Rural Health Fund Brings Opportunity, but Preparation Is Key: Laxmi Patel

The $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program promises to support digital infrastructure, workforce development, and access improvements in rural communities. Laxmi Patel, chief strategy officer at Savista, cautions that hospitals cannot rely on the fund alone to solve the challenges posed by upcoming Medicaid reforms.

In this interview, she advises health care leaders to begin preparing now by documenting baseline data, drafting pilot ideas such as telehealth hubs or mobile clinics, and aligning leadership on strategy. Patel adds that building logic models to demonstrate how investments translate into outcomes like access, equity, and financial sustainability will be critical for making the most of the opportunity.

This transcript has been lightly edited; captions were auto-generated. Note: this interview was conducted prior to the official launch of the Rural Health Transformation Program. To read more about the initiative and application deadlines, click here.

Transcript

How might the $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program influence how rural hospitals navigate these Medicaid policy changes?

The fund in itself has 3 ultimate goals: its digital infrastructure and telehealth, workforce deployment, and access to improvements in rural markets.

It's stated that the fund will be competitive and will be tied to performance. The implementation specifics—deadlines, forms, metrics, and how to really enroll and qualify—haven't been defined yet. So, we don't really know what the outcome is going to be or how to engage, but I think organizations can start prepping by making sure their systems and processes are in place right now.

Documenting baseline data, payer mix trends, tech deficits, and access gaps; drafting pilot ideas or transformation plans such as telehealth hubs if they don't have them, mobile clinics, and regional financial navigation platforms. Start to think about where that transformation can help support making sure there's internal stakeholder alignment.

Don't wait until you're filling out the application to get alignment at the leadership level—have those conversations ahead of time and understand what the strategy is. And then really start to prepare some high-level logic models that show how some of this investment can translate into the outcome that the bill is supposed to have, whether it's access, equity, or the financial viability of improvements.

What can hospitals do to prevent burnout among health care workers as they prepare for the increased workload from Medicaid policy changes?

I think the best way is really being honest with their capabilities and the barriers that the organization may have. It's okay to say, "I'm not going to be able to take on this burden or have the skill set to really know how to do this effectively and efficiently." Get vendor partners in place now that can take on this scale or size and be honest with those capabilities if you don't have them. If you know you can take it on, plan now.

Do not wait until October of 2026, when some of this stuff goes into effect, to go, "Oh, what do I do?" We have a year. Use that year in an effective way, whether it's technology investment, it's process redesign, or it's really just finding a partner that can take this off your plate and not be something you have to worry about, so then you can focus on other things like maintaining care for the patients.