en.Wedoany.com Reported - Kansas is one of the early states to utilize funding from the federal Rural Health Transformation Program. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment has allocated nearly $80 million to 39 institutions across the state to enhance healthcare accessibility in rural areas. As an example of funded projects, one recipient of the 2026 Rural Emergency Hospital Conversion and Transformative Capital Investment Program (REH/CAP) received $5 million. Great Plains Health Alliance (GPHA), in partnership with Pioneer Health Network (PHN), will deploy Avel eCare telehealth services to 31 rural hospitals across six hospital association regions in Kansas, providing inpatient, emergency, and psychiatric telemedicine coverage to stabilize the clinical and financial sustainability of rural hospitals.
GPHA is a member-driven network of hospitals and healthcare institutions dedicated to strengthening rural healthcare across the region. PHN is a collaborative network of independent hospitals working together to improve accessibility, enhance operational efficiency, and advance healthcare services in rural communities. Through this collaboration, GPHA and PHN stated they are leading a network-based coordinated approach, with Avel eCare serving as a clinical and operational partner providing virtual care capabilities. Telemedicine will play a central role in enhancing service delivery in emergency, inpatient, and behavioral health settings, while ensuring patients can continue to receive care close to home.
Dee Dee Dewell, Executive Director of Pioneer Health Network, said in a statement that the Rural Partnership Grant Program provides a unique opportunity for Pioneer Health Network and Great Plains Health Alliance to expand emergency, behavioral health, and hospital telemedicine services to more member hospitals through their existing partner, Avel eCare. Dewell emphasized that given their long-standing presence and shared member hospitals, this is a powerful demonstration of collaboration to transform healthcare delivery and strengthen clinical resources at 31 Critical Access Hospitals in Kansas. This will bring meaningful wins to the communities they serve.
Several other projects funded by Kansas include: Recovery Unlimited KS will create a technology-supported substance use disorder treatment model, connecting community supervision, primary care, and specialty treatment via the Skyscape telemedicine platform, and establish medical detoxification centers in south-central and western Kansas; Citizen’s Foundation, in partnership with the University of Kansas Cancer Center, will establish a virtual tele-oncology program for nine rural counties in northwestern Kansas, and fund facility renovations, major diagnostic equipment (MRI, mammography, DEXA, ultrasound), and a "Transforming Cancer Care" clinical team; Stormont Vail HealthCare proposes PrairieLINK, a regional clinical integration network and shared service infrastructure that strengthens the sustainability of rural hospitals in northeastern and central Kansas through performance benchmarking, care coordination, and value-based care alignment; Children’s Mercy Hospital, in partnership with the Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas, KUMC Great Bend, and Logan County Health Services, will implement the Rural Pediatric Chronic Care Network, a project that will leverage artificial intelligence-driven risk identification, Epic-integrated care coordination, and telemedicine co-management to support children with asthma, epilepsy, sleep apnea, and type 1 diabetes in rural communities.
Kansas is also preparing to launch the Community Health Worker + Accountable Food is Medicine Program (CHW + AFIM) and an Evidence-Based Program, which will help rural hospitals and clinics build and maintain infrastructure to implement and sustain evidence-based practices, and report performance metrics demonstrating care quality. The state has contracted with the University of Kansas Health System Care Collaborative to operate the program.
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