Kansas

Kansas's award totals $221,890,000, 100 percent funded by CMS/HHS as its share of the federal $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program. The Rural Health Transformation Program is a five-year CMS cooperative agreement, and Kansas's approved initial Budget Period 1 runs Dec. 31, 2025 through Oct. 30, 2026 — a compressed 10-month Year 1 in which the state is racing to obligate roughly $221M before that October deadline, with the remaining years funded through annual CMS budget periods.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) is the lead agency and CMS awardee, with program questions routed to kdhe.primarycare@ks.gov. KDHE runs many grant programs directly, but has also delegated significant pieces to partners: Healthworks (a nonprofit housed at the KHA Foundation) is running the state's finance-and-revenue and credentialing RFPs, the University of Kansas Health System Care Collaborative operates the Evidence-Based Practice Program, and the Kansas Health Institute facilitates the Emerging Technology Committee.

Kansas's dominant thrust is the financial survival of rural hospitals — revenue cycle, denied-claims recovery, CFO capacity and centralized credentialing — rather than new clinical programs alone. Alongside that finance backbone, the plan funds regional partnerships, Rural Emergency Hospital conversion and capital investment, workforce (loan repayment), evidence-based practice infrastructure, community health workers paired with food-as-medicine, and a technology track aiming by 2031 for universal remote patient monitoring, seamless telehealth, and secure AI adoption across rural providers.

Kansas has already put roughly $79.1M on the street across two flagship programs plus a string of targeted grants:

• Regional Partnerships Grant Program (RPGP) — ~$50M to 22 recipients (KDHE reallocated an extra $20M after demand ran ~5x supply).
• REH Conversion / Transformative Capital Investment (REH/CAP) — ~$31.3M to 18 providers.
• Emerging Technology Program — $9.5M to 5–10 providers for scaling proven patient-facing tech, including AI.
• CHW + Accountable Food is Medicine — $1,029,405 for ~7 rural clinics.
• Interfacility Transport Project — $870,958.97 for 1–2 awards.

Loan Repayment, Facility Modernization and Mental Health are core project tags; the full breakdown is in the state's approved budget narrative.

Kansas has been one of the most active states in the country. Recent finance-and-revenue solicitations run by Healthworks include the Revenue Technical Support Organization (RTSO) umbrella, CFO Mentoring & Financial Leadership Support, a Revenue Support Program, and an All-Payers Scorecard Program, plus a Centralized Verification Organization (CVO) RFP for the statewide credentialing pilot. On the KDHE side, the Interfacility Transport Project RFA and the Emerging Technology RFA have run, following the RPGP, REH/CAP, CHW+AFIM and Evidence-Based Practice solicitations. Every dated dispatch covering Kansas is listed below, newest first, and it carries the running procurement record.

The finance-RFP cluster carried compressed end-of-July deadlines — CFO Mentoring due July 29, the Revenue Support Program July 30, and the All-Payers Scorecard and the Interfacility Transport RFA both July 31 — with the Healthworks CVO RFP proposals due August 4 and IFTp awards anticipated on or around August 28. CMS officials are scheduled for a Kansas site visit September 22–23, 2026, and the Year 2 budget and Year 1 annual report are due to CMS in August. Because Year 1 dollars must be obligated by October 30, 2026, deadlines are tight; live dates surface first in the dated dispatches below and on the KDHE RHTP page.

The Rural Health Transformation Program was created by Section 71401 of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (2025) and is administered federally by CMS. In Kansas, the award is administered through KDHE under its CMS-approved budget narrative. State oversight runs through House Bill 2555, under which KDHE files monthly expenditure updates to the State Finance Council and the Legislative Budget Committee.

Eligibility runs on two tracks. Direct-to-state contracts go out as competitive RFPs — the finance, revenue-cycle, credentialing (CVO), data and technology procurements — where firms bid as prime contractors (several are administered through Healthworks/KHA Foundation). Subgrants and subawards flow to rural Kansas providers — FQHCs and FQHC look-alikes, Rural Health Clinics, hospitals, local health departments, Tribal health facilities, CCBHCs and primary care clinics — and it is here that technology vendors and consultants most often engage as subcontractors or implementation partners. Applicants for subawards must hold a UEI, FEIN and a Kansas SMART Vendor ID.

Track opportunities on the KDHE RHTP hub and its open funding opportunities, and join the RHTP application-update mailing list to be first to see new solicitations.

KDHE Rural Health Transformation Program →