Colorado rural health transformation program - colorado is dedicated to ensuring our rural residents have ready access to the same high quality, multimodal, affordable health care as their urban…

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services awarded the State of Colorado Department of Health Care Policy & Financing a cooperative agreement totaling $600.316 million on December 29, 2025, under the Rural Health Transformation Program (CFDA 93.798).

The award funds Colorado's statewide rural health transformation initiative, which provides rural hospitals and clinics with resources to reduce chronic disease, invests in telehealth, mobile health tools, monitoring equipment, and shared data systems to improve patient outcomes, and recruits and retains local providers including physicians, nurses, paramedics, and behavioral health professionals through streamlined credentialing and cross-training. The program strengthens access to essential services—primary care, wellness, emergency, behavioral health, and maternity care—in rural communities and transforms innovative care models to meet rural community needs while providing sustainability and lasting infrastructure. The initiative also brings together physical, behavioral, and public health services alongside schools and local businesses to improve outcomes and affordability for rural Coloradans.

Performance runs through October 30, 2030, with all work performed in Colorado. The program operates at a 2.98% administrative rate. This is a one-time funding allocation with no renewals or extensions available under the statute.

Colorado rural health transformation program - colorado is dedicated to ensuring our rural residents have ready access to the same high quality, multimodal, affordable health care as their urban counterparts. The colorado rural health transformation program (RHTP) is the lynchpin by which we can ensure that vision becomes reality. By strengthening private-public partnerships, increasing access, modernizing delivery, and focusing on chronic disease prevention we can advance the future of health care in our uniquely rural and frontier communities. Working closely with rural hospitals, rural clinics, and local community organizations, RHTP can help these communities take charge of their own health: preventing chronic disease, improving access to vital services, and supporting rural providers. RHTP will support and strengthen colorado's community-driven initiatives, keeping care local and administering the program at a low 2.98%. RHTP funding will: -provide rural hospitals and clinics with resources to help communities get and stay healthy to reduce chronic disease. -invest in telehealth, mobile health tools and monitoring, equipment and shared data systems to connect and improve outcomes for patients. -recruit and keep local providers including but not limited to physicians, nurses, paramedics, local education partnerships, and behavioral health professionals, through streamlined credentialing processes, cross-training, and assessing and supporting workforce needs. -bring together physical, behavioral, public health, schools, and local businesses to partner to improve outcomes and affordability for rural coloradans. -strengthen access to care, ensuring that rural coloradans have essential services including primary care, wellness, emergency, behavioral health, and maternity care services in rural communities. -transform innovative care models to meet rural community needs while providing sustainability, affordability and lasting infrastructure. Expected impact with the investment of RHTP, 2031 looks bright in both colorado's rural plains and mountain communities. Colorado's RHTP will leave a lasting legacy: a sustainable, efficient, and robust rural health system worthy of the people IT serves.