Pennsylvania has been awarded $193 million in federal funding through the Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP), a five-year, $50 billion national initiative directed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to improve healthcare access, sustainability, and quality in rural areas of the U.S. from 2026 to 2030. This first payment is part of a plan that could ultimately deliver $1 billion to the Commonwealth over the program’s life.

For podiatrists practicing in Pennsylvania, this funding matters — even where our specialty isn’t explicitly named.

Why Rural Health Is a Podiatric Issue

Pennsylvania leads the nation in preserved farmland, with protected agricultural land spanning 58 of the state’s 67 counties. That means a substantial portion of the Commonwealth’s residents live in areas where access to a doctor — let alone a specialist — requires significant travel. For podiatric patients, this gap is critical. Conditions like diabetic foot disease, peripheral arterial disease, and wound care emergencies don’t wait, and delayed access to podiatric care is a well-documented driver of hospitalizations, amputations, and preventable complications.

Rural Pennsylvanians are disproportionately older, have higher rates of diabetes, and are more likely to be uninsured or underinsured — exactly the patient population that depends most on podiatric care. When patients can’t get to a podiatrist, the consequences show up in emergency rooms and surgical suites.

What the Funding Covers

Pennsylvania has committed the RHTP dollars toward six priority areas:

• Technology and infrastructure to expand primary and specialty care access
• Workforce incentives — including scholarships, mentoring, housing assistance, and stipends — for providers committing to five-year rural placements
• Maternal health and comprehensive care management
• Behavioral health services, including 988 crisis line expansion
• Aging services and transitions from hospital to home care
• EMS and transportation improvements

Several of these touch podiatry directly. Telehealth infrastructure investment could meaningfully expand podiatrists’ ability to serve rural patients for follow-up visits, wound monitoring, and diabetic foot assessments without requiring patients to travel long distances. And workforce incentives for rural providers are exactly the kind of programs that could help address specialist shortages outside of major metro areas.

The loan program targets primary care providers and excludes all specialists, which means podiatrists are not eligible at this time.

What PPMA Is Watching

Transportation remains one of the most persistent barriers to rural care access in Pennsylvania. Where public transit is limited or nonexistent, in-person podiatric visits become a logistical challenge for elderly and mobility-limited patients. Telehealth, while not a full substitute for hands-on podiatric evaluation, can play a meaningful complementary role — and the infrastructure investments included in RHTP funding could help make that a reality for more rural Pennsylvanians.

As CMS releases further guidance and Pennsylvania finalizes its RHTP implementation plan, PPMA will continue to report on developments that affect our members and identify opportunities to ensure podiatric medicine has a seat at the table.