Six rural hospitals could each secure up to $2.5 million in federal dollars to cover capital improvements, as state health officials work to dole out the initial $162 million that Massachusetts received last December as part of the Rural Health Transformation Program.
The Executive Office of Health and Human Services last week issued a request for applications, due by Oct. 26, with money also available for rural health clinics, community-based groups and social services organizations, federally qualified health centers, healthcare providers and practices, nursing facilities and rural municipalities. Those entities can seek funding for a slew of initiatives surrounding population health advancement, innovation in rural care models, workforce development, healthy rural communities, technology enhancements, and facility modernization and reuse.
The first funding period spans from Oct. 30 to Sept. 30, 2027, and Massachusetts could receive a total of $800 million throughout the five-year, $50 billion federal program created through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Eliza Lake, director of health policy and strategic initiatives at Executive Office of Health and Human Services, said in June that the state was hoping to start the procurement process later in the month.
“We need to sort of focus on the most shovel-ready or the quickest things to get the money out because under the CMS rules, we have to have all the money obligated — all $162 million — by the end of October,” Lake had said at a Medicaid summit. “And then the contracts have to be fully expended out by the end of September of next year.”
The eligible rural hospitals are Athol Hospital, Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, Fairview Hospital in Great Barrington, North Adams Regional Hospital, Nantucket Cottage Hospital and Baystate Wing Hospital in Palmer. Each can request up to $2.5 million in capital funding, which hospitals can deploy to repurpose underused spaces, bolster diagnostic and specialty care capacity, improve preventive and chronic disease services, integrate new technologies and address aging building systems like heating, ventilation and air conditioning. The award amount depends on the “number, scope, readiness and approval of proposed projects,” according to the state’s request for applications.
Nantucket Cottage Hospital posted an operating margin of negative 4.8% in fiscal year 2025, while Fairview Hospital notched a 10.1% operating margin, according to a recent report from the Center for Health Information and Analysis.
State officials say that rural communities are facing “major healthcare disparities” across access and outcomes, as a result of limited providers, aging infrastructure and “systemic decline in local health services.”