The federal government announced the delivery Thursday of the rest of a $218 million award to Georgia to support rural hospitals.
The $93.3 million completes the first fiscal year of a five-year, $50 billion national funding program approved by Republicans in Congress last year in President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said the money will pay for technical innovations at rural hospitals, such as surgical robotics and telehealth, plus medical training and recruitment, maternal and behavioral services, and newborn screening.
It will also help 87 rural Georgia hospitals prepare to provide what the federal agency is calling “value-based” care.
Dr. Dean Burke, the physician who leads Georgia’s Department of Community Health, said in a statement Thursday that the program will “have decades of positive impact” on rural healthcare.
U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, R-Jackson, thanked the Trump administration for “prioritizing rural communities.”
Collins, who is running to unseat Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, also attacked his opponent for voting with all other Democrats against the funding, which was part of the One Big Beautiful Bill and its budget and tax cuts.
Democrats had instead wanted to preserve funding for Medicaid, which the bill slashed by hundreds of billions of dollars.
Democrats have been attacking Collins and the GOP for their approach to healthcare, blaming it for rural hospital funding shortfalls.
For instance, the state Democratic Party asserted in late-July that Collins’ vote to pass “massive Medicaid cuts” had “solidified” St. Mary’s Sacred Heart Hospital’s decision to close its labor and delivery unit.
The Democratic Party has portrayed healthcare in Georgia as a crisis caused by Republicans and their refusal to expand Medicaid in the state.
A recent survey conducted by the University of Georgia for the Georgia Health Initiative found rising healthcare costs to be a potent political issue, especially among Democrats.
Concerns about rising costs cross party lines, according to the UGA survey, with 54% of Democrats and 38% of Republicans saying they were very or somewhat worried about being able to afford their monthly premiums over the next year.
The federal Rural Health Transformation Program that emerged from the One Big Beautiful Bill is sending $10 billion a year to the states over five years in the form of grants.
Georgia’s application last year netted the seventh-largest sum nationally.
The state Department of Community Health said less than 10% of the first year of funding will go toward administrative costs.
The state budgeted $15.6 million to help seven hospitals prepare for the new federal efficiency and accountability program, along with 80 other hospitals that were awarded money previously.
Another $6.2 million will support a “continuum of care,” such as medical transportation, school-based health services and newborn screening.
Eight hospitals will split a portion of nearly $10.4 million for a dozen “telepods” for telehealth and for pediatric “telepsychiatry” training. The money will also cover other initiatives to improve healthcare access.
The second largest amount, $23.6 million, will go toward medical workforce development efforts, including training and nurse faculty recruitment at Georgia’s public universities.
More than a third of the funding, $37.5 million is for technological innovations, such as surgical robots at 13 hospitals that will also get funding for surgeon recruitment and retention. The funding will also cover a grant to Equifax for “eligibility system enhancements” to expedite “eligibility determinations.”
Ty Tagami writes for Capitol Beat News Service
