CMS awarded Alaska $160 million through the Rural Health Transformation Program, funding 142 projects to expand access to rural healthcare statewide.
The funding package includes $6.5 million to bring the first robotic-assisted minimally invasive surgery program to Southern Southeast Alaska, $5 million to build a tribally led residential treatment and recovery campus in Southeast Alaska, and more than $3.1 million to deploy AI-powered medical imaging across 21 acute care hospitals for faster stroke detection.
Alaska will also use $250,000 to develop a drone-based pharmaceutical delivery system for villages spread across 94,000 square miles, where medication deliveries can take five to 14 days during winter months. Nearly $4.6 million will strengthen the Alaska Family Medicine Residency Program, and $4.75 million will expand health information exchange connectivity for rural providers.
“This is what rural health transformation should look like: federal investment that is putting patients first, driving lasting improvements and expanding healthcare for the hardworking Americans who call these communities home,” CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz, MD, said in an Aug. 25 news release.
The award is funded through the Working Families Tax Cuts Act, which allocated $50 billion nationally for the program; Alaska is set to receive $272 million annually for five years, according to Sen. Dan Sullivan.
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