Rural Health Transformation Brief: Tech Vendor Opportunities to Move Early
This guide will be useful for: Establishing RHT Program sales strategy, guiding RFP responses, and shaping content strategy for the Rural Health Transformation Program
“There’s a quiet before the storm…the floodgates are going to open…I have probably talked to or received information from every vendor in the technology space in this entire country. I literally get 20 a day and probably just as many phone calls…This application process is going to be intense. There are going to be a lot of people applying for these funds…A lot of people have the same ideas…So if you are not awarded…it just means it may not be unique to what was observed and found in this RFP process.” –Ryan Kelly, Mississippi Telehealth Association—Healthcare That Clicks
The RHT Program is moving with lightning speed around the country. It’s a new program and details are emerging every day, but right now, states are in their early stages of figuring out procurement, building advisory groups, and deciding how to make sure results reach communities.
They’re laser focused on turning funding into practice, which means we’re in an unprecedented window for tech vendors.
Now is the time to build out state-specific strategies, refine your digital transformation narratives, and train your sales and biz dev teams on how to have high-context conversations with the decision-makers and partners you want to work with.
I’m in the middle of helping multiple vendors figure out how they’re going to respond to the next five years of the RHT Program (and beyond). I’m sharing a few critical perspectives for enterprise healthcare tech vendors who understand that now is their time to establish marketing and sales strategies and start getting their content in order. (You can read on, or explore how LocutusHealth is doing that here.)
#1 It’s not just rural health.
The challenges of rural health aren’t isolated from the rest of the country—they’re connected to urban healthcare needs, literally. Interoperability is a major focus, and there is explicit emphasis on connection to metro hospitals with clinically integrated networks. (COVID was also a painfully clear example of just how lack of capacity in rural areas can quickly overflow into urban care systems.)
Beyond this, though, the challenges rural areas are facing—workforce shortages, chronic disease, interoperability, telehealth, cybersecurity—fall right in line with the themes that dominate healthcare at the mainstream level.
If you feel your strategy won’t be impacted by the RHT Program, you’re leaving opportunity on the table.
#2 Enterprise healthcare tech vendors need to move now.
The first year of awards of the $50 billion have been distributed, so states are currently in an implementation and procurement phase. RFPs are dropping and grants are closing—and because of the state-level specificity of RHT strategies, your existing, high-level messaging and positioning likely won’t be enough to stand out in the RFP and relationship-building process.
Now is the time to start adapting your messaging and aligning it with the states where your vendor type and solution have the most potential. Start by answering these questions:
💠Which CMS strategic goals (making rural America healthy, sustainable access, workforce development, innovative care, and tech innovation) do our solutions and results best align with?
💠What states should be the highest priority for us?
💠What existing content will best support RFPs and building a strong digital transformation narrative? What will need upcycling?
💠How can we reframe our messaging to fit a story of digital transformation for rural health?
💠How can we make this process easily repeatable and scalable across our high-priority states and adaptable as the program changes over time?
I’m compiling strategic priorities and additional information at the state level, so if you’re looking at specific states, you can find updates here.
#3 The 5-year term is only the beginning.
Yes, the RHT Program only covers five years, but it’s a launching point, not a destination.
CMS has built an expectation of sustainability to help ensure initiatives can survive without federal dollars after the initial program expires. States are under pressure to demonstrate “how improvements will last and can be sustained beyond the five-year award period.”
For tech vendors, this is a period of opportunity to develop a deeper understanding of rural health needs and how to build solutions that meet them where they are and enable digital transformation—now and in the future. Solving rural problems will be an immense learning opportunity and training ground for the challenges that healthcare leaders face across the country.
Mature vendors: You have an advantage here. You’ve got the experience to prove that you’ve weathered change and how your solutions play out with and without the support of federal funds. Don’t be shy about telling that story, and remember to keep the framing tight and precise, leaning into your experience in building trust with existing clients.
#4 The themes are the same, but different.
State leadership chose priorities from a list of five factors determined by CMS. This means that it’s relatively simple to identify the states that have the most potential for your solution type.
The final strategies vary significantly from state to state though, and each state has its own unique cultural contexts (e.g. not every governor or even decision-maker has the same feelings about the MAHA initiative) and health priorities, so contextualizing your existing content will be a smart play. Your sales teams and leadership should know how to speak to state-specific challenges and culture.
Content Strategy Pro Tip: If your tech supports one of the high-weight factors (like EMS, workforce efficiency, or data interoperability), lead with that. States are literally being graded on these specific categories.
#5 The funds are focused on transformation—not providers or EMRs
Funding limitations are good news for tech vendors, with limitations on what goes directly to provider payments, EMR replacement, and administrative expenses at the individual state level.
- Capital expenditures and infrastructure are limited to 20%
- Provider payments cannot be more than 15% of total funding
- EMR replacement cannot exceed 5% (if a previous HITECH-certified EMR system was already in place)
- Administrative expenses are capped at 10% of the amount allotted to a state for a budget period
- Funding for initiatives like the “Rural Tech Catalyst Fund Initiative” cannot exceed the lesser of 10% of awarded funding or $20 million
This means that the remaining funds go to infrastructure, workforce tools, and technology. This is a big potential win for tech vendors who move early and speak the language of rural health transformation at the state level. CMS doesn’t want to see spending on EHRs and direct provider payments. Instead, they want to see new interoperability layers—AI scribes, RPM tools, rev cycle solutions, telemedicine, etc.
RHT Is a Content Play
The tech won’t be enough. Let me say it again…the tech won’t be enough. Selling features and functionality won’t stand out in a discussion of digital transformation.
You need to make clear connections to intent and results—this includes in how you present your case studies, your sales talk tracks, your messaging, and solution positioning.
If you’d like to explore how you can use state-specific reporting, advising and review, or content creation to improve your Rural Health Transformation Program results, learn more here and grab some time to talk today.
About the Author
Megan Williams is President of LocutusHealth, a content marketing consultancy that helps enterprise healthcare technology vendors build the narratives, relationships, and sales enablement content they need to win complex deals. She functions as a “general contractor” for content marketing — coordinating strategy, messaging, and execution across the healthcare buying committee.
With 20 years in enterprise healthcare technology and a decade focused specifically on content marketing for health tech vendors, Megan brings rare dual fluency: she understands both the clinical and operational realities of healthcare systems and the commercial pressures facing the vendors who serve them. She holds an MBA in International Business, a B.S. in Healthcare Administration, and certificates in Digital Marketing from Columbia University and Content Marketing from Copyblogger.
Her work has appeared in The Content Standard and Forbes, where she contributed to the Brand Voice program covering technology and the future of the modern workforce. She is a recurring guest speaker for digital marketing graduate students at the Telfer School of Management at the University of Ottawa. Her client work has included Wolters Kluwer, Samsung, and HP.
Megan is currently working with multiple enterprise health tech vendors on go-to-market strategy for the Rural Health Transformation Program—helping them build state-specific narratives, prepare sales teams for high-context procurement conversations, and develop content that moves deals in a competitive and fast-moving funding environment.