Nearly $170 million in grants aim to boost rural Colorado health care access

STATEWIDE, Colo. (KRDO) -- The Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing (HCPF) and Gov. Jared Polis have announced almost $170 million in grants through the Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP).

The governor's office says the investment was funded by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to improve access to care and health outcomes in rural communities statewide. HCPF says it is putting the funding towards hospitals and caregivers that are "improving and sustaining rural healthcare, including maternal health and supporting the healthcare workforce."

"This funding will give rural healthcare providers some relief and help protect healthcare access across rural Colorado. Today we are awarding nearly $170 million to healthcare providers to improve the quality of care across rural Colorado,  and I look forward to seeing how these funds make healthcare more affordable and accessible,” Gov. Polis said in a press release.

According to HCPF, it received 112 eligible applications asking for more than $250 million in funding for over 350 projects. They say those eligible applications then went through a review process before being selected. Eventually, 91 applicants and around 250 projects were selected across 52 rural or frontier counties, according to HCPF.

HCPF says some of the funding went to expanding telehealth, expanding blood transfusions, improving maternal, newborn and pediatric care and modernizing rural healthcare technology and infrastructure.

A full list of projects that were awarded funding can be found on the RHTP website.