Experience to Inspire Rural Connections
Reckon Branding Brings a Longstanding Health Communication Experience to States Receiving Federal Transformation Funding
ATLANTA — Following the December 2025 announcement that all 50 states will receive funding through the federal Rural Health Transformation Program, Reckon Branding is extending its proven expertise in healthcare communication to states nationwide.
The Rural Health Transformation Program, established under H.R. 1, will distribute $10 billion annually through 2030 to strengthen rural healthcare systems. First-year awards average $200 million per state, creating an unprecedented opportunity—and challenge—for state health agencies to communicate effectively with diverse stakeholders including rural hospitals, community health centers, workforce programs, and the populations they serve.
Reckon Branding has a proven record of helping healthcare organizations connect with their key audiences, leveraging multiple channels and strategies to help their clients achieve their goals.
In 2017, Reckon Branding was brought into a conversation that looked, at first glance, like a naming challenge.
It wasn’t.
Georgia was building a first-of-its-kind, statewide dementia initiative—one designed to help clinicians diagnose individuals with their specific type of dementia and to reach citizens across rural parts of the state where access to healthcare is limited, specialists are scarce, and people are often left to figure things out on their own.
That work became Georgia Memory Net.
And it changed how dementia care shows up across Georgia.
From the beginning, Georgia Memory Net was never just about diagnosis. It was about access. About reducing fear and stigma. About helping people take the first step—especially in communities where long drives, limited providers, and fragmented systems make that step harder to take.
That work started in 2017. Long before “rural transformation” became a headline.
Which is why Reckon’s experience matters now.
In December 2025, the federal government announced that nearly every state would receive funding through the Rural Health Transformation Program. Established under H.R. 1, the program will distribute $10 billion annually through 2030, with first-year awards averaging roughly $200 million per state.
The funding is new. The challenge is not.
Georgia Memory Net: Building Trust Beyond Urban Centers
From day one, Georgia Memory Net had to speak to more than one audience:
• Academic medical centers.
• Primary care physicians.
• Caregivers.
• State Legislature.
• And everyday Georgians—many living hours away from specialty care.
Reckon’s role was to help the program communicate clearly and humanly across that divide. Not by explaining everything it did, but by removing friction. By creating a brand and messaging system that felt approachable rather than clinical. Familiar rather than intimidating.
Especially in rural communities, where trust matters as much as access.
Today, Georgia Memory Net is a statewide dementia diagnosis and care-navigation network connecting Georgians—regardless of geography—to earlier diagnosis, clearer pathways, and coordinated support.
Meeting People Where They Already Are
That same rural-first mindset carried into ALTER.
ALTER was never about asking people to come into the healthcare system. It was about showing up where trust already existed—inside churches and faith communities that often serve as the social and emotional backbone of rural towns.
What began in a small number of Georgia congregations expanded across multiple states, reinforcing a lesson Reckon has seen repeatedly: access improves when communication lives inside existing community structures.
Not outside them.
Georgia GEAR: Expanding Access at the System Level
While Georgia Memory Net and ALTER focused on individuals, caregivers, and communities, Reckon’s partnership with Georgia GEAR focused on the system behind the scenes.
Since 2019, Reckon has worked alongside Georgia GEAR to help align the people training the workforce with the people actually delivering care to our aging population—particularly in rural parts of Georgia. Most recently, that work has supported Georgia GEAR’s response to HRSA’s request to increase access to healthcare in underserved and rural communities.
That meant communicating complex, federally funded initiatives to clinicians, educators, community organizations, administrators, and policymakers—often at the same time, often with very different priorities.
“What these programs have in common isn’t just aging or healthcare,” said Andy Suggs, CEO and Brand Strategist at Reckon Branding. “They all require reaching people who are traditionally harder to reach—geographically, culturally, or systemically. That’s the work we’ve been doing in Georgia for years.”
Why This Matters Now
Rural health transformation is not a messaging exercise.
It’s an access challenge.
States are now being asked to roll out workforce initiatives, care-navigation systems, and access-expansion strategies in places where healthcare infrastructure is thinner and trust is harder won. That means communication can’t be generic, urban-centric, or built for a single audience.
This work didn’t start with federal funding.
It started by listening to rural communities.
By understanding where systems fall apart.
And by designing communication that helps real people take the next step.
That’s the work Reckon has been doing in Georgia since 2017.
And it’s the work states are being asked to do now.
Real Life Examples
If you’d like to learn more about some of the work previously mentioned, you can check out the following case studies on our site:
ALTER Dementia
Georgia Memory Net
Integrated Memory Care
About Reckon Branding
Reckon Branding is an Atlanta-based branding agency with more than 15 years of specialized experience in aging, gerontology, and healthcare communication. Since 2017, the agency has partnered with statewide and federally funded programs to help complex health initiatives connect with rural audiences, align fragmented stakeholders, and expand access to care across Georgia and beyond.
Contact
Andy Suggs
andy@reckonbranding.com
404.664.1602
www.reckonbranding.com