Gov. Tate Reeves announced Wednesday new pilot programs aimed to combat obesity, eliminate obstetric care deserts and expand mental health services in rural Mississippi.
The programs will be funded with federal Rural Health Transformation Program dollars. The Mississippi State Department of Health will oversee the projects designed to reduce obesity through Make America Healthy Again movement principles, track chronic conditions through remote patient-care monitoring and deploy mobile clinics to areas lacking access to prenatal or obstetric care.
The Department of Mental Health will launch a new telehealth program for veterans and first responders, expand crisis diversion centers to provide an alternative to emergency departments and jails for people experiencing mental health crises and expand access to evidence-based training programs for behavioral healthcare staff.
“This is not a collection of individual or separate projects,” said Reeves, who spearheaded the state’s application for the federal dollars last fall and is overseeing their distribution. “It’s one, coordinated project.”
In December, Mississippi was awarded nearly $206 million as a part of the Rural Health Transformation Program. States will receive payments over five years as a part of the national $50 billion program, which was designed to support rural health care and offset the disproportionate impact rural hospitals are expected to face as a result of federal spending cuts Congress passed into law last summer.
Mississippi’s plan included a statewide rural health assessment and other initiatives focused on coordinating care, strengthening the workforce, creating a statewide health information exchange, expanding telehealth opportunities and improving infrastructure. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services approved Mississippi’s program budget in April. Mississippi must obligate the funds by October and spend them by September 30, 2027.
Reeves said the state received 726 applications from 236 organizations for the initial three grant opportunities offered as a part of the program. Applications for the initiatives, which focus on facility improvements, upgrading technology systems and increasing telehealth capacity, were due by July 15. Reeves said applicants requested more than $676 million in funding for $81.7 million in available funds.
“The need is greater than the funding available in the first round,” Reeves said during a Wednesday press conference that was broadcast on social media.
Richard Grimes, program director for Mississippi’s Rural Health Transformation Program Office, said state agencies will be responsible for the scoring and evaluation of the grant applications, keeping a firewall between program administration and scorekeeping.
Decisions about funding will be made using a scoring rubric designed to identify the projects that will make the greatest difference for rural Mississippians. The first three grant programs’ applications have begun being evaluated by independent reviewers, whose recommendations will be vetted by the Mississippi State Department of Health.
The program’s office currently seeks applications for workforce development and psychiatric emergency services grant opportunities. Applications are due by August 17 and will be reviewed by the state Department of Mental Health and Accelerate Mississippi, the state’s workforce development agency.
The state has also released requests for proposals for an assessment of the emergency medical system’s capacity and expertise to begin designing a health information exchange, Reeves said.
Grant recipients will be required to pay for most projects upfront and then be reimbursed, though there may be some exceptions. Reeves said his office will work with awardees to ensure the process is not burdensome.
“The reimbursement’s going to happen as soon as humanly possible,” he said.
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