Seven Southern Maryland health organizations are sharing more than $11.6 million in the first round of Maryland’s Rural Health Transformation Program, part of a new federal initiative that’s sending billions of dollars into rural health systems nationwide — including into parts of Calvert, Charles, and St. Mary’s counties most residents may not think of as “rural” at all.
A $50 Billion National Program, Explained
The money traces back to a federal program most people have never heard of. In September 2025, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services launched the Rural Health Transformation Program, a $50 billion initiative created under the Working Families Tax Cuts legislation — the same reconciliation package commonly known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill.” Every state applied, and in December 2025, CMS announced awards to all 50. The money flows out over five years, $10 billion annually through 2030, split evenly: half divided equally among all states, half allocated based on each state’s rural population and health needs.
First-year awards averaged $200 million nationally, ranging from $147 million in New Jersey to $281 million in Texas. Maryland’s award came in below that average, at just over $168 million — a reflection of the state’s relatively small and geographically compact rural footprint compared to larger, more rural states. For comparison, Delaware received $157 million, Massachusetts $162 million, and New York more than $212 million. U.S. Rep. Andy Harris, whose district includes part of Southern Maryland, praised the program at its launch as “an unprecedented investment” delivered through the tax legislation.
How Maryland Is Structuring the Money
Maryland split its award into three “pillars”: workforce development ($26 million), sustainable access and innovative care ($126 million, the largest share), and nutrition access ($15 million), with a small governance allocation on top. Of Maryland’s 24 counties, 18 carry the state’s official rural designation — every county except the state’s most populous Baltimore- and Washington-area jurisdictions — making Calvert, Charles, and St. Mary’s all eligible for funding despite their proximity to the D.C. metro area.
The $80 million, 41-grantee first round announced this year draws almost entirely from the “sustainable access and innovative care” pillar — roughly $72 million of it, based on the award table, went to organizations building projects like mobile clinics, telehealth infrastructure, and care-coordination hubs. Separate competitive funding rounds for workforce development and nutrition-access projects are still working through their own application processes, with award announcements expected through the second half of 2026.
What Southern Maryland Is Getting
Seven organizations serving Calvert, Charles, and St. Mary’s counties directly received awards in this round:
The St. Mary’s County Health Department received the largest local award, $3.53 million, for “St. Mary’s 360,” a countywide effort to redesign how healthcare, behavioral health, oral health, and social services connect across schools, homes, and emergency settings under what the department calls a “Connected Care Everywhere” framework.
MedStar St. Mary’s received $2.52 million to build a mobile and virtual care network reaching underserved parts of Charles, Calvert, and St. Mary’s counties, including a mobile health unit, community telehealth hubs, embedded community health workers, and around-the-clock behavioral health coordination.
Calvert County Health Department received $1.5 million for a three-part initiative combining community prevention training, care navigators embedded in primary care clinics, and workforce optimization to build financial sustainability into crisis behavioral health infrastructure across Calvert, Charles, and St. Mary’s.
Greater Baden Medical Services, a Federally Qualified Health Center that has served Southern Maryland’s medically underserved communities since 1972, received $1.45 million to expand primary care, integrated behavioral health, and pharmacist-led counseling in Charles County.
Cornerstone Southern Maryland, a behavioral health nonprofit formerly known as Southern Maryland Community Network before merging with Cornerstone Montgomery in 2023, received $1 million for a mobile clinic bringing psychiatric care, therapy, medication-assisted treatment, and peer support directly into underserved Calvert, Charles, and St. Mary’s communities rather than building new fixed facilities.
Children’s Hospital received $1.1 million to launch an integrated pediatric behavioral health program in Southern Maryland, aiming to reduce long wait times for youth mental health care through telepsychiatry in rural emergency departments and expanded substance-use treatment, with plans to expand statewide.
The Charles County Department of Health received $511,347 to build an integrated rural oral healthcare model, including in-house 3D-printed dentures and prosthetics, to address dental provider shortages and transportation barriers.
Beyond those direct awards, Southern Maryland counties also stand to benefit from several statewide initiatives funded to serve all 18 rural counties at once — including a Center for a Healthy Maryland dementia-care program using AI-enabled risk monitoring, a Kennedy Krieger Institute effort to build a permanent virtual pediatric specialty “front door” for rural families, a Johns Hopkins University project linking rural EMS crews to teleneurology expertise for stroke and neurological emergencies, and a post-acute care network led by the Beacon Institute — together worth more than $10 million more, though not exclusively targeted at Southern Maryland.
What Comes Next
Maryland’s Rural Health Transformation Committee, which includes community members and elected officials representing rural regions, continues to meet and advise on implementation, with meetings open to the public. Additional competitive funding opportunities — covering workforce apprenticeships, provider recruitment and retention, mobile health regional hubs, and telehealth infrastructure — are expected to open through mid-2026, with the overall program running through federal fiscal year 2031. Residents and organizations can track upcoming funding opportunities through Maryland’s RHTP webpage or by emailing the program directly at mdh.transformruralhealth@maryland.gov.
