Zach Levinson

@Ajzionts Cool!

I saw this group of bighorn sheep and some pet peacocks and mini donkeys (which we pet) on my bike ride in Rapid City yesterday! Earlier this week I saw a prairie dog right outside downtown which is unusual. His burrow was in an empty lot.

At a roundtable, the administration touted a $50 billion fund that will make large investments in rural health. That funding would accomplish more if not on the heels of an estimated $137 billion reduction in federal Medicaid spending in rural areas. kff.org/medicaid/how-m…

The Rural Fund grants are a grab bag from telehealth to mobile health to parks and trails for recreation. Our analysis based on rural population: kff.org/state-health-p…

NEW: The initial awards to states under the new federal Rural Health Transformation Program show relatively modest variation in total awards across states but wide variation in how much states will receive per rural resident. Our analysis: on.kff.org/3YW7Hv0

New: With first year awards from the rural health transformation fund out, our analysis shows wide variation in the amount per rural resident across states.

⚡ KFF’s Zachary Levinson writes about the site-neutral payment reform included in the CMS’s 2026 final outpatient prospective payment system rule under traditional Medicare. #QuickTake on.kff.org/4odNESQ

CMS will decide which states to fund by the end of the year, and how to allocate the first year of funding across states. It is not yet clear how states will distribute funds across rural hospitals, other providers, and other state initiatives (9/9)

The analysis could not factor in the $12.5 billion that will be distributed based on CMS’s discretionary scoring of state policy, state initiatives, and other factors (8/9).

The July 2025 reconciliation law created a $50B rural health fund to help offset the impact of the law on rural areas. Our brief suggests that state awards from most of the fund could vary only modestly despite large differences in rural needs 👇(1/9) kff.org/state-health-p…

CMS's recent announcement includes many new details about the distribution of the rural health fund across states, but questions remain about which states will receive funding and how well awards will align with state need. More in our recent brief: kff.org/other-health/k…

States will receive more from the $50 billion rural health fund if they adopt certain Make America Health Again (MAHA) policies. This and more from a new KFF brief examining CMS's recent funding announcement: kff.org/other-health/k…

New KFF brief examines CMS's recent rural health fund announcement. While the $50B fund could help rural areas in a number of ways, it's unclear the extent to which it will benefit rural hospitals and offset their losses under the reconciliation law. More: kff.org/other-health/k…

With today's announcement, it still remains to be seen how much of the $50 billion rural health fund will go to hospitals. According to CMS, payments to providers for care "cannot exceed 15% of the total" though other uses, like capital investments, could also benefit hospitals.

Our analysis of rural Medicaid cuts and the temporary rural health relief fund. kff.org/medicaid/a-clo…