0·Allocated

Wisconsin

Year 1 Award

$203.7M

Solicitations

CMS allocated RHTP funding to this state in December 2025. The state has not yet announced a lead agency, implementation timeline, or sub-grantee solicitation.

Analysis

Wisconsin's $203,670,005 first-year RHTP award produces the lowest per-rural-resident figure among the five states in this batch — $95.11 per rural resident (KFF, HRSA rural population definition) — reflecting Wisconsin's relatively large rural population of 2.14 million. This is not a signal of lesser priority but of greater rural scale: Wisconsin's 58 CAHs represent one of the largest CAH fleets in the country, second only to Texas and Iowa, and its 143 rural health clinics reflect a mature rural health infrastructure distributed across the state's northern and central regions. Wisconsin's tribal landscape is among the most complex of any RHTP state in the Midwest. The state's 11 federally recognized tribal nations — including the Ho-Chunk Nation, Oneida Nation, and multiple Ojibwe bands (Lac du Flambeau, Lac Courte Oreilles, Red Cliff, Sokaogon, St. Croix) concentrated in the northern forested counties — have historically experienced severe health disparities relative to the state's non-tribal rural population. Wisconsin DHS maintains a formal Tribal Affairs Office and operates under Executive Order #18 establishing a government-to-government relationship with tribal governments. A tribal set-aside or dedicated tribal track in Wisconsin's RHTP is highly plausible given this context, but no specific set-aside amount or mechanism has been confirmed in accessible public sources as of March 2026. This is a material open question. No lead agency designation or RHTP program page has been identified at DHS (dhs.wisconsin.gov) as of March 2026. The state is in early planning mode relative to its Phase 0 designation.

Applications & Compliance

OtherOpen

Wisconsin RHTP — Pre-Solicitation Framework

Eligible: CAH, FQHC, RHC, BH, LHD, Tribal, Other

Guide

Compliance Prerequisites for Wisconsin

What your organization needs in place before applying

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Implementation Model

Wisconsin's RHTP implementation model has not been published as of March 2026. No state RHTP page, RFA, stakeholder engagement notice, or advisory body announcement has been identified at DHS. Wisconsin DHS administers Medicaid (BadgerCare Plus) and operates a range of grant programs for rural and tribal health providers; it is the expected lead agency. Wisconsin's 58-CAH network, organized in part through the Wisconsin Hospital Association (WHA), and its 143 RHCs suggest a well-developed rural provider infrastructure capable of operating under a direct competitive grant model. However, the tribal dimension complicates a single-track competitive approach — Ho-Chunk Nation, Oneida Nation, and the Ojibwe bands operate tribal health programs under ISDEAA 638 compacts and self-governance agreements that have distinct compliance requirements from standard sub-grantees. Whether Wisconsin designs a separate tribal track, a coordinated set-aside administered through DHS's Tribal Affairs Office, or relies on general eligibility language is a critical design question.

What to Watch

Tribal set-aside existence and mechanism — high priority open question

Before solicitation design is finalized

Wisconsin's 11 federally recognized tribal nations make a tribal set-aside or dedicated tribal track highly plausible. DHS Tribal Affairs Office operates under Executive Order #18, establishing formal government-to-government consultation requirements. No set-aside amount or mechanism has been confirmed. Tribal health programs in Wisconsin should engage DHS Tribal Affairs Office directly to assert government-to-government consultation rights before sub-grant design is finalized.

Lead agency announcement — immediate priority

Near-term

Wisconsin DHS has not published an RHTP program page as of March 2026. The lead agency designation is the first implementation signal — it will confirm who applicants apply to, what reporting requirements apply, and whether the cooperative agreement with CMS has been finalized. Monitor dhs.wisconsin.gov and Governor Evers' newsroom for announcements.

58-CAH network and WHA coordination

Ongoing

Wisconsin's Wisconsin Hospital Association represents most rural hospitals in the state. Whether WHA plays a formal hub or intermediary role in RHTP distribution (as some state associations have in other RHTP contexts) or serves as an advocacy organization without formal program authority is an open design question. CAHs should monitor WHA communications alongside DHS announcements.

Northern Wisconsin tribal county overlap

At solicitation release

Several northern Wisconsin counties (Menominee, Forest, Oneida, Vilas, Sawyer) are both rural by HRSA definition and home to tribal land bases. Providers serving both tribal and non-tribal rural populations in these counties should watch whether the solicitation creates dual eligibility pathways, requires separation of tribal and non-tribal service delivery in grant budgets, or uses a unified rural population approach.

Per-capita constraint and competitive pool

At RFA release

At $95.11 per rural resident — the lowest among the five states in this batch — Wisconsin's large rural population means individual sub-grants may be smaller relative to the size of eligible applicants than in higher-per-capita states. Organizations planning applications should watch the per-award range published in the RFA carefully; a large CAH system expecting multi-million-dollar awards may be competing in a more constrained funding environment than assumed.