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Key Takeaways
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The Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP) gives states flexible federal funding to support efforts that can help modernize rural healthcare delivery, improve outcomes, and strengthen sustainability.
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Remote patient monitoring (RPM) directly supports RHTP priorities, including chronic disease management, access to care, workforce efficiency, and data-driven prevention.
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Many states explicitly include RPM in their RHTP plans, while others can still fund RPM through broader digital health and telehealth initiatives.
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Preparing a clear RPM strategy positions rural healthcare organizations to maximize RHTP funding and long-term clinical impact.
With the launch of the Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP), states now have new federal funding they can use to modernize their care delivery, strengthen infrastructure, and improve outcomes for rural patients. At the same time, rural providers continue to face persistent challenges including workforce shortages, rising chronic disease burden, access gaps, and financial pressure.
Remote patient monitoring (RPM) sits squarely at the intersection of these challenges and opportunities.
As state RHTP plans take shape, RPM is emerging as one of the most practical, scalable, and outcome-driven ways to translate the new RHTP funding into better rural patient care.
What Is the Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP)?
The Rural Health Transformation Program is a CMS-administered initiative that allocates $50 billion toward promoting rural health innovation, strategic partnerships, infrastructure development, and workforce investment. Over a multi-year period, RHTP, supported by the new Office of Rural Health Transformation, provides states with funding flexibility to invest in initiatives that:
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Improve chronic disease management and preventive care
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Expand access to care, including virtual and technology-enabled services
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Address rural workforce shortages
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Strengthen health IT, data sharing, and care coordination
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Support financial sustainability for rural providers
Rather than prescribing one-size-fits-all solutions, RHTP allows states to design transformation strategies tailored to their rural populations. This flexibility makes digital health and RPM a natural fit.
Why Remote Patient Monitoring Aligns With RHTP Goals
Remote patient monitoring enables providers to collect physiologic data such as blood pressure, glucose, oxygen saturation, and weight from patients in their homes and use that data to guide timely clinical intervention. For rural healthcare organizations, RPM directly supports multiple RHTP priorities.
Better Chronic Disease Management in Rural Populations
Rural communities experience higher rates of hypertension, diabetes, heart failure, and COPD. RPM allows care teams to proactively manage these conditions without requiring frequent in-person visits. This helps reduce complications, hospitalizations, and total cost of care.
Expanded Access Without Expanding Footprint
RPM extends care beyond clinic walls, enabling rural providers to reach more patients across wide geographic areas without building new facilities or overextending limited staff.
Workforce Efficiency and Burnout Reduction
With RPM workflows, care teams can prioritize patients who need clinical intervention rather than relying on episodic visits. Several states explicitly link RPM adoption to workforce sustainability and clinician efficiency.
Data-Driven, Preventive Care Models
RHTP emphasizes measurable outcomes. RPM generates continuous, actionable data that supports early intervention, population health strategies, and performance reporting.
In short, RPM turns RHTP funding into ongoing clinical impact rather than a one-time infrastructure investment.
States Explicitly Including RPM in Their RHTP Plans
All 50 states submitted their RHTP applications. Many of these state applications identify RPM as a core component of their rural health transformation strategies. Below are examples of how RPM appears in state RHTP applications and initiatives.
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State |
Information on RPM |
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Alabama |
The state plans to establish a statewide telehealth network and remote monitoring capacity linking rural providers to specialty hubs. Alabama Medicaid currently covers RPM services. Funds will be used to acquire equipment for telehealth and remote patient monitoring services. |
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Arkansas |
The application includes a metric tracking the number of patients enrolled in HOME remote monitoring programs for chronic conditions. The numeric target is ≥ 2,500 patients actively monitored with actionable data by Year 5. Data sources include remote monitoring platform data and EHR integration reports. |
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Colorado |
The state proposes a remote patient monitoring program to enable rural Coloradans to benefit from telehealth remote monitoring services, leading to better health outcomes, time savings, and energy savings. A measurable outcome tracks the percent of clinics using remote monitoring for chronic disease. |
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Connecticut |
The state supports the adoption of AI-enabled remote patient monitoring, virtual care platforms, and connected devices to strengthen chronic disease management, behavioral health engagement, and maternal care access. A key outcome is to increase utilization of specialty e-Consults and RPM services. The state plans to fund providers delivering remote care or remote monitoring interventions such as hypertension monitoring at home. |
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Delaware |
RHTP funds will be used for a catalyst fund to support the development of remote monitoring tools. |
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Georgia |
The state is pursuing an extension of Medicaid benefits for remote monitoring to connect rural mothers to more targeted care and promote prevention-driven interventions for those with high-risk pregnancies. |
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Idaho |
The initiative plans to implement remote patient monitoring programs, including the purchase of necessary devices, for individuals with chronic conditions and following hospital discharge. This enables continuous observation and early intervention to prevent hospitalizations. Data integration from these systems into local clinics and hospitals is planned. |
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Indiana |
The state seeks to evaluate the impact of wearable electronics such as biometric monitoring devices and how remote health monitoring can decrease clinician burnout, improve patient monitoring, and lower costs. A key metric tracks the number of telehealth encounters (incl. remote patient monitoring). Regional coalitions will evaluate gaps in remote biometric monitoring solutions in their regions. |
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Iowa |
The state plans to explore remote patient monitoring smart benefit cards and advanced medical equipment that leverages robotics and artificial intelligence add-ons. |
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Kansas |
The state has a dedicated remote patient monitoring program. This system will target rural hospital inpatients, recently discharged residents, and other medically indicated rural residents. It requires FDA-cleared medical grade wearable sensors and AI-powered clinical intelligence to alert a centralized command center. The program also includes remote monitoring as part of the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) workflow. |
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Louisiana |
The plan includes expanding access to and promoting the use of remote-monitoring devices, such as glucometers, blood pressure cuffs, pulse oximeters, and weight scales, for high-risk and chronic disease patients. The data from these tools will securely integrate into the statewide EHR for real-time analytics and proactive clinical alerts. |
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Maine |
Medicaid provides reimbursement for remote patient monitoring. Funds will support centralized programs offering RPM for patients with high-prevalence chronic conditions (e.g., high blood pressure and heart failure). RPM coordination will leverage the existing RPM for blood pressure monitoring in perinatal care offered through the TMaH initiative. |
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Maryland |
The state will deploy technology-enabled chronic disease management including remote patient monitoring and wearable devices such as continuous glucose monitors. |
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Massachusetts |
Medicaid provides RPM reimbursement. The state will expand RPM programs integrated with primary care and population health management to address limited infrastructure and uptake in rural Massachusetts. |
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Missouri |
The plan emphasizes RPM integration to directly integrate RPM data (including vital signs, glucose levels, and medication adherence) into rural EHRs using HL7 FHIR R4 standards. RPM is critical for managing high-risk pregnancy blood pressure and gestational diabetes, and for chronic disease patients. Activities include training providers to use live dashboards and establishing regional demonstration sites. |
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Nevada |
The Rural Health Information Technology (RHIT) initiative will prioritize proposals utilizing digital tools such as RPM technologies to monitor patients with chronic conditions in real time, reducing hospitalizations. |
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New Mexico |
The Healthy Horizons initiative includes distributing RPM devices for post-discharge care. Metrics track the utilization of RPM and the hospital readmission rates for patients participating in a remote care program. The state seeks Medicaid reimbursement policy enhancements, including permanent coverage for RPM and telehealth services. |
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North Dakota |
The plan focuses on utilizing RPM to address workforce issues: Metric 1.2 is to Expand remote monitoring and AI-assisted care to reduce staffing needs. The target is a 50% increase of rural facilities adopting RPM/AI-assisted care by 2030. |
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Ohio |
The plan will award projects via a competitive selection process. Projects are required to establish collaborative agreements that provide frameworks for shared services, implementation of practices to achieve value-based care for member practitioners, coordinated patient transfer models, telemedicine and remote patient monitoring, interoperability of data systems, and continuous improvement of care quality. |
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Oregon |
The state aims for Increased use of remote care services and remote patient monitoring to prevent and manage chronic disease and reduce hospital admittance. The goal is to achieve a 40% increase in providers using remote patient monitoring by Year 5, following assessment and technical assistance. |
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Pennsylvania |
Medicaid provides reimbursement for remote patient monitoring. RPM implementation is linked to the regional hub’s ability to manage chronic disease, high-risk pregnancies and postpartum complications. The approach starts with blood pressure tracking for hypertensive disorders and involves providing start-up funding for equipment, training, and staffing |
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Rhode Island |
The initiative will deploy digital diagnostic tools, remote patient monitoring, and EHR-integrated equipment to improve early detection, chronic disease management, and data accuracy. |
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South Carolina |
Medicaid reimburses for remote patient monitoring. A key outcome is to increase the number of patients enrolled in RPM programs or utilizing assistive technology. |
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South Dakota |
The Strengthening Chronic Disease Management initiative includes the outcome: Remote Patient Monitoring – Blood Pressure Control. The metric measures the number of patients with controlled blood pressure enrolled in RPM programs. |
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Tennessee |
Medicaid provides payments for RPM. A key metric for the HRP: Health-Tech initiative is to increase the percentage of telehealth and remote patient monitoring encounters across participating counties |
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Texas |
Texas Medicaid covers home telemonitoring services (synonymous with RPM). The metric for RPM focuses on hospital participation, with a target to increase hospital RPM participation by 5% by 2027. |
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Vermont |
The state application includes plans to provide grants to provider organizations for the purchase of RPM equipment. RPM would be used in home health, primary care/specialty, and community paramedicine settings |
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Washington |
Washington proposes using $15–18 million per year of RHT Program funds to create a provider technology fund under the RHT Program that will enable providers to sustainably expand access to high quality care. Providers may qualify for funds to purchase new technologies (or to obtain technical assistance for those technologies) to improve operational efficiencies, enable remote services (including telehealth and remote patient monitoring), and achieve improvements in population health via data and analytics. |
RPM is already viewed by many states as foundational rather than experimental within rural transformation efforts.
What If Your State’ RHTP Application Did Not Explicitly Mention RPM?
Even if RPM is not called out by name in a state’s RHTP application, that does not exclude its use.
RHTP funding is intentionally broad. As discussed earlier, states can allocate funds toward:
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Technology-enabled care models
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Chronic disease management programs
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Telehealth and virtual care infrastructure
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Health IT modernization and interoperability
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Workforce support tied to care delivery innovation
RPM often fits within these categories. In practice, many states are expected to layer RPM into broader initiatives over time, especially as early pilots demonstrate return on investment and outcome improvements.
How Rural Healthcare Organizations Can Prepare for RHTP-Funded RPM
To position your organization for RHTP-related opportunities, consider the following four steps.
1. Align RPM Use Cases With State Priorities
Focus on high-impact areas such as hypertension control, diabetes management, heart failure, maternal health, or post-discharge monitoring.
2. Build an RPM Readiness Plan
Assess staffing models, workflows, EHR integration needs, and patient eligibility across Medicare and Medicaid populations.
3. Engage State and Regional Stakeholders
Early engagement with state agencies, regional coalitions, and rural health networks can influence how funds are deployed.
4. Choose Scalable, Reimbursable RPM Models
RPM programs that align with existing reimbursement pathways are easier to sustain after transformation funding sunsets.
Why Now Is the Right Time to Invest in RPM
RPM reimbursement is established across Medicare and many state Medicaid programs. Patients are comfortable with remote and digital care. Workforce constraints demand smarter, more efficient care models.
Rural health organizations that invest in RPM now are not just responding to RHTP. They are building the infrastructure needed for long-term rural healthcare sustainability.
RPM as a Cornerstone of Rural Health Transformation
RHTP funding represents an opportunity for rural healthcare organizations to move from plans under consideration and pilot programs to system-wide transformation. Organizations that proactively incorporate remote patient monitoring into their care strategies will be better positioned to improve outcomes, manage chronic disease, support overextended staff, grow revenue, and demonstrate measurable impact to state and federal partners.
If your organization is evaluating how RPM fits into your RHTP strategy, now is the time to act. Schedule a consultation with a Prevounce remote patient monitoring expert to learn how RPM aligns with your organization’s RHTP priorities and opportunities.
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Rural Health Transformation Program FAQs
What is RHTP?
The Rural Health Transformation Program is a CMS initiative that provides states with funding flexibility intended to modernize and strengthen rural healthcare systems.
Can RHTP funds be used for remote patient monitoring?
Yes. RPM aligns with eligible uses of funds related to technology-enabled care, chronic disease management, and access expansion.
Do state RHTP applications need to name RPM explicitly to fund it?
No. RPM can be embedded within broader digital health, telehealth, and chronic care management initiatives.
How does RPM benefit rural patients specifically?
RPM reduces travel burden, enables earlier intervention, improves chronic disease control, and helps patients stay connected to care teams from home.