CMS’ Rural Health Transformation Program: Implications for Behavioral Health

As demand for mental health and substance use services continues to rise in rural areas, workforce shortages, geographic isolation, transportation challenges, and limited local infrastructure all place pressure on community health centers. Rural communities continue to face persistent barriers to accessing high-quality behavioral health care.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently launched the Rural Health Transformation Program, a 5-year, $50 billion initiative designed to help states address these systemic challenges. For health centers, the program represents an important opportunity to strengthen behavioral health access, particularly through technology-enabled care models such as telebehavioral health. 

What Is the Rural Health Transformation Program?

The Rural Health Transformation Program will invest $50 billion over five years to support state-led efforts to improve health outcomes in rural communities. CMS awards funding to states through cooperative agreements, and each state develops a Rural Health Transformation Plan tailored to its specific needs and priorities.

The program was created to address long-standing disparities in rural health access and outcomes. CMS has emphasized that meaningful improvement requires addressing behavioral health access, strengthening the workforce, and modernizing care delivery through technology and new care models. Rather than prescribing a single approach, the RHT Program is giving states flexibility to design solutions in partnership with local providers.

The program's design makes early engagement and collaboration especially important for health centers.

What RHT Funding Can Support

While states ultimately determine how funds are used, CMS has outlined priority areas and goals listed above that are highly relevant for health centers. These include expanding mental health and substance use disorder services, investing in telebehavioral health infrastructure, integrating behavioral health into primary care workflows, and supporting hybrid and virtual workforce models.

For many health centers, these priorities reflect work already underway but constrained by limited resources. The RHT Program offers a pathway to scale and sustain these efforts through state-supported initiatives.

Why Telebehavioral Health Partnerships Matter

When implemented thoughtfully, telebehavioral health can help CHCs reduce patient wait times, extend services without adding full onsite staff, maintain continuity during workforce transitions, and reach patients who face transportation or mobility barriers.

Partnership-based models can make telebehavioral health more feasible and sustainable. Rather than replacing local care, our model complements your health center teams by filling gaps, supporting integration, and aligning with existing workflows and community relationships. Importantly, your center retains clinical oversight and patient relationships while gaining access to additional capacity and specialized expertise.

How Ascend Can Partner With Community Health Centers

Ascend’s model is designed to support your center as a partner, not as a replacement for the quality care you are already providing to your community. Ascend works alongside health centers to expand access to mental health and substance use services through integrated, telehealth care that aligns with your workflows, compliance requirements, and community needs.

Within the RHT Program, Ascend can support you in several ways. Telebehavioral health services can help extend existing care teams and address workforce shortages without requiring full onsite staffing. Ascend’s clinicians can integrate into your primary care and behavioral health workflows, supporting collaborative care models that states may prioritize in their transformation plans.

Ascend also brings operational, licensing, and compliance expertise that can reduce the administrative burden on health centers as they expand telehealth services. This can be especially valuable as states explore new payment models and outcome-based approaches tied to RHT funding.

By partnering with Ascend, you can position yourself as ready collaborators in state-led initiatives focused on behavioral health access, workforce sustainability, and integrated care delivery.

Preparing to Engage With RHT Opportunities

Health centers will play a critical role in shaping and implementing state transformation plans once funds are allocated. Community health centers may want to consider engaging early with state Medicaid agencies or rural health offices as plans develop, helping to identify behavioral health access gaps and assess telehealth readiness across technology, workflows, and reimbursement.

Exploring partnership models that support the program's stated goals can also help centers demonstrate readiness to participate in state initiatives.

Looking Ahead

The Rural Health Transformation Program signals a long-term federal commitment to strengthening rural health systems. For community health centers, it presents an opportunity to build on existing strengths while expanding behavioral health access through technology, partnerships, and integrated care models.

As states move forward with planning and implementation, teams that proactively assess their behavioral health strategies and telehealth capabilities will be better positioned to contribute to and benefit from these efforts. Collaborative approaches, grounded in local relationships and supported by experienced partners like Ascend, can help ensure that rural communities receive the behavioral health care they need now and in the years ahead.

We would love to discuss what a partnership with Ascend can look like in light of this exciting grant opportunity at https://www.ascendtelehealth.com/contact.

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