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 “is really important to help protect the integrity of the program, ensure funds are reaching the communities they’re meant to serve,” said Maya Sandalow, director of health policy for the Bipartisan Policy Center, a nonprofit think tank
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
In the meantime, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services — which oversees the Rural Health Transformation Program — and some states aren’t proactively sharing information about where the funding is going and how it will be used
CMS spokesperson Timothy Foster said the agency “will publish an annual report on state progress.”
States’ individual reports to CMS are “intended to be” shared upon request, but the agency won’t be proactively publishing the individual state reports, according to a CMS document
Foster didn’t respond to questions about whether the agency will share examples of projects that are and aren’t working or create a tracker of funding recipients, award amounts, and what organizations plan to do with their funding — ideas that health and government transparency advocates have requested
Instead, much of the program’s transparency thus far has been up to state governments, and “the level of details that states have publicized really varies,” said Sandalow, who co-wrote a recent paper on how the federal government can strengthen the rural health program, including through transparency
Some states are sharing information with lawmakers, holding public meetings, and explaining where organizations plan to invest their money
Others are more secretive, with multiple states declining to release public records in response to KFF Health News’ requests. Mississippi’s governor vetoed a transparency-related bill, West Virginia holds closed-door advisory meetings, and a South Dakota official wrote that he hoped CMS would keep its application from public view
“I just don’t believe in all this secrecy,” said Mississippi state Sen. Hob Bryan, who chairs his chamber’s public health committee. “If they’re not up to something nefarious, why do they have to do it all in secret?”
Bryan, a Democrat, said there’s bipartisan concern about the lack of transparency in his state
Congressional Republicans created the five-year Rural Health Transformation Program last summer as an eleventh-hour sweetener to President Donald Trump’s signature One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The money was intended to offset concerns about the outsize fallout anticipated in rural communities from the law, which is expected to reduce overall Medicaid spending by more than $900 billion over a decade
Sandalow said some states may be struggling to share information since they’re busy rushing to hire staff and meet the program’s tight deadlines, including an annual report due Aug. 31
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
KFF Health News is collecting states’ applications and approved plans and budgets, not all of which have been posted on state websites
And several health nonprofits and companies have created trackers that describe states’ rural health initiatives, post funding opportunities, or list award recipients. But some re businesses interested in applying for money
Sandalow said previous federal programs “tend to draw attention for gaps in transparency and oversight rather than for doing it well.”
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
In March, CMS published proposed quarterly and annual state reporting requirements for the rural health program, and a notice seeking comments. At least three groups replied with letters expressing concerns about transparency
CMS should share states’ progress reports, funding recipients, and what organizations plan to do with their awards, wrote Zachary Gaumer, the Bipartisan Policy Center’s vice president for health policy
Sharing this information would make it easier to track progress, identify successful programs that other states may want to replicate, and “ensure funds reach the rural communities they are intended to serve,” he wrote
Molly Smith, group vice president for public policy at the American Hospital Association, asked CMS “to be as detailed as possible” about the “final destinations of these funds, given the complexity of the grant funding process.”
In her letter, 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
CMS should collect those “downstream subrecipients,” wrote MacDonald, whose group represents for-profit hospitals and healthcare systems
Without this information, she said, it will be difficult to know if “funding is reaching the rural hospitals, providers, and communities primarily intended to benefit from the program.”
It can also be difficult to know which for-profit companies are being paid with rural health money
For example, Nevada and Kansas 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
States won’t have to report “downstream” funding in their August reports to CMS but will have to do so for all future reports, according to the agency’s recently finalized reporting requirements
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’t have to describe which specific services or products the recipient is providing
DIY Dashboards
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
Alaska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and other states list which organizations receive funding, their award amounts, and detailed descriptions of how recipients will spend the money
Florida and Nebraska, however, are among the states that don’t share what awardees plan to do with their funding
New Hampshire is posting recipient contracts 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
Ohio, Virginia, and New Jersey have used press releases to announce awards. But the announcements aren’t posted on their Rural Health Transformation Program websites, which could make it difficult to find this information
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
But the West Virginia Department of Health won’t share what’s discussed in its rural health advisory panel’s closed-door meetings, according to spokesperson Gailyn Markham
“The panel is intended to serve as an informal forum for discussion and feedback among invited participants and program staff,” Markham said
South Dakota, North Dakota, and Mississippi are among the states without advisory committees
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
Mississippi’s governor said he vetoed a transparency-related bill because it would “create an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy” that would have slowed the award process, which could cause the state to lose out on future funds. Mississippi is “an incredible outlier in all this secrecy,” Bryan, the state lawmaker, told KFF Health News
Sandalow said it’s important for states to publish the impact of their rural health projects, adding that CMS should share which rural health projects are and aren’t working
She said national and state health organizations are creating networks and holding conferences to help spread this information. States should “be able to learn from each other, get a sense of lessons learned and best practices, and then be able to pivot their initiatives accordingly,” Sandalow said
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
If investors put that much money into a project, there is “no way” they “would let the recipients of those funds get away with the shoddy approach to transparency and accountability that the states are taking,” he said
Arielle Ziontsazionts@kff.org
