A Once-in-a-Generation Moment for Rural Healthcare

The Rural Health Transformation Program represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to strengthen care in rural communities, but turning federal funding into lasting change will require organizations to move quickly and strategically.

In this episode of the Early Innovators Podcast, host Jim Murray speaks with Moodr Health co-founder Arya Satish about the $50 billion federal initiative and what it means for rural hospitals, health centers, behavioral health providers, and state agencies. They explore how the program can support technology adoption, workforce retention, value-based care, improved access, and more sustainable models of care.

Arya also explains what organizational readiness really looks like, why this funding should not be treated as a short-term budget fix, and how providers can align their most pressing needs with their state’s transformation plan. The conversation concludes with a look at how Moodr Health’s proactive, technology-enabled outreach can help care teams engage hard-to-reach populations, reduce administrative burden, improve outcomes, and prevent rural patients from falling out of care.

About Moodr Health

Moodr Health is an enterprise engagement platform purpose-built for Medicaid plans, rural health systems, and safety-net providers managing high-risk populations. Moodr helps care teams reach the right members at the right time through a HIPAA-compliant platform built on a healthcare CRM that integrates seamlessly with existing care delivery systems and workflows. From reducing avoidable readmissions and administrative burden to improving care plan enrollment and supporting value-based reimbursement, Moodr turns real-time insights into measurable outcomes at scale.

Learn more at www.moodrhealth.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Introducing the Mooter Health Early Innovators Campaign. Innovation in healthcare doesn't just happen in boardrooms. It happens on the front lines, where organizations are doing more with less and pushing boundaries to better serve their communities. That's why Mooter Health is proud to launch the Early Innovators Campaign, a series spotlighting forward-leaning organizations and individuals who are shaping the future of behavioral health and care delivery. Over the coming weeks, we'll be featuring podcasts and conversations with leaders who are redefining what's possible. Stories from innovators in health systems, higher education, and recovery support. And insights on how new models of care are being built for equity and impact. Our early innovators are proving every day that change is possible, and we're excited to share their stories with you. So stay tuned, follow along, and meet the leaders building what's next. Welcome to Motor Health's Early Innovator Podcast, where we highlight leaders and stories shaping the future of behavioral health. Our recent podcast was largely about the Rural Health Transformation Program. Based on activity and questions from that session, today we'll revisit the RHTP, which is a $50 billion federal initiative spanning the fiscal years of 2026 through 2030, administered by CMS to strengthen rural healthcare through innovation, workforce, redo, and infrastructure. Today I'm joined by Arya Satish, co-founder of Muter Health. Arya is a healthcare innovator and public health scholar from Johns Hopkins, and Arya is working to make proactive, tech-enabled behavioral health support both scalable and sustainable. His work at MooterHealth has already reached 30,000 people, many in medically underserved communities. Muterhealth is a digital platform designed for proactive mental health support, combining wearable data with guided outreach to improve patient engagement and health outcomes. And as your host today, I'm Jim Murray. I've spent a career in and around the adoption and scale of consumer technologies. And I'm currently leading commercial growth at MuterHealth, working with ARIA in provider and payer communities, engaging high-need patient and member populations through proactive SMS outreach. ARIA, thanks for joining me today.

SPEAKER_01 2:35

Thank you, Jim. It's great to be here with you. And I will just say after your introduction, it's an absolute pleasure to be here with an expert in the digital health space just like yourself. And I think we're about to have a really fascinating conversation about the rural health transformation program and just how much excitement there is all around the country for there to finally be a budget associated with some of the innovation and transformation that is going to happen soon.

SPEAKER_00 3:00

There's so much that we could talk about. As we found the last podcast ran over, and there's still so much more to talk about. So we'll try and hit some of it today. I think we could go on and on. But let's start things off with mentioning that the RHTP or rural health transformation program supports rural patients and clinicians and health systems accessing high-quality technology-enabled care. So, in a sense, then Mooter is a safety net that prevents rural members from falling out of care. So, Arya, from your direct involvement, what is the RHTP in practical terms beyond the policy summary?

SPEAKER_01 3:39

Yeah, I think that's a great question, Jim. I think to start off with some context for those who may be unfamiliar with this program, when HR1, also known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, passed in 2025, it there was a provision that created $50 billion in federal funding that was going to be dispersed to each of the 50 states. And that was specifically designed to help these states improve rural health outcomes and be able to execute on some of the transformation and innovation that they had created plans for. Every state submitted an application to the federal government. And then states were back in December awarded somewhere between 150 to a little over 200 million dollars. The math on this works out to be $50 billion over five years, so through 2030, which means there's $10 billion in each annual funding cycle. Again, that amounts to be about $200 million per state. The question is that's a lot of money, hundreds of millions of dollars for each state to be able to implement rural health transformation. What does that actually boil down to? I think it's helpful to start with the goals of the program itself. The federal government created around 10 boxes for this funding to be applied. And all 10 of those boxes, in some form or fashion, were designed to either support a more sustainable access to care. We know rural health communities can struggle a little bit with access, people often driving 50 or so miles to their nearest provider. And that's even more so the case for specialties in healthcare. Being able to increase access to care was a big focus. And along with access, we also like to talk about health outcomes. That was another pillar of this particular program. How can we adopt technology and innovative workflows to improve health outcomes for the rural population? And then, third, the first couple boxes focused specifically on patients. The third key focus area was around providers and being able to support the workforce and enable workforce retention programs, as well as other innovative approaches to essentially address the shortage in healthcare providers that exists around the country. So to call out an example, Delaware as a state is using its funding to create and start a new medical school. So everything from those sorts of really innovative and big large-scale ideas all the way down to how can we help support each organization in incentives to retain their provider workforce. So those are a few of the key goals of the program and the ways in which states are now beginning to implement this funding is across several of those areas. But the key idea of this funding remains around transformation using innovation and different initiatives that haven't yet had the chance to be executed on, primarily due to a lack of funding. So that's where I think at Mooter Health and in our conversations with several states, we're really excited about the potential for technology to be adopted, using budgets that previously didn't exist. We're also really excited around the shift happening across the country in adopting new payment models, particularly value-based care. And this particular program is really helping to bolster the adoption of value-based care payment models around the country. And then also be able to create these coalitions and partnerships. So no one lives in a silo. All of these organizations, particularly on the provider side, have diverse sets of needs, be it technology, be it workforce solutions, be it workforce support, as or administrative and logistical solutions. So being able to create partnerships and different coalitions that can essentially meet these organizations where they are with the types of solutions and initiatives that help them make the most out of this rural health transformation program.

SPEAKER_00 7:49

Okay. So there's a lot that goes into this for sure. You hit goals, you hit focus areas, you hit partnerships. As far as even some of the shifts towards value-based care, there's a significant amount to this. You mentioned that there's 10 areas. I know that we've talked amongst ourselves that Mooter Health, where we work, checks off at least eight of those boxes right there. So all of the 50 states applied for these funds late last year, late 2025, to support telehealth, value-based care, sustainable health models. Arya, what do external partners, when you're meeting with them, often seem to misunderstand about RHTP and the execution?

SPEAKER_01 8:30

Yeah, that's another great question, Jim. Like we have already hit on today, this program is so large that there it creates a lot of different narratives and storylines around how this funding is supposed to be used. Unfortunately, the federal government did lay some guidelines out. However, I think one thing that is misunderstood is the tremendous flexibility that states at the state level have to use these funds to impact, be it health outcomes, access to care, technology, or their workforce. There is an extraordinary amount of flexibility for each of these states. That then leads states to wanting to, the natural intuition is we have XYZ budget deficits. Let's use this funding to plug in those holes. And I think that's a key misunderstanding that the federal government, as well as state states who have applied for this funding, have come to realize is rural health transformation is not meant to be a vehicle that balances state budgets, but rather it's a vehicle for enacting the types of change that lead to long-term sustainability and success for these states. I think the most critical factor for anyone involved in this program to be able to understand is that this is not simply a, as we say, a point solution for one specific budget balance, but balancing of the budgets to occur. But rather, it's a real vehicle for the types of long-term change. I suspect that over the next six months, where the initial year of funds are going to be deployed across the United States, the states that have the most success in the long run will be implementing these funds on some of the initiatives that will be able to deliver more of that longer-term success and sustainability. We've talked a little about value-based care already. That's a big focus within most states' action plans for rural health transformation funding because it requires a little bit of a lift to move away from a traditional fee-for-service model to more of a value-based care model requires an initial investment in which the part of it is technology. Do we have the right tools to be able to deploy a value-based care model? Part of it is the executive buy-in and the administrative logistics that need to occur with being able to receive value-based care payments and being able to show specific outcomes that you move the needle on. And then part of it is, quite frankly, just the fact that this funding now exists and unlocking those first two challenges, we're starting to see states be able to adopt and implement additional value-based care initiatives due to this funding existing. And what we'll see over time, and as a lot of health economists point out, that should lead to a more sustainable healthcare system and even at the organization level. So that's, I think, just going back to your original question, misunderstanding is that this is not the rural health transformation program, is not meant to solve for individual one-off budget or financial challenges, but rather it's to enable states to take a step back and identify the key three to five initiatives that will truly move the needle in the long run and will create a more sustainable and equitable healthcare system for all of the, not just rural health, but all of the state's residents and being able to apply this funding towards those areas that they see having the greatest potential for impact.

SPEAKER_00 11:57

When reflecting on the last podcast we had with Avery Mews and Jen Wendell from the Muse Group, and as far as executive leaders in an IT capacity across government entities throughout their career, I believe it was Jen that was talking about the rural systems can have unique balancing act challenges. So from a national approach to fund these sorts of efforts, let's say, you get consistency and you get proven playbooks, but they don't necessarily effectively make change in these rural settings because the rural settings, I know that you and I both heard have different regulations and different community realities. To your point of a few moments ago, somebody driving 50 miles. Imagine driving three hours. Whether it's 50 miles or three hours, the wait times are real. So this is a program that is ideally set up so that people can have innovative ideas and start to address those rural challenges to healthcare, like workforce shortages you've mentioned, access gaps, cyber risk, infrastructure constraints. So there is a lot coming for sure. And I think that we're likely to see some great ideas in pockets of the country. And hopefully that transcends then and spreads across the country so that great ideas can be shared. The rural health transformation program supports rural patients, clinicians, and health systems accessing high-quality technology-enabled care. So, Arya, what does readiness actually mean in the context of the RHTP?

SPEAKER_01 13:37

Yeah, I so readiness, I think it comes down to a few key areas. Number one is understanding the timeline associated with the rural health transformation programs and the disbursement of these funds. Unlike a lot of the larger multi-billion dollar initiatives that the federal government has come out in the past, this one has a really condensed timeline. So today is it we're in the middle of April. These states really only have until the end of September into October to be able to deploy these funds into their first year. And if they are not able to deploy all of those funds, it goes back into a shared pool for other states to utilize. So what that means is that we've got roughly six months to be able to identify where this funding is going at the state level. And I think that puts an enormous time pressure that really hasn't existed with any other program that we've seen in the past, especially one of this magnitude. So the first one, the first part of readiness is understanding that there's a real time constraint here. So that means that each step needs to be a careful, measured step in terms of where this, where these funds are going to be deployed, where the greatest potential for a return on investment is for different states and the organizations applying at the for the funding at the state level. I think the second part of it then comes down to how deep of an understanding do we have of the needs that each respective organization has related to the categories for this funding to be applied. So in a needs assessment, if most organizations do have done a needs assessment for these types of programs in the past, but I think that is more apparent than ever before that being able to measure the areas for this funding to have the greatest impact compared to all of the potential areas that these funds can be deployed requires some evaluation at the organization level. So that's a great place to start for any organization that is looking to move forward and be able to apply for this funding. And then I think just along that evaluation timeline and along the steps required for decisions to be made, really looking at the categories that the federal government has put out, but each state in their application outlined somewhere between five to ten key initiatives that they wanted to push forward. And at the state level, those are the initiatives that an RHTP director for West Virginia or for the state of Minnesota is looking at when they're considering any applications that organizations are putting in. So when the readiness question, Jim, it comes down to number one, do we understand the timeline? Number two, do we understand our own organization's internal needs? And then number three, how do we look at matching our provider or our organization's needs to the action plans that a state has put forward? And that's where a lot of this, I think a lot of the magic is really going to occur is, for example, a federally qualified health center to look at their state's RHTP application and say, we know that in investing in value-based care for hard-to-reach populations like patients with substance use disorder is a key initiative that our state wants to move forward. These are a few of the areas that we can apply that funding to truly move the needle at an organization level that will then feed data back to the states to report to the federal government on the success of their individual rural health transformation program.

SPEAKER_00 17:02

So it sounds like there's a balancing act here then of not just rural health priorities and then applying for the funding to offset that. But all of this does seem like it's coalescing around improving access, resilience, outcomes, workforce, innovation, some pretty, pretty large buckets there. So what sorts of macro pressures then, aside from timing and understanding that timeline, what sort of macro pressures are you seeing are pushing organizations to pursue this funding before they even have internal alignment as to what their priorities are?

SPEAKER_01 17:40

Yeah, I I so I I think you know, part of this comes down to the reality of why the rural health transformation program exists. And what we know is that for decades, not just recent years, but for far longer than just the last few years, rural organizations have been struggling from a financial and operational standpoint for many of the reasons that this program exists: workforce development and retention, being able to create a sustainable model for patient outcomes and access to care. And that's led to many of these rural health organizations being at risk of or already closing. The last report that I read said that there were over 400 rural hospitals at risk of closure in this coming year. So there, from a macro standpoint, there is a tremendous amount of financial pressure on these organizations. And the rural health transformation program was created to be able to supplement some of the funding and some of the opportunities that exist in moving all of these organizations collectively to hopefully a more sustainable and successful model of care, particularly from a financial standpoint. So that's one of the macro pressures. The other is part of the same bill that created the rural health transformation program resulted in roughly $900 billion in cuts to Medicaid across the country. And we know that Medicaid is the largest, or if not the largest, the second largest after Medicare payer in most rural markets. And the rural health transformation program, one of the reports that I read was that for every dollar that was cut on paper to Medicaid funding, rural health transformation only really brings back 37 cents. So that puts all the more pressure on being able to identify the areas that have the greatest potential for impact, again, primarily from a financial standpoint, to offset some of the cuts and the other macro pressures that exist for these rural organizations. It's a big reason why one of the spaces that Mooter Health does work in is supporting the perenatal population. Maternal mental health is a big focus of ours. And what we are seeing in particularly in Appalachia, but all across the country, is that a lot of labor and delivery units are at risk of closure for the same reasons that federally qualified health centers and other rural providers are at risk for closure, which is that we haven't created the most sustainable model from a financial standpoint for these different types of organizations. So that's again a big focus of the rural health is placing this investment into the areas that we see the greatest potential for impact and return on investment.

SPEAKER_00 20:24

So as far as that shakeup and the time and the high wire of walking the funding application into the right categories, if a team at a health system determines they're not fully ready, there's that timeline you talked about. What practical steps do you think they should be at least taking before applying? And maybe Mooter could help.

SPEAKER_01 20:48

This program is so new that it creates a lot of opportunities for organizations to move quickly from identifying needs to planning to then procurement. There, we still have several months left, and it's truly not too late to begin the process of moving forward to apply for rural health transformation funding, is the first thing that I'll start with. Most states really only released their plans a few months ago. No one is really behind the ball just quite yet, but it's important to move with some urgency. This the second area is if you're if an organization feels like they're not quite ready to apply, there are a lot of different types of groups, and I mentioned earlier coalitions that can really help. If you're a federally qualified health center, odds are your state's primary care association is already planning and has already put out a strategy around the RHTP funds and helping secure procurement. If you're not a part of an organization or an association like that, there are also lots of groups out there who are working directly with organizations to help identify needs, to help them with the planning process for applying for these funds and moving into procurement. I'll call out the last podcast, and I think it was really fruitful with Avery Mew. And Jen Wendell and the work that Mooter Health is doing is really helping organizations plan for this funding. It exists, it's out there, and odds are a lot of organizations are dealing with so many different types of challenges and different situations that RHCP may not be top of mind, but really can make a huge impact for these organizations. So we want to work with you. We want to help support your own application and be able to align your needs with this funding that exists to help address those exact needs.

SPEAKER_00 22:31

Fantastic. So it sounds absolutely like MooterHealth helps systems and care centers apply the funding into ready-to-deploy solutions with your outcomes. Can you speak a minute about you said that there were 10 categories? And if we look at where MooterHealth can actually lean in, which are the areas that maybe you're most excited about? Is it expanding access to care? Is it reduced clinician burden? Is it sustainable results for a health system? Which areas really get you excited to be part of this?

SPEAKER_01 23:05

Can I say all? I think this that part of why we are so excited about this program is number one, it directly discusses and plans for the same challenges that we're hearing in with every organization that we speak with, Jim, as you very well know. Everything from impacting outcomes to every single state in their action plans have put forth a proposal for technology adoption, which I'd guess, I'd suspect that's really never happened with any previous healthcare initiative that the federal government or even most state governments have released. There is a carve-out for adopt for the adoption of technology that can help drive some of the categories that you mentioned, be it healthcare outcomes, reduced administrative burden, or even support for the existing healthcare workforce. So certainly what excites me most about the rural health transformation program is the very fact that it is designed to solve a lot of the day-to-day challenges that some of the organizations, particularly those dealing with rural health communities, are trying to work through. And it creates a structure to support the resolution or at least several steps forward in addressing those challenges. So that is one of the areas that excites me at a personal level most is that there are a lot, lots of programs that come out that may not really get at the heart of a core solution. It's like putting a band-aid on it. But this one, it really enables organizations to solve the underlying challenges that lead to some of the downstream impacts that they're working through. So I would say if I had to pick one, it would likely be the fact that technology budgets exist for organizations that have historically not had a very large technology budget, especially outside of their EMR, which can only do so much. So that's the one that I would say excites me the most, and also is what we're hearing from organizations that we're speaking to.

SPEAKER_00 25:04

We've I said at the beginning of this session, we've got a lot to unpack here. I don't know that we can hit it all, but we have time for one more question. And I'm curious, Aria, you've talked a lot about the program. You've mentioned several things about Mooter Health. What other thing would you like our guests to know about the program? And why Mooter Health? Why is Mooter Health even talking about this?

SPEAKER_01 25:26

Yeah, absolutely, Jim. Thanks for that question. I think I'll state the obvious. Rural health transformation and this program that has been created is a fantastic program, but it's not perfect. No program is. And so I think it's really exciting, though, to see this level of funding and attention given to some of the technology forward initiatives that various states have. So, as we've said in the past, this is a much larger pool of money than several years ago, a couple decades ago almost now, that the federal government devoted to the adoption of electronic medical record systems. So we're way beyond really any program that has been created in the past to support organizations. And what excites us most is the fact that this is going towards supporting rural health communities that truly need this level of support. So we view it as truly a once-in-a-generation moment in which timing is aligned, the funding is aligned, and we recognize that the need is certainly there. So that's what I would say about the rural health transformation program. The question isn't whether the need is there or the money is there. It's whether the organizations closest to rural communities, be it hospitals, health centers, behavioral health providers, or the state agencies doing this work. The question is whether those organizations can move fast enough and partner in really smartly with different sorts of solutions and coalitions to be able to take advantage of the funding that exists to address the needs that they have. And that I will tie back to why we are so excited and aligned with this program at Mooter Health, because when we speak with rural health organizations and other provider groups on a daily basis, the first and only question that matters to us is what is your need? The great part about this program is that whatever that need is, it's likely that the initiatives and the funding to help address that need now exists. And we can certainly help get you to that point and create this far greater model of success for serving rural health communities.

SPEAKER_00 27:39

Speak a moment about, I said that was the last question, but this is a tag on. Speak a moment about how you feel Mooter Health is uniquely positioned to lean in to this sort of an initiative. Why Mooter Health?

SPEAKER_01 27:52

Yeah, absolutely. There are a few different areas that we see the most amount of alignment towards. I'll start with focusing on the people. So supporting different sorts of hard-to-reach patient populations. Historically, that has been patients with behavioral health conditions, particularly substance use disorder, perenatal, maternal mental health, a few of these really challenging and what are, again, historically deemed as high-risk populations, Motor Health helps engage and activate those individuals to then bring them into the continuity of the care that they're receiving. And what we see far too often is that organizations are attempting to do that work today via telephonic outreach, via having large teams who help navigate the patient journey and help with deal with care coordination. But Mooter Health is uniquely and very specifically designed to support that work in an intelligent way that takes a lot of the burden off of the care teams doing that work. So I'll share a little bit more about what that means for organizations. Number one, the ability to go from a care coordinator supporting 20 to 30 patients with a response rate of 10 to 20%, to then being able to quite literally 10x that. So that same team is able to support a far greater volume of patients, but is also able to maintain greater contact and greater continuity with those same patients. And what we have seen thus far is that really helps drive the downstream outcomes while relieving the administrative burden that care teams face. We're able to impact the total cost of care. We're able to impact the capture of reimbursements and other revenue potential for patient populations. And then most importantly, we're able to impact the outcomes that those patient populations have. And we're able to bridge all of these different pieces together. And Jim, as you pointed out earlier, the rural health transformation program has a few specific categories. And this is a solution that was built out of the need of rural health communities in West Virginia and has since expanded to Appalachia. So that uniquely positions us to be able to, number one, address this the very, very deep needs that organizations working to support rural health communities have. But also what excites us is that there now is funding to be able to fund the implementation and adoption of those solutions to then show just how sustainable and successful it can be in the long run.

SPEAKER_00 30:30

Fantastic. I'm reminded of a recent article from Healthcare Dive, which reported that CMS, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, had finalized a major overhaul of the Medicare Advantage STAR rating system. And if you dig into that, you'll see that the recent rule change, it still rewards consistently high ratings. So, and rural populations are often those communities that hold down those ratings due to access issues, simply tied to access. Mooter, I know, can be positioned as the safety net. I said that at the beginning of this podcast, but it can be positioned as the safety net that prevents rural members from falling out of care, thereby protecting the plan's overall star rating. So by focusing on engagement, reducing wait times for behavioral health services, or those other conditions that you called out as being areas that we excel at, Mooter supports the quality benchmarks defined by NCQA health plan ratings. So, Arya, there's so much more that we could dig into. We've just really scratched the tip of the iceberg here. I'm really appreciative that you carved out some time for us to get together today. Thank you. And we welcome questions from our guests as well as those that come in and visit our podcasts. It helps drive what our next podcast will be about. I encourage anybody to leave a comment, let us know how we're doing, let us know if these podcasts are hitting the subjects that matter most to you. Thank you, Arya. Thank you, Jim.