The Rural Hospital Stabilization Program (RHSP) provides technical assistance for rural hospitals to help improve financial stability by enhancing or expanding health care services that meet community needs.
Assistance may include comprehensive financial and operational assessments, education, one-on-one coaching, peer-to-peer sharing, and other forms of customized assistance.
Sponsor
The RHSP is funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA’s) Federal Office of Rural Health Policy and is administered by the National Rural Health Resource Center.
Benefits of Participation
Participating hospitals will receive no cost, in-depth technical assistance to help improve the hospital’s financial stability by enhancing or expanding health care services that meet community needs. Assistance will be provided one-on-one and peer-to-peer, and from subject matter experts, and will focus on areas important to rural hospitals including:
- Enhanced and expanded service lines
- Financial stabilization and increased revenue
- Operational efficiency
- Quality improvement
- Enhanced community awareness and perception
- Aligning services to community needs
Eligibility
Eligible applicants include Critical Access Hospitals, Prospective Payment System hospitals, Rural Emergency Hospitals, and Indian Health Service hospitals, regardless of bed size. Hospitals must also meet the HRSA’s definition of rural hospital to participate.
Cost and Amount of Funding
The program is provided at no cost to participants. Selected hospitals that meet program expectations receive financial support to cover all costs of participation.
Participant Expectations
Selected hospitals should exhibit strong leadership and a commitment to fully engage in RHSP services and activities. RHSP hospitals must actively engage in all facets of the program, commit to timely participation and follow up with the National Rural Health Resource Center to demonstrate measurable outcomes. Participation will require the support and involvement of the hospital’s board of directors, executive leadership, and other stakeholders (such as a system the hospital is affiliated with).
First Cohort Included Rural Missouri and Kansas Hospitals
In June 2025, the National Rural Health Center announced its selection of eight rural hospitals to be the first RHSP Participants. These rural hospitals, selected from across the country included Pike County Memorial Hospital in Louisiana, Missouri and Coffeyville Regional Medical Center in Coffeyville, Kansas. The participants will spend 18-24 months in the program, receiving a combination of education and coaching from a center-led team of experts. The participants will also receive funding to support 100% of the costs of participation ($3,930,405 total across the initial eight hospitals).
Upcoming Cohorts
Applications to participate in this program are accepted on a rolling basis and can be submitted at any time. The deadline for the second cohort is August 20, 2025. Applications submitted after August 20, 2025, will be considered for the following cohort of participants.
More Information
- Program Website: https://www.ruralcenter.org/programs/stabilization
- Recording of webinar discussing the program: https://youtu.be/8e24TnwlB3s
- Eligibility and Application Website: https://www.ruralcenter.org/programs/stabilization/eligibility
- Participant Expectations: https://www.ruralcenter.org/programs/stabilization/participation-expectations
This blog was drafted by Donn Herring, an attorney in the Spencer Fane St. Louis, Missouri, office, and Alexis Denny, an attorney in the Spencer Fane Overland Park, Kansas, office. For more information, visit www.spencerfane.com.
Click here to subscribe to Spencer Fane communications to ensure you receive timely updates like this directly in your inbox.
