For a family in a remote county, a routine follow-up can mean taking unpaid time off, arranging childcare, and driving several hours to reach the nearest specialist or clinic. For rural providers, that same appointment can mean limited exam-room capacity, clinician shortages, and a difficult choice between referring a patient elsewhere or delaying care. Healthcare access solutions for rural America must address both sides of that equation: bringing clinically meaningful care closer to patients while helping local organizations use their workforce and resources more effectively.

Video visits alone can reduce travel, but they do not always give a clinician the information needed to make a confident decision. Rural access improves most when virtual care is designed as a connected clinical model, with virtual physical exams, remote patient monitoring, care coordination, and caregiver participation working together.

Why Rural Access Is a Clinical and Operational Challenge

Distance is only one barrier. Rural health clinics, critical access hospitals, federally qualified health centers, and community health centers often manage broad patient needs with fewer specialists, smaller care teams, and less redundancy when a clinician is unavailable. Patients may also face unreliable transportation, limited broadband, cost concerns, language barriers, or a lack of local services for behavioral health, pediatrics, and chronic disease management.

These pressures affect continuity. A child with asthma may miss a follow-up because the pediatric specialist is hours away. An older adult with heart failure may wait until symptoms become severe because an in-person check feels difficult to arrange. A patient discharged from a hospital may struggle to receive timely post-discharge monitoring. The result can be missed preventive care, delayed intervention, unnecessary emergency department utilization, and more burden on caregivers.

The answer is not to replace every in-person encounter. Some conditions require hands-on examination, diagnostic imaging, procedures, or immediate escalation. The practical goal is to determine which encounters can be safely supported beyond the traditional exam room and to give clinicians the data, workflows, and escalation pathways to act appropriately.

Healthcare Access Solutions for Rural America Need More Than Video

A connected-care strategy begins with a simple clinical question: what information does the provider need to assess this patient remotely? For many common use cases, a video conversation provides context but not enough objective data. Clinicians may need vital signs, heart and lung sounds, images of the ear or throat, pulse oximetry, or other clinically relevant findings to guide treatment and decide whether an in-person visit is necessary.

Device-enabled virtual examination expands what can happen during a remote encounter. A trained staff member, caregiver, school health professional, or patient support person can help capture data under clinician direction, depending on the care setting and workflow. This approach can support timely triage, follow-up, and care planning while keeping the local care team connected to the patient.

Remote patient monitoring adds another layer for patients who need observation between visits. Chronic conditions do not follow office schedules. Monitoring programs can help care teams identify concerning trends, reinforce treatment plans, and engage patients before a manageable issue becomes a crisis. Yet monitoring should never become a stream of unmanaged data. Programs need defined clinical protocols, appropriate staffing, patient education, documentation processes, and clear rules for when to contact the patient or escalate care.

A technology platform is valuable only when it fits the organization’s clinical model. Rural organizations should prioritize tools that support actionable assessments, integrate with care coordination processes, and allow pathways to be tailored by population, condition, and setting.

Pediatric Care Benefits From Familiar Settings

Pediatric access illustrates why location matters. A child may be more comfortable participating in an examination from home, school, a pediatric practice, or a community clinic than from an unfamiliar specialty office far from home. This can be especially meaningful for autistic children and pediatric patients with special healthcare needs, for whom travel, waiting rooms, and unfamiliar environments may create significant stress.

Care delivered closer to the child can also improve caregiver participation. Parents and guardians are often the people who observe symptom changes, manage medications, and coordinate appointments. When they can join a clinician-directed virtual visit without losing an entire day to travel, the conversation may be more complete and follow-up instructions more feasible.

This does not mean every pediatric visit is appropriate for virtual delivery. New or severe symptoms, a need for procedures, or findings that cannot be adequately assessed remotely should lead to in-person evaluation. The advantage is that a well-equipped virtual encounter can help a clinician make that determination sooner, with more information than a basic video call provides.

Build a Rural Care Model Around Workflows, Not Devices

Successful deployment requires operational discipline. Organizations often begin with the technology question, but the more useful starting point is the care pathway. Which patients have the greatest travel burden? Which referrals create the longest delays? Where are clinicians making decisions with incomplete information? Which post-discharge or chronic care populations need more consistent touchpoints?

From there, leaders can define who initiates visits, who assists the patient, which data are collected, where results are documented, and how a remote clinician communicates recommendations back to the local team. The workflow may look different in a school-based program than in a rural clinic or critical access hospital. Flexibility is a requirement, not a bonus.

Training deserves the same attention as hardware and software. Staff and caregivers need confidence using connected examination tools, preparing patients, troubleshooting basic issues, and knowing when a technical limitation affects clinical quality. Clinicians need protocols that clarify the boundaries of virtual assessment. Clear responsibilities reduce friction and help prevent virtual care from becoming an added burden on already stretched teams.

Connectivity remains a real constraint in some communities. Programs should account for varying bandwidth, cellular coverage, device availability, and digital literacy. A solution that performs well in a central office but fails in a patient’s home is not an access solution. Care models should include practical alternatives, such as community-based access points, assisted encounters, and asynchronous outreach when clinically appropriate.

Make Financial Sustainability Part of the Design

Rural virtual care programs need a financial model as well as a clinical rationale. Reimbursement rules vary by service, payer, patient location, provider type, and the documentation supporting the encounter. CMS reimbursement pathways for remote patient monitoring, chronic care management, and certain telehealth services can support eligible programs, but organizations should evaluate requirements carefully rather than assuming every virtual interaction is billable.

A reimbursement-aware deployment considers consent, time tracking where applicable, documentation, eligible practitioners, device requirements, and supervision or staffing rules. It also considers value that may not appear directly on a claim: reduced patient travel, improved appointment adherence, better care transitions, expanded specialist reach, and fewer avoidable escalations.

For safety-net and rural organizations, grants and rural health transformation initiatives can help launch new care capabilities. Long-term sustainability, however, depends on embedding those capabilities into daily operations. The strongest programs measure both clinical and operational outcomes, including completed follow-ups, time to specialist input, patient experience, staff workload, monitoring adherence, and avoidable utilization.

A Connected Circle of Care

Rural access is strongest when the patient is not left to navigate the system alone. The Circle of Care™ model recognizes that effective care can involve the remote clinician, local provider, nurse, care coordinator, caregiver, school personnel, and community-based support team. Each participant needs appropriate access to information and a clear role in the care plan.

Dr. Miltie supports this model with the N9+, a mobile wireless virtual examination and patient monitoring system designed to help organizations conduct clinician-directed remote assessments and extend care beyond conventional settings. The value is not simply a connected device. It is the ability to create customized pathways that bring examination data, monitoring, patient engagement, and care coordination into a practical program for rural and community-based care.

Leaders evaluating a solution should ask whether it can support the populations they actually serve, whether it gives clinicians clinically useful information, and whether it can be implemented without creating parallel workflows that staff cannot sustain. Security, privacy, HIPAA-aligned practices, integration needs, training, and reimbursement readiness should be part of that evaluation from the beginning.

The future of rural care does not depend on making every patient interaction virtual. It depends on making distance less decisive. When clinicians can see, hear, assess, monitor, and coordinate care in the settings where patients live and learn, rural communities gain more than convenience: they gain a more responsive path to care when it matters.

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For a rural family, a routine follow-up can mean missed work, several hours on the road, arranging childcare, and weather-dependent travel. Technology innovations in rural healthcare can change that equation when they are built around clinical workflows rather than convenience alone. The goal is not to replace local care relationships with a video visit. It is to give rural clinicians, care teams, patients, and caregivers better ways to assess, monitor, coordinate, and act between in-person encounters.

Rural health organizations are managing a difficult balance. They need to expand access while working with limited staffing, long distances, inconsistent broadband, and patients who may have complex chronic, behavioral, or pediatric needs. The most valuable technologies address those constraints directly and create a practical extension of the care team.

Why Rural Care Needs More Than Video Visits

Video-based telehealth has made care more reachable for many communities, but conversation alone does not always provide enough clinical information to guide a decision. A provider evaluating a child with respiratory symptoms, an older adult with heart failure, or a patient whose blood pressure is uncontrolled may need more than a visual check-in. They may need reliable examination findings, vital signs, symptom trends, and a clear route for escalation.

That distinction matters in rural settings, where the next available in-person appointment may be far away. Technology must help clinicians determine which patients can be safely supported at home or in a community setting, which need an urgent in-person evaluation, and which require a higher level of care. A virtual care program that simply adds another appointment channel can create fragmentation. A connected-care program can improve continuity.

The shift from access to clinical capability

The strongest rural health strategies combine access with clinical capability. This means providing patients with tools that capture clinically relevant data, giving clinicians a way to perform virtual physical exams when appropriate, and connecting those findings to established workflows for documentation, care coordination, and follow-up.

It also means designing around the people who make rural care work: nurses, medical assistants, community health workers, school staff, home health personnel, caregivers, and local clinicians. Technology should clarify their roles rather than add a disconnected set of tasks.

Technology Innovations in Rural Healthcare That Matter

Several technology categories are shaping rural care delivery. Their impact depends less on novelty than on whether they solve a defined clinical and operational problem.

Device-enabled virtual examinations

Connected examination devices allow a clinician to obtain more actionable information during a virtual encounter. Depending on the deployment, this can include measurements and assessments that supplement a video visit and support a more informed clinical decision.

For rural clinics, critical access hospitals, school-based programs, and community health centers, this capability can extend the reach of a clinician into locations where patients already are. A trained staff member or caregiver can support the encounter while the clinician guides the assessment remotely. This can be particularly meaningful for pediatric patients who are more comfortable at home, in school, or in a familiar community clinic.

The trade-off is clear: devices alone do not create a clinical service. Organizations need protocols that define appropriate use, staff training, device cleaning and logistics, documentation requirements, and escalation pathways. Remote examination is most effective when it augments a clinician-directed model of care.

Remote patient monitoring for chronic conditions

Remote patient monitoring can give care teams a fuller view of a patient’s condition between appointments. For patients managing hypertension, diabetes, heart failure, chronic respiratory disease, or other ongoing conditions, home-collected data can identify concerning trends earlier and support more timely outreach.

In rural communities, this can reduce unnecessary travel while helping teams prioritize patients who need attention. A sustained rise in blood pressure, a change in weight, or worsening symptom responses may prompt a nurse call, medication review, virtual visit, or in-person referral before the issue becomes an avoidable emergency.

However, remote patient monitoring is not a passive data collection exercise. Programs need clear enrollment criteria, clinical thresholds, response expectations, and staffing capacity. Too many unprioritized alerts can burden already stretched teams. The right model focuses on actionable data and assigns responsibility for reviewing it.

Care coordination platforms and customized pathways

Rural patients frequently receive care across multiple settings: a rural health clinic, hospital, specialist office, school, home health agency, or community program. Without a coordinated process, the patient and caregiver may become the only link between those settings.

Care coordination technology can organize communications, follow-up activities, patient education, and task ownership around a customized pathway of care. This is especially useful after hospital discharge, during chronic care management, and when a child has special healthcare needs involving several providers.

A pathway should not be a rigid script. Some communities have local transportation barriers, language needs, workforce limitations, or different referral patterns that require adaptation. The right platform supports standardization where it protects quality, while allowing workflows to reflect local realities.

Pediatric and caregiver-centered virtual care

Pediatric rural care has distinct requirements. Children depend on caregivers to manage appointments, devices, symptoms, and follow-up. For autistic children and pediatric patients with special healthcare needs, unfamiliar clinical environments, long travel, and disrupted routines can create significant stress.

Care delivered in a familiar setting can reduce those barriers while giving caregivers a more active role in the encounter. A clinician can observe the child in a setting that may better reflect daily functioning, coach the caregiver through next steps, and coordinate with the broader care team. This approach is not suitable for every condition or every child, but it can make follow-up and monitoring more accessible for families who face repeated travel burdens.

Building an Operationally Sound Rural Virtual Care Program

Successful adoption begins with a use case, not a device purchase. Organizations should identify a patient population and a measurable gap in care. That might be delayed pediatric follow-up after discharge, limited specialist access, uncontrolled hypertension, avoidable emergency department utilization, or the distance between a school and the nearest clinic.

From there, clinical and operational leaders should determine where the encounter occurs, who supports the patient, what data the clinician needs, and what happens when findings require escalation. These choices shape staffing, training, device configuration, technology support, and documentation.

Design for reimbursement and compliance from the start

Financial sustainability should be part of program design, not an afterthought. Remote patient monitoring, chronic care management, virtual services, and care coordination may have different coverage and documentation requirements depending on payer, care setting, and patient eligibility. CMS reimbursement policies can support certain models, but organizations should validate the current rules and payer-specific requirements that apply to their programs.

HIPAA compliance also requires attention to more than the video platform. Organizations should evaluate how devices transmit data, where information is stored, who can access it, how patients are onboarded, and how staff manage privacy in homes, schools, and community sites. A compliant program is one that can be used consistently and confidently by the people delivering care.

Measure outcomes that reflect the real problem

Virtual care metrics should go beyond visit volume. Rural health leaders may track time to appointment, completed follow-ups, patient travel avoided, blood pressure control, readmissions, emergency department utilization, missed appointments, caregiver satisfaction, and clinician workload. The right measures depend on the use case.

Qualitative feedback is equally useful. If a nurse spends too much time troubleshooting, if caregivers struggle with onboarding, or if clinicians cannot easily find remote findings in the record, the workflow needs adjustment. Technology adoption improves when organizations treat implementation as an ongoing clinical improvement process.

A Connected Model Can Strengthen Local Care

The concern that virtual care will pull services away from rural communities is understandable. The better model does the opposite: it reinforces local care teams by giving them access to additional clinical capacity and information. A community health worker can support a patient at home. A school nurse can facilitate a clinically appropriate visit. A rural clinician can consult and coordinate without asking every patient to travel.

Dr. Miltie’s Circle of Care™ model reflects this approach by bringing clinician-directed virtual examinations, remote monitoring, care coordination, and caregiver participation into a connected pathway. For organizations serving rural and underserved populations, the value is not technology for its own sake. It is the ability to deliver more complete care in the settings where patients can realistically receive it.

Rural healthcare transformation will not come from a single platform or reimbursement code. It will come from practical models that respect local capacity, protect clinical standards, and make it easier for patients to stay connected to care. When technology is selected around those priorities, distance becomes less of a barrier and local care becomes more sustainable.

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A missed follow-up in a rural community is rarely just a missed appointment. It can mean a long drive, lost wages, limited caregiver availability, delayed treatment, or a patient deciding the trip is simply too difficult. Effective rural health clinic technology strategies address those realities by bringing clinically meaningful care closer to the patient, without separating technology decisions from clinical workflow, reimbursement, or trust.

For rural health clinics, the goal is not to add more platforms. It is to create a care model that helps a limited workforce serve more patients reliably, supports clinicians with actionable information, and gives families practical ways to participate in care. The most successful programs start with a defined access problem, then select technology that supports a measurable clinical and operational response.

Start With the Care Gap, Not the Technology

A virtual care program should solve a specific point of friction. For one clinic, that may be delayed access to primary care after hospital discharge. For another, it may be frequent travel for chronic disease follow-up, behavioral health access, pediatric specialty support, or gaps in preventive care.

This distinction matters because a video visit platform alone may be sufficient for a medication check, but it is not always enough when a clinician needs a remote physical assessment. Programs should identify which patient populations, visit types, and clinical decisions can safely be supported outside the exam room. They should also establish when an in-person evaluation, emergency referral, or escalation to another care setting is required.

A useful planning question is: What information does the care team lack today because the patient is not physically present? The answer may include vital signs, lung sounds, ear images, skin observations, weight trends, or adherence data. That answer should drive the technology selection and the workflow design.

Build Virtual Visits Around Clinical Evidence

Video conferencing supports connection, counseling, and visual observation. It does not, by itself, recreate the clinical information available during an exam. Rural clinics that want virtual care to carry more clinical weight should consider device-enabled virtual physical exams and remote patient monitoring as part of their model.

Connected exam tools can allow a clinician to direct a caregiver, school nurse, community health worker, or another trained facilitator through elements of an assessment while viewing or receiving relevant clinical data remotely. This can help clinicians make better-informed decisions about whether a patient can be treated locally, needs an in-person visit, or should be referred.

The appropriate level of technology depends on the use case. A clinic managing hypertension may prioritize validated blood pressure readings and trend review. A pediatric program may need tools that support more complete assessments while reducing the stress of travel and unfamiliar clinical settings. For children with autism or special healthcare needs, a home, school, or trusted community setting can improve caregiver participation and make follow-up more feasible.

Technology should extend clinician judgment, not attempt to replace it. Clinical protocols must define eligible conditions, documentation requirements, supervision expectations, and escalation pathways. That is especially critical when services are delivered across distributed settings.

Design for the people in the room

The care experience may involve more than the patient and provider. Parents, grandparents, school staff, home health personnel, care coordinators, and specialists can all contribute to a successful virtual visit. A well-designed program clarifies each person’s role before the appointment begins.

Caregivers need plain-language instructions, a reliable contact for technical support, and confidence that they will not be blamed if a connection fails. Staff need clear guidance on device preparation, consent, patient identity verification, and what to do when clinical findings require urgent action. The easier these steps are to follow, the more likely virtual care will become a dependable service rather than an occasional pilot.

Treat Connectivity as a Clinical Requirement

Broadband limitations remain a practical barrier in many rural regions. Clinics should not assume that every patient has high-speed internet, current devices, or a private place for a video visit. A strategy that works only for well-connected patients can unintentionally widen the access gap it was meant to address.

Programs should assess connectivity at the patient and community level. This may lead to a mix of home-based care, cellular-enabled devices, clinic-based virtual exam rooms, school-based access points, mobile outreach, and community partnerships. Audio-only communication may remain useful for selected interactions, although its clinical capabilities and reimbursement requirements differ from a device-supported virtual exam.

Reliability matters as much as reach. Build a fallback plan for dropped video connections, delayed device transmissions, and equipment replacement. If the clinical workflow stops whenever connectivity is imperfect, adoption will erode quickly among patients and staff.

Make Workflow and Reimbursement Part of the Same Plan

The technology purchase is usually the visible part of a virtual care initiative. The harder work is determining who enrolls patients, schedules follow-ups, reviews incoming data, documents the service, contacts patients when readings are concerning, and closes the loop with the primary care provider.

Remote patient monitoring and chronic care management can support continuity for patients with ongoing needs, but only if the clinic has defined staffing and response processes. A dashboard full of readings has little value if no one owns review, triage, and outreach. Organizations should set thresholds, assign coverage, and establish realistic expectations for response times.

Financial sustainability also requires early review of payer policies, CMS requirements, state-specific rules, and rural health clinic billing guidance. Reimbursement rules can vary by service, care setting, payer, practitioner, and the details of how care is delivered. A reimbursement-aware implementation team should include clinical leadership, operations, compliance, revenue cycle, and technology stakeholders before the program expands.

This is not simply a coding exercise. Documentation must support the care provided, reflect clinical decision-making, and fit naturally into the electronic health record workflow. When documentation is an afterthought, clinicians often experience virtual care as extra work rather than a better way to reach patients.

Prioritize Interoperability, Privacy, and Operational Fit

A rural clinic does not need another isolated portal that requires staff to manually copy information into the medical record. Before selecting a solution, leaders should evaluate how patient data will move, where it will be stored, who can access it, and how it will be documented and acted upon.

HIPAA compliance, role-based access, encryption, audit trails, device management, and business associate agreements are foundational. But operational fit deserves equal attention. Can the system support the clinic’s current staffing model? Can it be configured for pediatric, adult, and chronic care pathways? Can clinicians access the information they need without navigating multiple screens during a visit?

Interoperability may take time and technical investment, particularly for smaller organizations. Even when full integration is not immediately feasible, a clinic should have a deliberate plan for avoiding duplicate work, lost data, and fragmented communication.

Measure Access, Outcomes, and Staff Burden

Virtual care should be evaluated as a care delivery service, not only as a technology deployment. Early metrics should connect directly to the original care gap. Depending on the program, that may include appointment completion rates, time to follow-up, avoided travel, emergency department utilization, chronic disease measures, patient satisfaction, caregiver participation, or referrals completed.

Staff experience belongs on the scorecard as well. If nurses spend substantial time troubleshooting devices, reconciling data, or chasing patients who were never successfully onboarded, leadership needs to see that burden. The right response may be more training, simpler enrollment, a different workflow, or a narrower initial use case.

Start with a defined population and a manageable number of measures. Scale after the clinic can demonstrate that the model is clinically sound, financially supportable, and workable for patients and staff.

Create a Connected Circle of Care

The strongest rural care models do not position telehealth as a separate service line. They use it to connect the relationships already surrounding the patient: the rural health clinic, family caregivers, local schools, specialists, community organizations, and other members of the care team.

Dr. Miltie supports this approach through the Circle of Care™ model, combining device-enabled virtual exams, remote patient monitoring, customized care pathways, and implementation support designed around real-world clinical operations. For rural clinics, this type of connected-care approach can help turn distance from a barrier into a design consideration.

The next technology decision should not begin with a feature list. It should begin with one patient who is currently hard to reach, one care team that needs better visibility, and one clinical moment that should not depend on a long trip to an exam room.

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USDA is providing $43 million in new funds to rural healthcare providers, many of whom have earmarked the funds to implement and support telehealth services.

By Anuja Vaidya

April 19, 2022 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture is awarding $43 million to support rural healthcare providers amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and many plan to use the funds to expand telehealth capabilities.

The Emergency Rural Health Care Grants were made available through the American Rescue Plan Act. In total, $475 million in grants have been earmarked to support rural hospitals and providers. In this round of funding, $43 million will be provided to 93 rural healthcare organizations and community groups across 22 states.

“USDA used an all-hands-on-deck approach to create the Emergency Rural Health Care Grants program to address a variety of immediate healthcare needs and services in rural communities,” said USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack in the press release.

Several grant awardees plan to use the funds to implement and enhance telehealth services. For example, Neosho Memorial Regional Medical Center in Chanute, Kansas, which is receiving $434,300, plans to use some of the funds to purchase and install telehealth infrastructure and upgrade information systems.

Another provider organization, Appleton Area Health in Minnesota, is planning to use part of its $174,300 grant to upgrade its telemedicine capabilities and replace hospital equipment. It also plans to install 28 flat-panel television monitors with cameras in clinic exam rooms and patient rooms.

McAlester Regional Healthcare Authority in Oklahoma, which is slated to receive $71,300, will use part of the money to implement a telehealth program at McAlester Regional Hospital. The organization plans to purchase 127 computers and hire a trainer/coordinator.

In addition to telehealth, rural providers will use the funds to increase staffing to administer COVID-19 vaccines and testing, establish nutrition assistance programs, and build or renovate facilities.

The next round of Emergency Rural Health Care Grants funding will be announced later this year.

Research shows that people living in rural areas were less likely to use telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic, with some reporting lower telehealth availability than those who lived in urban areas.

One likely reason for this is the lack of access to broadband in many parts of the US. One estimate shows that at least 42 million Americans lacked access to terrestrial broadband internet in 2021.

Another probable reason for the lack of telehealth availability is that rural healthcare providers are in a precarious position, operationally and financially. Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, 21 hospitals have closed in the US, and 40 percent of rural hospital operating margins are in the red, according to The Chartis Center for Rural Health.

A viewpoint article published in JAMA Health Forum last year pointed out some hurdles to telehealth adoption among rural providers. The authors cited lack of adequate cash flow, low patient volumes, and the telehealth reimbursement structure among the barriers.

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UNITED STATES — The United States Department of Agriculture is making up to $500 million available in grants to help rural healthcare facilities, tribes and communities expand access to COVID-19 vaccines, healthcare services and nutrition assistance.

President Biden’s comprehensive plan to recover the economy and deliver relief to the American people is changing the course of the pandemic and providing immediate relief to millions of households, growing the economy and addressing the stark, intergenerational inequities that have worsened in the wake of COVID-19.

“Under the leadership of President Biden and Vice President Harris, USDA is playing a critical role to help rural America build back better and equitably as the nation continues to respond to the pandemic,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said. “Through the Emergency Rural Health Care Grants, USDA will help rural hospitals and local communities increase access to COVID-19 vaccines and testing, medical supplies, telehealth, and food assistance, and support the construction or renovation of rural healthcare facilities. These investments will also help improve the long-term viability of rural healthcare providers across the nation.”

Applicants may apply for two types of assistance: Recovery Grants and Impact Grants.

The Biden-Harris administration is making Recovery Grants available to help public bodies, nonprofit organizations and tribes provide immediate COVID-19 relief to support rural hospitals, healthcare clinics and local communities.

These funds may be used to increase COVID-19 vaccine distribution and telehealth capabilities; purchase medical supplies; replace revenue lost during the pandemic; build and rehabilitate temporary or permanent structures for healthcare services; support staffing needs for vaccine administration and testing; and support facility and operations expenses associated with food banks and food distribution facilities.

Recovery Grant applications will be accepted on a continual basis until funds are expended.  

The administration is also making Impact Grants available to help regional partnerships, public bodies, nonprofits and tribes solve regional rural healthcare problems and build a stronger, more sustainable rural healthcare system in response to the pandemic.

USDA encourages applicants to plan and implement strategies to: develop healthcare systems that offer a blend of behavioral care, primary care and other medical services; support healthcare as an anchor institution in small communities; and expand telehealth, electronic health data sharing, workforce development, transportation, paramedicine, obstetrics, behavioral health, farmworker healthcare and cooperative home care.

For Montana, Impact Grant applications must be submitted to the Montana USDA Rural Development State Office by 4 p.m. MDT on Oct. 12.

 USDA encourages potential applicants to review the application guide at www.rd.usda.gov/erhc. USDA Rural Development is prioritizing projects that will support key priorities under the Biden-Harris administration to help rural America build back better and stronger. Key priorities include combatting the COVID-19 pandemic; addressing the impacts of climate change; and advancing equity in rural America. For more information, visit www.rd.usda.gov/priority-points.

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Track One: Recovery Grants

Track One: Recovery funds must be used in correlation with the COVID-19 pandemic, and to support immediate health care needs, to help prepare for a future pandemic event, to increase access to quality health care services, or to support food assistance through food banks and food distribution facilities.

Grants range from $25,000 – $1 million. Grant funds are limited to an applicable percentage of eligible project costs (up to 75 percent) based on population and the median household income of the population served.

USDA anticipates providing about $350 million in Track One: Recovery funding.

Applicants may request assistance for one or more of the categories below for expenses incurred on or after March 13, 2020. Funds must be used to:

• Increase capacity for vaccine distribution
• Provide medical supplies and equipment to increase medical surge capacity
• Reimburse for health care-related lost revenue used to maintain capacity during the coronavirus pandemic
• Increase telehealth capabilities, including underlying healthcare information systems
• Construct temporary or permanent structures to provide health care services
• Support staffing needs for testing or vaccine administration
• Support facilities, equipment, and operating expenses associated with food banks and food distribution facilities.

To Apply:

Contact your local Rural Development office (a list is available at this link: https://www.rd.usda.gov/about-rd/state-offices) to discuss and submit your application.

Each Rural Development state office will conduct a review, rating, and selection from complete applications received by 4 p.m. local time on October 12, 2021. USDA will continue to accept Track One: Recovery Grant applications on a continual basis after October 12, 2021 until all funds are exhausted.

Resources

• Track One Application Guide
• Track One Checklist

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