Mississippi State Department of Health receives $801K Congressional Directives grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration

Mississippi telehealth treatment network - the Mississippi State Department Of Health (msdh), the statewide public health authority, delivers essential clinical and preventive services across county health department clinics, many of which serve rural and medically underserved populations. Telehealth has become a critical modality for advancing msdh’s mission to ensure fair and consistent access to care, reduce unequal health outcomes, and strengthen the capacity of the rural health system. Msdh currently operates a decentralized telehealth network using ipads procured through covid-19 funding. This temporary infrastructure has enabled daily clinician access in communities where in person care was previously available only weekly or bi monthly, directly supporting HRSA priorities related to expanding access, improving care coordination, and addressing workforce shortages in rural areas. Despite these gains, the current telehealth configuration is unsustainable and limits msdh’s ability to maintain high-quality, reliable services. Msdh incurs approximately $200,000 annually in cellular data costs to support tablet based telehealth visits. The tablets cannot be centrally managed or monitored by it or electronic health record teams, hindering remote troubleshooting and creating operational inefficiencies. Telehealth delivery varies significantly across clinics, with at least nine distinct configurations, resulting in inconsistent patient experiences and limiting standardization. Transitioning to durable, industry-standard telehealth equipment supported by wi fi and ethernet connectivity will eliminate recurring cellular costs, enable centralized it oversight, reduce downtime, and establish a scalable infrastructure that aligns with HRSA’s statutory goals of strengthening rural health systems and improving access to high-quality care. Msdh’s telehealth model has already demonstrated substantial statewide impact. Universal screening across clinics resulted in nearly 1% of Mississippi’s population being screened for substance use disorder. Referrals for addiction medicine originated from 45 clinics across 44 counties, and active patients were treated in 48 clinics across 47 counties. With only three clinicians statewide, telehealth enabled decentralized addiction medicine care across Mississippi, an approach that advances HRSA’s priorities of improving behavioral health access, expanding treatment capacity, and addressing rural workforce constraints. Clinical outcomes significantly exceed national benchmarks. At six month follow up, abstinence from alcohol or illegal drugs improved by 58.3% compared to the national average of 38.7%. Depression symptoms decreased by 30.8%. Opioid and stimulant use dropped to 0%, compared to intake levels of 25% and 12.5%. Alcohol use declined by 40%, and cannabis use by 50%. Msdh has also completed approximately 6,000 telehealth visits for maternal health, child health, and std/sti care, further advancing HRSA’s statutory focus on improving maternal and child health outcomes and expanding access in rural and underserved communities. The model has received national attention for its effectiveness and replicability in treatment desert regions. HRSA funding will allow msdh to replace temporary, high variance telehealth setups with standardized, durable clinical telehealth equipment. This investment will strengthen Mississippi’s rural health infrastructure, expand access to evidence-based care, reduce operational costs, and ensure the long term sustainability of telehealth-enabled public health services statewide, directly advancing HRSA’s mission to improve health outcomes for underserved and rural populations.