TOPEKA — Kansas turned in a 60-page application last week in hopes of receiving a share of $50 billion in federal money designed to transform rural health.
Nearly one-third of Kansans live in rural communities, and the state’s Rural Health Transformation Plan aims to improve health in those areas.
Federal government officials originally touted the $50 billion as support for rural hospitals that are set to lose billions of dollars after the One Big Beautiful Bill Act cut Medicaid and other federal health spending. But the program evolved into a more general focus on rural health.
THE KANSAS plan was developed in two months after the federal government set a tight timeline for submissions to receive a portion of $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program.
Of that amount, $25 billion will be distributed evenly among the states selected and the remaining $25 billion will be allocated based on submitted plans, said Kate Sapra, deputy secretary at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Office of Rural Health Transformation. The money will be paid out over five budget periods, from federal fiscal year 2026 through federal fiscal year 2030.
Sapra spoke at a September meeting to the team Gov. Laura Kelly appointed to develop the Kansas application, called the Kansas Rural Health Innovation Alliance. The coalition of government, nonprofit and private organizations, including the Kansas Hospital Association, the Association of Community Mental Health Centers of Kansas and the Kansas Association of Local Health Departments.
The Kansas plan focuses on improving health delivery systems, encouraging innovative care models and using innovative technologies, according to the 60-page application submitted last week.
MARTIE ROSS, director of PYA Center for Rural Health Advancement, Overland Park, told the group at its October meeting that they had condensed a yearlong process into six weeks.
“If I had a piece of advice for Congress … I would have said please give us at least six months and some funds to develop this application so it’s truly reflective of state needs,” she said. “Instead we have a very short timeframe to submit the final application.”
Ross outlined complexities of the application process and what would happen between the Nov. 5 deadline to turn it in and the federal government’s Dec. 31 deadline to award the dollars. She said the program is not a grant, but a cooperative agreement.
“It is a negotiation between CMS and the state as to what will be within the transformation plan and what will come out,” she said. They “certainly appreciate CMS is balancing the demands of 50 applications. Our application does not stand alone on its merits. It always will stand in comparison to other applications.”
The plan
In Kansas’ application, the coalition focused on the following priorities, outlined in a news release from Kelly:
• Expand prevention programs to reduce chronic disease rates, including increasing access to preventive screenings and behavioral health services.
• Increase local access to primary care for rural Kansans
• Build a sustainable rural health workforce to support greater access to primary care, dental and behavioral health providers and to ease health shortages.
