Rural Health Connectivity Program

Webinar

We are hosting a webinar to introduce and answer all your questions about the CRISP Rural Health Connectivity Program on Tuesday, July 21st at 12pm. Click this link to register.

As part of Maryland’s Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP), CRISP partnered with the State to launch a rural connectivity program to strengthen and modernize health care across Maryland’s rural communities.

The CRISP Rural Health Connectivity Program (RHCP) offers funding to help offset costs for connecting to CRISP and exchanging data. Funding is available to providers that implement new inbound and/or outbound data connections listed below. These new inbound and outbound connections increase the availability of timely clinical data for care teams and the rural communities they serve. Funding is available on a first-come, first-served basis, subject to the availability of funds.

Eligibility Requirements: 

  • Eligible entities: HIPAA-covered providers may be eligible if they are either 
    • physically located in rural Maryland, operating from a distinct physical address to qualify, or 
    • serving a patient population where the majority of patients are from rural Maryland. 
  • Definition of rural Maryland: For this program, rural Maryland includes the following counties: Allegany, Garrett, Washington, Caroline, Cecil, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Anne’s, Somerset, Talbot, Wicomico, Worcester, Calvert, Charles, St. Mary’s, Carroll, Frederick, and Harford. 
  • Technical capability: The participant’s certified EHR (CEHRT) must be able to electronically submit encounter and clinical data to CRISP’s HIE infrastructure. 
  • Participation: Participants must provide reasonable access to relevant staff, EHR systems, and EHR vendors, as needed, for CRISP to complete onboarding and program requirements. 

Intake Form

Organizations interested in participating in the Rural Health Connectivity Program (RHCP) must complete this form. The information provided is used to assess eligibility. Eligible practices that submit the form will receive further instructions from CRISP. Funding is offered on a first-come, first-served basis and is subject to funding availability.


Please direct any questions to mdruralhealthprogram@crisphealth.org

Program Design:

To qualify for funding, all providers must complete the basic CRISP onboarding prerequisite requirements:

Prerequisite RequirementsDeliverablePayment
Pre-Requisite Requirements
  • Executed Memorandum of Understanding
  • Basic On-Boarding requirements:
  • Prerequisite Attestation
  • MOU
  • $2,000

    Once prerequisite requirements are successfully complete, eligible providers may receive funding for each additional milestone, with amounts scaled based on practice size. Milestones 1–3 may be completed in any sequence, and participants can pursue whichever milestones they choose. Participants must commit to maintaining data feeds for a least one year or may be required to repay funds received.

    Milestone DescriptionDeliverablePayment
    M1: Practice's EHR establishes ADT Feed with CRISP

    The ADT interface enables real-time sharing of admission, discharge, and transfer events across Maryland’s healthcare settings.
  • Attestation A
  • $7,500
    M2: Practice's EHR establishes CCD feed with CRISP

    The CCD interface enables the exchange of standardized clinical care documents for patients across Maryland’s healthcare settings.
  • Attestation B
  • $7,500
    M3: Establish InContext Outbound Connection with CRISP
    Complete the CRISP InContext interface workflow, which enables clinicians to access CRISP’s patient data — such as lab results, encounter history, imaging reports, CCDs, alerts, and care coordination information — directly from within their own EHR.
  • Attestation C
  • $8,000
    All practices will receive $500 for each eligible FTE provider (MD, PA, NP) per practice upon completion of the clinical data interface. This will be included in the final payment.
  • Attestation D
  • $500/FTE Provider (up to $15,000)
    Maximum Potential Payment per Organization$40,000

    The Maryland Rural Health Transformation Program is supported by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance award to the Maryland Department of Health totaling $168,180,837.61 with 100 percent funded by CMS/HHS. The contents of this presentation are those of CRISP and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by CMS/HHS, or the U.S. Government.

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