About $40 million in grant funding is now available to hospitals, clinics and other health care providers in Wisconsin, through a federal initiative meant to bolster health care in rural communities.
The funding is part of a larger $203.7 million that Wisconsin was awarded for the first year of the federal initiative, called the Rural Health Transformation Program.
The program is a five-year initiative established by President Donald Trump’s signature legislation, known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” signed into law last July. It was created to assuage bipartisan concerns about sweeping Medicaid cuts made by the law and their impact on rural hospitals.
“This funding will make a real difference in our rural communities,” Wisconsin Department of Health Services Secretary-designee Kirsten Johnson said in a June 15 news release. “We want to transform health care for people who live and work in rural Wisconsin and encourage everyone eligible to apply for these opportunities.”
The state Department of Health Services is making the $40 million available through three separate grants, each with their own focus. One will support training and hiring of community health workers, who serve as liaisons between residents and health care providers and help improve access to health services. While other states may bill Medicaid for services provided by community health workers, they are not covered in Wisconsin.
Another will help dental care providers pay for technology upgrades that make their dental practices more efficient, in the hopes of reducing appointment times and increasing the number of patients they serve.
The final grant will support care coordination, or partnerships between health care providers, in rural areas. An example of a project funded by the grant could be a small hospital partnering with a mental health provider and a school district to expand school-based counseling, according to the state health department.
“We were really trying to think strategically about how do we invest in a meaningfully way in rural communities that will be sustained, and this is where we landed,” Johnson said during an event held last week by Wisconsin Health News.
The state defined “rural” broadly and excluded only Milwaukee from the counties defined as “rural” or “semi-rural.” If a health care organization is based in an urban area but serves a rural community, it still may apply for funding, Johnson said.
Wisconsin officials are under a tight timeline to spend the first year of funding. Under the federal program, the funds must be obligated, or promised, to grantees by Oct. 30.
Wisconsin officials have asked for $1 billion over the five-year life of the program. They expect to receive another $200 million in the second year.
The state plans to spend the money on initiatives focused on:
The state’s original proposal included plans to spend $127 million on workforce readiness, such as health care career pathway programs in high schools, replicating successful programs like UW-Madison’s rural track for obstetrician-gynecologist residents and funding a new rural residency program at Marquette University’s School of Dentistry.
They also proposed launching the Wisconsin Psychiatry Extension, or WISCOPE, a mental health consultation program modeled after a program for children. It would allow doctors and nurses across the state access to psychiatric consultation, often over the phone or by email.
Under another initiative, rural clinics, health departments and other small providers will have access to a shared electronic health record system purchased by the state. That will allow some providers to move from paper medical records to electronic ones and others to upgrade to a more sophisticated system.
Reporter Madeline Heim, of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, contributed to this report.
Reporter Sarah Volpenhein can be reached at svolpenhei@usatodayco.com or 414-607-2159.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin is offering $40 million for rural health care, part of Trump’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’
Reporting by Sarah Volpenhein, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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By Sarah Volpenhein, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | USA TODAY Network
