5 Strategic Reasons Your Healthcare Tech Company Should Have an RHT Strategy Yesterday

If your leadership thinks the Rural Health Transformation Program doesn’t apply to you, they’re wrong. These tips will make the business case as to why. 

The $50 billion Rural Health Transformation (RHT) Program is in play…and I’ve talked to entirely too many tech vendors who are still unsure why they should pay attention. 

The short answer is that the RHT Program is like nothing you’ve ever seen before, so your leadership shouldn’t underestimate the opportunity or potential for impact on all areas of healthcare tech and growth. 

The long answer is what I’m going to lay out here. There are reasons to engage that support defense against competitors, opening new markets, and hitting growth targets. 

Use these to evaluate your own internal business case and sway leadership responsible for revenue, growth, product, and strategy—and even to clearly explain why you decided not to throw your hat in the rural ring a year or two from now when it’s popping up in major headlines. (And I mean that seriously…there’s a ton of opportunity, especially for vendors with solutions that can truly help rural care communities, but it’s not a perfect fit for every solution or vendor.)

#1 RHT is where your market is headed

If you’re already in the rural space, this shouldn’t even be a question for you. 

What makes this program so tricky for healthcare tech vendors is that marketing and selling to rural entities isn’t the same as urban plays. Even product dev is its own world. This is compounded by the fact that RHT is a multi-track sales and biz dev play that varies by state.

If you already have healthcare clients, especially hospitals and health systems, you’re in an amazing position to become a preferred vendor with a state, launch partnerships, and expand your footprint—all with the blessing of the government. 

Competition is coming for your position in a way you’ve never experienced, and this isn’t the time to hesitate. Leverage the success you’ve already had. 

Potential RHT Pitfall: Vendors with rural experience might think it’s a status quo play, but it’s a complex and novel procurement process with high state-level granularity. This executive brief will explain more. 

#2 You have an opportunity to stress test a solution

The state-level variation for the RHT program is so extensive that no matter what your product lineup looks like, there’s probably a state that’s focused on the exact issues you address. Hawai’i is taking on telehealth and infrastructure, Louisiana’s looking at innovation in remote monitoring, Texas wants to improve financial stability and resilience. And this is just in year one. 

Rural health is a fascinating opportunity because it’s an incredibly challenging environment where you will be challenged to get results while validating for health equity data—incredible value for future cases even in non-rural environments. 

#3 You can reverse engineer innovation in healthcare tech—for urban and for the world 

When you look at the goals of the Rural Health Transformation Program, the themes should look familiar: 

• Sustainability, access, and efficiency
• Workforce challenges, including recruitment and retention
• Tech innovation to improve care delivery, cybersecurity, and leverage emerging technologies
• Care innovation around payment mechanisms for ACOs to reduce costs while improving quality of care
• Preventive medicine, evidence-based and outcomes-driven interventions in chronic disease, behavioral health, and prenatal care

These are the same challenges that healthcare is facing even outside rural settings. If you can solve the problems in remote areas of the US, you can take away invaluable lessons for urban areas and even international applications.  

#4 Rural Health Transformation isn’t just rural

Rural health entities don’t operate in a bubble. Many are extensions of urban networks—the spokes in countless hub-and-spoke models across the country. This means that creating and strengthening relationships to better serve rural communities is part of a play to connect with larger entities. 

Many “rural first” competitors are already getting their narratives and solutions in order for RFPs and ITNs, using CAHs, FQHCs and rural clinics as a wedge for innovative approaches to future growth and expansion. 

#5 Rural is where the revenue is headed

The $50 billion Rural Health Transformation fund was created under the same law that made historic cuts to Medicaid, especially in rural areas. It didn’t come out of thin air. 

This means that, depending on your market as a tech vendor, you could very likely see current clients and prospects cutting back on conventional investing—precisely because they’ve moved their focus into RHT projects that were decided months and years before you realized what was going on. (To be clear, though, CMS limits use of RHT program funds for simple replacements of pre‑existing state initiatives.)

And this is a multidimensional shift in how funds are spent with vendors. For example, costs like training and implementation can be covered by a state’s program under “technical assistance” carve-outs. For example, Oklahoma has set aside a significant portion of its annual budget for elements like project management, compliance auditing, reporting, and onboarding of rural clinics onto new platforms. 

While the program is still new and the future is still uncertain, states like Oregon, New Jersey, and Texas are already creating vendor interest lists. Once plans are set it’s highly possible that it will be difficult to get on these lists, so waiting until year two or three might not be the best idea. You want to get on state-level modernization roadmaps as early as possible to stave off long-term exclusion. 

Next steps for your RHT initiative

Because of the high levels of variation in the program, your path and strategy should be carefully thought out. These resources will help you get started. 

Executive Brief: An overview of the Rural Health Transformation Program from the vendor perspective

Pre-Launch Readiness Audit: A short assessment to build a state targeting short list, stress test your messaging, check KPI alignment, and evaluate your sales/BDR tactics. It will save your team significant effort in research and reflection. 

Custom RHT Opportunity Report: A complimentary report that informs the business case for RHT, outlines your high-level RHT opportunities (specific to your vendor and solution type), including where you align with CMS-approved use of funds. You can grab some time here to request that and discuss your RHT goals, or email growth@locutushealth.com with the solutions you’d like reviewed. 

About the Author

Megan Williams is an enterprise healthcare technology content strategist and the founder of LocutusHealth. A specialist in navigating the nuanced complexity of the healthcare buying committee, Megan is the originator of the Outcomes-Based Content Marketing (OBCM) Framework.

Her work centers on transforming content from a vanity cost center or DIY project into a strategic revenue center for healthcare tech vendors. By grounding strategy in market-centered Evidence-Based Listening, Megan helps healthcare tech marketing and sales leaders bridge the gap between technical value propositions and the nuanced needs of clinical, financial, and administrative decision-makers. She is a leading voice on the intersection of AI-enabled content acceleration and human-first industry authority.

Connect with Megan: LinkedIn 

Primary Framework: Outcomes-Based Content Marketing (OBCM)

Focus Areas: Healthcare IT, Enterprise Healthcare Tech, and AI Content Maturity, Content Strategy

Content Team Member: Wolters Kluwer, GE Healthcare, HP, Iron Mountain