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$167 Million Awarded to Organizations Statewide to Improve Healthcare in Rural Areas COLUMBIA – South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster has announced the state has awarded 228 grants totaling $167,299,900.69 in funding to strengthen healthcare access, quality and outcomes in primary care, maternal and infant care, pediatrics and behavioral health in rural communities. These grants provide one-time funding for high-impact, sustainable healthcare initiatives that remove systemic challenges and build infrastructure and long-term capacity through facility modernization, technology upgrades and workforce development. In Laurens County, money is going to: Presbyterian College School of Pharmacy, $148,920; and Prima Health Upstate, Oconee, Lee, Laurens, $1,094,750, and Oconee, Laurens, $1,349,818, in the expand remote patient monitoring and assistive technology category; and Prisma Health Upstate Laurens 6 grants ($30,000, $30,700, $58,000, $130,000, $149,300 and $846,566) and Self Regional Laurens, $1,460,000, in the facility enhancements category. “Every South Carolinian should have access to quality health care close to home, no matter where they live,” said Gov. Henry McMaster. “South Carolina is working to ensure rural communities have the resources they need to provide that care, and this is another important step in strengthening health care across our state.” Governor McMaster has prioritized bringing quality care close to home for all South Carolinians. This includes enhancing collaborative partnerships, helping to sustain existing providers, and improving capabilities in rural areas. Among the funded projects are an expansion of multi-year efforts to strengthen partnerships between local law enforcement and the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities for mobile crisis response; cybersecurity upgrades for a rural, independent hospital to prevent further cyberattacks and optimize billing; and a specialized obstetrical surgical robot to enhance outcomes for mothers and babies in complicated deliveries. “The Trump Administration’s Rural Health Transformation Program is helping states like South Carolina develop innovative, locally driven solutions to improve rural Americans’ access to high-quality care," said Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz. "These grant awards demonstrate how this historic investment is empowering rural communities to strengthen their health systems, put patients first, and bring better care closer to home.” Designated as the lead state agency for this program by Gov. McMaster, the South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (SCDHHS) received 712 applications for this initiative by the June 1, 2026, deadline. Awardees were selected through a multi-level merit review scoring process, with rules and funding limitations established by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). "We are proud of the strong interest and innovative ideas brought forth to strengthen rural health,” said SCDHHS Director Eunice Medina. “This funding will help bring these ideas to life and make a lasting difference in rural communities for years to come.” “Thank you, Governor McMaster, Director Medina, and the Health and Human Services staff for your transformational leadership and exemplary approach for this funding opportunity. Your vision and investment in rural South Carolina hospitals and healthcare providers is deeply meaningful and will help strengthen healthcare infrastructure, expand access to care, and bring innovative healthcare solutions closer to rural South Carolinians and communities,” said John Snow, CEO of Newberry Health. “This is about more than improving healthcare infrastructure—it’s about reimagining care, removing barriers to care, and ensuring our neighbors have access to high-quality healthcare close to home, while building a stronger and more sustainable future for our community.” “The foundation of healthcare is access to quality, comprehensive, and preventive primary medical care. As a grant recipient, our independent family medical practice will be better able to serve our community,” said Dr. Oscar Lovelace, Founder of Lovelace Family Medicine. “For 38 years, we have been delivering babies and caring for families in the office, hospital, and nursing home. If South Carolina hopes to improve health outcomes, we must start by transforming rural healthcare. This grant program will leverage local rural public-private partnerships and build healthier communities. We are thankful to Governor McMaster and SCDHHS Director Medina for their leadership in bringing hope and real help to our community.” “What has long motivated our work is the fundamental belief that a person’s ZIP code should not determine his or her access to healthcare or define his or her quality of life, and that is why we are so thankful for this invaluable investment in our rural communities,” said Kathy Schwarting, CEO of Palmetto Care Connections. “Thanks to this funding, we have an incredible opportunity to bring trusted community partners and healthcare providers together. When we collaborate, we can break down barriers to care, meet people closer to home and help build a stronger, more connected rural healthcare system for South Carolina.” These grant applications fell under four of the state’s RHTP initiatives: Connections to Care, Wellness Within Reach, Leveling Up and Shoring up to Sustainability. Applicants were notified of their funding decision July 31, 2026. The RHTP is supported by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance award totaling $200,030,252.32 with 100% funded by CMS/HHS. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by CMS/HHS, or the U.S. Government. -###- MORE about PC School of Pharmacy here. MORE: SC rural hospitals, doctors’ offices receive share of $200M in federal funding amid Medicaid cuts BY JESSICA HOLDMAN - SEPTEMBER 16, 2026 6:00 AM NEWBERRY — New MRI and CT scanners in Newberry. A mobile health van that will provide care in a dozen counties and in natural disaster situations across the state. These are just some of the ways South Carolina plans to spend the $200 million in federal funding received this year as part of a new rural health program. Gov. Henry McMaster and other state officials traveled to Newberry Health hospital Tuesday to announce the federal grant awards made to rural healthcare providers and state agencies under the new Rural Health Transformation Program. The program was created under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act as a way to help rural hospitals and healthcare organizations most heavily hit by upcoming Medicaid funding cuts under the law pushed through Congress by President Donald Trump’s administration. The act will cost South Carolina hospitals about $1.8 billion a year when fully implemented, according to the South Carolina Hospital Association. “We have to keep our people healthy, keep them working, and that’s what this is aimed to do,” McMaster said. Great need The state Medicaid agency received 712 applications for the federal funding but ultimately only had enough money to approve 227 of them. That includes Newberry Health, which received nearly $11 million for a dozen projects. The 90-bed hospital’s magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI machine, is two decades old and in need of replacement. And its computed tomography, or CT scanner for short, doesn’t have heart health capabilities, leaving patients to instead travel an hour to Columbia or Greenville for cardiac related scans, said CEO John Snow. The hospital had already planned to make the upgrades in the next couple years, but now it can use the federal dollars and spend its own money on other needs, Snow said. “At the end of the day, it isn’t just about funding,” he said. “It’s about people and access and opportunity and making sure that high-quality healthcare remains close to home for generations to come.” Newberry also will expand its operating rooms, upgrade its computer systems to protect against cyberthreats and add more physical security, a major priority for hospitals as healthcare staff regularly experience violence from unruly patients and family members in distress. Lovelace Family Medicine, a private general care practice in Newberry, also will receive $1 million through the program to repave its parking lot, recruit and retain employees and update its IT. In his 38 years in Newberry, Dr. Oscar Lovelace has seen major changes to the region’s healthcare landscape. “I’ve seen a lot of progress but Fairfield County hospital is closed,” he said. “There’s no county hospital in Saluda. Laurens County hospital doesn’t deliver babies anymore, nor does Union County, so we’ve seen an obstetrical desert here.” Lovelace also said technology upgrades are important, especially to primary care doctors who can spend late nights at home after hours on their computers updating patient records. And AnMed in the Upstate announced that it had finally returned to normal operations Tuesday following a months-long recovery from a cybersecurity attack in which CEO William Kinley said cybercriminals accessed patients’ health information. The state approved AnMed for $4 million in federal funding, including $1.7 million for IT improvements. Telehealth too Beyond hospitals and doctor’s offices, dollars are also going to telehealth organizations. Palmetto Care Connections, a nonprofit telehealth network founded in 2010, wants to purchase its first mobile van to make house calls. “We really believe that your zip code should not define the quality of life you live, or whether or not you have access to care,” CEO Kathy Schwarting. The van also will be available for disaster recovery. “If there’s a flood, if there’s a tornado, and folks don’t have access to care, we can take that mobile van and make sure they can connect to a primary or specialty care provider,” Schwarting added. Schwarting has seen the loss of rural healthcare first hand. She previously worked at now-closed hospitals in Bamberg and Barnwell. “It devastated our communities when that happened: lost jobs, people had to move, industries would no longer come in because you didn’t have a healthcare system,” she said. “And forget recruiting a provider because, without the support system of a hospital, they were not going to come to that community. I’ve seen it. I’ve lived it. It is devastating.” Tight margins South Carolina’s hospitals generally operate on margins between 0% and 4%, according to the state Hospital Association. In all, six rural hospitals in South Carolina have closed since 2010, according to a 2023 legislative study. While hospitals are concentrated in South Carolina’s three major metro areas, all but five of the state’s 46 counties have at least one hospital or emergency center. To aid the state’s rural healthcare providers, South Carolina doled out funds across eight categories: chronic disease, remote treatment and monitoring, expanding community care, facility improvements, workforce, mobile crisis response, IT and training. Most of the money went to facility improvements, followed by IT. The largest recipient was Self Regional Healthcare hospital system, which the state awarded nearly $31 million across eight hospitals. The state-run Medical University of South Carolina Health system received nearly $19 million across four rural hospitals and the health system at large. Hampton Regional Medical Center in the Lowcountry received $13 million. The state also held back funds to study South Carolina’s greatest rural health needs, state Department of Health and Human Services Director Eunice Medina said. That study will help the agency decide how to distribute money over the next four years of the federal program. “We have the basic assets,” McMaster said. “But we have to tie it all together, and we have to find the weak spots to see where some innovation, where some new equipment would help.” Jessica Holdman writes about the economy, workforce and higher education. Before joining the SC Daily Gazette, she was a business reporter for The Post and Courier. SC Daily Gazette is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization. |
