate reordering to ensure timely replenishment
• Use analytics to forecast demand and adjust orders based on patient needs.
• Consolidate purchasing power through regional networks (to get a better price)

Technologies help the supply chain become more resilient regardless of the common hardships that accompany it in rural areas. Essentially, it narrows the gap between urban and rural patient care.

Improved Patient Outcomes

Advanced technologies can have a direct impact on patient outcomes. With the right approach, it may be possible to improve annual numbers significantly.

Faster Access to Healthcare

Technologies free up the staff to provide the necessary services. Everything from faster patient intake to telemedicine options makes it easier for people to gain access to quality healthcare faster. The sooner a patient can receive the services they need, the more chances the healthcare provider has to achieve the desired outcome.

Coordinated Care

Digitalizing patient records, improving the referral process, and maintaining excellent communication with other providers can give the medical facility the full picture of the patient's condition. Such coordination is only possible with centralized and automated data intake. Tools that can assist with it are:

• Electronic Health Records systems placement
• Health Information Exchanges (HIEs)
• Referral management software
• Secure communication tools (e.g., Slack)

 As a result, proactive care and chronic disease management can reach a higher level.

Patient Engagement

Better patient outcomes begin with strong relationships between the patient and the healthcare provider. This relationship can easily be improved by making healthcare access less complicated.

Patient portals and other self-service tools improve patient-provider communication and build engagement. Engaged patients are more likely to follow treatment plans and return for follow-up appointments.

AI-Power Automation

Next year, 92% of companies worldwide plan to invest in generative AI. The Rural Health Transformation Program allows healthcare providers to do the same.

AI boosts the performance of many technological solutions in the medical sector. Besides automating scheduling and insurance verification, it assists with data analytics. Such tools make it easier for understaffed rural hospitals to provide higher-quality care faster.

Targeted Interventions

The ability to perform complex data analytics allows rural medical facilities to implement targeted interventions. Advanced tools can segment patient populations by risk and conditions within seconds. This can help hospitals build targeted outreach strategies and reduce readmissions.

2. Promoting Prevention & Chronic Disease Management

The second technology-related use of RHTP funds is related to prevention and chronic disease management. These are two separate "allowable activities":

• Evidence-based, measurable interventions to improve prevention and chronic disease management
• Consumer-facing technology solutions for preventing and managing chronic diseases

Both evidence-based interventions and technology-driven solutions involve the right approach to using advanced tools.

Personalized Care Plans

Technologies give physicians time and tools to create comprehensive personalized care plans. These plans can assist with chronic disease management by:

• Centralizing evidence-based goals
• Tracking patient progress
• Building patient engagement
• Simplifying collaboration with other providers

Instead of limiting themselves to reactive treatments, the healthcare provider has the opportunity to build a proactive plan. This can prevent complications and improve the patient's quality of life dramatically.

Population Health Management

Advanced, AI-driven technology can assist with population health management by analyzing large sets of data and providing valuable insights. Improving the health of a defined group of patients begins with identifying risks and continues with proper care coordination. Doing this for a large group requires such technologies as:

• Electronic Health Records
• Telehealth and Remote Monitoring
• Wearable Health Devices
• Patient Portals
• Care Coordination Software
• Cloud-based Data Warehousing (e.g., Snowflake)

Proper identification leads to early intervention and improved patient outcomes. Doing this manually with limited resources in a rural setting is nearly impossible. With the right technologies, population health management becomes a possibility.

Patient Engagement and Education

Patients in rural areas often have lower access to healthcare information from healthcare providers. One of the reasons is structural barriers, such as a doctor shortage. Technologies can break this barrier without putting extra pressure on understaffed facilities. Some examples are:

• Evidence-based education delivery through apps
• Follow-ups to patients via apps, emails, or texts
• Chatbots that guide patients with lifestyle tips.
• Video consultations to answer questions
• Interactive patient portals where patients can access care plans and educational resources.
• Remote monitoring devices that share health data with providers while giving patients personalized feedback.

Such engagement and education can boost preventative care and make it easier for patients to follow treatment plans for chronic illnesses.

Data-Driven Intervention

Relying on high-quality analytics can help healthcare providers make data-driven decisions. Implementing the right tools and platforms can help collect and analyze large datasets and provide valuable insights.

Meanwhile, reporting dashboards can track intervention outcomes and care gaps. This can help medical providers measure the effectiveness of their efforts and gain new insights into care improvement.

3. Right-Sizing Healthcare Delivery Systems

Understanding what type of medical services the community needs can help improve its quality. Studying the community and its ongoing requirements can be a complicated process. Without proper analysis, it's easy to make an investment with a low return.

Enabling Value-Based Care

Shifting the focus from quality to quantity is only possible when you have a data-driven approach to value-based care. Quality provider performance and patient experience can be backed by technologies that:

• Support care coordination
• Track patient outcome
• Create a unified view of each patient
• Analyze population health trends
• Monitor adherence to clinical guidelines

These technologies don't just help maximize the value for each patient; they reduce expenses for the healthcare provider significantly.

Care Coordination

Studies demonstrate that current care in the U.S. is largely uncoordinated, regardless of various laws and acts passed to support it. Evidence also shows that quality improvement strategies have the potential to enhance performance. That's where new technologies come in. For example, tools for:

• Medication management
  Ensuring prescriptions are accurate and updated across providers
• Laboratory testing tracking
  Keeping labs organized, accessible, and shared among care teams
• Test result management
  Delivering results promptly to the right providers and patients
• Referral and appointment management
  Assisting with patient transitions between specialists and facilities
• Secure provider communication tools: Enabling real-time messaging and collaboration among care teams

Automated workflows can help different providers coordinate their actions and implement unified care plans.

Data Integration and Analytics

Gaining insights into patient needs and rural medical providers' operations requires in-depth analytics. Such analytics help discover:

• Inefficiencies in referral pathways
• Billing anomalies
• Supply-chain delays

This allows for proactive resolutions instead of costly reactive measures. In addition to transforming internal efficiency, integrated analytics help with advanced population health management. As noted earlier, segmenting patient populations can provide insights into the scale of the necessary volume of healthcare.

Proper technology integration also drives simple collaboration across facilities. Shared data helps with coordination and patient metric tracking. This reduces duplicative services and reinforces continuity of care.

Supporting Integrated Care Models

CMS emphasizes that states should "foster strategic partnerships between rural hospitals and other healthcare providers" to promote quality improvement and financial stability. These collaborations can take many forms, including regional care networks and hybrid models that integrate hospitals, clinics, and social services.

Rural integrated networks already show promise in nationally funded programs like the Rural Health Network Development Planning Program. RHTP funding could help bolster similar network design and capacity-building efforts. With this funding, rural healthcare providers can pool resources, standardize protocols, and share technology platforms.

Taking Full Advantage of the New Funding Opportunity

The Rural Health Transformation Program presents an excellent opportunity to secure funding for health system improvements. A robust plan for implementing new technologies and using them to improve patient outcomes increases the chances of receiving a higher amount.

While states are largely responsible for applying, rural healthcare providers must understand exactly how strategic technology implementation can work for their benefit.

Penrod provides advanced Salesforce-based solutions created specifically to suit each provider's needs. Learning how they work can help you make data-driven decisions about securing the necessary funding. Contact us for a detailed consultation today.