The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, through the Health Resources and Services Administration, today awarded $11.2 million to support the development of 15 new physician residency programs in rural communities across 14 states, expanding the HRSA Residency Planning Development program’s reach into underserved areas nationwide.
What the HRSA Rural Residency Planning Development Funding Actually Covers
The Rural Residency Planning and Development, or RRPD, Program awards will create new residency programs in family medicine, internal medicine, preventive medicine, psychiatry, and general surgery, helping to strengthen the health workforce in rural and tribal communities. This spread across five distinct specialties reflects an effort to address workforce shortages across multiple types of care communities commonly lack rather than concentrating resources in a single specialty.
Leadership’s Statement Behind This Funding
“Where you live should not determine whether you can find a doctor,” said HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “We are bringing physician training directly into tribal communities, where doctors are needed most. By training physicians in these communities, we can build a stronger local workforce, expand access to care, and ensure rural families can get the care they need close to home.”
The Track Record Behind This HRSA Rural Residency Planning Development Program
Since the RRPD program was established in 2019, HRSA has invested nearly $77 million across 36 states and one territory to build a pipeline of physicians trained in rural communities. As of July 2026, these investments have resulted in 66 accredited rural residency programs, 818 approved residency positions, and more than 850 resident physicians enrolled in training settings.
Why This Cumulative Track Record Matters
Having already built 66 accredited programs and enrolled more than 850 resident physicians since 2019 gives this latest $11.2 million round of funding a demonstrated foundation to build upon, suggesting the program has moved well past an experimental phase into a sustained, proven pipeline for physician training.
Why HRSA Is Prioritizing This Rural Residency Planning Development Investment
“Rural communities deserve access to the physicians they need,” said HRSA Administrator Tom Engels. “With the nation facing health workforce shortages today, we need to build the pipeline now. By investing in the next generation of doctors, HRSA is helping communities develop a strong, lasting physician workforce that brings care closer to families, addresses chronic disease earlier, and benefits rural patients long after the grant period ends.”
Why Long-Term Financing Planning Is Built Into This Program
Recipients will also develop long-term financing plans using sources such as Medicare, Medicaid, and other public or private funding. These plans are designed to sustain programs beyond the federal planning period, turning a time-limited federal investment into lasting physician training capacity for rural communities, directly addressing a common challenge facing many federally seeded programs that struggle to continue once initial grant funding expires.
How Each Award Recipient Will Use This HRSA Rural Residency Planning Development Funding
Each award recipient will receive up to $750,000 over three years to support the planning and development activities needed to establish a new rural residency program. These activities include securing accreditation, developing curricula, recruiting and developing faculty, and recruiting residents.
Why This Multi-Year Structure Matters for New Program Viability
Spreading up to $750,000 across three years, rather than providing a single lump-sum grant, gives recipient institutions a structured timeline to complete the full sequence of steps required to launch a viable residency program, from initial accreditation through actual resident recruitment, rather than requiring these complex, sequential milestones to be compressed into a shorter funding window.
What This HRSA Rural Residency Planning Development Funding Means Going Forward
With 15 new programs now funded across 14 states, this round of awards will meaningfully expand the total number of accredited rural residency programs beyond the current 66, provided all recipient institutions successfully navigate the accreditation and faculty recruitment process within their three-year funding window. Given the program’s demonstrated ability to convert federal seed funding into more than 850 enrolled resident physicians since 2019, communities receiving this latest round of awards may reasonably expect similar long-term physician workforce gains once their new programs become fully operational.
What to Watch Going Forward
As these 15 new residency programs move through the planning and accreditation process over the coming three years, rural and tribal communities in the affected 14 states will likely watch closely for updates on faculty recruitment and eventual resident enrollment. Given HRSA’s stated goal of building lasting physician workforce capacity that “benefits rural patients long after the grant period ends,” the ultimate measure of success for this HRSA Rural Residency Planning Development funding round will likely be whether these new programs achieve the same kind of sustained, self-financed operation that has characterized the program’s 66 existing accredited sites.
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