The smart way to manage diabetes in pregnancy.

If you work in rural obstetrics, you know the reality better than anyone: the "maternity desert" isn't just a statistic; it’s the two-hour drive your high-risk patient makes every week. It’s the constant balancing act of trying to provide high-touch care with limited staff and resources.

According to March of Dimes, more than 5 million women live in maternity care deserts or areas with limited access to obstetric providers, a reality that contributes to higher rates of pregnancy complications, preventable hospitalizations, and maternal morbidity. For conditions like gestational diabetes, which require frequent monitoring and timely intervention, these access gaps can have real consequences for both parent and baby.

For years, the solution has been to "do more with less." But with the rollout of the Rural Health Transformation (RHT) Program, the dynamic may be shifting. With $50 billion allocated between 2026 and 2030, RHT was designed in part to address exactly these kinds of systemic challenges. By giving states flexible funding to rethink how care is delivered, RHT creates a rare opportunity to invest in technology-enabled, prevention-focused models that expand access to high-quality prenatal care, even when in-person resources are limited.

While there is still a lot of policy debate around how healthcare is funded and the impact on rural communities, this program is a rare opportunity to build out the modern healthcare infrastructure your rural patients deserve.

The Funding Landscape Is Changing

The RHT Program is designed to help rural health systems adapt, specifically targeting innovation and modernization. It incentivizes clinics to adopt care models that improve chronic disease management and prenatal outcomes.

This aligns nicely with the Transforming Maternal Health (TMaH) Model, which has already mobilized Medicaid agencies in many states. Beyond that, HRSA’s State Maternal Health Innovation Program funds additional state-level initiatives, including state task forces and targeted projects to address maternal mortality and improve access to care, particularly in rural areas. 

For providers, the message is practical: The resources are there to upgrade your toolkit for rural maternal health, the only question is how to use them effectively.

RHT is an Unprecedented Opportunity to Address Maternal Health Outcomes

Gestational diabetes and diabetes in pregnancy sit at the intersection of several RHT priorities: maternal health, chronic disease management, prevention, and innovative care delivery. These are high-impact clinical areas where better monitoring and earlier intervention can quickly translate into fewer complications, fewer emergency visits, and improved maternal–infant outcomes.

RHT’s design reflects this urgency. CMS has identified maternal health improvement and technology-driven care innovation as core focus areas, and nearly all state RHT plans explicitly reference goals related to:

• Expanding access to maternal and prenatal care
  
  
• Leveraging telehealth and remote monitoring to reach rural populations
  
  
• Modernizing health IT infrastructure to support continuous, data-driven care
  

Rural patients in particular are disproportionately affected by access barriers like fewer specialists, longer travel times, and limited capacity for frequent in-person visits. Gestational diabetes management, which requires regular blood glucose monitoring and timely clinical review, is particularly vulnerable to these constraints. As a result, GDM has emerged as a natural use case for RHT-backed innovation.

Because RHT prioritizes maternal health initiatives that combine prevention with technology-enabled delivery, states and health systems can confidently position gestational diabetes remote monitoring as a flagship investment that aligns clinical need with program intent.

How LilyLink Fits The Strategy

One of the biggest barriers in rural maternal health is distance. Managing a condition like Gestational Diabetes (GDM) traditionally requires frequent in-person visits to review paper logs, which is a logistical nightmare for patients living miles from the nearest clinic. High-risk pregnancy escalations to Maternal-Fetal Medicine (MFM) also presents challenges, as these subspecialists are mainly located in major urban centers.  

This is where the funding comes in: RHT resources can be used to implement Telehealth and Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) initiatives that are able to better reach rural patients, transforming management and outcomes for high-risk pregnancies.

• See the data that matters: Instead of relying on self-reported logs and in-person visits to review data, remote monitoring provides real-time data streams that enable regular, proactive care and highlight exactly who needs attention.
• Keep patients home: By handling routine checks remotely, you save patients the travel costs and time off work, while reserving clinic slots for those who physically need to be seen.
• Sustainability: Beyond the grant money, programs can persist because RPM is financially viable. Established CPT codes for remote monitoring mean these programs can generate their own revenue, ensuring they survive long after the initial funding period ends.

If you are looking for a way to utilize these funds to make an immediate impact, LilyLink would love to collaborate.  We offer a ready-made solution for maternal diabetes that can immediately be deployed to meet the goals of RHT proposals.  

Designed specifically for obstetrics, LilyLink automates the heavy lifting of GDM management. It allows your clinic to monitor blood glucose levels in real-time, catch trends early, and intervene before complications arise, all without the patient making the long trek to your clinic with their (hopefully completed) paper logs in hand.

LilyLink also has a deep network of licensed dietician and diabetes educators (RD/CDCES) that can provide training and daily monitoring for maternal diabetes patients remotely. RD/CDCES can also provide a bridge and escalate patients to MFM specialists when needed.  

LilyLink can help fulfill the core goals of rural health transformation: it expands your capacity, strengthens your connection to patients, and uses technology to bridge the gap between rural communities and specialized care.

Take the Next Step

The funding mechanisms are complex, but the goal is simple: better care for moms and babies, regardless of zip code.

If you are a rural provider or administrator looking to modernize your maternal health program, we can help you navigate these opportunities. 

Contact the LilyLink Team today to discuss how we can support your rural health initiatives.