Hale County Hospital will receive $2.41 million to upgrade equipment and infrastructure under the first round of the Alabama Rural Health Transformation Program, Gov. Kay Ivey announced Monday, Aug. 24.
The award to the Greensboro hospital is meant to strengthen emergency and maternal care, expand diagnostic services and improve the reliability of essential hospital operations, according to the governor’s office. It is one of 138 grants worth more than $144 million announced statewide, and the only one going directly to a Hale County institution.
Hale County is named in the service areas of a dozen other funded projects.
The program, known as ARHTP, is administered by the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs with money from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. It is Alabama’s share of the $50 billion, five-year Rural Health Transformation Program created in the federal tax and spending law Congress passed in July 2025.
The state’s first-year award is $203.4 million, and the program is 100 percent federally funded.
Five of the 11 initiatives in the state’s plan were funded in this round: rural health, rural workforce, mental health, rural health practice, and a shared initiative covering electronic health records, information technology and cybersecurity.
Grants under the remaining initiatives will be announced later, the governor’s office said.
“Alabama is serious about creating systematic changes through the ARHTP to ensure every citizen has access to quality care,” Ivey said in the announcement.
ADECA Director Kenneth Boswell said the awards came at the end of a process that included six informational meetings around the state, five grant application workshops and hundreds of applications.
The largest award naming Hale County went to Whatley Health Services, the Tuscaloosa-based community health center that operates a primary care and dental clinic at 800 Hall St. in Greensboro. Whatley will receive $3.49 million to strengthen the electronic health record, cybersecurity and information technology systems across its clinic network in Greene, Hale, Lamar, Pickens, Sumter, Tuscaloosa and Walker counties.
The DCH Health Care Authority in Tuscaloosa received two grants with Hale County in their service areas: $2 million to establish a dedicated non-emergency medical transportation program across 10 west Alabama counties, and $3 million to recruit and retain two interventional cardiologists, a heart rhythm specialist and two advanced practice providers to expand cardiovascular care in the region.
Anderson Family Care in Demopolis was awarded $177,961 to open weekend clinic hours, giving patients in Hale, Greene, Marengo, Perry and Sumter counties an option for non-emergency care that does not involve an emergency department or urgent care visit.
Two university projects also list Hale County. The University of Alabama received $2.45 million to establish a shared support hub helping rural providers with referral coordination, health information technology and cybersecurity readiness in 12 counties.
The University of South Alabama received $1.51 million to build a technology and interoperability network serving 10 rural hospitals across 17 counties in south and west Alabama, and a second grant of $1.25 million to expand physician residency training in rural settings and train community health workers, telehealth staff and billing personnel in the same counties.
Under the mental health initiative, AltaPointe Health Systems received $935,895 to build the Alabama School Mental Health Network, a telehealth model intended to get rural students timely help during a behavioral health crisis. Hale County is one of 44 counties in the network’s service area.
Workforce grants naming Hale County include $7 million to the University of Alabama at Birmingham to expand the recruiting, training and retention of physicians for rural practice in 35 counties; $1.38 million to the Regional Training Institute to purchase and equip two mobile units that will bring hands-on emergency medical services training to rural residents in 36 counties; and $975,000 to Faulkner University for tuition assistance to health profession students who commit to five years of work in rural Alabama, along with housing and travel support for students completing rural clinical rotations.
Alabama Vascular Specialists received $241,894 to add ultrasound, circulation-testing and accessible examination equipment at its Selma satellite clinic and expand the clinic from one day a week to two; Hale County is among 19 counties in its service area.
The Alabama Fire College received $756,559 for scholarship-supported emergency medical services training for volunteer firefighters, rescue squad members and others in rural communities statewide.
CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz said in the announcement that access to quality care “shouldn’t depend on your ZIP code.”
The governor’s office said the funded projects cover rural areas in every Alabama county. The complete list is posted on the governor’s website.
