CEO Update: 35 Years of Progress at Stake
Happy Birthday to the Colorado Rural Health Center! This year CRHC is celebrating our 35th year as your State Office of Rural Health (SORH) and Rural Health Association!
Founded in 1991, with funding from HRSA for the State Office of Rural Health program which assists states in strengthening rural healthcare delivery systems by maintaining a focus on rural health with each state, CRHC’s mission and vision have remained steadfast! In Colorado we are fortunate to have been established as a nonprofit organization which allows CRHC flexibility in expanding our resources, education, services and policy and advocacy. In fact, in 2025 CRHC offered nearly 14,000 technical assistance encounters, valuable updates via CRHC’s newsletters and website, county level data and visualizations, advocacy activities, workforce activities. And one of the key resources CRHC produces is the Snapshot of Rural Health, which we have prioritized to continue to grow yearly. This is a pretty good return on a $200,000 federal grant (SORH grant).
As Colorado’s SORH, we receive federal funds to administer rural health programs that are essential to providing improvement, support, and technical assistance that is imperative to our rural communities. The SORH, Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility Program (FLEX), and Small Rural Hospital Improvement Program (SHIP) grants result in a $90,000 benefit per critical access hospitals yearly, that is proportionate to an additional FTE. To learn more about the impact of these programs and their impact to rural communities in Colorado please view our infographics here.
At the beginning of the month, the Trump Administration released its FY 2027 Budget Request, which calls for billions of dollars in cuts that would directly impact our rural hospitals and clinics.
The proposed budget would eliminate these three long-standing bipartisan programs that are essential to rural hospitals and clinics across Colorado: SORH, FLEX, and SHIP – all three grants/programs are managed by CRHC.
While we know Congress tends to support rural health programs, these are at risk of not being funded due to competing demands for funding. CRHC is asking you to sign onto the action alert below to urge Colorado’s members of Congress to oppose these cuts, support a full FY27 appropriations package that funds the rural health safety net, and stand with rural Colorado communities who depend on these programs.
