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Recently, Gov. Reynolds submitted Iowa’s application for federal funding from the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) for the Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP). Iowa’s application totals $1 billion over five years.
The application can be found here: https://hhs.iowa.gov/media/17491/download?inline=&utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery .
Iowa’s plan is titled Healthy Hometowns and has five initiatives:
Iowa’s RHTP application builds on the work of the legislature this session in House File 972 that created a funding model to establish regional collaboration between health care providers in rural areas, known as a hub-and-spoke model. Additionally, the legislature has invested funds since 2023 into these Centers of Excellence grants to create hubs of health care access for specialties like maternal health. This RHTP application puts all that work on super drive investing $100 million into new or expanded Centers of Excellence throughout Iowa.
The application also makes significant investments in cancer prevention and treatment in the state. This session the legislature began funding radon test kits, and this application builds on that by funding 30,000 radon tests annually and subsidizing mitigation for 500 rural homes per year to combat lung cancer rates in rural Iowa.
Additionally, among many rural health care investments in workforce and technology, this application provides almost $45 million to expand access to EMS in rural areas. The EMS Community Care Mobile will provide mobile integrated health care units serving patients in their homes or at other community sites to avoid Emergency Department use and help with chronic conditions. This application also focuses on high-risk OB and neonatal transport utilizing telehealth to treat rural patients that are over 30 minutes from a birthing hospital.
Currently the federal government is reviewing all 50 state applications and will receive awards by Dec. 31, 2025. Iowa stands in a good position to receive the entire application funding based on the significant rural aspect of our state. 47.5% of Iowa’s population resides in rural areas, compared to only 17% of the total U.S. population.
This application is the largest strategic investment to improve rural health care access and the health of rural Iowans ever seen before.
Contact Megan Jones by email: megan.jones@legis.iowa.gov.
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