AUGUSTA, Maine — Maine will receive more than $190 million in the second year of a federal rural health program, Gov. Janet Mills' office said Wednesday. The state plans to use the money to expand community-based care and to begin regional planning sooner than first planned.

The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services award under the Rural Health Transformation Program totals $190,358,993.11, according to the governor's office. That is $350,000 more than the state's first-year award. The office said Maine put all of its first-year money to work on health care workforce training, modernizing electronic medical records and making rural hospitals more efficient.

Second-year plans include adding school-based health centers in rural communities, supporting new mobile health units where needed and continuing to bring primary care into behavioral health clinics, the governor's office said. The state also plans to keep helping rural employers recruit and retain health care workers, invest in telehealth, improve transportation coordination and help residents navigate health coverage.

Two proposed additions would help Tribal communities offer traditional healing services through MaineCare and extend electronic medical record investments to county jails that are ready to provide MaineCare-covered services before people are released, the office said.

State Health and Human Services Commissioner Sara Gagné-Holmes said starting regional planning earlier "will give local partners more time to identify the services their communities need most and plan for how to sustain it beyond the grant."

Maine Hospital Association President Jeffrey Austin said expanding the program's work on the workforce and regional planning "will be vital to the future stability of rural healthcare in Maine."

Mills thanked Maine's congressional delegation for supporting the state's application. The program was created by the federal budget reconciliation law signed July 4, 2025.

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