Hawaii’s Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP) is built around a challenge few states face. Many specialized healthcare services are concentrated on Oʻahu, while patients and providers are spread across the state’s island system. Rural communities face limited specialty care, workforce shortages, and travel barriers that can delay treatment and place additional strain on families.
The state received $188.9 million for federal fiscal year 2026 to strengthen rural healthcare access, infrastructure, and care delivery. This is Hawaii’s first-year award under the five-year program, with future annual funding subject to federal approval and performance.
What Makes Hawaii’s RHTP Strategy Unique?
Connecting care across islands is central to Hawaii’s approach. The state’s plan covers all neighbor islands and rural portions of Oʻahu, representing 40.8% of its population under the program’s rural definition.
Hawaii is pairing shared health information systems and telehealth with investments in local healthcare professionals, emergency services, and recovery support. The goal is to make care more accessible within rural communities while improving coordination among the providers serving them.
What Hawaii’s Rural Health Transformation Program Is Designed to Address
Six interconnected initiatives guide the state’s plan:
Rural Health Information Network (RHIN): Connect rural hospitals, clinics, and health centers through electronic health records, referral systems, and shared data platforms to support care coordination.
Pili Ola Telehealth Network: Expand virtual care through access points in schools, libraries, workplaces, and community centers, supported by telehealth navigators and remote patient monitoring.
Rural Infrastructure for Care Access (RICA): Strengthen emergency medical services, mobile healthcare, community paramedicine, behavioral health capacity, and statewide emergency and trauma coordination.
HOME RUN Rural Healthcare Workforce Pipeline: Recruit and retain healthcare professionals through rural training sites, residencies, education awards, transition-to-practice programs, and retention support.
Rural Respite Network: Develop five medical respite centers in Kauaʻi, Maui, Kona, Hilo, and Waiʻanae to support recovery for patients experiencing homelessness or post-acute medical needs and reduce preventable hospital stays.
Rural Value-Based Innovation and AHEAD Readiness Fund: Help rural providers prepare for new care and payment models through quality reporting, analytics, practice transformation support, and other readiness investments.
Latest Hawaii RHTP Updates and Developments
$58 Million Directed to Workforce and Emergency Services
On September 1, 2026, federal and state officials announced $58 million in RHTP funding for workforce development and emergency response.
The announcement includes $45 million for the University of Hawaiʻi John A. Burns School of Medicine to administer workforce programs through HOME RUN. Another $13 million will go to the Hawaii Department of Health to acquire new ambulances for each county and upgrade emergency communications systems.
HOME RUN Links Training to Long-Term Rural Service
The HOME RUN education award offers tuition support to eligible students pursuing clinical and health information technology professions in exchange for five years of full-time work in rural Hawaii after graduation.
The workforce strategy is already drawing significant interest. In early September, Hawaiʻi Public Radio reported that the program had received more than 500 applications. The initiative also includes plans to build healthcare education pathways in rural high schools, creating another route for students to prepare for healthcare careers within their own communities.
August Activity Advances Provider Readiness
Hawaii’s State Health Planning and Development Agency has also begun moving provider readiness projects forward.
August procurement activity focused on hospital infrastructure, analytics, transformation support, clinically integrated networks, and managed services organization support. SHPDA also listed an August 28 notice of award to the Hawaii Primary Care Association for infrastructure, analytics, readiness funding, and transformation support for federally qualified health centers.
Organizations can follow these and other implementation developments through SHPDA’s Rural Health Transformation Program page.
Where to Follow Hawaii RHTP Opportunities
Hawaii’s RHTP funding opportunities page provides a central place to follow available opportunities, including links to the Hawaiʻi Awards & Notices Data System (HANDS) and the HOME RUN education award application.
Eligibility, deadlines, and submission requirements will depend on each individual funding notice.
REDi Health's Perspective
Hawaii’s RHTP strategy will depend on how well each initiative is connected to clear accountability, measurable outcomes, and long-term financial sustainability.
For healthcare leaders, that starts with strong governance. Each project should have a clear owner, defined responsibilities, and baseline measures in place before implementation. Depending on the initiative, those measures could include appointment availability, referral completion, workforce retention, avoidable hospital use, or the cost of maintaining new services.
Financial stability should also remain part of the conversation. New programs are easier to sustain when hospitals understand the revenue, operating costs, staffing requirements, and reimbursement tied to them. That includes making sure organizations are being paid accurately for the care they already provide and identifying opportunities in areas such as denials, coding, billing, and payer contracts.
Consistent data gives state and hospital leaders a way to track progress, report outcomes, and make informed decisions as RHTP moves forward. The goal is to build programs that can demonstrate their value during the grant period and remain financially sustainable after the funding ends.
If your team is working through RHTP governance, financial sustainability, or outcomes measurement, contact REDi Health to talk through where to start. You don’t have to figure it out alone.
