Originally published on 12/30/25

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced that all 50 states would be receiving money under the Rural Health Transformation Program, a $50 billion initiative created by President Donald Trump’s Working Families Tax Cuts legislation. The funding is expected to expand healthcare access in rural areas, a change CMS administrator Mehmet Oz, MD, called “an extraordinary milestone.” To learn more about the funding, including how it’s going to impact care for Americans, keep scrolling.

What we know about the Rural Health Transformation Program

On Monday, December 29, Dr.Oz announced that all 50 states would receive a set amount of money under the new Rural Health Transformation Program. By doing so, the CMS hopes that healthcare in rural America will become stronger and more modernized in 2026, which will then help patients receive better and more efficient care. 

“Today marks an extraordinary milestone for rural health in America,” Dr.Oz said in a statement. “Thanks to Congress establishing this investment and President Trump for his leadership, states are stepping forward with bold, creative plans to expand rural access, strengthen their workforces, modernize care and support the communities that keep our nation running. CMS is proud to partner with every state to turn their ideas into lasting improvements for rural families.”

Over the next five years, each state will receive a different amount of money based on its rural population, the amount of free healthcare it offers and the size of the land area. Currently, Texas is set to get the most money ($281,319,361) and New Jersey is set to get the least ($147,250,806). There are also some notable differences between the other states’ sizes, with California and Montana set to receive around the same amount despite their population being vastly different. 

This news was noticed by lawmakers, with Arizona governor Katie Hobbs saying, “Significant portions of the funding will be allocated exclusively to the five states with the greatest land areas. Arizona is the sixth.” 

“We are 110 times larger than Rhode Island, but the grant will give Arizona no more points on land area than Rhode Island. So this five-state land area [rule] seems arbitrary and it will punish Western states with significant land areas.” 

The funds given to each state can change, since, according to Dr.Oz, at the end of the year CMS will evaluate how the states are using the money and then decide how much to give them for the next year. 

“The purpose of this $50 billion investment in rural healthcare is not to pay off the bills,” Dr.Oz told reporters on Monday, December 29. “The purpose of this $50 billion investment is to allow us to rightsize the system and to deal with the fundamental hindrances of improvement in rural healthcare.”

How the Rural Health Transformation Program will impact patient care

With this additional funding comes important changes for patients. This includes hospital funding and access to more advanced care. Hawaii Governor Josh Green told Politico, “As a relatively small state, this will help us a lot to keep our hospitals open, to make sure there are providers available to have telehealth available.”  

Even so, that access does worry most Americans, since Medicare telehealth services are expected to end at the end of January 2026 unless Congress can agree on a way to best fund the program. Americans are also worried the extra money won’t offset the Medicare cuts expected to begin in 2026. 

“We expect the impact of just the Medicaid cuts alone to be $34 billion over the next 10 years,” Arizona’s Hobbs said, according to Politico. “The math doesn’t work there, but it will do a lot to help mitigate some of the impact, especially as we’re going to see a decline in access to healthcare in rural communities.”

Along with the hospital access, the Rural Health Transformation Program is expected to help bring more modern healthcare tools in preventive, primary, maternal and behavioral health services to rural areas. The funds will also help bring more training to healthcare workers, which can help patients get better care. 

“More than 60 million Americans living in rural areas have the right to equal access to quality care,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said in a statement. “This historic investment puts local hospitals, clinics and health workers in control of their communities’ healthcare. Thanks to President Trump’s leadership, rural Americans will now have affordable healthcare close to home, free from bureaucratic obstacles.”  

Link to original: https://www.womansworld.com/healthcare/rural-health-transformation-program-brings-50b-to-medicare-users