WebMD Ignite, a Johns Hopkins initiative and CCS Health, a care coordination software company, have launched a new initiative to improve rural healthcare by connecting existing resources in local communities.
WebMD Ignite teamed up with CCS Health and Medicine for the Greater Good to launch the Collaborative Care Network (CCN), which the organizations describe as a locally governed, community-led platform designed to strengthen rural healthcare by coordinating providers, public health agencies, employers and community organizations around shared goals and outcomes.
The Collaborative Care Network launches as every state begins implementing the federal Rural Health Transformation Program, a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) initiative that’s distributing $50 billion from 2026 through 2030 to strengthen rural access, workforce, technology, prevention and regional partnerships.
The new network also builds on WebMD Ignite's ongoing efforts to help providers get Rural Health Transformation efforts off the ground. In April, the company launched a new program, called Health Education and Access for Rural Transformation (HEART), that provides a "shovel-ready" platform to help states, health systems and rural networks stand up patient engagement, prevention and access programs in just weeks.
"HEART was designed to help states move quickly from funding to action by reaching people where they are, helping them understand their options and connecting them to care. The Collaborative Care Network extends that idea by strengthening what happens on the other side of that connection. It brings together clinical organizations, community partners and technology so that when we identify a need, there is a more coordinated path to address it," WebMD Ignite President Ann Bilyew told Fierce Healthcare.
CCN aims to help rural communities build on the clinical and community resources already in place.
"Rural communities do not necessarily need another building or another disconnected technology investment. In many cases, they already have tremendous assets: clinicians, hospitals, pharmacies, schools, libraries, public health organizations, community groups and other trusted institutions," Bilyew said. "The opportunity is to connect those assets so they can work together differently, creating more ways for people to enter the healthcare system and a clearer path from that first interaction to the care and support they need."
She added, "The real test of this investment will be what is still working after the five-year funding period ends. States have an opportunity to build stronger community partnerships and more connected models of care that become part of how rural healthcare operates, rather than programs that disappear when a funding stream ends."
The three founding organizations are bringing unique capabilities to the Collaborative Care Network. WebMD Ignite delivers an industry-leading library of clinical-grade health content, patient engagement, health education and analytics. CCS Health offers care coordination technology, workforce training and community health data infrastructure. Medicine for the Greater Good provides a Johns Hopkins-developed model for building trusted partnerships between clinicians and community organizations.
The Collaborative Care Network aims to connect healthcare providers, public health agencies and community organizations into a coordinated system that can address patients' medical and social needs, improve outcomes and track results across the entire network rather than through isolated programs, according to Bob Harnach, founder and CEO of CCS Health.
Rather than a one-size-fits-all approach, local networks will determine their own priorities and participants, which could include hospitals, health plans, public health departments, schools, pharmacies, aging services organizations and employers.
The model is built around six core capabilities—expanding care access in community settings, developing a community health workforce, coordinating evidence-based interventions, aligning organizations around shared goals and outcome measurement, sharing information to coordinate care, monitor performance and improve accountability and establishing ongoing patient engagement and remote monitoring.
The organizations assert that these capabilities will help improve access and health outcomes, reduce avoidable utilization and total cost of care, expand workforce opportunities, reduce transportation barriers and support the long-term sustainability of rural hospitals and community health infrastructure.
With the HEART platform, organizations use data, AI and engagement capabilities to better understand populations, personalize education and help people navigate to appropriate care. "CCN builds on those capabilities to connect clinical and community organizations around the individual, with better insight into needs, available resources and gaps in care," Bilyew said.
"CCN connects the engagement layer to healthcare providers, community organizations, a trained community health workforce, certified Care Transitions Intervention coaches, Food as Medicine coaches, evidence-based care interventions, transportation, remote monitoring and other local resources," CCS Health's Harnach told Fierce Healthcare.
Harnach sees CCS Health's role as assisting hospitals and communities to build the operating infrastructure that allows their existing healthcare and community organizations to collaborate and function as one coordinated network. "CCS brings the experience and end-to-end capabilities needed to operationalize the Collaborative Care Network—from governance, processes and best practices to technology, Care Transitions Intervention, the Community Health Record, interoperability, workforce development, evidence-based interventions, care coordination, analytics and performance measurement," he said.
As part of its role in the initiative, Medicine for the Greater Good will help implement social interventions that are known to promote health and complement medical interventions, noted Panagis Galiatsatos, M.D., co-founder and co-director of Medicine for the Greater Good and associate professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
"We have been doing this work for more than a decade by developing what we call social phenotypes—understanding the social conditions, relationships and community environments that influence the health of individual patients as well as entire regions and communities. Within the Collaborative Care Network, MGG will help bring that understanding into the healthcare equation so that medical and community-based interventions can work together rather than separately," Galiatsatos told Fierce Healthcare.
Improving rural health starts with understanding a community's unique social and cultural dynamics, building on trusted local organizations and existing strengths, and then targeting gaps in areas such as healthcare access, nutrition and transportation rather than imposing one-size-fits-all solutions, Galiastsatos noted.
"Rather than imposing a solution on a rural community, healthcare can become part of the existing ecosystem, strengthen what already works and address the specific barriers that keep people from achieving better health," he said.
The Rural Health Transformation Program fund was authorized by Congress last summer to finance long-term investments in rural care delivery and, in part, to offset other healthcare cuts included in its parent bill, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Following a fast-paced grant application process, the five-year program’s first wave of dollars began making their way to all 50 states on Jan. 1. It allocates $10 billion annually over fiscal years 2026 - 2030.
Funding from the Rural Health Transformation Program can help set up new services and access points, but that does not automatically create an integrated health system, Harnach said.
"The opportunity is to connect those investments from the beginning. Shared information can help identify needs, coordinate referrals and services, reduce duplication, close gaps in care and determine whether people actually received the help they needed," he said.
And a connected health system also supports accountability, he asserted. "States and communities need to be able to measure whether these investments improve access and outcomes, reduce avoidable utilization and total cost of care, strengthen rural healthcare delivery and contribute to the long-term sustainability of rural hospitals and community infrastructure," he said.
The Collaborative Care Network says it will work with states, health systems, Area Agencies on Aging, regional coalitions and rural communities to establish locally governed networks and assemble the capabilities needed in each state and community.
"We are looking for partners that can help solve the very real access challenges rural communities face, whether that is a shortage of specialists and clinicians, long distances to care, limited transportation, or gaps in behavioral health, chronic care and other essential services," Bilyew said.
National partners can bring clinical, technology, navigation and other capabilities that may not be available locally.
"The goal is to build the right network around each community, filling gaps in access while strengthening the resources and relationships that are already there," she noted.