Alaska opens $272M rural health grant portal with June 22 deadline

State officials say funding requests from the roughly 400 proposals that advanced through Alaska's rural health screening process far exceed what is available in this first cycle. The Alaska Department of Health announced that its Rural Health Transformation Program application portal opened June 1, giving those organizations until 9 a.m. on June 22 to compete for a share of $272,174,856 in federal rural health funds. Commissioner Heidi Hedberg said the state aims to notify applicants by late July, with program work set to begin August 1. "It's going to close 9:00 AM on June 22nd. Between June 22nd to mid-July, we are going to go through the review process and decisions will be— notifications on funding decisions. Our goal is late July. Our goal is that funding and program work starts August 1st. So you can see this compressed timeline that we are under," Hedberg said.

About 400 proposals reached the full application stage after being screened from nearly 1,800 letters of interest submitted between February 17 and March 11, representing about $2.5 billion in requests. "The needs far exceed the available funding," Hedberg said. Eligible applicants, including hospitals, providers, tribal health organizations, and community-based groups, apply through the Alaska Community Foundation rather than directly through the state. Organizations that receive federal funding directly must also have an active registration in SAM.gov, the federal System for Award Management. Applicants access the portal using an access code emailed to them on the day the portal opened.

Demand Exceeds Available Funding

Common themes from the letters of interest included behavioral health, access to specialty care, facility and equipment upgrades, chronic disease management, traditional healing, and workforce needs, Hedberg said. The spring 2026 performance period for implementation projects runs 11 months, from August 1, 2026, through June 30, 2027, a compressed window officials attributed to program buildup and the state's budget timeline with CMS. Future performance periods are expected to run 12 months.

The webinar also outlined key funding constraints that applicants must observe. Direct administrative costs for subrecipients are capped at 3% of an individual project budget. Across the entire program, provider payments are limited to no more than 15% of the total award, roughly $40 million, and must cover services not already reimbursable through existing payers. Replacements of previously certified electronic medical record systems are capped at about $13 million program-wide, and capital and infrastructure expenditures such as minor renovations, alterations, and equipment upgrades are limited to just over $54 million across the full program. New construction and major facility expansions are not permitted.