Rural Health Transformation (RHT) and HSRI

Supporting States to Move Rural Health Forward

Rural health initiatives succeed when data, workforce planning, care delivery, and community insight are aligned and reinforce one another. HSRI works alongside states to support data collection, implementation, and evaluation, helping to ensure that innovation leads to measurable, lasting systems change in your rural community.

HSRI can support states using RHT funding to strengthen access, coordination, and outcomes in rural communities. These initiatives span workforce evaluation and planning, data system integration, care delivery, and community engagement.

For 50 years, HSRI has worked alongside states to help translate complex system initiatives into clear, practical, evidence-informed action. Our role often sits in the middle ground: supporting the work that is essential to success but difficult to staff internally. We are a proven partner to support states’ efforts to effectively use RHT funds to meet program goals.

Where RHT Priorities and HSRI Strengths Align

Across state RHT proposals, common focus areas include:

  • Innovative and integrated care models
  • Sustainable funding options to support system change efforts
  • Workforce recruitment, retention, and stability
  • Telehealth delivery and network adequacy
  • Healthy food access and chronic disease prevention
  • Coordinated care across providers and systems
  • HEDIS improvement and performance measurement
  • Community health workers and EMS coordination

HSRI supports these priorities through hands-on, implementation-ready work, including:

  • Data collection, integration, analytics, and dashboards to inform planning and monitor progress
  • Gap analyses, feasibility studies, and system assessments that identify where access breaks down
  • Strategic planning and implementation for service access and quality improvement
  • Patient/participant-reported experience and outcome measurement to quantify service quality, gaps, and disparities from the perspective of service users
  • Workforce measurement and planning, including recruitment, retention, and capacity analysis
  • Behavioral health and primary care integration across rural systems
  • Telehealth readiness and network adequacy assessments
  • Community engagement and coalition building, ensuring local voices shape solutions

Turning Data into Actionable Insight

HSRI brings deep experience using claims data, surveys, and qualitative methods to help states understand where and why access breaks down. Our teams employ mixed-methods approaches to gain a more comprehensive understanding, analyzing both quantitative data (such as claims data) and qualitative data (including direct interviews or listening sessions with service users).

HSRI currently manages All-Payer Claims Databases (APCDs) in Maine, Colorado, and Oregon, and has supported additional states in using claims data to monitor chronic conditions, utilization, costs, and rural access gaps. This work gives states the evidence they need to guide RHT investments and track progress over time.

Strengthening the Rural Health Workforce

Workforce challenges are central to nearly every RHT initiative. HSRI supports states in collecting and using workforce data to guide recruitment, retention, and system planning.

Through the National Core Indicators (NCI) and NCI-AD programs, HSRI helps states measure provider stability, service quality, and outcomes for people with disabilities and older adults. These tools can be adapted for RHT efforts, including oversampling rural populations, benchmarking progress, and supporting value-based and quality improvement strategies.

Learn More

If you are interested in how HSRI can support your efforts to improve health in rural communities, please contact Leanne Candura at lcandura@hsri.org.