Without Clear Strategy, CMS’ $50B Rural Hospital Fund Risks Falling Short

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s new $50 billion rural hospital fund is a positive step toward advancing rural health infrastructure — but short-term injections of cash won’t fix deeply rooted systemic challenges, one expert pointed out.

“Money is not the only answer,” said Jason Griffin, managing director at consulting firm Nordic Global .

During his time at Nordic, Griffin has worked alongside organizations like Microsoft and CHIME to help modernize rural hospitals’ IT infrastructure and expand the use of digital health tools amid ongoing workforce and reimbursement challenges.

He knows that rural providers’ stability is deeply threatened by looming Medicaid cuts. While last-minute funding was added as a stopgap, Griffin noted it will only cover about 37% of these providers’ p