The Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP), codified in statute by H.R. 1 on July 4, 2025, is a $50 billion rural health funding opportunity over five years. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) awarded all 50 states funding through RHTP to advance five strategic goals:
- Make Rural America Healthy Again
- Sustainable Access
- Workforce Development
- Innovative Care
- Tech Innovation (including remote care, specifically)
As Year 1 draws to a close, states are still advancing RHTP and state policy action, releasing procurement opportunities, and announcing funding decisions. Based on program narratives and procurement, nearly all 50 states included remote monitoring in RHTP and many indicated a desire to fund provider contracts with a vendor to set up scalable, efficient, sustainable remote monitoring programs for rural patients who need chronic care treatment and management most. States are using remote monitoring to improve clinician efficiency, address workforce shortages, transition to value-based models of care, and sustain the impact of this transformational funding opportunity past the five-year program period.
Many (if not most) of these rural providers will not have the capacity or funding to stand up in-house remote monitoring programs. If the CY2027 Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) is finalized as proposed this year, the investments in remote monitoring infrastructure would be unsustainable, given a lack of Medicare reimbursement for the services and outcomes the funding is designed to enable. If rural hospitals cannot use vendors to deploy the remote monitoring that patients need, the state may not be able to meet its RHTP goals, leading to CMS clawbacks and a decrease in funding to the state in future years. CMS is potentially jeopardizing the state’s RHTP dollars with this proposal.
Below is a chart of each state’s remote monitoring investments based on program and budget narratives and procurement activities. There are two main columns:
- Remote Monitoring Funding Amount: Specific funding opportunities for remote monitoring infrastructure exclusively (or nearly exclusively, if the procurement includes other remote care supports)
- Technology/Relevant Funding Amount: More general funding opportunities that define remote monitoring as an allowable use of funds
Based on our analysis of first year funding, 22 states have announced or awarded about $240 million in remote monitoring-specific funding. Similarly, 35 states have announced specific dollar figures for opportunities that may fund remote monitoring, totaling over $2.4 billion.
See below for a chart outlining RHTP investments in RPM or click here for a downloadable PDF.
Contact: Katie Vinson
kvinson@connectwithcare.org