ATLANTA, Ga. — Rural Georgia is in line for nearly $219 million in federal money aimed at putting more doctors and nurses in small towns and helping more patients get care in their own communities, federal health officials announced Friday.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said the award, from the Rural Health Transformation Program, is the full amount set for Georgia for fiscal year 2026, and the state has committed all of it to rural care. The money covers five linked efforts reaching the state’s 126 rural and partly rural counties.
Plans include mobile clinics and telehealth pods, more maternal, pediatric, behavioral and preventive care, and residencies, training and incentives meant to recruit clinicians and keep them in rural practice. Rural hospitals would also get help upgrading electronic medical records, cybersecurity and other systems that link providers.
Georgia runs the effort through the Department of Community Health under the name GREAT Health, an acronym for Georgia Rural Enhancement and Transformation of Health. Partners on the work include the Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce, the state public health department and its behavioral health agency, and the department said it was hiring 20 people devoted to the program. The same agency oversees Medicaid and PeachCare for Kids, which together cover more than 2 million Georgians a year.
One piece of the plan is a value-based care model, a Georgia version of a federal approach that pays hospitals for results. Earlier this year, 57 of the 93 hospitals invited to take part had signed letters of intent, the department reported.
Gov. Brian Kemp said in the federal release that the program is already showing results and that the upgrades will help rural providers serve patients. The money flows from the federal law known as the Working Families Tax Cuts Act, which set aside $50 billion nationwide for rural health.
Filed under: Atlanta GA Health News
