The Virginia Health Care Foundation awarded 25 grants through the Rural Health Transformation Program this month, including a dozen awards worth nearly $4 million that went to organizations in Southwest and Southside Virginia.
The grants will help rural hospitals, clinics and other healthcare organizations upgrade electronic health records, strengthen cybersecurity, improve internet connectivity and securely share patient information.
The Rural Health Transformation Program was established under HR 1, the federal spending legislation signed by President Donald Trump in July 2025. The nationwide initiative provides $50 billion over five years to strengthen rural healthcare. The same legislation also includes significant reductions in Medicaid and other healthcare funding.
Virginia received $189 million for the program’s first budget year to implement strategies that improve rural health. Federal officials will award funding to states over five budget periods, with future allocations subject to a review of each state’s progress and performance.
The federal deadline for states to obligate their first-year funding is Oct. 30.
The federal government released its first report on how states are implementing funds on Friday. As of July 31, Virginia had allocated $126 million, according to the report.
Heidi Hertz, Virginia’s director of the Rural Health Transformation Program, said in an email Friday that the state’s performance data will help determine its funding level for the next year.
“The Spanberger administration is committed to ensuring these resources efficiently reach the rural communities they are intended to serve and support projects that respond to real needs on the ground,” Hertz said. “Virginia is making strategic investments to expand healthcare access, advance innovation, strengthen the rural healthcare workforce and promote health and well-being across rural communities.”
The Virginia Health Care Foundation, a public-private partnership focused on health equity and access, administers some of the program’s grants. It is one of 10 key implementation partners helping distribute the state’s funding, Rachel Rees, the foundation’s CEO, said in an email Thursday.
Virginia’s application for the federal funding outlined four primary initiatives: technology, workforce, access and prevention. Those initiatives are divided into 15 targeted subinitiatives.
The foundation administers two funding streams under the technology initiative: provider interoperability, which received about $14 million in first-year funding, and provider productivity, which received about $9 million.
The interoperability initiative helps independent rural providers, including free clinics and federally qualified health centers, modernize their digital infrastructure. The goal is to close technology gaps that can prevent rural providers from keeping pace with advances in electronic health records and cybersecurity, according to the state’s application.
Provider productivity grants support the adoption of documentation and workflow tools that are intended to reduce administrative burdens and provider burnout, allowing rural clinicians to spend more time on patient care.
The foundation has awarded $14.39 million through its two funding streams, including about $3.8 million for Southwest and Southside Virginia. [See below or click here for a list of regional recipients.]
The application period for these grants has closed, according to the Virginia Rural Health Transformation website.
More rural health funding opportunities remain
Applications are still being accepted for several other initiatives under Virginia’s Rural Health Transformation Program, including Earn to Learn programs, career pipelines, Food Is Medicine programs and Active Kids.
Application details for consumer technology and integrated care for people enrolled in both Medicare and Medicaid have not yet been announced.
On Oct. 5, the state announced application portals for the Tech Innovation Fund and Build Career Pipelines initiatives.
The Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation and the Virginia Department of Education, two of the program’s implementation partners, are seeking proposals to invest in startups developing promising healthcare technology and to help rural school divisions strengthen pathways into healthcare careers.
More information about available funding and application deadlines is available on the Virginia Rural Health Transformation Program website.
Awards include $3.8 million for Southwest, Southside projects
The Virginia Health Care Foundation awarded Rural Health Transformation Program grants for projects in four categories: improving network capacity, modernizing electronic health records, strengthening cybersecurity and enabling electronic data exchange, according to a foundation news release.
Among the regional recipients:
- Buchanan General Hospital received $382,000 to replace its outdated phone system with a modern, secure system, according to the release. It also received $33,000 to transition its Tristate Clinic, located in Grundy, onto the electronic health record system used by the hospital and its other clinics.
- The University of Virginia Health Comprehensive Epilepsy Program received $84,000 to bring reliable internet to its Wise and Tazewell outreach clinics and equip community health workers with portable internet kits for home visits and telehealth across Southwest Virginia.
- Town Center Urgent Care, based in Grundy, received $305,000 to upgrade its electronic health record and billing systems across five clinics.
- Community Memorial Hospital in South Hill received $56,000 to strengthen cybersecurity by moving critical hospital systems off an outdated, unsupported server.
- The Health Wagon received $260,000 to replace aging computers, upgrade network wiring, install new firewalls and strengthen email and device security at its Wise and Clintwood clinics.
- Tri-Area Community Health, a federally qualified health center in Ferrum, received $179,000 to secure remote work systems, protect accounts and medical devices, and strengthen cyberattack response and recovery.
- WIN Care Health in Floyd received $250,000 to add backup internet and generator power, strengthen cybersecurity and replace faxing with electronic hospital admission and discharge alerts in the county. WIN stands for Wholistic Integrative Networked, according to a 2025 article in the Floyd Times about the grand opening of the urgent and primary care clinic.
- Danville Regional Medical Center was awarded $150,000 to connect independent rural practices with Danville, Martinsville, Wythe County and Clinch Valley community hospitals to securely share admission information, lab results and imaging reports.
- Pulaski County Office of Prevention and Recovery received $70,000 to launch a shared care coordination system linking the office, community paramedics and local partner organizations.
Larger health systems also received grants to improve technology and coordination across their rural networks:
- Ballad Health won $2 million to upgrade the networks and communication tools connecting Norton Community, Lee County and Lonesome Pine hospitals with its regional command center, expanding telemedicine services.
- Carilion Medical Center in the Roanoke Valley received $69,000 to expand real-time emergency department alerts for care teams focused on behavioral health and substance use needs.
[Disclosure: Carilion is one of our donors, but donors have no say in news decisions; see our policy.]
Other awards totaling almost $4 million will support projects serving rural communities across Virginia:
- The Virginia Pharmacy Association received $500,000 to help rural pharmacies adopt electronic health record systems that securely share information with other providers.
- The Virginia Association of Free and Charitable Clinics received $250,000 to help 13 rural free clinics identify and address cybersecurity risks through security reviews, testing, hands-on support and staff training.
- UVa Health–Fortify Children’s Health received $800,000 to build a statewide pediatric network for secure data exchange and coordinated care, including internet upgrades at 20 sites.
- Virginia Community Healthcare Association received $1.5 million to expand a shared data and population health system to rural community health centers across the commonwealth.
- Virginia Health Information received $856,000 to connect more than 30 rural independent practices and free and charitable clinics to the statewide Health Coordination Network, in partnership with the Virginia Association of Free and Charitable Clinics and the Medical Society of Virginia.
