One year into its creation, a $50 billion federal program aimed at improving rural healthcare lacks transparency, which could make it difficult to protect against fraud, identify successful projects, and ensure the program delivers on its promise to transform the system.<\/p>\n
Transparency \u201cis really important to help protect the integrity of the program, ensure funds are reaching the communities they\u2019re meant to serve,\u201d said Maya Sandalow, director of health policy for the Bipartisan Policy Center, a nonprofit think tank.<\/p>\n
The federal government and states are compelled by public records laws to share documents when requested. But those requests can take months to fulfill, making their release too late for meaningful oversight as states rush to spend their allotments under tight federal deadlines.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services \u2014 which oversees the Rural Health Transformation Program \u2014 and some states aren\u2019t proactively sharing information about where the funding is going and how it will be used.<\/p>\n
CMS spokesperson Timothy Foster said the agency \u201cwill publish an annual report on state progress.\u201d<\/p>\n
States\u2019 individual reports to CMS are \u201cintended to be\u201d shared upon request, but the agency won\u2019t be proactively publishing the individual state reports, according to a CMS document<\/a>.<\/p>\n Foster didn\u2019t respond to questions about whether the agency will share examples of projects that are and aren\u2019t working or create a tracker of funding recipients, award amounts, and what organizations plan to do with their funding \u2014 ideas that health and government transparency advocates have requested.<\/p>\n Instead, much of the program\u2019s transparency thus far has been up to state governments, and \u201cthe level of details that states have publicized really varies,\u201d said Sandalow, who co-wrote a recent paper<\/a> on how the federal government can strengthen the rural health program, including through transparency.<\/p>\n Some states are sharing information with lawmakers, holding public meetings, and explaining where organizations plan to invest their money.<\/p>\n Others are more secretive, with multiple states declining to release public records in response to KFF Health News\u2019 requests. Mississippi\u2019s governor vetoed a transparency-related bill<\/a>, West Virginia holds closed-door advisory meetings, and a South Dakota official wrote<\/a> that he hoped CMS would keep its application from public view.<\/p>\n \u201cI just don\u2019t believe in all this secrecy,\u201d said Mississippi state Sen. Hob Bryan, who chairs his chamber\u2019s public health committee. \u201cIf they\u2019re not up to something nefarious, why do they have to do it all in secret?\u201d<\/p>\n Bryan, a Democrat, said there\u2019s bipartisan concern<\/a> about the lack of transparency in his state.<\/p>\n Reaching Rural Patients<\/strong><\/p>\n Congressional Republicans created the five-year Rural Health Transformation Program last summer as an eleventh-hour sweetener to President Donald Trump\u2019s signature One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The money was intended to offset concerns about the outsize fallout<\/a> anticipated in rural communities from the law, which is expected to reduce overall Medicaid spending<\/a> by more than $900 billion over a decade.<\/p>\n Sandalow said some states may be struggling to share information since they\u2019re busy rushing to hire staff and meet the program\u2019s tight deadlines, including an annual report due Aug. 31.<\/p>\n In the meantime, a slew of media outlets, nonprofits, and businesses are stepping in to make it easier for the public to track the rural health program.<\/p>\n KFF Health News is collecting states\u2019 applications<\/a> and approved plans and budgets<\/a>, not all of which have been posted on state websites.<\/p>\n \t\t<\/p><\/a>\n KFF Health News is working to collect and post complete application materials, by state, here and will update this repository as new materials, released in response to public records requests, arrive.<\/p>\n \t\t<\/p><\/a>\n KFF Health News is working to collect and post approved plans as more states respond to emails and public records requests for their documents.<\/p>\n And several health nonprofits<\/a> and companies<\/a> have created trackers that describe states\u2019 rural health initiatives<\/a>, post funding opportunities, or list award recipients. But some resources are available only through paid services, aimed at helping businesses interested in applying for money.<\/p>\n Sandalow said previous federal programs \u201ctend to draw attention for gaps in transparency and oversight rather than for doing it well.\u201d<\/p>\n As an example, she pointed to the lack of oversight and transparency with the CARES Act and other covid relief programs, which saw fraud and improper payments<\/a>.<\/p>\n In March, CMS published<\/a> proposed quarterly and annual state reporting requirements for the rural health program, and a notice seeking comments<\/a>. At least three groups replied with letters expressing concerns about transparency.<\/p>\n CMS should share states\u2019 progress reports, funding recipients, and what organizations plan to do with their awards, wrote Zachary Gaumer<\/a>, the Bipartisan Policy Center\u2019s vice president for health policy.<\/p>\n Sharing this information would make it easier to track progress, identify successful programs that other states may want to replicate, and \u201censure funds reach the rural communities they are intended to serve,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n Molly Smith, group vice president for public policy at the American Hospital Association, asked CMS<\/a> \u201cto be as detailed as possible\u201d about the \u201cfinal destinations of these funds, given the complexity of the grant funding process.\u201d<\/p>\n In her letter<\/a>, Charlene MacDonald, who leads the Federation of American Hospitals, noted that some funding recipients, such as large health systems and academic medical centers, will be distributing their awards to other entities.<\/p>\n CMS should collect those \u201cdownstream subrecipients,\u201d wrote MacDonald, whose group represents for-profit hospitals and healthcare systems.<\/p>\n Without this information, she said, it will be difficult to know if \u201cfunding is reaching the rural hospitals, providers, and communities primarily intended to benefit from the program.\u201d<\/p>\n It can also be difficult to know which for-profit companies are being paid with rural health money.<\/p>\n For example, Nevada<\/a> and Kansas<\/a> have listed hospitals and other health facilities that received funding to purchase telehealth, scanning devices, and other health technology. But the states list only some of the companies from which recipients will buy those products.<\/p>\n States won\u2019t have to report \u201cdownstream\u201d funding in their August reports to CMS but will have to do so for all future reports, according to the agency\u2019s recently finalized reporting requirements<\/a>.<\/p>\n The CMS documents say states must list subrecipients that receive subawards as well as vendors or contractors paid by an organization using rural health funding. Although states must report how much money these downstream recipients receive, they don\u2019t have to describe which specific services or products the recipient is providing.<\/p>\n DIY Dashboards<\/strong><\/p>\n As groups ask CMS to share more information, some states have created their own rural health spending dashboards or recipient lists, with varying levels of detail.<\/p>\n Alaska<\/a>, Kansas<\/a>, Oklahoma,<\/a> and other states list which organizations receive funding, their award amounts, and detailed descriptions of how recipients will spend the money.<\/p>\n Florida<\/a><\/a> and Nebraska<\/a>, however, are among the states that don\u2019t share what awardees plan to do with their funding.<\/p>\n New Hampshire is posting recipient contracts<\/a> that detail projects and their budgets on its Rural Health Transformation Program website. Some other states have uploaded contracts and grants on general procurement or award databases, which can be difficult to navigate.<\/p>\n Ohio<\/a>, Virginia<\/a>, and New Jersey<\/a> have used press releases to announce awards. But the announcements aren\u2019t posted on their Rural Health Transformation Program websites, which could make it difficult to find this information.<\/p>\n Many states created advisory groups to provide transparency and accountability for their programs. Most committees host public meetings and upload minutes, recordings, or other materials from the discussions.<\/p>\n <\/a>But the West Virginia Department of Health won\u2019t share what\u2019s discussed in its rural health advisory panel\u2019s closed-door meetings, according to spokesperson Gailyn Markham.<\/p>\n \u201cThe panel is intended to serve as an informal forum for discussion and feedback among invited participants and program staff,\u201d Markham said.<\/p>\n South Dakota, North Dakota, and Mississippi are among the states without advisory committees.<\/p>\n In response to public records requests, South Dakota released a nearly completely redacted version of its budget for the rural health program while Mississippi declined to release its budget.<\/p>\n Mississippi\u2019s governor said<\/a> he vetoed a transparency-related bill<\/a> because it would \u201ccreate an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy\u201d that would have slowed the award process, which could cause the state to lose out on future funds. Mississippi is \u201can incredible outlier<\/a> in all this secrecy,\u201d Bryan, the state lawmaker, told KFF Health News.<\/p>\n Sandalow said it\u2019s important for states to publish the impact of their rural health projects, adding that CMS should share which rural health projects are and aren\u2019t working.<\/p>\n She said national and state health organizations are creating networks and holding conferences to help spread this information. States should \u201cbe able to learn from each other, get a sense of lessons learned and best practices, and then be able to pivot their initiatives accordingly,\u201d Sandalow said.<\/p>\n Michael Cannon, who oversees health policy studies at the libertarian Cato Institute, said people should know how their $50 billion in taxes is being spent on the rural health program, and whether state projects are making rural patients healthier.<\/p>\n If investors put that much money into a project, there is \u201cno way\u201d they \u201cwould let the recipients of those funds get away with the shoddy approach to transparency and accountability that the states are taking,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n KFF Health News<\/a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF\u2014an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n This article<\/a> first appeared on KFF Health News<\/a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One year into its creation, a $50 billion federal program aimed at improving rural healthcare lacks transparency, which could make it difficult to protect against fraud, identify successful projects, and ensure the program delivers on its promise to transform the system. Transparency \u201cis really important to help protect the integrity of the program, ensure funds…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":15272,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15271"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tRural Health Payout\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>
\n\t\t\t\t<\/a>\nTracking Applications\u00a0for Rural Health Transformation\u00a0Funds<\/a><\/h2>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tRural Health Payout\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>
\n\t\t\t\t<\/a>\nTracking State Rural Health Transformation Plans<\/a><\/h2>\n