Oregon will receive another $197.3 million in federal funding for rural health care, with most of the money expected to go to projects the state began funding this year. Among them is a mobile clinic that would bring primary care, mental health services and substance use treatment to the Illinois Valley five days a week.
The award, announced Monday, brings Oregon’s total to about $394.5 million over the first two years of the federal Rural Health Transformation Program. The Oregon Health Authority plans to use the 2027 funding to continue work already underway across the state, including efforts to preserve maternity care, strengthen emergency medical services and train health care workers in rural communities.
Grants Pass-based Siskiyou Community Health Center will operate the Illinois Valley mobile clinic. The organization already has a clinic in Cave Junction, where it provides medical and dental care and operates a pharmacy. The mobile unit would take services into the valley on a regular schedule. An opening date and a list of stops have yet to be announced.
Another project will expand Nurture Oregon, which serves pregnant patients with substance use concerns. The program brings medical care, behavioral health treatment and peer recovery support together and helps patients connect with social services. Earlier grants supported plans to expand mobile services, provide transportation and offer postpartum doula care. Locations for the additional services have yet to be announced.
The statewide award leaves local funding decisions to Oregon. The state’s earlier grant selections include proposed second-year budgets for providers in Josephine, Jackson, Douglas and Klamath counties. Those amounts remain subject to completed funding agreements.
In Josephine County, the state’s grant table lists about $256,000 in proposed second-year funding for Siskiyou Community Health Center. The amount specifically designated for the Illinois Valley mobile clinic is still unconfirmed. In Jackson County, Mercy Flights has a proposed second-year grant of about $731,000. The agency was also named in a separate first-year pilot designed to allow emergency crews to begin treatment for opioid use disorder in the field and connect patients with ongoing care.
In Douglas County, one of two projects listed for Lower Umpqua Hospital District carries a proposed second-year budget of $200,000. In Klamath County, the state lists about $2.67 million for Sky Lakes Medical Center and about $2.90 million for the Sky Lakes Foundation’s Healthy Klamath program. Both figures are proposed second-year amounts.
Elsewhere in Oregon, first-year grants are helping Wallowa Memorial Hospital in Enterprise train family physicians to perform cesarean deliveries and give nurses more training in obstetric and newborn care. Seaside Fire & Rescue plans to buy an ambulance and other emergency equipment. In Malheur County, a project in Jordan Valley would reopen a clinic that closed in 2013 and bring primary care, psychiatric services and women’s health care back to the community.
More than 300 Oregon organizations received grants in the program’s first year, including hospitals, clinics, tribal governments, nonprofit organizations and community mental health providers. Congress created the five-year, $50 billion program in the 2025 federal budget law. All 50 states received second-year awards. Each received a $100 million base, with the rest determined by factors that include rural population, health care facilities and progress on approved projects.
If Oregon receives funding in later years, the state plans to shift toward larger competitive grants for regional projects. For 2027, most of the money is slated to keep first-year projects moving, including the planned clinic that would take care directly into the Illinois Valley.