A new, private non-profit group is hoping to use members’ collective expertise to find funding and sustainability for Alabama’s rural hospitals.
The Alabama Rural Hospital Foundation and its members were announced on Wednesday.
“More than a half-dozen rural hospitals in Alabama have been forced to close as a result of funding issues, and out of the 52 remaining, roughly half are considered to be at risk of closure, with 20 of them on the verge of shutting their doors any day,” Jamie Troutman, the foundation board’s president, said in a written statement.
Troutman, from Cullman, is also president of the Economic Development Association of Alabama.
“Access to health care affects the physical health of Alabamians in rural areas, but it also determines the economic health of the places they live, and our foundation’s goal is to improve both of those vital quality-of-life factors.”
The new foundation plans to use a newly created tax incentive to help meet its goals.
The Rural Hospital Investment Program, created through Rep. Terri Collins’ House Bill 86, created a dollar-for-dollar tax incentive program for individuals and businesses that donate money to rural hospitals. It has an annual statewide cap of $20 million for 2026, $25 million for 2027 and $30 million for 2028 and beyond. It requires a 10% match from local communities.
“I am pleased that support for rural healthcare is happening in so many different areas,” Collins, R-Decatur, told Alabama Daily News on Wednesday. “The tax incentives, the federal funding, the foundation all working together with local communities and businesses to help increase availability and access for healthcare. I believe these partnerships will truly make a difference for Alabama.”
The federal Rural Health Transformation Program is a $50 billion fund for states to tap into as part of the Republican tax and spending law, intended to offset significant cuts to Medicaid approved in the same legislation earlier this year. Alabama leaders hope to direct some of the funds to incentivize providers to serve in rural areas and to support labor and delivery services and primary care.
A group of health and legislative leaders appointed by Gov. Kay Ivey is currently discussing spending priorities.
If Alabama submits an approved application by the Nov. 5 deadline, it will receive at least $500 million distributed equally over five years beginning in 2026. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will allocate the other half of the $50 billion fund based on certain criteria, such as the state’s rural health population and its proposed policies in the application.
Other Alabama Rural Hospital Foundation board members are: Doug Brewer, CEO of Whitfield Regional Hospital in Demopolis; Dawn Bulgarella, CEO of UAB Health System and its 15 hospitals; Jason Davis, vice-president of Alabama Power’s Southeast Division; Lee Lawson, president and CEO of the Baldwin County Economic Development Alliance; Mark Nix, the president and CEO of Mobile’s Infirmary Health, which serves 11 Gulf Coast counties; Jeff Samz, president and CEO of Huntsville Hospital Health System and its 14 hospitals; Russ Tyner, president and CEO of Baptist Health Montgomery and its three hospitals; and Evie Mauldin, general counsel and Senior vice president of Bank Independent, which serves 18 communities across northwest Alabama.