States face an Oct. 30 deadline to obligate their first-year Rural Health Transformation Program funds, and a sizable share of the money is flowing to technology.
The five-year, $50 billion CMS program, created under HR 1, gives states wide latitude in how they spend their awards. A CMS report on funds obligated through July 31 shows Missouri committing $24.4 million to EHR replacement and upgrades and about $4.2 million to ambient AI licenses and deployment, while Mississippi set aside $47.5 million for a rural provider technology grant program.
State and health system announcements show where some of that money is landing. Here are 12 health systems putting rural health transformation funds toward technology, listed alphabetically:
1. Ascension (St. Louis). Via Christi Hospital in Manhattan, Kan., joined the state’s Anchor Hospital Advancement Program, which will roll out AI and EHR optimization tools and continuous inpatient monitoring wearables in its first year. The hospital is one of 10 regional anchor facilities eligible for the program.
2. Ballad Health (Johnson City, Tenn.). The health system won $2 million from the Virginia Health Care Foundation to upgrade the networks and communication tools that connect its Norton Community, Lee County and Lonesome Pine hospitals to its regional command center, expanding telemedicine services.
3. Baptist Health (Little Rock, Ark.). The system received about $1.1 million to launch virtual cardiology rounds and post-discharge follow-up at rural hospitals without reliable on-site cardiology. It also got a combined $786,920 to add Caregility virtual care, telemetry and cybersecurity infrastructure at Magnolia Regional Medical Center and South Arkansas Regional Hospital as both join Baptist Health.
4. Baptist Memorial Health Care (Memphis, Tenn.). Baptist Memorial Hospital-Calhoun in Calhoun City, Miss., received $1.49 million to modernize IT infrastructure for four critical access hospitals and a nursing home. The upgrades will enable telehealth in emergency and inpatient rooms and prepare patient rooms for smart room capabilities.
5. Baxter Health (Mountain Home, Ark.). Baxter Health won $7.7 million to expand home-based and virtual care across six counties, including hospital at home, remote patient monitoring, telehealth and community paramedicine.
6. Forrest Health (Hattiesburg, Miss.). Forrest County General Hospital received $596,026 to add virtual nursing carts, discharge cameras, remote patient monitoring and navigation services.
7. Memorial Health System (Gulfport, Miss.). The system landed nearly $3 million to replace manual chemotherapy order transcription with an electronic oncology workflow that adds clinical decision support for dosing and drug interactions. It also received $1.92 million to offer AI-enabled virtual primary, behavioral and chronic disease care across five counties.
8. Mercy (Chesterfield, Mo.). Mercy’s Fort Smith, Ark., region received $6.3 million to upgrade rural hospitals and clinics with specialty telehealth, AI-enabled smart rooms, telemetry and imaging equipment, and emergency teleconsultation.
9. Ochsner Health (New Orleans). Ochsner received $3 million for its operations in Lauderdale County, Miss., to modernize nurse call, patient monitoring and infant security systems.
10. St. Bernards Healthcare (Jonesboro, Ark.). St. Bernards won $9.6 million for a digital visual-management platform across six facilities to standardize workflows and improve infection prevention and care coordination. A separate $5 million award covers telehealth, remote patient monitoring and smart room technology.
11. University of Mississippi Medical Center (Jackson). UMMC received $826,256 to build a shared, cloud-based analytics and reporting platform for participating rural hospitals. It also got $149,100 for AI-enabled remote patient monitoring for chronic disease and maternal health that feeds device data into the EHR.
12. Vandalia Health (Charleston, W.Va.). Five Vandalia hospitals — Stonewall Jackson Memorial Hospital in Weston, Mon Health Marion Neighborhood Hospital in White Hall, Mon Health Preston Memorial Hospital in Kingwood, Webster Memorial Hospital in Webster Springs and Plateau Medical Center in Oak Hill — are receiving funding to deploy AI-powered ambient clinical listening. Broaddus Hospital in Philippi also secured funds for a telehealth hub connecting rural skilled nursing residents with specialists and behavioral health services.
Note: Project details are drawn from state and health system announcements and may change before grant agreements are finalized.
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