New community-led operating platform launches as states put $50 billion in federal rural-health transformation funding to work.

NEWARK, N.J., Aug. 26, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — WebMD Ignite, CCS Health and Medicine for the Greater Good today launched the Collaborative Care Network™ (CCN), a locally governed, clinical-community-led operating platform that brings healthcare providers, public health agencies, government, employers and community organizations together to improve rural health around shared priorities, coordinated delivery and measurable outcomes.

CCN helps rural communities build on the clinical and community resources already in place, bringing care closer to where people live, work, learn, worship and gather. Participating organizations operate as one coordinated network supported by a community health workforce, evidence-based interventions, connected information and continuous resident engagement. Together, the three founding organizations bring complementary capabilities to CCN:

• WebMD Ignite brings the world’s largest corpus of clinical-grade health content, advanced digital engagement technology, evidence-based health risk assessments and analytics that measure engagement and outcomes, building on its recently launched Health Education & Access for Rural Transformation (HEART) program.
• CCS Health brings care-coordination technology, workforce training, the Community Health Record™ and performance analytics.
• Medicine for the Greater Good, a Johns Hopkins Medicine initiative, brings its model for building trusted, sustained partnerships among clinicians and the communities they serve.

“This is a pivotal moment to build durable rural-health infrastructure, and success will depend on connecting resources that too often operate separately,” said Ann Bilyew, EVP, Health and President, Healthcare Solutions Group at WebMD Ignite. “CCN combines trusted health education and engagement with local relationships, coordinated services and measurable action, giving communities a way to reach people earlier and guide them to appropriate care.”

The launch of CCN comes as every state begins implementing the federal Rural Health Transformation Program, a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) initiative that’s distributing $50 billion from 2026 through 2030 to strengthen rural access, workforce, technology, prevention and regional partnerships. The investment arrives amid persistent gaps: 63% of designated primary-care shortage areas are rural, according to the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), while the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality found that adults in nonmetropolitan areas were more than twice as likely as those in metropolitan areas to rate local access to care as fair or poor.

“Most communities already have committed providers, public-health leaders, social-service organizations, employers and residents working toward better health,” said Bob Harnach, founder and CEO of CCS Health. “What they need is the infrastructure to operate as one collaborative network. CCN gives local leaders a shared blueprint to develop the community health workforce, coordinate services and transportation, connect information and extend care beyond traditional settings through remote monitoring. It is about bringing care to people and people to care—while giving hospitals and communities the ability to measure progress, demonstrate results and create sustainable health transformation.”

No two local networks will look exactly alike. As each CCN is established, local leaders will help identify and engage the organizations best positioned to address the community’s priorities and fill gaps in existing services. Those participants may include health plans, hospitals, clinicians, Area Agencies on Aging and other aging-network organizations, county health departments, emergency medical services, employers, schools, pharmacies, food and nutrition organizations and other community partners.

Participating organizations will establish shared priorities, responsibilities, financing strategies and measures of success. Depending on local needs, each CCN can support prevention, chronic-condition management, maternal and infant health, behavioral health, healthy aging, nutrition and care transitions through six connected capabilities:

• Community access. Brings care and support to trusted locations where people live, work, learn, worship and gather.
• Community health workforce. Develops community health workers, care navigators and multidisciplinary teams that connect residents with care and resources.
• Evidence-based care delivery. Coordinates interventions across prevention, chronic disease, maternal and infant health, behavioral health, nutrition and healthy aging.
• Community partnerships and alignment. Aligns participating organizations around shared goals, responsibilities, financing strategies and measurement.
• Connected information and accountability. Uses the Community Health Record™, interoperability and analytics to coordinate referrals, measure performance and support accountability.
• Continuous engagement and monitoring. Connects residents with trusted education, assessments, assistance and remote monitoring between episodes of care.

Collectively, these capabilities are intended to improve access and health outcomes, reduce avoidable utilization and total cost of care, strengthen rural healthcare delivery, expand workforce opportunities, reduce transportation barriers, and support the long-term sustainability of rural hospitals and community health infrastructure.

“Health is shaped long before someone enters a clinic,” said Panagis Galiatsatos, M.D., M.H.S., co-founder and co-director of Medicine for the Greater Good and associate professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “Rural transformation requires clinicians to build relationships with the people and organizations that hold communities together. By pairing medical expertise with trusted local voices—and establishing clear roles, workflows, measures and accountability—CCN turns clinical-community alignment into an operating platform that local partners can implement, evaluate and strengthen over time while preserving local Ownership.”

Collaborative Care Network™ 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. To learn more, schedule a time to meet with the team at: https://webmdignite.com/content-solutions/heart-rural-health#form.

About WebMD Ignite
WebMD Ignite, a division of WebMD and Internet Brands, helps healthcare organizations operationalize engagement and drive improved outcomes across health journeys. By unifying clinically validated education, intelligent activation, and workflow integration, we deliver personalized guidance to patients, members, and care teams at the right moments in care. Built on decades of behavioral insight, WebMD Ignite drives measurable behavior change, improved experience, greater efficiency, and stronger growth.

About CCS Health
CCS Health is a healthcare transformation company that helps communities, healthcare organizations and public-sector partners build sustainable clinical-community infrastructure to improve access, outcomes and cost of care. For more than a decade, CCS Health has supported community-based care coordination, workforce development, evidence-based interventions and technology-enabled health initiatives across the United States. CCS Health is the steward of the evidence-based Care Transitions Intervention® and an early developer and national implementer of the Community HUB model. Its capabilities include community health workforce development, care coordination, the Community Health Record™, interoperability, analytics and performance measurement.

Through the Collaborative Care Network™, CCS Health brings these capabilities together into a regional operating platform designed to help healthcare and community organizations coordinate services, strengthen accountability and achieve measurable, sustainable health improvement.

About Medicine for the Greater Good
Medicine for the Greater Good (MGG), a Johns Hopkins Medicine initiative, advances community health by building sustained partnerships among clinicians, healthcare organizations and the communities they serve. MGG works with community-based organizations to strengthen their capacity to address social factors that influence health, support healthcare delivery and improve health outcomes within their communities.

MGG’s approach uses community and individual social factors to inform locally tailored strategies that complement the medical management of common chronic conditions. Its work addresses priorities including nutrition and Food as Medicine, food security, social isolation, community health worker recruitment and activation, and health literacy. Through these efforts, MGG seeks to prevent progression to serious illness, reduce total cost of care, improve quality of life, and strengthen chronic disease prevention and management.

 

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SOURCE WebMD Ignite