Turn RHTP Funding into a Sustainable Legacy for Rural Health
Federal funding is a one-time opportunity. HMA ensures changes will endure long after the dollars are gone.
Applying for the Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP) is the easy part. The challenge lies in RHTP implementation—meeting rigorous CMS reporting requirements while building a financial model that doesn’t collapse when the grant ends.
If you’re responsible for RHTP implementation, the risk isn’t just missed reporting milestones—it’s failing to build an operating model that can sustain access after funding ends.
HMA supports state Medicaid agencies, rural hospitals, FQHCs, and partner organizations responsible for RHTP implementation.
RHTP Implementation Support: From Grant Funding to Long-Term Governance
HMA provides on-the-ground technical assistance through seasoned clinical teams with readiness to implement value-based care and value-based payment, advance clinical programming, drive critical workforce investments, deploy cutting-edge technology solutions, and measure impact on improved health status—all to help you navigate the high stakes of RHTP implementation.
- Avoid Compliance Pitfalls: We translate complex federal mandates into action plans and checklists so you stay audit-ready from day one.
- Ensure Financial Success: We build post-funding financial models that support rural hospitals and FQHCs for the long-term, and help improve revenue integrity—such as identifying documentation and claims issues that raised one client’s accuracy rate from 53% toward the 95% industry benchmark through process optimization, better coding, and charge capture improvements.
- Optimize Your Workforce: Drawing on HMA’s HEARD Toolkit, we address rural healthcare workforce shortages through comprehensive workforce mapping and data-driven community needs assessments to identify care delivery gaps. Our approach implements targeted solutions to ensure payer coverage for traditional and emerging providers. Community Health Workers (CHWs), for example, are an important role in many states’ RHTPs. HMA’s experienced leaders support states and providers in maximizing the value of CHWs as part care of delivery teams and developing the associated programs, policies, and innovative compensation and payment models- to cover care that communities really need.
- Protect Access, Advance FQHC Priorities, and Integrate Care: We help FQHCs and rural delivery systems align RHTP initiatives with workforce realities, train and operationalize new clinical models to expand access and build long-term sustainability. Our teams provide specialized technical assistance to deploy enhanced specialty access models, assessing data for specialty gaps, facilitate strategic partnerships with needed specialists through agreements and joint workflows and payments, implement tele-specialty models and in person visits, and use metrics to drive ongoing collaboration and improvement in patient access and outcomes. HMA also specializes in implementing High-priority state delivery models, including telehealth and RPM infrastructure, integrated behavioral health and CCBHC models, localized chronic disease prevention and maternal health hubs, and technology-enabled health networks.
| Your Goal | Our Implementation Solution |
| Long-Term Economic Resilience | Transitioning your delivery system to sustainable Value-Based Care models that advance care and build alternative payment approaches with HMA proprietary tool – Optimize 360 – to assess comprehensive financial picture and project financial sustainability and growth based on new models, changes in workforce and reimbursements. |
| Tribal Partnership Engagement | Partner directly with tribal health organizations, tribal-serving providers, and tribal leadership to ensure representation in regional planning, care coordination efforts, and community collaboratives. In many states, tribal health entities are critical partners for advancing rural health priorities and creating effective cross-sector collaborations. |
| Build Collective Action and System Alignment | Unify Medicaid agencies, rural health systems, critical access hospitals, independent rural providers, and local partners under one strategy. Build community collaboratives or regional hubs with strong governance structures to improve coordination and shared outcomes. |
| Sustain Access and Care Continuity | Aligning RHTP strategy with FQHC operations, staffing investments, reporting capacity, and community care priorities – “keeping care local.” Developing workforce strategies, direct clinical and operational workforce training and competency building. |
| Audit Readiness | Expert navigation of CMS oversight and quality reporting (Key Performance Indicators like timely access to primary and specialty care, distance to care, emergency department 30-day readmission rates, and selected chronic disease indicators, like diabetes and blood pressure control, and depression remission. |
RHTP success depends on strong implementation strategy, CMS compliance, workforce planning, value-based care readiness, and long-term financial sustainability.
RHTP FAQs: Implementation, Compliance, Workforce, and Sustainability
How does RHTP differ from traditional rural health grants?
Unlike standard grants that focus on short-term projects, RHTP is a fundamental shift toward system-wide resilience and economic feasibility. It requires states and providers to demonstrate measurable improvements through Value-Based Care. Success is measured by the viability of the system after federal funding concludes.
How are states leveraging RHTP funding to modernize delivery networks?
Most states are heavily prioritizing Year 1 infrastructure pushes. We help clients design and implement high-priority Technology & Data Modernization initiatives—including telehealth expansion, EHR/HIE interoperability, and Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM)—while seamlessly integrating Behavioral Health & SUD (leveraging CCBHC conversions and tele-behavioral health) into traditional primary care workflows.
What clinical care models are driving the most traction under RHTP?
Successful rollouts focus heavily on long-term endurance in high-impact areas. We provide deep clinical consulting to scale Behavioral Health integrations into clinical models, Chronic Disease Prevention (such as “Food is Medicine” pilots and diabetes prevention hubs) and Maternal & Child Health initiatives like blending licensed and unlicensed teams including doulas, midwifery and community health workers, designed to eliminate care deserts and create hub and spoke networks through technology-enabled prenatal and perinatal care networks.
What are the primary compliance risks during the RHTP implementation?
The biggest risks involve CMS reporting requirements and KPI tracking. Many organizations struggle to bridge the gap between their current data capabilities and federal oversight mandates. State timelines for data and quality collection will be pressured and providers will need to start collecting the right data even without clarity from the state on what to collect or how to report it. HMA can bridge that gap and reduce the risk. Failure to meet these benchmarks can jeopardize future funding tranches.
How can rural hospitals strengthen financial sustainability post-funding? Positioning rural networks to thrive forms the core of our approach. We help delivery systems move away from needing subsidies by transitioning to outcome-based payment structures that reward quality over volume, and helping the delivery system participate in the rewards from improving total cost of care – so the work to bend the cost curve results in new investment in America’s rural communities.
Who should be involved in the RHTP governance structure?
Yimplementation requires a unified coalition. This includes state Medicaid agencies, FQHCs, Tribal organizations, hospitals, provider groups, payers, and community-based organizations who face together a once in a lifetime opportunity to restructure the care model to maximize investment – and maximize health for their communities. We specialize in aligning diverse stakeholders under a cohesive governance model that celebrates and leverages all of a community’s strengths.
Talk with HMA about your RHTP implementation strategy
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