The Louisiana Department of Health said the state will receive $208 million through the Rural Health Transformation Program, established when Congress approved President Trump’s Working Families Tax Cuts legislation. LDH Secretary Bruce Greenstein said this funding will improve healthcare access in rural communities.
“Congress and the administration were interested in helping address the access issues,” said Greenstein. “Training issues, bringing more clinicians to rural areas, many of which who grew up in those areas, and to help people lead healthier lives and live longer.”
Greenstein said this money will improve access to care, strengthen local healthcare systems and expand workforce capacity.
“We’ll be working with schools of nursing and allied health to open up the pipeline, so that they’re able to take more students that are qualified on the way in and produce more clinicians for our entire state,” said Greenstein.
Greenstein said the goal is also for this money to help rural residents with chronic or complex health conditions. These dollars will also help sustain operations at rural healthcare facilities and upgrade infrastructure.
Greenstein said, “modernizing rural hospitals so that they can both offer the top-notch services and technology, just as those that are in bigger cities.”
Nearly 1.1 million Louisiana residents live in rural parishes with 37% covered by Medicaid and 22% covered by Medicare. Louisiana’s award am0unt of $208 million is among the highest in the nation, and among the top three in the Southeast.