RHT Alliance Expands to Help Rural Hospitals turn over $16m of Year 1 Funding Into Access to Care

InterSystems, Azalea Health, Self Care Decisions and Solid Starts join the Alliance as members report 34 funding wins across 15 states and new resources support rural care delivery

CLEVELAND, Nov. 12, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The Rural Health Transformation (RHT) Alliance today announced four new members and launched interactive Year One and Year Two Reports along with a 50-state resource hub to help rural hospitals and health systems turn transformation funding into better access to care. As states put second-year awards to work under the Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP), the Alliance is expanding support for providers working to identify state opportunities, assemble delivery partners and build sustainable services for their communities.

"Rural providers need a practical path from a funding opportunity to a service their community can rely on," said Matt Soble, Director of the RHT Alliance. "That requires clinical expertise, technology and implementation partners working to a shared plan. We help providers bring those capabilities together and define how success will be measured, with particular value for hospitals and clinics working with lean teams."

RHTP Year One and Year Two Reports and Resources for All 50 States

The Alliance's RHTP Year One Report translates the CMS RHTP Obligated Funds Report, published October 8, 2026, into a state-by-state view of reported funding commitments. The Alliance's analysis shows that approximately $4.0 billion, or 40 percent of $10 billion in first-year awards, had been obligated as of July 31, 2026. Obligations represent reported commitments; they do not establish when providers receive payments. The report compares state progress and examines how funds move through regional hubs, grants and other implementation channels.

The Alliance's RHTP Year Two Report analyzes the $10 billion in second-year awards CMS announced November 9, 2026, bringing total awards to $20 billion of the program's $50 billion. The Alliance's analysis shows that Year 2 allocations differ from Year 1 by a combined $68.0 million, or 0.7 percent of the total, with 25 states gaining and 25 declining. Half of each award is a fixed equal share, and no state's allocation changed by as much as 4 percent. The report compares each state's change with its Year 1 pace, explains how CMS scores initiative progress and policy actions, and outlines the reporting milestones that will set Year 3 awards.

The Alliance's state-by-state RHTP resource hub brings together state awards, priorities and information on funding opportunities. Providers can use it to identify relevant programs and follow official state sources for current eligibility and deadlines. The Alliance plans to update these resources after CMS releases refreshed data following states' November 29, 2026, quarterly reporting deadline.

Member Funding Activity Across 15 States

As of October 16, 2026, seven Alliance member organizations reported 34 funding wins across 15 states. The Alliance reports a combined value of $16.44 million, comprising $9.25 million in full award values and $7.19 million in member shares. The figures describe member-reported funding activity associated with rural health transformation projects.

NY-VISTA Offers a Hospital-Led Model for Rural Specialty Access

NY-VISTA (New York Virtual Integrated Specialty Telehealth Access) is an 11-hospital specialty access collaborative led by Ellenville Regional Hospital, a Critical Access Hospital in New York's Hudson Valley. Ellenville received a $3 million NY-VISTA award through New York State's Rural Community Health Integration initiative, part of the state's RHTP. The program is designed to give emergency department and inpatient teams timely specialist support for decisions about clinically appropriate local care and transfer to a higher level of care. Alliance members Equum Medical, ViTel Net and Vitalchat are among the collaborative's clinical and technology partners.

NY-VISTA will track specialty consult response and utilization, transfer patterns and behavioral health boarding through a shared performance measurement system. The model brings clinical access, technology and implementation support together across participating hospitals.

"Access to care should not depend on geography. The national opportunity is to make specialty expertise a dependable part of local care," said Karsten Russell-Wood, Chief Marketing & Experience Officer of Equum Medical, a founding member of the RHT Alliance. "Hospital-led collaborations such as NY-VISTA can help rural communities share that expertise, support appropriate care close to home and connect patients with higher levels of care when needed. Success should be measured by the access patients gain and the services communities can sustain beyond the initial funding."

New Members Expand Rural Care Capabilities

The four new members add capabilities in health data exchange, hospital operations, care navigation and infant health education:

• InterSystems, a strategic health data technology provider since 1978 whose interoperability and data platforms touch the health records of two out of three Americans, bringing mission-critical data infrastructure to rural transformation initiatives.
• Azalea Health offers an AI-enabled, cloud-based EHR and billing platform that helps healthcare organizations simplify clinical and financial workflows, improve operational efficiency, and strengthen financial performance. With a strong commitment to rural healthcare, Azalea supports rural hospitals, Critical Access Hospitals, and rural health clinics in expanding access to quality care.
• Self Care Decisions is an evidence-based digital care navigation platform that helps patients and community members make informed decisions about when and where to seek care. Built on the Barton Schmitt, MD nurse triage protocols and used by more than 300 healthcare organizations, the platform provides trusted, 24/7 symptom guidance that helps connect people to the appropriate level of care and supports efforts to reduce avoidable emergency department visits.
• Solid Starts, the leading digital resource for infant feeding and trusted by more than 17 million families, brings specialist-level feeding guidance to rural families and supports state priorities in maternal and infant health, workforce development, and Food is Medicine.

"These organizations bring scale and depth that rural providers rarely get access to on their own," said Soble. "Adding them gives a small hospital the same caliber of data, triage and operational tools a large system would assemble, through a single point of contact."

View the full RHT Alliance member directory.

Support for Rural Health Planning and Implementation

The Alliance connects rural hospitals, health systems, clinics and regional collaboratives with support matched to their needs and state priorities, including:

• State-specific guidance on program priorities and funding opportunities
• Connections to clinical, technology and implementation partners aligned with the proposed project
• Grant strategy and proposal development support through participating partners
• Implementation planning and support for measuring access, quality and operational performance

Rural providers can contact the RHT Alliance to discuss a priority in access to care, an implementation challenge or an upcoming state opportunity.

About the RHT Alliance: The Rural Health Transformation Alliance brings together clinical, technology and implementation partners to help rural healthcare organizations expand access to care and strengthen long-term sustainability. Led by founding member GHC Industries, the Alliance coordinates support for state program navigation, project development and implementation.

About the Rural Health Transformation Program: The Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP) is a $50 billion federal initiative administered by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), established under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The program provides $10 billion annually from fiscal years 2026 through 2030 to help states transform rural healthcare delivery, expand access to care and improve health outcomes. States receive federal awards and administer provider and partner opportunities through state-specific grants, subawards and procurements.

SOURCE RHT Alliance