Rural Health Care Initiative Still Not Funding Alaska's Cross Road Medical Center

COPPER RIVER COUNTRY JOURNAL 

As 'Rural' Medical Funds Are Allocated, Direct Help To The  Copper Valley's
Cross Road Medical Center Seems About To Fall Short 

UPDATE: The Friday, September 18th, 2026 report which listed further successful applicants for this program has been distributed by the Department of Health of Alaska. It does not list Cross Road Medical Center. 

September 17th, 2026 

Advertisement for Cross Road. (Country Journal Files)

Cross Road Has Not Received Requested Funding 

To Provide 'After Hours Service' – And The Opportunity 

For Funding This Year Is Rapidly Dwindling  

The state has apparently spoken. At least for this year. Very little of the massive pot of money allocated by the state to 'transform' rural health in Alaska is going to community clinics. A troubling percentage of the funding is not going to places like Cross Road Medical Center, one of the two main refuges for people in the Copper River Valley who need medical care, especially after hours and on weekends.

Fortunately small medical facilities in Chitina, McCarthy and Chistochina did manage to get some funding. But, as of Wednesday, September 16th, 2026, the application by Cross Road Medical Center for this year has not been approved. 

Cross Road, along with the Copper River Native Association's Robert Marshall Tazlina health center,  serves a huge physical area in the Copper Valley, including multiple settlements, villages and unincorporated 'towns'.  

Cross Road has applied for, but not received any of the state-distributed funding it requested this year from a federal government rural safety net program that has been promoted as a solution to the ever-worsening issues of rural medical care and national cutbacks. (Note: This story is limited to Cross Road only.)

SEEKING AFTER HOURS 
CARE FOR COPPER VALLEY PEOPLE 

Cross Road's request was simple, and boots-on-the-ground. The medical center asked for money to extend the facility's services after daytime work hours. As of Wednesday the 16th, the small decades-old medical center in Glennallen had yet to receive word of any success. 

Every Friday, for several weeks, the Alaska Department of Health has rolled out elaborate charts offering funds for health-related programs in 'service areas' throughout Alaska.   But the last announcements were on September 4th. The expected September 11th announcement did not materialize on schedule. 

Did that mean that September 4th was the final posting of grants approved for this. year? The Journal wrote the Department of Health to ask, and on the 16th, a health department representative wrote back. "Thanks for your question. The most recent award notification batch was issued on September 4, so the file is up to date. We anticipate additional award notifications in the coming weeks." 

SPEND IT OR LOSE IT 

That was good news for organizations – like Cross Road – across the state, which haven't been awarded funding yet this year. But it's bad news, too – because, according to the Department of Health website, "all first-year funds are required to be fully spent by September 30, 2027. Any funds not expended by that date are subject to federal recapture and redistribution..." 

Next September seems far off. But that's not the real deadline. According to the program, first year funds must be obligated a month and a half from now – by October 30th, 2026. 

So even if funding did come through at the last minute, implementing a major program with proper care  might be problematic under such a rapidly-approaching mandated schedule of commitment. 

WHAT TYPE OF PROGRAMS ARE FUNDED?

Where is the money going to that is being conveyed around Alaska? The types of services funded are extremely variable. 

In one case, for example, Alaska Commercial Company, a family of quasi-historic local supermarkets that dates back to the Klondike Gold Rush when the company was called the Northern Commercial Company, will receive $1.8 million to grow fresh produce in the four largest communities it serves: Bethel, Dillingham, Nome and Sitka. 

In another sample giveaway, the Wrangell School District got $609,000 for virtual reality-based healthcare career education. 

WHAT DID CROSS ROAD ASK FOR?

The Copper River Country Journal asked Steve Gallagher, who is the CEO of Cross Road Health Ministries, to describe what Cross Road needed for the Copper Valley to have after-hours medical care. 

Said the CEO, 

“One of the projects we proposed through the Rural Health Transformation Program was re-establishing after-hours care. National studies have found that a lower-acuity emergency-department visit costs are more than 10 times the cost of receiving similar care at an urgent-care clinic. As an FQHC however, we are generally reimbursed at the same clinic-encounter rate regardless of whether a patient’s needs are routine or require more intensive after-hours care. We do not receive the additional facility reimbursement available to a hospital emergency department, even though after-hours care requires additional staffing, equipment and resources.

 

"Our proposal would have allowed us to document the actual cost of providing this care locally while potentially saving patients and the healthcare system thousands of dollars by avoiding unnecessary trips to a distant emergency department. Unfortunately, this application was not approved this year. However, we remain hopeful and plan to reapply when the next application period opens this fall.”

“It is not financially sustainable to provide after-hours care without adequate reimbursement for the services provided. Even with reimbursement, rising staffing and operating costs mean additional funding will be necessary to maintain this service over the long term.”  

(Please note:  According to Healthcare.gov, an FQHC, noted below is a 'Federally Qualified Health Center -- or a community based clinic providing comprehensive primary care services to underserved areas and populations regardless of a patient's insurance status or ability to pay'). 

Cross Road began in 1956, as Faith Hospital. (Photo originally from Judy Schneider) 

HUGE TERRITORY

Currently, the lack of medical care after hours in the massive Copper Valley – with its deadly rivers, multiple highways, glaciers, endless winters, road distance from both major Alaskan cities, extreme weather, scattered communities, and location on the major highways for inbound truckers and travelers from the Lower 48 is a safety problem. After Covid, for the first time in decades, Cross Road does not have round-the-clock health care availability. 

Every evening and night, five days a week, and all day on Saturday and Sunday, the people of the Copper Valley – along with tens of thousands of summer visitors – do not have medical care, beyond an ambulance. 

The local EMS service is vital and important, of course, but cannot take victims to a local facility for help after hours, as in the past. The Copper River Native Association's Robert Marshall medical facility in Tazlina has similar hours.

Parents have to drive sick babies over the high mountain pass to Anchorage at 20 below zero. People working outdoors have to take special caution on weekends and evenings, trying to keep down the possibility of a slip-up with a saw or fall that can't be professionally helped locally for many hours, or even days. Those with bad colds or some sort of illness have to address it at a clinic during a 9-to-5 M-F self-imposed schedule, or tough it through if it grows worse and gets out of control during the night or over the weekend, when they can't get help. 

People having strokes and heart attacks have to pray they'll be in Anchorage on a shopping trip where they're near a hospital, an emergency room, and medical staff when their tragedy strikes. 

It's a disappointment that the 'rural health transformation' program doesn't seem to include assistance to the overall population of the Copper Valley. Barring a last-minute miracle, it looks like Cross Road will have to go out again in 2027, searching for help so the facility can assist the public in Glennallen. 

Steve Gallagher is not giving up. This is a 5-year program,  with another nerve-wracking opening next year in which to submit an application. 

Gallagher expressed hope for the future. "The state was on a learning curve and had to stand this up in a short period of time, and had to hire new staff to work these applications." He added,  "We will continue to work with the state on this next application period this fall." 

The Copper River Country Journal will continue to ask the Alaska Department of Health for further information or clarification on the wrap-up to its 2026 program. 

RURAL HEALTH 'TRANSFORMATION'

The Rural Health Transformation program is a federal initiative under the 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act' and runs nationwide from 2026 through 2030. 

It will be distributing $10 billion every year, across all 50 states. The program is state-driven. The program says it gives 'local governments' the flexibility to address their community-specific gaps across the country. 

One irony for Copper Valley people, of course  -- as well as the huge territory of the rest of the unorganized borough of Alaska – is that the Copper Valley does not have a local government. 

A BIG PROMISE

Nine months ago, Senator Dan Sullivan told Alaskans on his website that this program would transform Alaska's rural health care. But, in a practical manner, the giveaway hasn't helped rural health care in the overall central Copper River Valley -- yet. 

Here's what was promised when the program was first announced: 

Press Release, Senator Dan Sullivan, 12/29/25   “This is the biggest investment in rural health care in American history, and certainly the largest investment in Alaska’s health care system from the federal government in our state’s history,” said Sen. Sullivan. “The $272 million per year that Alaska will receive for five years—nearly $1.4 billion from the federal government—is a generational opportunity to transform our health care system. It gives our communities, state officials, and the Legislature the opportunity and freedom to design a health care system that reflects Alaska’s unique needs. This is the opposite of the one-size-fits-all approach we too often see from Washington, DC. This funding will help keep care closer to home, reduce the need for costly and disruptive travel, strengthen rural clinics, and stabilize our health care workforce. With the application the Dunleavy administration put forth, this award is an example of the power of local, tribal and state leaders, and our federal delegation—all the stakeholders—working together to get results for Alaskans."