Strengthening Rural Health Care Across Maine
Maine’s Rural Health Transformation Program is a five-year federal grant program designed to improve health outcomes, expand patient access to care, strengthen the health care workforce, advance innovation, and support sustainable rural health systems.
Supported by an initial $190 million (Year 1) federal investment, the Program will help Maine’s rural communities, providers, and partners implement solutions that improve care today while building a stronger health system for the future.
Why Rural Health Transformation Matters
- More than 690,000 Mainers live in rural communities.
- Rural residents experience higher rates of chronic disease and behavioral health challenges.
- Many Maine communities face shortages of health care providers.
- Access to care can be limited by geography, transportation, and workforce constraints.
- Rural hospitals and providers face significant financial pressures.
Maine’s Rural Health Transformation Program is designed to address these challenges and improve health outcomes across Maine.
Our Vision
A future where:
- Geography does not determine health outcomes.
- Rural Mainers can access quality care when and where they need it.
- Maine’s rural health system is strong, resilient, and sustainable for future generations.
Program Overview
What is the Rural Health Transformation Program?
The Rural Health Transformation Program is a five-year federal grant program designed to strengthen rural health care systems and improve health outcomes in communities across all 50 states. Maine’s program focuses on strategic investments that support Maine patients, providers, communities, and health care workforce.
Maine’s Five Strategic Initiatives
Maine’s Rural Health Transformation Program is organized around five strategic initiatives designed to improve health outcomes, strengthen the rural health workforce, continue the modernization of care delivery, expand access to services, and support the long-term sustainability of the state’s rural health system. Together, these initiatives guide investments and activities that will benefit rural communities across Maine.
Population Health
Summary: Improve the health and well-being of rural Mainers by expanding access to preventive, primary, specialty, behavioral health, and chronic disease services closer to home. This initiative focuses on helping people stay healthy, managing health conditions earlier, and addressing root causes of health disparities through community-based care models and evidence-based interventions.
Key Objectives
- Expand access to preventive and primary care services
- Increase availability of behavioral health and substance use treatment
- Support healthy lifestyles and chronic disease management
- Strengthen community-based care models
- Improve health outcomes through evidence-based practices
Workforce
Summary: Strengthen Maine’s rural health workforce by expanding recruitment, retention, training, and career pathways for health professionals. This initiative supports the development of a sustainable workforce pipeline while helping providers practice at the top of their license and serve rural communities more effectively.
Key Objectives
- Recruit and retain health care professionals in rural communities
- Expand education, training, and clinical placement opportunities
- Strengthen local workforce pipelines
- Support career advancement and professional development
- Improve workforce data and planning capabilities
Technology & Innovation
Summary: Modernize rural health care delivery through technology that improves access, coordination, and efficiency. This initiative supports telehealth, health information exchange, digital health tools, electronic medical record modernization, and the responsible adoption of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence.
Key Objectives
- Expand telehealth and virtual care services
- Improve health information sharing and interoperability
- Modernize electronic medical record systems
- Increase access to consumer-facing digital health tools
- Support responsible adoption of artificial intelligence and innovation
Access
Summary: Reduce barriers that prevent rural Mainers from obtaining timely and affordable health care. This initiative focuses on strengthening access to services through support for provider enrollment, transportation solutions, improved technology, and investments that help ensure essential health services remain available in rural communities.
Key Objectives
- Reduce transportation-related barriers
- Improve access to affordable coverage options
- Modernize systems that connect providers and patients to care
Sustainable Rural Health Ecosystems
Summary: Strengthen the long-term sustainability and resilience of Maine’s rural health system through regional collaboration, financial stabilization, operational improvement, and innovative payment models. This initiative helps ensure rural communities continue to have access to essential health services for years to come.
Key Objectives
- Improve the sustainability of rural health providers
- Support regional planning and collaboration
- Advance innovative payment and delivery models
- Strengthen health system infrastructure and operations
- Build sustainable systems that endure beyond RHTP funding
RHTP Structure & Funding
Total funding for the RHTP is $50 billion nationally, to be allocated to approved States over five fiscal years, with $10 billion of funding available each fiscal year, beginning in fiscal year 2026 and ending in fiscal year 2030.
The funding will be distributed by the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) as follows:
- 50% to be distributed equally amongst all States with a CMS-approved RHTP plan.
- 50% will be allocated by CMS to a subset of states based on a variety of factors including rural population, the proportion of rural health facilities in the state, the situation of certain hospitals in the state, and other factors to be specified by CMS.
Required Components:
To qualify for RHTP funding, the State of Maine addressed specific components required by the federal law, including how Maine's RHTP plan will:
- Improve access to hospitals, other health care providers, and health care items and services provided to rural residents
- Improve health care outcomes of rural residents
- Prioritize the use of new and emerging technologies that emphasize prevention and chronic disease management
- Initiate, foster, and strengthen local and regional strategic partnerships between rural hospitals, and other health care providers to promote measurable quality improvement, increase financial stability, maximize economies of scale, and share best practices in care delivery
- Enhance economic opportunity for, and the supply of, health care clinicians through enhanced recruitment and training
- Prioritize data- and technology-driven solutions that help rural hospitals and other rural health care providers provide high-quality health care services as close to a person's home as is possible
- Outline strategies to manage long-term financial solvency and operating models of rural hospitals in the state
- Identify specific causes that drive the increased rate of stand-alone rural hospitals becoming at risk of closure, conversion, or service reduction
States must also commit to using RHTP funds to support three or more of the following 10 allowable activities:
- 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 CMS 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 five 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, 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 CMS Administrator.
Additionally, CMS has identified the following strategic goals for the RHTP:
- Make rural America healthy again: Support rural health innovations and new access points to promote preventative health and address root causes of diseases. Projects will use evidence-based, outcomes-driven interventions to improve disease prevention, chronic disease management, behavioral health, and prenatal care.
- Sustainable access: Help rural providers become long-term access points for care by improving efficiency and sustainability. With RHTP support, rural facilities work together--or with high-quality regional systems--to share or coordinate operations, technology, primary and specialty care, and emergency services.
- Workforce development: Attract and retain a high-skilled health care workforce by strengthening recruitment and retention of healthcare providers in rural communities. Help rural providers practice at the top of their license and develop a broader set of providers to serve a rural community's needs, such as community health workers, pharmacists, and individuals trained to help patients navigate the healthcare system.
- Innovative care: Spark the growth of innovative care models to improve health outcomes, coordinate care, and promote flexible care arrangements. Develop and implement payment mechanisms incentivizing providers or Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) to reduce health care costs, improve quality of care, and shift care to lower cost settings.
- Technology innovation: Foster use of innovative technologies that promote efficient care delivery, data security, and access to digital health tools by rural facilities, providers, and patients. Projects support access to remote care, improve data sharing, strengthen cybersecurity, and invest in emerging technologies.
Provider Funding Opportunities
As part of a $190 million Year 1 investment, Maine’s Rural Health Transformation Program is launching several funding opportunities designed to strengthen rural health care across the state. Provider-focused funding opportunities include:
- $30 million for electronic medical record (EMR) modernization and interoperability
- $28.5 million to support the transition to alternative payment models (APMs)
- $30 million to improve hospital efficiency, financial stability, and long-term sustainability
Additional funding opportunities supporting workforce development, population health, technology and innovation, and other rural health transformation activities will be announced below and through our partners as program implementation progresses.
Current Funding Opportunities
Maine’s Rural Health Transformation strategy includes investments across multiple initiatives and funding opportunities designed to support rural health transformation efforts across the state.
Funding opportunities will be announced on a rolling basis and this section will be updated regularly with the latest information and links to partner funding opportunities and specifics.
This program is supported by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance award totaling $190,008,051.09 with 100 percent funded by CMS/HHS. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by CMS/HHS, or the U.S. Government.