This story was originally produced by the New Hampshire Bulletin, an independent local newsroom that allows NHPR and other outlets to republish its reporting.
While U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was visiting New Hampshire last week, GO-NORTH announced a new $11 million project aimed at strengthening the state’s emergency medical services.
The project, officials said at a Concord press conference Friday, will provide rural EMS providers with new equipment and technology, workforce training and partnership assistance for neighboring communities to share resources. It will also expand mobile integrated health, a style of care delivery that provides healthcare in out-of-hospital environments, such as emergency response contexts or community events. Officials said it will bring five new mobile integrated health programs, including in the Concord area and the North Country.
“The amount of impact that that’s going to have is significant,” Mark Wholey, director of New Hampshire Fire Standards and Training and EMS, said, adding that the biggest goal is to relieve strain on emergency rooms from patients who, because they lack primary care, become repeat patients. “Our hope is that the folks that enter back into the EMS system and end up at our emergency rooms, which plague the emergency rooms and slow down the care with their acute need, can get that need met, as the secretary said, out-of-hospital. That’s our goal.”
The project will be funded by money the federal government has already committed to New Hampshire. In late 2025, New Hampshire received $205 million through the Rural Health Transformation Program, and it expects to receive similar amounts every year through 2030. Over the past year, GO-NORTH — the office established to manage the money in New Hampshire — has been developing plans to distribute it. On Friday, the officials announced they were allocating $11 million of that money to this project. GO-NORTH is partnering with the Foundation for Healthy Communities, one of its five designated hubs, for the project.
Kennedy praised the project, which was developed by New Hampshire officials, saying it “is one of the projects that we think should be a model nationwide.”
During his visit, GO-NORTH also received strong signals ahead of federal rescoring. When Congress established the Rural Health Transformation Program, it mandated annual reassessments. If the federal government determines states are making progress in distributing the money effectively, the government will continue providing funding. If not, it’ll cut funding. Donnalee Lozeau, GO-NORTH’s director, told the Bulletin earlier this month she was “cautiously optimistic” about the rescoring. Friday, Kennedy gave an even stronger endorsement.
“New Hampshire has been an extraordinary partner on the Rural Health Transformation Program,” Kennedy said. “It had an exemplary application, which is why it got $204 million, which is disproportionately high compared to most states, and in its execution of the program, it’s also been exemplary.”
Kennedy, the nephew of the late President John F. Kennedy, ran for president in 2024 but dropped out and endorsed now-President Donald Trump, who ultimately appointed him health secretary. The divisive figure has been visiting states with toss-up elections — like New Hampshire’s U.S. Senate race between John Sununu and Chris Pappas — throughout 2026. A senior White House official told Politico earlier this year that Kennedy’s visits were part of a strategy to promote popular pieces of his agenda and strengthen Republican prospects in next month’s midterm elections. In recent months, the secretary has also visited Virginia, Iowa and Nebraska.
This is Kennedy’s second visit to Concord in six months. In late May, he came to announce federal funding for Lyme disease treatment, public awareness and research.
The Rural Health Transformation Program was created through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Critics of the sprawling omnibus legislation argued its cuts to Medicaid and other health programs would decimate the country’s already struggling rural health economy. To remediate that, the Republicans behind the bill created the Rural Health Transformation Program, which is distributing $50 billion to states over five years. Critics point out that this figure is dwarfed by the estimated $991 billion that experts expect (per KFF) the bill to cut from Medicaid over the next 10 years.
