Mississippi Awards More Than $104 Million in Rural Health Transformation Grants, Including 27 Telehealth Hub Awards

Mississippi has begun handing out its first round of federal rural health dollars, and telehealth has its own dedicated slice. In an announcement dated September 14, 2026, Governor Tate Reeves said the state awarded 167 grants totaling $104,115,146 through the Mississippi Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP), including 27 awards under a program built specifically to expand telehealth capacity at rural providers.

The awards are a state level piece of a much larger federal effort: a $50 billion, five year program that sent first year awards to all 50 states. This article summarizes what Mississippi actually announced, how the underlying federal program works, where telehealth fits in the state's plan, and what the grants do not change.

What Mississippi announced

According to the Office of Governor Tate Reeves, the state awarded 167 grants totaling $104,115,146 on September 14, 2026. The governor's office described the awards as the first three grant opportunities in Year One of a planned five year transformation, drawn from Mississippi's roughly $205.9 million first year implementation budget.

The first round was distributed through three separate grant programs, each aimed at a different part of rural health delivery:

• Rural Provider Technology Grant Program: 97 awards, aimed at upgrading technology systems.
• Mississippi Rural Capital Project Care Gap Closure Grant Program: 43 awards, aimed at facility and service improvements.
• Telehealth Hub Connectivity, Equipment, and Education Grant Program: 27 awards, aimed at expanding telehealth capacity.

The dedicated telehealth grants

The Telehealth Hub Connectivity, Equipment, and Education Grant Program made 27 awards, with individual amounts ranging from about $30,610 to $2,543,900. The state framed the program around building telehealth connectivity, buying equipment, and training staff so rural providers can deliver more care remotely.

The Office of Governor Tate Reeves named specific telehealth recipients and amounts, including the following:

• South Central Regional Medical Center (Covington County): $2,543,900, the largest single telehealth award.
• Jefferson Comprehensive Health Center, Inc. (Jefferson County): $1,000,000.
• PSP Medical Clinic (Madison County): $1,000,000.
• CAMHP Foundation (Franklin County): $250,000.
• Resilience Counseling and Recovery Center, LLC (Rankin County): $50,000.

The awards cover a mix of hospitals, clinics, and behavioral health providers, which is consistent with the way telehealth is used in rural Mississippi for primary care, chronic disease management, and mental health visits.

How the Rural Health Transformation Program works

The RHTP is a $50 billion national program established under Public Law 119-21, the 2025 reconciliation law that CMS refers to as the Working Families Tax Cuts legislation. CMS announced in December 2025 that all 50 states would receive awards.

• The $50 billion is allocated to approved states over five years, with $10 billion available each year from 2026 through 2030.
• Half of the funding is distributed equally among all approved states, and the remaining half is allocated by CMS based on rural health metrics, state policy actions, and the potential impact of each state's plan.
• First year awards averaged about $200 million per state and ranged from roughly $147 million (New Jersey) to $281 million (Texas), according to CMS.

Mississippi administers its share through a Rural Health Transformation Program Office, which the governor's office said was established on April 29, 2026 within the Office of the Governor, with Richard Grimes as project director and an official program website at MississippiRHTP.com. The state's full federal award for the program is about $205.9 million for the first year, nearly all of it funded by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Where telehealth fits in Mississippi's plan

On its official program site, Mississippi organizes its longer term RHTP plan around several strategic initiatives, including a telehealth focused pillar it calls Telehealth Adoption and Provider Support (TAPS), alongside initiatives for coordinated regional systems, workforce, technology modernization, and infrastructure. The September 14 awards are an early, concrete step toward that telehealth goal rather than the whole of it.

For rural telehealth broadly, the significance is less about any single equipment purchase and more about where new federal dollars are landing. Mississippi joins other states, such as Georgia, that have directed part of their RHTP allocations toward telehealth infrastructure.

What the grants do not change

These awards are competitive grants to providers for connectivity, equipment, and training. They are not a change to Medicare or Medicaid telehealth coverage rules, so by themselves they do not alter which telehealth services are reimbursable, who may prescribe by telehealth, or the separate federal telehealth flexibilities that Congress and CMS set on their own timelines.

• The awards fund one time or startup costs (connectivity, equipment, education), not ongoing payment for telehealth visits.
• This is the first round of the first year; the governor's office described more grant opportunities to come across the five year program.
• Specific project timelines, the services each awardee will launch, and long term sustainability after the grant period were not detailed in the announcement.

This article is general information, not medical or legal advice. Patients and providers with questions about specific services should consult a licensed clinician or the primary sources linked below.