CHEYENNE, Wyo. – October 23, 2026 – Governor Mark Gordon (R-Wyo.), United States Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and Wyoming Department of Health Director Stefan Johannson were joined by health care leaders from across the state today to announce Wyoming’s Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP) awards that will help fund critical access hospitals, EMS services, and other health care-related projects.
“As a doctor who practiced medicine in Wyoming for 24 years, I know how important affordable, reliable, and quality local care is for our rural communities. That’s why I fought last year to create the Rural Health Transformation Program,” said Senator Barrasso. “Wyoming is using this year’s $205 million investment to strengthen and expand access to care in every corner of our state. We are supporting our rural hospitals, clinics, and emergency medicine services. We are investing in training and recruiting highly skilled doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals. We are embracing new technologies and bringing quality care closer to home. This is just the beginning. More funding will follow over the next four years. I’m confident this historic investment in rural healthcare will improve care for families across Wyoming.”
“Wyoming is a unique state with far flung communities a great distance apart. We need flexibility and sustainability that meets healthcare needs across the State. The Rural Health Transformation Project equips Wyoming to continue to find solutions for our rural and frontier communities,” Governor Gordon said. “I want to thank President Trump, Wyoming’s United States Senator John Barrasso and Administrator Oz for their leadership in bringing this program to fruition.”
“The Trump Administration’s Rural Health Transformation Program is helping states like Wyoming develop innovative, locally driven solutions to improve rural Americans’ access to high-quality care,” said CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz. “These grant awards demonstrate how this historic investment is empowering rural communities to strengthen their health systems, put patients first, and bring better care closer to home.”
“This initiative prioritizes financial sustainability of Wyoming’s small critical access hospitals and rural and frontier ambulance services. Put simply, in our low-population state, high-fixed cost healthcare services and infrastructure that are core to our communities should not have to depend on volume to be sustainable,” Stefan Johannson, director of the Wyoming Department of Health said. “RHTP offers an opportunity to change how we deliver and pay for basic care in rural and frontier areas, with a focus on long-term sustainability. Within this initiative, the Critical Access Hospital Basic incentive program and the EMS Regionalization program provide funding to shore up basic care — like labor and delivery, EMS, and trauma services — while also creating funding opportunities to encourage common sense partnership and collaboration to make services more sustainable.”
Awardees who spoke at the state capitol today included Kerry Ashment, CEO Carbon County Hospital, Luke Senden, CEO Johnson County Hospital, Matt Dammeyer, CEO Converse County Hospital, and Scott Alwin, CEO Hot Springs County Hospital:
“Emergency medical services are often the first link in the chain of survival. In rural Wyoming, where distances are significant. In Carbon County we cover over 8,000 square miles, and whether conditions can be challenging, timely emergency response can make the difference between life and death. Supporting EMS means supporting our first responders, improving our ability to respond to emergencies, and providing greater confidence and security to the people who live, work, and travel throughout the region,”Kerry Ashment, CEO, Carbon County Hospital said. “As a rural hospital CEO, I understand the challenges of sustaining vital services while managing limited resources, workforce needs, and the growing demands placed on rural healthcare organizations. Investments like this help us address those challenges with renewed purpose and a strong foundation for our future. I want to thank our state leadership for your commitment to Wyoming’s communities, for advocating for the needs of our state and its rural residents, and for helping advance initiatives that support access, quality, and sustainability in rural healthcare. Wyoming’s rural communities are built on resilience, independence, hard work, and neighbors looking out for one another. Our rural hospital reflects those same values.
“No one joins healthcare because they like paperwork and cumbersome processes. And the ability for our providers to have a unified system for each one of our patients, no matter what setting that they’re in, is going to do so much for transforming the way that we deliver care inside of our community,” Luke Senden, CEO Johnson County Hospital said. “Our ability to collect quality data out of one system to make meaningful improvements in how we deliver care from a quality standpoint, from an informatics standpoint. It’s going to do so much in improving the way we deliver care to eliminate or reduce administrative burden and actually do what we’re here to do and care for patients. And so thank you guys so much for what you have done and what you provided for us in this opportunity.”
“One of the things that I just absolutely love about Wyoming is that Wyoming is small in number but very influential even at the national level. I kept saying through the whole process, this is incredibly bold. This is bold what Wyoming is trying to do. It is gutsy. What I’ve seen has given me hope for healthcare. Whenever I talk about this program, I always talk about the kind of the root word of transformation,” Matt Dammeyer, CEO Converse County Hospital said. “You know, we all know that when Medicare was created, it was created at a time when the United States had massive amounts of economic power worldwide, and it contained a relatively small percentage of GDP compared to today. Today, healthcare is incredibly expensive. It’s a major part of our economy. It has to shift. It has to change. We all know that. But if you are in a rural setting and you are faced with changing something that massive, you need help. And this is the lifeline that we honestly need.”
“For hospitals across rural Wyoming, the challenge isn’t simply providing healthcare, it’s preserving access close to home for the future. And these funds should help do that. For us, the first thing this is going to help with is ensuring that our obstetrical services remain available for our community,” Scott Alwin, CEO Hot Springs County Hospital said. “We serve as a regional hub for Women’s Health and Obstetrics, addressing maternal health— maternal health desert that extends across several neighboring counties. And this funding strengthens our ability to continue providing that critical access for families throughout the region. Second, these resources will help us in advancing our emergency services. When seconds matter, access matters. Whether it’s a heart attack, stroke, or serious injury, emergency services are critical in ensuring that those emergency care capabilities will allow us to respond faster and expand our services and improve outcomes for the patients who depend on us every day. Finally, this investment is going to enable more patients to recover closer to home after hospitalization, allowing family and community support that’s closer to home.”
As of October 2026, funding allocations, competitive applications, and awards have been completed for Year 1 of Wyoming’s $205 million Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP). Wyoming’s federally approved RHTP plan consists of four major initiatives.
To view the press conference, visit here.
