Kansas hospitals are creating mobile maternal health clinics and using AI to prevent chronic illness in kids with new federal grant money aimed at increasing healthcare access to rural residents.
The Rural Health Transformation Program is a five-year federal initiative signed into law by President Donald Trump. Part of its purpose is to soften the blow of Medicaid cuts proposed by the administration and approved by Congress. Kansas received $221 million dollars for its first year.
Although some rural hospitals say the money won't completely offset what they lose from Trump's Medicaid cuts, they're grateful for it. They say rural hospitals need system changes and more funding at state and federal levels to be sustainable.
"We're really excited about the funding that the federal government has given to the different states to ensure transformation and stability across rural health care," Brendan Johnson, CEO of AdventHealth Ottawa, said.
The Kansas News Service spoke with four hospitals about their plans for the grant money.
How the program works
The Rural Health Transformation Program is part of Trump's One Big, Beautiful Bill Act that Trump signed into law last summer. It's the same bill that lowered federal spending on Medicaid by an estimated $911 billion dollars over the next decade.
The five-year initiative offers $50 billion dollars for states to "transform" rural healthcare. Half of the money will be distributed equally to states and the other half will be distributed at the discretion of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services based on factors like how much of a state is considered rural.
"This unprecedented federal investment will help states expand access to care in rural communities, strengthen the rural health workforce, modernize rural facilities and technology, and support innovative models that bring high-quality, dependable care closer to home," a statement from CMS said.
For the first year, Kansas gets $221 million. State health officials recently announced the first grant winners. Nearly $80 million is going to 39 healthcare organizations across Kansas to support regional collaboration and help hospitals make updates or purchase new equipment.
Applications are still open for other branches of the program.
How some Kansas hospitals are using the money
In central Kansas, Hutchinson Regional Medical Center will use $3 million to renovate an idle nursing home on its campus and turn it into an adult inpatient behavioral health unit and create a psychiatry residency program with the University of Kansas School of Medicine.
The hospital's CEO, Benjamin Anderson, said the award is smaller than what they asked for. He said they need $7.5 million for the project.
Anderson said they have until the end of July to formally accept the funds. In the meantime, they're working to either raise the rest of the money themselves or modify the plan to fit the grant amount.
Anderson said Hutchinson Regional Medical Center currently has 14 inpatient psychiatric rooms, but there's a huge need for more in rural Kansas. Currently, people in mental health crises show up in rural emergency rooms and end up waiting, sometimes for days, for an opening at a facility for behavioral health.
"Sometimes by the time they leave, they're just discharged to home out of these emergency departments because they never actually got the psychiatric care they needed," Anderson said. "And it creates risks in emergency departments. It obviously isn't good for the patients."
If all goes according to plan, Anderson said they'll add 23 more beds for patients experiencing behavioral health issues.
AdventHealth Ottawa
AdventHealth Ottawa plans to use $1.4 million in grant funding to create a telehealth speciality and maternal care network. That network will include mobile maternal health clinics. They're partnering with the Southeast Kansas Multi-County Health Department, which covers Anderson, Allen, Bourbon and Woodson counties. The Coffey Health System in Burlington, Kansas, will also take part.
Johnson, the hospital's CEO, said the partnerships are what really make the project special.
"The grant funding gives us the ability to build the infrastructure and to put the capital costs to good use, but the sustainability really is in the partnership and the care that we have," he said.
Johnson said in addition to the maternal care mobile clinics, there will also be a van with equipment to measure bone density. Women tend to temporarily lose bone density when pregnant or breastfeeding.
Ottawa is surrounded by counties that don't have access to maternity care. Johnson said the mobile health clinic will help women obtain prenatal care without having to drive long distances.
"All of the counties that we're serving don't have labor and delivery departments," said Johnson. "It's not competitive towards what's already down there. It's a way, in essence, to collaborate. And prenatal care is so important for better outcomes for moms and babies."
The women will ultimately deliver babies in Ottawa at its newly -re-opened birth center. The hospital temporarily closed its labor and delivery unit in 2023 and reopened last fall.
Children's Mercy
Kansas City-based Children's Mercy, which also has locations in Kansas, won $6 million, more than any other grantee this round. The hospital wants to leverage AI to improve care for pediatric chronic illnesses, including type 1 diabetes and asthma. The plan is to partner with the Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas, the University of Kansas Health System's Great Bend campus and Logan County Health Services.
Dr. J.B. Le Pichon with Children's Mercy said they'll use the money to implement AI-driven technology in rural Kansas that screens for chronic diseases in children. The technology can alert providers if kids are at higher risk of developing a chronic illness so they can focus on prevention.
"We want to really make sure we bring that innovative care to all of the children of Kansas, focusing on equity."
Greeley County Health Services
Greeley County Health Services is a health system based in Western Kansas. A $2 million grant will help establish a regional collaborative involving four community hospitals. The goal is to develop a shared specialty care model, where the hospitals share equipment and specialists. That could include orthopedics, cardiology and dermatology.
Trice Watts, Greeley County Health Services CEO, said he thinks this is an innovative way to address the shortage of rural specialty-care doctors and services. He said the population in his area isn't large enough to support his facility paying for a specialist on its own.
"I feel like the state's done at least a decent job of saying, 'Is there a way that we can fund the opportunity to work together rather than against each other?'" Watts said. "Healthcare historically has kind of been market-share driven and less partnership-driven."
Watts said they've already tested this model with oncology and it expanded access to chemotherapy in the region.
He said they're looking to see which specialties the communities need.
Greeley County Health System also plans to establish an in-house microbiology lab to expand access to diagnostic services.
A full list of the initial 39 grantees is on the Kansas Department of Health and Environment's website.
Rural hospitals say they need more than temporary funding
This extra funding for rural hospitals comes at a time when many are struggling. According to a report by the non-profit policy organization Centers for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform, Kansas has the most rural hospitals immediately at risk of closing.
"It's hard to innovate when you're needing to stabilize," Watts said. "The reality is, no one is just flush with cash, resources and staff to pull all this off immediately."
Watts said rural hospitals need more federal and local support to sustain themselves financially.
"Rural 'transformation' is kind of a stretch, in my opinion," he said. "We're very appreciative of the dollars that have been awarded but the reality is some are still struggling to make payroll."
Watts said payment models need to change when it comes to private insurance and government programs, otherwise they won't be able to change how they deliver care.
"We at some point have to engage not only the federal dollars, we have to get all the payers on board to allow us a platform to test some of these things. Or true transformation won't happen," he said.
Anderson from Hutchinson Regional Medical agrees.
"This one-time funding is helpful to transform space, but we need to ensure that we have what we need to sustain the programs that go within the space," he said.
Anderson said many rural hospitals are supported by taxes from their communities, but that isn't sustainable.
"We are getting to a point where local communities can no longer tax themselves," Anderson said.
April Holman is executive director for the Alliance for a Healthy Kansas, a nonprofit group that advocates for Medicaid expansion and affordable healthcare. She said the Rural Transformation Fund will do a lot of great things for Kansas hospitals.
"But I just want to recenter us to remember that Kansas is anticipated to lose almost $4 billion over the course of 10 years because of the cuts that were made in H.R.1," Holman said. "We are not going to be able to stop the pain that's going to happen."
Bek Shackelford-Nwanganga reports on health care disparities and access for the Kansas News Service. You can email her at r.shackelford@kcur.org.
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