State of Alaska Rural Health Transformation Program - Descriptive Title: Alaska’s Rural Health Transformation Program Organization name: State of Alaska Department of Health Subrecipients/sub-awardees: A wide range of entities across Alaska will participate as funding subrecipients, including: health care delivery organizations; Tribal Health Organizations; community-based entities; education and workforce development institutions; technology and innovation vendors; provider and trade associations; consulting and professional services firms; and state and local governments or authorities engaged in public health, education, or emergency medical response. Project goals: 1. Promote lifelong health and well-being for rural, remote, and frontier Alaskans. 2. Build sustainable, outcomes-driven health systems. 3. Drive workforce and technology innovation. Total budget amount: $1,000,000,000.00 Brief description of fund usage: Alaska proposes to use RHTP funding to strengthen community-led and regionally designed health systems that provide access to a full continuum of care as close to Alaskans’ homes as possible. The funds will be awarded to entities to launch projects in support of Alaska’s six initiatives: (1) Healthy Beginnings, which strengthens maternal and child health as a foundation for healthy families; (2) Health Care Access, which expands and sustains essential primary, behavioral, oral, specialty, emergency, home and community-based and post-acute care health services across Alaska’s rural communities; (3) Healthy Communities, which invests in enhancing access to preventive and primary care services that enable early chronic disease management, expanding the use of consumer-facing digital tools and population health clinical infrastructure, and promoting healthy lifestyles with culturally appropriate community education; (4) Pay for Value: Fiscal Sustainability, which incentivizes a shift from traditional volume-based reimbursement models to build the long-term financial stability of rural providers through voluntary innovative care and payment models that increase care coordination, lower costs and improve health outcomes; (5) Strengthen Workforce, which builds a resilient rural health care workforce through pipeline, recruitment, training and retention strategies, alongside wraparound housing and child care supports to help providers remain in rural communities; and (6) Spark Technology and Innovation, which harnesses data and technology to expand the use of consumer wearables and digital devices, enhance telehealth, foster appropriate use of AI, strengthen cybersecurity, facilitate data sharing and system interoperability, and test new delivery modalities using emerging technologies. These six initiatives are flexible, phased, and voluntary, allowing each community and provider to engage at a pace and scale suited to their local priorities and resources. These initiatives will transform Alaska’s health system. They reflect Alaska’s culture of innovation and self-reliance, and affirm our commitment to high-quality, accessible, and sustainable care.
