CMS Awards Rural Health Transformation Funding & ODH Releases RFPs to Begin Implementation

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced the Rural Health Transformation (RHT) Program funding awards to all 50 states. Ohio will receive a total of $202,030,262, the 25th highest total amount. However, according to an analysis by the Health Policy Institute of Ohio (HPIO), Ohio was awarded one of the lower amounts, coming in as the 46th-most funding per rural resident.

As a reminder, the RHT program was created as part of the HR 1, also known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, that was signed into law on July 4, 2025. The RHT will allocate $50 billion to states over five years, with half the award evenly distributed across all 50 states and half of the award based on state-submitted applications.  States will need to demonstrate efforts to achieve the RHT application deliverables in coming years to continue to receive fundings as outlined in the legislation. CMS also announced the creation of a federal Office of Rural Health Transformation that will be led by Alina Czekai. 

Governor DeWine has designated the Ohio Department of Health as the lead agency for the RHT program.  You can find Ohio’s RHT application and resources here and you can sign up to receive notifications about RHT program activities.  ODH has released two RFPs through OhioBuys to begin implementation of Ohio’s RHT program.  Information on those RFPs are here: Rural Health Workforce Pipeline; Pathways Upskilling and Retention RFP