Freeman Health System was selected by Missouri Department of Social Services officials to host the inaugural Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP) Roadshow, one of 11 stops state officials plan to make statewide between now and early June.

At the Freeman Business Center on Thursday, May 21, state officials met with local healthcare leaders from Jasper, Newton, Barton, and McDonald Counties to learn more about the state’s implementation of the federal Rural Health Transformation Program. It was created last year as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill that provides $50 billion to reshape healthcare in rural communities nationwide.

Last December, Missouri was awarded $216 million annually over the next five years to improve rural healthcare. Missouri’s total was the ninth highest amount awarded to an individual state.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime investment [by the federal government] that we’ve never seen before,” said Joe Miller, Missouri Rural Health Program Director with the Missouri Department of Social Services.

However, time is of the essence. State officials have until the end of October 2026 to allocate the money. The roadshows—with scheduled stops in Poplar Bluff, St. Joseph, and Hannibal, among others—are the quickest way to educate healthcare officials about how to use the money to address rural healthcare neglect.

Twenty-seven hubs have been mapped out statewide by DHS officials, incorporating 104 counties and excluding urban areas in St. Louis, Kansas City, Columbia/Jefferson City, and Springfield.

Joplin sits in hub #8, which includes Jasper, Newton, McDonald, and Barton Counties. While not the largest hub geographically speaking, it is the most densely populated hub with 216,871 residents, Miller said.

Over the summer, each hub will establish itself. Hub anchor applications are now being accepted; these anchors serve as neutral coordinators for each hub, driving the collective efforts of all partners to improve local patient outcomes.

“Think about a lot of policies and regulations and things that the state government and local government pushes down—rural really gets drowned out a lot of the time,” said Justin Clutter, Transformation Office Project Manager for the Missouri Department of Social Services. “They don’t think about how it impacts rural communities. Dollars get eaten by big urban conglomerates of healthcare. This is rural specific. And most importantly, it’s down to the community level. We want you to tell us what’s important to you. We want to help you achieve those goals.”

Soon, hub leaders will find out how much federal money they will be allocated.

“Those numbers,” Miller said, “are still being finalized.”

Miller seemed pleased at the cooperation he was already seeing from the healthcare leaders attending last Thursday’s roadshow.

“You are already doing a lot of this work,” he continued. 

Renee Denton, Freeman Health System’s Market President for the Missouri/Kansas market, mirrored Miller’s words.

“One of the goals that is going to be critical with the success here in Southwest Missouri is collaboration,” she said, addressing the local experts who attended the roadshow. “Your presence here today absolutely exemplifies Southwest Missouri’s ability to work together to make sure that we’re improving healthcare for our rural communities and our urban areas in our hub area.”