Idaho medical providers may get their first bite at grants funded by the federal Rural Health Transformation Program as early as next week.
State health officials said Thursday they just need a legislative committee to sign off on the first round of proposals, which will focus on boosting maternal and child health in rural Idaho.
The money comes from the more than $185 million Idaho got for its first year as part of the federal Rural Health Transformation Program, passed last summer in the One Big Beautiful Bill.
The state health department says it’s also ready to solicit bids for analysis and compliance contractors to prop up the program over the next five years.
Kate Sapra, the acting director for the federal program, says these kinds of criteria are what her office will use when awarding states the next round of funding come October.
“There’s the potential for some hard conversations. Right now, there’s been a lot of excitement about the promise of RHTP and in October, there are going to be states getting their second award and it could be less than what they got in the first year,” Sapra said.
She said she understands it’s been a tight timeline for states in this first year, which is why more results-focused funding will be delayed until the final three years.
“Have the states been able to achieve concrete milestones in the implementation? What metrics have they been able to hit in terms of those health outcomes?”
If Idaho meets these federal benchmarks in the future, it could receive nearly $1 billion over the five years of the program.
State health officials are hoping to make further grants available later this year for chronic disease prevention and mental health support.
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