Note: A link to the RHTP Q3 2026 Quarterly Report is published here. See link below. Any subscription gets access.
The Q3 report tracks the first year of Rural Health Transformation funding through September. We’ve traced $4.35 billion in awards and notices of intent to award to specific grantees—43.5% of the $10 billion CMS obligated for Year 1—and broken it down by state, month, topic and award size. It also covers federal outlays to states ($212 million so far), what the first state annual reports show, where each state stands on the eight policy commitments used in CMS scoring, and which states have already posted Year 2 solicitations.
Also: don’t sleep on the free Rural Health Transformation Program State-by-State Reference Guide, a 50-State index with a profile for every state’s Rural Health Transformation Program. Each one gives the exact CMS award, who runs the program as well as advisory committes, key focus, how the state defines rural, and a dated log of every posting linked to the source document. It’s checked nightly, reviewed weekly, and built on the most complete RHTP awards database there is.
In this issue:
North Carolina’s Access East hosts an RHTP town hall for Medicaid Region 6, October 13
Oregon reports 30-day results from Just in Case Oregon, an RHTP Immediate Impact Award: 4,244 naloxone doses mailed
Maine posts its Maine RHTP Y2 Project Narrative, moving $17.9 million out of Innovation & Technology and adding a Tribal Healing activity under its 1115 waiver
New Hampshire’s Foundation for Healthy Communities opens the Critical Access Hospital (CAH) and Acute Care Hospital RFA, approximately $17.5 million, priority deadline November 12
Virginia opens the CareIQ Tech Innovation Fund RFA (C-27-002), $9.9 million in non-dilutive grants for rural health technology, due October 29
Virginia opens Build Career Pipelines through the Department of Education, an estimated $120,868 per award for 75 rural school divisions and 3 regional technical centers, due October 23
Maine’s technology partner opens Perinatal Specialty Telehealth, Teledentistry and Virtual Quick Care solicitations on its Digital Health Projects page, and moves Youth Tele-Behavioral Health up to October 16
Mississippi opens the BRIDGE Innovative Pilot Program NOFO, up to $2 million per entity, due November 16
Massachusetts opens the Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP) Rural Partners RFA, one application for 27 activities across six initiatives, due October 26
North Carolina‘s Access East hosts an RHTP town hall for Medicaid Region 6, 3 to 4 p.m. Tuesday, October 13
Access East is the ROOTS hub lead for Region 6. New on its hub page overnight:
We will be hosting a virtual town hall from 3-4 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 13, to talk about our work with the RHTP in Medicaid Region 6. Please join us for this informative session regarding RHTP and our planned approach to addressing health and social care needs in rural communities in eastern North Carolina.
When we walked the ROOTS hubs in the August 20 issue, Access East was still seating a steering committee. This is the first time it has said publicly that it has a planned approach to share. No registration link is posted yet.
Oregon reports 30-day results from Just in Case Oregon, an RHTP Immediate Impact Award: 4,244 naloxone doses mailed
OHA sent this to its RHTP list on October 5. The program launched September 1. Here’s the copy-paste:
1,603 naloxone orders were received from 34 Oregon counties. 1,061 packages containing 4,244 naloxone doses were mailed to community members. 1,260 doses of naloxone were distributed to rural and frontier communities – reaching 94 rural zip codes across 31 counties, including 7 frontier counties.
That puts about 30% of mailed doses in rural and frontier zip codes, by OHA’s own count.
We covered the award in the April 11 issue, when OHA named the Alano Club of Portland and Comagine Health, working with OHA’s Addiction Treatment Recovery & Prevention Services, as the naloxone project. The bulletin adds a name the April list didn’t carry:
Funded through an RHTP Immediate Impact Award, Just in Case Oregon is a collaborative effort of Tabor North, Alano Club of Portland, Comagine Health, OHA’s Behavioral Health Division, and others.
Immediate Impact awards went out in April with no application. This is the first output count OHA has published on one of them. Separately, the Oregon Office of Rural Health says its next RHTP learning collaboratives “will focus on changes to eligibility and administrative requirements under H.R. 1.” No dates yet.
Maine posts its Maine RHTP Y2 Project Narrative, moving $17.9 million out of Innovation & Technology and adding a Tribal Healing activity under its 1115 waiver
DHHS linked it in its first RHTP subscriber update on October 6. It’s the August 28 submitted version; we noted the submission in the September 23 issue. The initiative tables, Year 1 to Year 2:
Population Health: $34,295,115 to $38,265,510
Workforce: $31,402,653 to $38,049,359
Innovation & Technology: $53,369,915 to $35,430,143
Access: $1,150,938 to $2,724,011
Sustainable Rural Health Ecosystems: $66,380,325 to $70,680,037
That’s $186.6 million in Year 1 and $185.1 million in Year 2 across the five. The state calls it “no large-scale changes.” The one new line:
The sole new proposed Activity being requested in Year 2, under the Access Initiative, will fund work under Maine’s 1115 waiver to support the delivery of traditional health services for Tribal citizens
EMR modernization also expands to county jails ready to deliver Medicaid pre-release services. On workforce, Maine says it will send CMS alternatives to the five-year rural service commitment for short-term training, so as not to subject people “to a commitment that may not be commensurate with the opportunity.” Every state paying for CNA and EMT cohorts lives under that rule; as far as I can tell Maine is the first to put a pushback in writing.
The narrative names its contractors: Maine Mobile Health Program for mobile units, UNE’s Shaw Institute for Nourish ME and CHWs, MaineHealth as fiscal entity for CHET, Sweetser and Healthy Acadia for ED peer supports, Duke for the Rural AI Hub. The first evaluation-vendor procurement was cancelled; a reposted one is meant to land a vendor “for the start of Year 2.”
