Gov. Sarah Sanders announced $149.3 million in Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP) grants Thursday (Aug. 27) — the first round of funding that is expected to equal $1 billion over five years.

The grant funding came from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed by Congress last year after $900 billion in cuts were made to the federal Medicaid program.

The awards were part of $209 million in grants the state expects to award by this fall. According to a press release from the governor’s office, Sanders expects Arkansas to receive roughly $1 billion over the next five years.

The first round of funding covers programs served by two initiatives. Projects received $93.6 million through the Promoting Access Coordination and Transformation (PACT) initiative. Projects received another $55.7 million through the Telehealth, Health-Monitoring, and Response Innovation for Vital Expansion (THRIVE) initiative.

PACT is meant to provide specialty care, preventive screenings, telehealth, and trauma-ready services to rural communities. At the same time, it will support locally driven clinical networks, data sharing and regional collaboration, the release noted.

The THRIVE program is designed to expand telehealth, strengthen emergency medical response, and deploy remote patient monitoring technology.

The state will later announce funding in two other initiatives: Recruitment Innovation Skills and Education for Arkansas (RISE AR); and Healthy Eating, Active Recreation, and Transformation (HEART) initiatives.

Sanders said the 50 awards would affect all 75 counties. She said Arkansas received more funding than 34 other states.

“We can’t have a strong state without healthy people,” Gov. Sanders said during a public event at the Capitol.

How will Dallas County be impacted by the rural health grants?

The University of Arkansas received $176,847 for the Rural Telehealth Readiness Initiative for Older Adults and Caregivers in Arkansas. The program serving Dallas County will pilot telehealth readiness training for older adults and caregivers through training materials, a resource website, AI-supported navigation, train-the-trainer workshops, and community education.

Arkansas Rural Health Partnership received $5 million for the Arkansas Rural Hospital Emergency Power Resilience Initiative 2026 serving Hempstead, Ashley, Dallas, Jefferson, Desha, Arkansas, Polk, Johnson, and Cross counties. It will purchase and install emergency generators, integrate electrical systems, and conduct testing so rural hospitals can maintain critical services during outages and disasters.

Arkansas Rural Health Partnership received $1,455,689 for the Arkansas Rural Behavioral Health Access, Safety & Stabilization (PACT-SAFE) Initiative serving Polk, Independence, Desha, Dallas, Howard, Ashley, Chicot, Phillips, Arkansas, Sevier, Ouachita, Hempstead, Little River, Drew, Cleburne, Union, Columbia, Clark, and Bradley counties. It will expand rural behavioral health crisis response, local treatment capacity, and patient and staff safety in communities facing service gaps, recent trauma, and provider shortages.

Arkansas Rural Health Partnership received $4,480,877 for the Rural Specialty Care on Command serving Drew, Lincoln, Bradley, Columbia, Chicot, Cleveland, Union, Ashley, Clay, Randolph, Lawrence, Sharp, Greene, Fulton, Dallas, Desha, Crittenden, Poinsett, Phillips, Mississippi, Lee, Howard, Monroe, Arkansas, Polk, Ouachita, St. Francis, Logan, Scott, Sebastian, Crawford, Sevier, Hempstead, Jefferson, Pope, Garland, Clark, Faulkner, and Miller counties. It will deploy virtual physician carts and portable telemedicine systems to expand specialty consultation, care coordination, and local clinical decision-making.

Doula Alliance of Arkansas received $860,5000 for Access Starts at Home: Rural Maternal Care Coordination and Doula Support. It will place 10 certified doulas in partner clinics across Northwest, North Central, Upper Delta, Lower Delta, and Southwest Arkansas and connect participants, doulas, and clinical teams through pregnancy and six months postpartum in partnership with My-Swaddle.

Arkansas Rural Health Partnership received $5,651,924 for the ARHP TECH: Rural Chronic Care Initiative. It will support technology-enabled chronic disease management in Polk, Independence, Desha, Dallas, Bradley, Howard, Ashley, Jefferson, Chicot, Hempstead, Union, Phillips, Arkansas, Sevier, Ouachita, Little River, and St. Francis counties.

Community Health Centers of Arkansas received $1,911,394 for the Arkansas Community Health Intelligence Platform. It will build a shared technology platform for Arkansas’ 13 federally qualified health centers, including health information exchange connections, population health analytics, interoperability tools, cybersecurity services, and implementation support. It will serve Dallas and 65 other counties.