Nebraska has awarded roughly half of $218M in funds allotted for first year of rural health program

LINCOLN  — Nebraska so far has awarded nearly $100 million of its $218.5 million first-year allotment from a federal grant program aimed at filling healthcare gaps in rural communities.

Ashley Newmyer, director of public health for the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, said Friday that puts the state in a “good spot” in its overall implementation of the Rural Health Transformation Program. 

“We’re showing excellent progress compared to other states,” Newmyer said. “I feel good about where we’re headed.” 

Previously — and since December when the feds announced how much each state would get for its first year of a five-year RHTP rollout — Nebraska had not provided a tally of grants awarded. 

Nebraska secured the eighth-highest funding amount among the 50 states in that initial allocation round by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. First year grants are to be awarded by Oct. 31, Newmyer said.

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Newmyer spoke to the Nebraska Examiner a day after the state on Thursday publicly released its “RHTP dashboard” tool aimed at providing Nebraskans with information on the program’s progress and where resources are going.

The dashboard reflected funding awarded through July 7, so already was outdated. In the few weeks since, Nebraska went from having granted about $41 million statewide to $97.7 million, according to DHHS. The dashboard is to be updated monthly.

The “community health worker infrastructure” is an example of an effort bolstered by the federal grant funding, said Sara Morgan, deputy director of health promotion and prevention. That can involve local health departments hiring trusted community members to conduct home visits to help chronically ill people, essentially educating and ensuring that they keep up with care needed to thrive. Such jobs are more entry level positions that call for on-the-job training but not clinical degrees. 

“A big part of rural health transformation is helping Nebraskans keep care local,” Newmyer said. “We want to make sure that people have ready access to the care they need and we recognize we do have some shortage areas across the state.” 

In all, $50 billion in the rural health program was authorized under the mega tax and spending cut package President Donald Trump signed into law last July. That total is to be distributed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services ($10 billion annually through fiscal year 2030) among states to help offset harm to rural areas due to sweeping cuts to Medicaid, the state-federal public health insurance for people with low incomes.

Half of the program funding is to be allocated evenly across states. The other half is to be doled out based on several factors, including a state’s rural population and policy actions.

Nebraska DHHS materials call the RHTP a “once-in-a-generation opportunity to modernize rural health care and make it more sustainable.”

DHHS described the dashboard as a step toward more “transparency and responsible stewardship” in how the state invests in health. Results can be filtered by geographic location. 

A feature DHHS health data expert Felicia Quintana-Zinn describes as one of the “coolest” allows a user to zoom in on their address and see nearby healthcare services. It provides drive times, in increments of 30, 60 and 90 minutes, to access various healthcare resources such as a birthing hospital or dentist.

The drive time or travel function also shines light on underserved areas. 

As such information is updated, Quintana-Zinn said, the dashboard will help showcase “how access to healthcare is changing over time with the work we are doing under the RHTP.”