The remaining four haven’t stalled — Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Virginia are one confirmed procurement away from joining this week’s cohort, and Hawaii remains the only state still in Planning.
While fourteen states were catching up to Implementing, Texas left the tier behind entirely. On July 16, Rural Texas Strong Initiative 4 opened Round 2 — a second competitive grant cycle extending funding to a new wave of eligible rural hospitals and providers.
A second round is the tell. It means Texas has already run a complete cycle end to end — open, review, award — and is now repeating it, rather than still running its first. That’s the actual dividing line between this week’s cohort and the state ahead of them: not funding size, not initiative count, but whether a state has closed even one full award cycle.
“Technology vendors are eligible to apply and are strongly encouraged to partner with a rural health organization. Vendors applying without such a partner must supply detailed plans for engaging the target population and sustaining efforts locally.”
“For-profit entities are not eligible.”
“For-profit organizations… are not eligible to apply.”
“For-profit entities and organizations outside New Mexico are not eligible.”