Senator Marshall Sends Letter to CMS Administrator Supporting Kansas’ Application for the Rural Transformation Fund

Washington – On Tuesday, U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-Kansas), sent a letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator, Dr. Mehmet Oz, offering his support for Kansas’s application for the Rural Health Transformation Program funding.

The Rural Health Transformation Program was authorized by the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act and empowers states to strengthen rural communities across America by improving healthcare access, quality, and outcomes by transforming the healthcare delivery ecosystem. 

In his letter to CMS, Senator Marshall wrote:

“The leadership team who prepared the Kansas application engaged healthcare stakeholders across the state in a series of meetings to identify meaningful programs and strategies to transform rural health care delivery. I have also met with many of these healthcare provider groups over the past few weeks, and I applaud them for their innovative ideas to pivot from sick care to healthcare. I do believe we can make Rural America Healthy Again.

As you and I have discussed, these funds are to be both transformative and rural-focused. I urge CMS to provide oversight to states to ensure that both tenants are enforced over the next five years. We have seen time and again that well-intentioned programs and funding mechanisms have been altered to benefit urban hospital systems or used to backfill negative margins due to poor management. I would also ask that these funds not be made available for Congressional Directed Spending, but left for the healthcare stakeholders to access based on merit. And finally, I am hopeful that both the state leadership and CMS will monitor metrics of population health outcomes over the five program years to ensure that the funds are, in fact, making positive and lasting changes.”

Click HERE to read the full letter.

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Contact: Payton Fuller