{"id":690616,"date":"2026-06-07T23:35:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T23:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/690616\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T23:35:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T23:35:11","slug":"alaska-health-officials-advance-over-400-projects-for-rural-health-transformation-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/690616\/","title":{"rendered":"Alaska health officials advance over 400 projects for Rural Health Transformation funding"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Alaska Department of Health hosted a multi-day event on Rural Health Transformation Program funding, with an in-person convening at the Hilton Anchorage on Jan. 15, 2026. (Bill Roth \/ ADN) <\/p>\n

The Alaska Department of Health has identified more than 200 health clinics, hospitals, tribes, local governments and other entities in the running to get a share of the $272 million in federal funding Alaska received<\/a> earlier this year through the newly created Rural Health Transformation Program<\/a>. <\/p>\n

After sifting through nearly 1,800 funding proposals<\/a>, state officials have narrowed down the potential projects to a list of just over 400 that will undergo further consideration this month before final funding decisions are made.<\/p>\n

The Rural Health Transformation Program was created last year through a budget reconciliation bill, dubbed the One Big Beautiful Bill. The bill, crafted and passed by congressional Republicans, including members of Alaska\u2019s delegation<\/a>, put in place new work requirements for Medicaid, which serves one in three Alaskans. Those requirements are projected to cause<\/a> thousands of Alaskans to lose access to health insurance. <\/p>\n

The $50 billion Rural Health Transformation fund was created in part to make up for cuts to federal Medicaid spending. It was written in such a way that disproportionately benefits Alaska, in part to secure the support of Alaska\u2019s U.S. Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan.<\/p>\n

The $272 million at Alaska\u2019s disposal is the second-largest sum in the nation, after the one allocated to Texas, and by far the largest sum per capita. Similar awards are expected annually during the program\u2019s five-year duration. But there is a key restriction: Any money not spent within a few months will be forfeited back to the federal government.<\/p>\n

That has spurred a mad dash by Alaska healthcare providers to come up with creative ways to spend the funds, with ideas ranging from the mundane to the far-fetched.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou name a program \u2018transformation,\u2019 but the way that the feds designed it is almost directing us to AI,\u201d said Anchorage Democratic Rep. Genevieve Mina, one of two state lawmakers on the advisory council for Alaska\u2019s program. \u201cThere\u2019s so many ways that we could transform healthcare with this tranche of money, but we can\u2019t use it for the actual infrastructure, etc., so I think this year-one exercise is everybody trying to figure out what they can and can\u2019t do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Rep. Genevieve Mina, D-Anchorage, talks with colleagues on the Alaska House floor in Juneau on Jan. 21, 2025. (Marc Lester \/ ADN archive) <\/p>\n

The program comes with strict rules, including prohibitions on using the funding to build new healthcare facilities or supplant Medicaid services. <\/p>\n

Mina and other members of the advisory council broadly agree that the funding Alaska is set to disburse through the five-year duration of the program has the potential to improve aspects of Alaskans\u2019 health through innovative ideas.<\/p>\n

But some observers say it will do little to address the structural barriers to healthcare in Alaska and across the country, namely a fractured insurance system that leaves many without the means to pay for care.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have people who don\u2019t have coverage and we have people who can\u2019t access care, and we have hospitals that could potentially close,\u201d said Amber Lee, state director for Protect Our Care Alaska, an organization that advocates for affordable health insurance.<\/p>\n

The funding Alaska received is \u201cgood money, but it doesn\u2019t fix the problem of the cuts\u201d to public insurance programs, Lee said. <\/p>\n

\"\"Amber Lee, state director for Protect Our Care Alaska, kicks off a series of short presentations protesting cuts to Medicaid in the lobby of U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan’s downtown Anchorage office on Friday, June 5. (Bella Biondini \/ ADN) <\/p>\n

\u201cCan transformation be incremental?\u201d asked Nils Andreassen, director of the Alaska Municipal League, who also serves on the advisory committee. \u201cThere will be transformation,\u201d he added, but \u201ccould we go further? Maybe.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis approach does no harm, and tries to do as much good as it can,\u201d said Andreassen. <\/p>\n

Among the projects that advanced for further consideration are one from the Tanana Chiefs Conference to deliver vaccines and pharmaceuticals to Interior villages using drones; several proposals to disseminate \u201cwearable health monitoring devices\u201d to rural residents to track their blood pressure and other biometric data points; and a plan from the Wrangell Public School District to purchase virtual reality headsets as part of a new healthcare professional career track. <\/p>\n

Applicants who advanced through the initial screening process have until June 22 to submit additional information to the state on how they plan to use the money if they receive it. Final awards will be determined next month. <\/p>\n

Before making final funding decisions, the state is expected to rank the projects based on parameters<\/a> that include expected outcomes, rural impact, transformation potential, strength of partnerships and coordination, and sustainability.<\/p>\n

The summary of letters of interest<\/a> published by the Department of Health provides insight not just on the awards accepted but also on the companies outside Alaska seeking a slice of the state\u2019s new funding pie. <\/p>\n

\"\"The Alaska Department of Health in January 2026 hosted a multi-day event on Rural Health Transformation Program funding, which has drawn interest from technology giants including Microsoft. (Bill Roth \/ ADN) <\/p>\n

More than 300 proposals were submitted by companies headquartered outside the state, including from technology giants like Microsoft. The state advanced just 19 proposals submitted by Outside companies, including eight from Washington-based Providence Health & Services, a nonprofit that operates several hospitals throughout Alaska. <\/p>\n

Among the other advanced proposals is one from a Massachusetts-based startup looking to partner with the Anchorage School District to launch a school-based behavioral telehealth initiative. A New York-based company has offered to launch an app providing peer mentoring for Alaska youth ages 13-26. <\/p>\n

The funding requests highlight a reality that Alaska-based healthcare providers are contending with. Much of the money coming to the state through the program, even if awarded to Alaska-based recipients, will eventually go to purchase technology and software developed in the Lower 48. For Alaskans who see this program as a potential boon for the state\u2019s healthcare industry \u2014 the largest private-sector employer in the state \u2014 the funding may prove to be a mixed bag. <\/p>\n

Alaskans \u201care wary, naturally, of national-level or Outside interest,\u201d said Andreassen. Ultimately, he said, \u201cwe\u2019re trying to get investment into Alaska, but we\u2019re also trying to change the Alaska system, and we could benefit from what others are doing Outside.\u201d<\/p>\n

The project award categories were divided by amount into those under $50,000, those under $250,000, those under $1 million, those under $5 million, and those over $5 million. The state advanced 28 project requests for over $5 million \u2014 potentially amounting to more than half the funding available through the program. <\/p>\n

Among the requests for over $5 million is one from Ryan Air to purchase new aircraft to deliver medical supplies to rural Alaska. The aircraft \u201ctake off like a helicopter and fly as an airplane,\u201d allowing them to land on very short runways, Ryan Air wrote in the application. <\/p>\n

The letter of interest submission process \u201cwas intentionally designed as a broad intake process to help the department understand the range of ideas, opportunities, and transformation concepts emerging across Alaska,\u201d Department of Health spokesperson Mirna Estrada wrote in an email responding to questions. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal was not simply to identify the strongest individual proposals, but to advance a diverse and balanced portfolio that reflects Alaska\u2019s health care landscape and the commitments outlined in the State\u2019s approved RHTP project narrative<\/a>,\u201d wrote Estrada. <\/p>\n

Among the nearly 1,300 proposals that have already been rejected or deferred by the state is one from a California-based company that advocates for sex workers, called the Erotic Service Providers Legal, Education, and Research Project. It proposed opening an indoor dog park in Anchorage, complete with a coffee and ice cream bar. The proposal did not advance. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Alaska Department of Health hosted a multi-day event on Rural Health Transformation Program funding, with an in-person…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":690617,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253,299780],"class_list":["post-690616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-rhtp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=690616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/690617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=690616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=690616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=690616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}