As part of the effort to strengthen rural health systems, the federal Health Resources & Services Administration is making a total of $2.8 million in grant funding available in the Delta Rural Integrated Health Network Program.

The goal is to develop and strengthen integrated healthcare networks in the eight rural Mississippi Delta region states: Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee. 

The program seeks to improve healthcare delivery in the region by supporting the development of integrated health networks among rural hospitals, primary care clinics, behavioral health providers, and other essential healthcare organizations. Networks can include groups of healthcare organizations (such as rural hospitals or clinics). HRSA is particularly interested in networks and proposed networks that include both hospitals and clinics.

“For the past 18 months, we’ve focused heavily on how rural health networks can play an important role in helping small rural hospitals and clinics survive—and even thrive—even as rural providers (particularly independents) face significant headwinds,” wrote Tom Morris, associate administrator for rural health policy at HRSA, in a LinkedIn post. 

He added that besides the RFP for the Delta Rural Integrated Health Network Program, HRSA will soon release the funding notice for its revamped network program called Rural Health Network Advancement. “There’s no single solution to the challenges facing rural health, but the network model offers a viable path by banding hospitals and clinics together to achieve the size and scale needed to save costs, enhance clinical services, improve quality, engage payers and invest in the data and analytics that are an essential part of health care and the transition to value," Morris added.

He also described a recent meeting that brought together 15 rural health networks and a handful of state partners involved in the Rural Hospital Flex program to dive deeper into this model. “As states continue to move forward with Rural Health Transformation, I continue to think working with rural health networks offers a great path forward to carry out the goals of that program,” he wrote. 

The idea behind the Delta Rural Integrated Health Network Program is to link rural healthcare network participants together to improve collective capacity to address local challenges, expand access, and improve care quality in the rural communities they serve. For new networks, the goal is to develop integrated networks in clinical, administrative, and operational areas. For existing networks, the goal is to strengthen integration in ways that best serve its member healthcare organizations and patients.

HRSA says the funding will help new networks develop the legal and administrative infrastructure to work collectively while preserving local autonomy. Creating new networks will help Delta healthcare organizations enhance clinical service delivery, improve their financial operations, and achieve other operational efficiencies not otherwise available to small individual healthcare organizations. As these networks grow and mature, they will also be able to integrate further to stabilize services, expand access to care, and improve population health. 

By strengthening the systems of care in the rural Delta region, the networks will be able to preserve access to care and address long-standing challenges related to higher rates of chronic disease, higher mortality and lower life expectancy.

HRSA currently works with the DRA on two initiatives:
• The Delta Region Community Health Systems Development (DRCHSD) Program, which provides intensive, multiyear technical assistance to healthcare facilities across the 252 parishes and counties in the Delta region.

• The Delta Health Systems Implementation Program which provides funding to rural hospitals that previously received technical assistance through the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP). Projects focus on financial sustainability based on recommendations from technical assistance consultations.