CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The state is beginning to accept bids for a review of the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources.
Gov. Jim Justice announced Friday a request for proposal has been posted for a company to review the organization and its functions. Firms have until May 6 at 1:30 p.m. to submit a bid.
“We look forward to hooking up with a really, really great firm that can do an assessment from top to bottom of all the needs in DHHR,” he said. “And if we have deficiencies, we’ll address those deficiencies as I promised. We want to continue to try to make every single one of our organizations better.”
Justice in March vetoed a bill that would have split the agency into the state Department of Health and the Department of Human Resources. Lawmakers supported the change, citing a need to better control the current department’s finances and more efficiently address matters such as foster care and drug addiction. Justice promised an outside review of the agency to understand the department’s inefficiencies.
“Every breathing, living person knows that DHHR did not just get this way on my watch or in the last few years,” Justice contended during Friday’s coronavirus briefing. “There is no possible way. Really and truly, DHHR has had problems for a long, long, long time. The great thing is we’re addressing it now. We’re trying to get to the bottom of it and see what we can do to really help.”
Health and Human Resources Secretary Bill Crouch said officials will review applications as companies submit bids.
“There will be a process with a scoring team that goes through each application and makes sure that the scoring by various portions of the applications are done appropriately,” he said. “There will be no one from DHHR on that scoring team, by the way. We will make sure that is done independent from DHHR.”
Justice and Crouch shared hope of receiving multiple bids for the review.
“If we get 20 applications, that may take a week or even a little more. If there are two or three, it may take one or two days. We will move that process along quickly,” he said. “We’re looking to have recommendations by Dec. 31 of this year.”
Justice countered the idea of having recommendations by the end of the year.
“We’re going to get them in way, way, way before then,” the governor said. “We’re going to do the work right, but this idea of waiting until Dec. 31 or this lasting until Dec. 31, there’s no way.”
The size and efficiency of the department have been under intensifying scrutiny. Jeremiah Samples left the agency as deputy secretary last month, citing differences with Crouch and challenges in achieving DHHR’s goals.
“Despite having an allocated budget of ~$7.5 BILLION, tireless dedication by wonderful staff and Commissioners, and an expectation for success from the Governor, DHHR has struggled to make, and even lost, progress in many critical areas,” Samples said in an April 11 statement.
“Child welfare, substance use disorder, protection of the vulnerable, management of state health facilities, EMS and provider capacity, supporting client transition from public assistance to the workforce, contract management, and many more DHHR responsibilities have simply not met anyone’s expectation, especially my own.”