September 4, 2025

The President’s Message is published in the MHA Weekly News Report, a member only publication of the Montana Hospital Association. To subscribe, click here.

The new Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP) has tremendous potential to make generational investments into Montana’s healthcare system. The program, created with the passage of H.R. 1 by Congress earlier this summer, could potentially result in up to $1 billion for Montana over the next five years.

Last month, the State of Montana announced its Request for Information from stakeholders as it forms its application to the federal government for this program. The MHA responded to that request for information with a multi-partner response that included the Montana Primary Care Association, the Montana Medical Association, the Montana Health Network, the Montana Office of Rural Health and Area Health Education Center, and Mountain-Pacific Quality Health Foundation, along with more than a dozen other statewide organizations and subject matter experts working to advance healthcare in our state.

If the State is successful in its application to the federal government, we believe the MHA, through the Montana Health Research and Education Foundation (MHREF), is uniquely positioned to serve as a strategic partner and the primary fiscal administrator for the State’s program.

Why? MHREF was established in 1973 to provide the structure for the MHA to pursue federal, state and private grants and contracts requiring not-for-profit status, and may be best known as the agency that administered the Medical Assistance Facility (MAF) Demonstration Project for eleven years. It was the program that ultimately resulted in the creation of the Critical Access Hospital designation and many of today’s financing mechanisms for rural hospitals. It also positioned the MHREF to become the primary organization responsible for delivering major portions of the Rural Hospital Flexibility Grant Program, a quality and operations improvement program overseen by the State and funded by the federal government.

Since that time, MHREF has grown to host a variety of grant-funded programs designed to improve healthcare in our state including workforce development, emergency preparedness and other programs designed to enhance viability of and the quality of care at Montana hospitals.

In short, MHREF has a unique window to the hospital field – including hospitals of all sizes and types – both through its programs and its affiliation with the MHA; experience successfully managing major federal and state healthcare grants; and a proven, longstanding relationship with the State of Montana. MHREF also understands the rural and frontier nature of our state’s healthcare system, and has a track record of delivering meaningful support and services to participants while eliminating or minimizing the burden that often comes with grant programs.

It was a visionary move by the MHA membership and leadership to establish the Foundation more than fifty years ago. The Foundation now represents the overwhelming majority – roughly two thirds – of our staff here at MHA. I think those visionaries would be proud to see how the Foundation has grown to meet the evolving needs of the membership, and how it is prepared to seize this opportunity for the membership and our partners in the months and years ahead.