Service · Rural Resiliency Readiness

Get the Microsoft Rural Hospital Resiliency Program working for your hospital.

Rural Resiliency Readiness is a two-week, fixed-fee engagement that takes a critical-access hospital, Rural Emergency Hospital, or rural-listed health-system hospital from “we should look at the Microsoft Resiliency Program” to fully enrolled, with licenses placed, Windows 10 ESU keys deployed, the free cybersecurity assessments scheduled, and a 90-day operational roadmap into CompleteCare Foundations and Shield. Designed for hospitals where IT runs two-to-four people deep and the Resiliency Program needs to land alongside live clinical operations, not interrupt them.

Start a Rural Resiliency Readiness engagement Want the sector view first? See our Rural Hospitals practice →
2 weeks $5,000 flat Microsoft Resiliency Program partner

For program details direct from Microsoft, see the Microsoft Rural Health Cyber Resiliency page.

The problem this engagement solves

Most rural hospitals know the program exists. The path from “should we enroll?” to “we’re operationalized” is the missing piece.

The Microsoft Rural Hospital Resiliency Program is one of the strongest philanthropic IT programs in healthcare. Three pillars (Affordable Access, Capacity & Capability, AI & Innovation) and nine concrete benefits: 60–75% off licensing, a free one-year Windows 10 ESU covering up to 250 devices through October 13, 2026, free cybersecurity assessments, a free Cloud Capability Evaluation, free curated cyber and AI training for frontline staff, free foundational cyber certifications for IT staff, the AI-powered Claims Denial Navigator, and the AI Skills Navigator. One in three rural hospitals is already participating.

The mechanics, though, are not trivial. Eligibility requires a rural-database listing check (CAH, REH, or rural-listed hospital within a system). Enrollment requires Microsoft program registration plus TechSoup provider acceptance plus a Microsoft Customer Agreement. License placement requires a charity-authorized CSP. The ESU keys arrive via TechSoup with a five-business-day download window. The free assessments and AI tools each have their own intake flow. None of that is hard for someone who runs it weekly. It is unworkable as a side project for a two-to-four-person IT team running EHR uptime, biomedical devices, clinical apps, HIPAA documentation, and a survey calendar.

The other gap: the program documentation is correct but does not include “in what order” or “for a hospital of this profile, which benefits matter most.” A 60-bed critical-access hospital with an aging Windows 10 footprint and a cyber-insurance renewal in eight months has a different best-order than a 200-bed regional hospital with a Medicare claims-denial backlog and a clinical-AI ask from the board. Both are program-eligible. Both need a different first move.

Rural Resiliency Readiness closes both gaps. Two weeks. $5,000. A written plan that names which Resiliency Program benefits matter most for your hospital, in what order, and how they sequence into a managed-service operating posture you can run for the next five years.

What you get

Three written deliverables. Yours regardless of what you do next.

Not a slide deck. Written in the format your CIO, CFO, and compliance officer expect, with the Microsoft program citations the surveyor and the cyber-insurance underwriter recognize.

Deliverable 01

Resiliency Program enrollment and eligibility documentation

Confirmed eligibility against Microsoft’s rural-hospital reference database. Microsoft Resiliency Program registration completed end-to-end. TechSoup provider acceptance. Microsoft Customer Agreement reviewed and accepted by the right signing authority. The administrative paperwork done, documented, and filed in your IT director’s folder.

For hospitals already enrolled, this deliverable verifies the enrollment is complete and surfaces any program benefits that have been left dormant.

Deliverable 02

Benefits utilization map across all nine program offerings

A written map of which Resiliency Program benefits to activate when, scored by your hospital’s actual environment and constraints. License-mix optimization at 60–75% off (annual vs. monthly trade-offs by SKU). Windows 10 ESU coverage plan (which 22H2 devices to enroll, which to migrate to Windows 11, by what milestone). Free cybersecurity assessment scheduling. Cloud Capability Evaluation scope. Frontline cyber and AI training rollout. IT-staff certification path. Claims Denial Navigator deployment readiness. AI Skills Navigator workforce plan.

Each line names the owner inside your hospital, the Microsoft contact path, the prerequisite, and the realistic timeline. No motherhood-and-apple-pie.

Deliverable 03

90-day operational roadmap into CompleteCare

A written plan that connects the Resiliency Program benefits to a sustainable managed-service operating posture. Maps the free cybersecurity assessment outputs to CompleteCare Foundations phases; aligns the Windows 10 ESU window to a Windows 11 / Intune deployment cadence; sequences the path to CompleteCare Shield for the 24/7 Microsoft Sentinel SOC the cyber-insurance underwriter is going to ask about at renewal.

Mapped against HIPAA Security Rule sections 164.308, 164.310, and 164.312 so the same document satisfies your compliance committee and your funder.

How it works

Week by week.

Week 1 · Eligibility, enrollment, and discovery

Get the Microsoft side moving, then read the room

  • Rural-database eligibility check against Microsoft’s reference database (CAH, REH, or rural-listed within a system).
  • Microsoft Resiliency Program registration completed by an authorized signer.
  • TechSoup provider acceptance and Microsoft Customer Agreement walkthrough.
  • CIO and IT director interview: current Microsoft 365 and Azure posture, identity controls, audit-log retention, EHR vendor, biomedical-device IT realities.
  • Compliance officer interview: HIPAA program state, BAA inventory, cyber-insurance renewal calendar, recent survey and audit context.
  • CFO interview (optional but recommended): licensing-economics expectations, capital-vs-operating treatment of the program savings.
  • Microsoft 365 tenant snapshot against CIS Top 18 IG1 and HIPAA Security Rule technical safeguards.
  • Windows 10 device inventory: count, 22H2 readiness, ESU enrollment plan.

Week 2 · Mapping, roadmap, and presentation

Write the plan, present it, hand it over

  • Benefits utilization map drafted across all nine Resiliency Program offerings, owner-by-owner.
  • License-mix model: annual-commitment Business Premium, F1 frontline, E3/E5 where required, Copilot where the governance allows.
  • Windows 10 ESU enrollment readiness; product keys requested; the five-business-day download window planned.
  • 90-day operational roadmap drafted, mapped to CompleteCare Foundations + Shield + (optionally) Govern phases.
  • Cyber-insurance evidence-pack mapping: which controls are produced when, against the renewal calendar.
  • 60-minute presentation to the CEO, CIO or IT director, compliance officer, and CFO. Recording available on request.
  • Written deliverables handed over in PDF and editable formats.

Pricing

Fixed fee. No hourly add-ons. No commitment beyond the engagement.

$5,000 flat, two weeks

A senior engagement lead, a Microsoft-certified solutions architect, and a healthcare-experienced governance consultant. Three written deliverables. A 60-minute leadership presentation. The administrative side of Microsoft Resiliency Program enrollment, done.

The program benefits themselves are free. Microsoft pays for the cybersecurity assessments, the Cloud Capability Evaluation, the training, the certifications, and the AI tools. Discounted licensing is at Microsoft’s 60–75%-off nonprofit rate, billed through your CSP at no markup beyond the standard Microsoft pricing.

The CSP move, if needed, is no additional charge. If you are not already on Centered Networks as your charity-authorized CSP, the transition is included in the engagement. The tenant stays where it is; the Partner of Record changes. One billing cycle of overlap is normal.

Eligible for Microsoft co-funding consideration. Hospitals enrolling in the Resiliency Program are sometimes eligible for Microsoft partner-funded incentives that offset engagement cost. We surface this in Week 1 if applicable to your situation.

What happens after

The roadmap names the path. Most hospitals follow one of four.

Independent decisions. The Readiness deliverables are yours regardless of whether you continue with us afterward.

Most common next step

CompleteCare Foundations + Shield

The HIPAA-aligned managed-service baseline plus the 24/7 Microsoft Sentinel SOC. The combination that takes the Resiliency Program’s free cyber assessments and turns the findings into a continuously operated security posture. The combination cyber-insurance underwriters and HIPAA surveyors expect to see at a rural hospital under 300 beds.

See the rural-hospital CompleteCare stack →

If clinical AI is on the agenda

Healthcare AI Readiness

A two-week, $7,500 HIPAA-aligned AI readiness assessment. Pairs naturally with Rural Resiliency Readiness when the board has asked for both a cyber posture answer and an AI-strategy answer. Most hospitals run them sequentially, Resiliency Readiness first.

See Healthcare AI Readiness →

If cyber-insurance renewal is imminent

CompleteCare Shield kickoff

The 24/7 managed Microsoft Sentinel SOC for rural hospitals: the cyber-insurance underwriter’s evidence pack and the HIPAA breach-detection answer in one service. When renewal is inside 90 days, we sometimes recommend starting Shield kickoff in parallel with the Readiness engagement so the evidence is ready in time.

See CompleteCare Shield →

If grant-funded data compliance is the priority

CompleteCare Govern

Microsoft Purview operated as a HIPAA compliance program: PHI sensitivity labels, DLP for PHI-bearing channels, Audit Premium trails preserved for the retention window OCR expects. The right starting tier when an HRSA, CMS, or state DOH requirement is the immediate driver.

See CompleteCare Govern →

Why Centered Networks

Microsoft Resiliency Program partner, five Solutions Partner designations, charity-authorized CSP since 2014.

Centered Networks is one of a small number of partners with both the Microsoft Solutions Partner designations the program expects and the charity-authorized CSP status that places the discounted licensing. Hospitals working with us through the Resiliency Program get the program benefits and a managed-service operator on the same Master Services Agreement, not two vendors who have to be coordinated.

We operate the Microsoft stack for critical-access hospitals, Rural Emergency Hospitals, and rural community health systems across the country. Bonner General Health (Sandpoint, Idaho), Coquille Valley Hospital (Oregon), Valley View Hospital (Glenwood Springs, Colorado) are representative of the practice. The Healthcare AI Readiness program, the CompleteCare tiers, and the Rural Resiliency Readiness engagement are designed to fit together: the people who scope the program are the people who operate it.

Microsoft Solutions Partner for Modern Work designation badge. Microsoft Solutions Partner for Security designation badge. Microsoft Solutions Partner for Infrastructure (Azure) designation badge.
  • Microsoft Solutions Partner, five designations
  • Charity-authorized Microsoft CSP since 2014
  • Microsoft Rural Hospital Resiliency Program partner
  • 60+ nonprofit and rural-hospital tenants under management
  • Month-to-month, no twelve-month lock-in

Questions

Frequently asked questions.

How is Rural Resiliency Readiness different from a Discovery Sprint?

A Discovery Sprint is a general HIPAA and CIS IG1 baseline review applicable to any sector. Rural Resiliency Readiness is specifically about getting the Microsoft Rural Hospital Resiliency Program working for your hospital: eligibility, enrollment, license placement, Windows 10 ESU deployment, and the program-benefits utilization map. The two can be combined sequentially when a hospital needs both a baseline review and a program-enablement roadmap — Readiness first, then the Sprint to deepen the baseline.

How is this different from Healthcare AI Readiness?

Healthcare AI Readiness focuses on HIPAA-aligned AI: governance audit, use-case mapping, and a 90-day AI roadmap. Rural Resiliency Readiness focuses on cybersecurity and modernization through the Microsoft Resiliency Program: licensing economics, Windows 10 ESU, free cyber assessments, and the path into CompleteCare. Hospitals often do both, in either order, depending on what is most pressing.

We’re not yet a Microsoft customer. Can we still run this engagement?

Yes. If a Microsoft 365 tenant does not yet exist, the engagement includes initial tenant setup as a small additional scope. The Resiliency Program benefits require a Microsoft tenant for license placement and ESU key delivery, so this is the natural starting point for hospitals new to the Microsoft platform.

Our hospital is part of a larger health system. Are we eligible?

Possibly. The Microsoft Resiliency Program is open to independent CAHs and REHs, and to the specific hospitals listed as rural in Microsoft’s reference database within larger health-system customers. Eligibility verification against the database is the first deliverable of the engagement; if your hospital is not listed, we surface that upfront, no commitment.

We already have a CSP. Does the program require us to move?

Not for the free benefits (cybersecurity assessments, Cloud Capability Evaluation, training, AI tools, Claims Denial Navigator). For the discounted licensing (60–75% off business and security SKUs) and the free Windows 10 ESU, you would need to be on a charity-authorized CSP that supports the Resiliency Program. Centered Networks is one of those. The CSP move is non-disruptive (tenant stays where it is; the Partner of Record changes) and is part of the engagement when chosen.

How does this work alongside our cyber-insurance carrier?

The Resiliency Program free cybersecurity assessments produce documentation that satisfies cyber-insurance evidence requirements (MFA, EDR, monitoring posture, incident-response runbook). The 90-day operational roadmap explicitly names which evidence pack to produce by which milestone. Hospitals approaching a cyber-insurance renewal often schedule the Readiness engagement to align with the renewal cycle so the evidence is ready in time.

What happens after the two-week engagement ends?

The most common next step is CompleteCare Foundations (the HIPAA-aligned managed-service baseline for rural hospitals) plus CompleteCare Shield (the 24/7 managed Microsoft Sentinel SOC). The roadmap also names alternative starting tiers when the audit surfaces them: Govern when grant-funded data compliance is the priority, Intelligence with Healthcare AI Readiness when clinical AI is the next motion. Month-to-month from day one; no twelve-month lock-in.

Who delivers the engagement?

A senior engagement lead supported by a Microsoft-certified solutions architect with healthcare and Resiliency Program experience. A member of the leadership team is the executive contact throughout. The handoff into CompleteCare uses the same engagement lead, so the people who scoped the program are the people who operate it.

Start a Rural Resiliency Readiness engagement.

Two weeks. $5,000 flat. A written plan that takes your hospital from initial Resiliency Program consideration to fully enrolled, operationalized, and on a 90-day path to a sustainable managed-service operating posture. No commitment beyond the engagement.

If you would rather start with a broader sector conversation first, see our Rural Hospitals practice.

  • Microsoft Resiliency Program partner
  • Charity-authorized CSP since 2014
  • Month-to-month, no twelve-month lock-in
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