HCAI officials presented an initial data snapshot of California’s rural health infrastructure, estimating thousands of rural sites and millions of residents who live in census blocks classified as rural, then outlined workforce strategies and persistent service gaps that the Rural Health Transformation Program could target.

On the webinar, Hovit Khosrobian, senior policy advisor at HCAI, summarized the agency’s initial counts and estimates: HCAI tracks 279 rural health clinics that require CMS approval, an estimated 151 federally qualified health center (FQHC) sites in rural areas, and about 76 hospitals categorized as rural (including critical‑access hospitals and other small rural hospitals). Khosrobian told attendees HCAI estimates “about 2,300,000 people living in rural census blocks” in California and noted roughly half of rural communities fall in federally designated primary‑care Health Professional Shortage Areas.

HCAI staff described four workforce strategy pillars they will consider in the state plan: pipeline programs to build interest in health careers, expanding educational capacity, student supports (scholarships/loan repayment), and retention supports for existing providers. Khosrobian said workforce activities are a central focus and that the federal program’s workforce element often includes recruitment and retention supports tied to service obligations.

Officials highlighted several recurring challenges raised in presentations and by webinar participants: rural hospital closures and loss of labor‑and‑delivery services, limited health‑IT infrastructure and interoperability, workforce shortages (clinical and nonclinical), transportation barriers, aging rural populations with greater chronic‑disease needs, and constrained access to specialty care. Tiffany Frazier of SOAR noted that maternity care and labor‑and‑delivery services were cited by CMS materials as a priority area for potential RHTP investment.

HCAI asked stakeholders to share facility‑level and programmatic data to refine needs assessments, pointing to the state open data portal for facility datasets and promising that a rural‑health webpage will include the webinar recording and survey materials. Officials emphasized those figures are preliminary and that final counts and the program’s scope will be aligned to how CMS defines "rural" in the forthcoming NOFO.

Khosrobian described HCAI’s approach to workforce supports, including loan‑repayment and scholarship models that commonly carry service obligations; webinar discussion reiterated that detailed terms (for example, the length and conditions of service obligations) will be clarified in the CMS NOFO. Participants asked about training for nurse assistants, home‑health aides and mental‑health paraprofessionals; HCAI said it expects workforce supports to be broad but will follow NOFO guidance and stakeholder input.

HCAI and SOAR closed by asking attendees to complete the one‑week survey and to sign up for the SOAR rural‑health mailing list so the agencies can collect more granular information from counties, hospitals, clinics, emergency medical services and community‑based organizations.