Arkansas received $209 million dollars to strengthen rural health in 2026, Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced.
The money, distributed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, comes as part of President Donald Trump’s Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP). The program is set to see $50 billion distributed to all 50 states across the next five years.
The $209 million in this funding round is part of the first-year awards. Additional awards out of the $50 billion total will be announced in future rounds.
“Today’s announcement shows that President Trump and his administration place a priority on improving rural health and Making America Healthy Again,” said Sanders. “Our state went above and beyond in the application process to secure an outsized portion of the funds available through the Rural Health Transformation Program because we know that Arkansas’ smaller communities deserve just as much support as any other region of our state. I’m excited to get to work quickly on Arkansas’ innovative approach to this program and deliver the care our people deserve.”
Arkansas’ application for funding focused on achieving these four initiatives:
- Healthy Eating, Active Recreation, and Transformation (HEART), a program focused on improving health outcomes and access to preventative care by creating a coordinated, community-driven approach to nutrition, physical activity, and chronic disease management.
- Promoting Access Coordination and Transformation (PACT), which integrates specialty care, preventative screenings, telehealth, and trauma-ready services into rural communities while fostering locally-driven clinically integrated networks to improve efficiency, data sharing, and regional collaboration.
- Recruitment Innovation Skills and Education for Arkansas (RISE AR), which strengthens the rural healthcare workforce through expanded physician residencies and other clinical training programs, provides incentives to recruit and retain healthcare professionals in rural Arkansas, and provides training to ensure leaders and board members of local hospitals and clinics are prepared for the transformation required in rural healthcare.
- Telehealth Health Monitoring and Response Innovation for Vital Expansion (THRIVE), which will leverage AI to provide coordinated patient records across delivery systems and fund telehealth platforms, technology-enabled monitoring for chronic diseases, such as diabetes and high blood pressure, and the modernization of emergency medical transport and services.
The Governor said that funding amounts for each specific initiative will be announced later.
