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Kehoe: Missouri aims to boost rural healthcare with federal funds
Missouri leaders have submitted a plan to the Trump administration that they say would help improve healthcare access for rural Missourians.
Missouri could receive up to $250 million each year, for five years, to implement the Rural Health Transformation Plan. Governor Mike Kehoe tells Brownfield…
“I believe that the resources we receive can accomplish our core goals, which is to expand access to primary and specialty care strength and providers, to attain ability and improve health outcomes in Missouri, including chronic disease, mental health challenges and behavioral health concern.”
More money is available from the federal government for the health plan, but Kehoe says Missouri is competing with other states for those funds.
Missouri’s Rural Health Transformation Plan focuses on funding programs that use evidence-based methods to prevent and manage chronic diseases, new value-based payment arrangements, the use of telehealth, providing training to rural hospitals to adopt remote monitoring robotics or artificial intelligence and more.
Missouri has also submitted a waiver to the USDA to refocus the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Kehoe says that’s still awaiting Secretary Brooke Rollins’ final approval, and public comments are being accepted.
“It can be tweaked and tuned as we move forward. The final rule and what the waiver and what our Missouri piece will look like will happen roughly on October 1, 2026.”
Missouri sent its application for the Rural Health Transformation to the Trump administration in early November. Read a letter sent to the administration from Governor Kehoe.
Kehoe says he’s expecting to hear from the administration by the end of the year and once approved, Missouri would receive its first funding allocation in January. The funds for the healthcare plan are coming from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.