Rural Health Transformation Program

Rhode Island’s rural communities face unique challenges, including limited access to care, workforce shortages, transportation barriers, and persistent health disparities.

While Rhode Island is the smallest state, rural health disparities affect thousands of residents.

Federally Designated Rural Areas: New Shoreham (Block Island); Westerly

Rhode Island-Specific Rural Definition:

• Developed by the Office of Primary Care and Rural Health and approved by the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy to guide administration of the State Offices of Rural Health Program.
• Identifies 18 Rhode Island towns as having rural health challenges, including:
  • Limited access to providers
  • Transportation barriers
  • Higher rates of chronic disease
  • Reduced access to behavioral health and specialty care
• View Rhode Island’s current rural health definition.

Rhode Island’s vision for Rural Health Transformation is to build a connected, community-driven system that ensures every rural resident has timely, coordinated, high-quality care close to home. To achieve this vision, the state centered its proposal around the following goals and strategies:

Goal 1: Make Rural America Healthy Again – Improve the Health of Rural Residents
Advance coordinated, community-based population health strategies to address chronic disease, behavioral health, substance use, maternal and child health, oral health, and other root causes to improve outcomes for rural Rhode Islanders.

Goal 2: Sustainable Access – Expand Access to Comprehensive, Quality, Low-Cost Care
Increase local access points for urgent, primary, behavioral, and specialty care services—beyond clinics and hospitals—reaching rural residents where they live, work, and gather, such as schools, libraries, community centers, and even their homes.

Goal 3: Workforce Development – Strengthen the Rural Health Care Workforce
Build and expand workforce efforts through rural training opportunities, providing incentives for providers to practice in rural communities, enhancing partnerships with educational institutions to build training capacity, and supporting individuals at all stages of their health care careers.

Goal 4: Innovative Care – Accelerate Value-Based and Affordable Care Models
Advance comprehensive primary care transformation and support hospitals and practices in transitioning to alternative payment models through incentives, technical assistance, and clinical and operational infrastructure.

Goal 5: Tech Innovation – Integrate Technology into Rural Practice
Strengthen health information technology through cost-effective, secure, and interoperable systems to expand remote care, improve data sharing and cybersecurity, and explore responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI).

• Project narrative
• Application summary
• Letter of endorsement from Governor McKee
• Letters of support