Growing rural opportunities for well-being in health (grow: cultivating hoosier health), indiana's rural health transformation plan. - the state of indiana, with its lead agencies, the indiana…

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services awarded the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration $620.783 million on December 29, 2025, under the Rural Health Transformation Program (CFDA 93.798) to implement Indiana's GROW: Cultivating Hoosier Health initiative, a comprehensive rural health transformation program extending through October 30, 2030.

GROW deploys the funding across twelve target initiatives aligned with five CMS strategic goals: sustainable access to rural care through a statewide medical organizations coordination center and enhanced Indiana 211 referral systems; technology innovation strengthening interoperability networks for secure data exchange; innovative patient-centered care models expanding pediatric and obstetric services; crisis response and behavioral health integration; and cardiometabolic health initiatives. The program balances statewide coordination efforts with regionally designed projects led by local networks of providers and community leaders across Indiana.

Sub-recipients deliver specific program components. Lifespring Inc. operates mobile integrated health and behavioral health units with remote patient monitoring and crisis response expansion. Indiana Health Centers Incorporated deploys remote patient monitoring for hypertension and diabetes with EHR integration and mobile primary care screening in rural high-need areas. Centerstone of Indiana provides crisis care infrastructure and behavioral health workforce expansion. Hoosier Uplands Economic Development Corporation (doing business as Serenity Now Psychiatric & Counseling Services) delivers evidence-based afterschool prevention programming and family engagement. Affiliated Service Providers of Indiana expands rural paraprofessional roles including community health workers, care navigators, EMTs, and care coordinators across healthcare, behavioral health, and oral health settings. Cameron Memorial Community Hospital implements the American Heart Association's cardiometabolic care model. Indiana University provides training and sustainment planning for rural emergency departments in obstetrics and pediatrics, and delivers structured technical support to regional grant development. Additional sub-recipients support initiatives in chronic disease management, prenatal access, integrated community health networks, transportation and navigation services, trauma prevention, immunization, and community resources.

Growing rural opportunities for well-being in health (grow: cultivating hoosier health), indiana's rural health transformation plan. - the state of indiana, with its lead agencies, the indiana family and social services administration (fssa), the indiana department of health (idoh), and the indiana department of child services (DCS), collectively under indiana health and family services (HFS), will launch its landmark "grow" transformation program utilizing RHT program funds. Indiana engaged a broad network of rural residents, providers and provider organizations, community leaders, and state legislators to shape the vision and priorities of grow through extensive collaboration and feedback. Purpose and project goals grow expands indiana's make indiana healthy again initiatives and seeks to invest $1B over a 5-year period to catalyze innovative and sustainable solutions to drive healthier outcomes for indiana's rural residents. Grow is fully aligned with the five CMS strategic goals with 12 target initiatives, which balance statewide efforts with regionally designed projects led by local networks of providers and community leaders. CMS goal* investments and target outcomes** 1. Sustainable access (6% of total funding) enable rural providers to serve as lasting access points for care and improving overall care coordination to address existing low patient volumes and hospital transfer barriers by establishing a statewide medical organizations coordination center (1) and enhancing indiana 211 to support closed-loop referrals (2) 2. Tech innovation (7% of total funding) enhance technology infrastructure and digital connectivity across rural health systems to address gaps in secure data exchange and improve patient outcomes by strengthening interoperability networks connecting rural facilities (3) 3. Innovative care (10% of total funding) promote patient-centered models of care to address access barriers to preventive and post-acute services by enhancing pediatric and obstetric readiness in emergency departments (4), advancing cardiometabolic care standards (5), improving timely access to prescription medications (6), and strengthening tele-consult (7) and telehealth (8) capacities among rural facilities 4. Workforce development (10% of total funding) grow the paraprofessional, physician, and behavioral health workforce to address longstanding and prevalent workforce shortages in rural areas by investing in early career pipelines (9 and 11), removing credentialing and training barriers for community health workers and peers (9), and funding physician stipends and rural preceptorships to incentivize rural practice (10) 5. Make rural america healthy again catalyze targeted local rural health innovation by addressing community-specific challenges with community-specific solutions through the make rural indiana healthy again regional grants (12), which will be awarded to regional coalitions through a competitive application process to drive outcomes-driven initiatives and strengthen collaboration among healthcare and community partners (60% of total funding) *overall administrative costs and indirect costs make up the remaining portion of total funding. ** numbers in parentheses indicate which of indiana's 12 initiatives each activity corresponds to. Looking ahead to the next five years, indiana will continue to collaborate with key stakeholders and experienced partners throughout the implementation of these initiatives to ensure rural perspectives remain central across all phases of these efforts. Indiana will also hold regular advisory meetings to ensure ongoing accountability and responsiveness to feedback.