A representative of the Governor’s Office described to lawmakers the urgency of meeting a Nov. 5 deadline for a five-year funding application valued at about $100 million a year to support rural healthcare.
“We are on something of a compressed timeframe,” Curtis Capehart, director of policy for Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s administration, told the Oversight Commission on Health and Human Resources Accountability during legislative interim meetings at the state Capitol.
This is through The Rural Health Transformation Program, created under the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” to distribute $50 billion over five years across all 50 states to strengthen rural health care.
The program to support rural health grew out of concerns that changes to Medicaid under the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” would undercut already fragile rural health systems.
The program is being administered by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
Of the full amount, $25 billion will be evenly divided among the 50 states, and discretionary dollars will be allocated to states based on each state’s application, the state’s rural nature, and other policies. Allocation to each state is based on a competitive application process and guided by the quality of state-proposed strategies.
Capehart said the state has secured guidance from the consulting firm McKinsey & Company.
“It’s a pretty massive work product that will come through this timeframe that we’re all pushing through very, very hard right now, and McKinsey’s depth and breadth of expertise and personnel has been essential to getting the work done we have to this point and will be essentially getting us all the way through November 5,” Capehart said.
He said themes already running through the state’s work on the rural healthcare effort include “access to care, transportation issues, workforce shortages, behavioral health, substance use, treatment, financial instability” and availability of workers.’
Capehart said a range of goals is already clear. At the top of the list is fundamentally improving healthcare outcomes.
Also: preventing disease, managing the chronic conditions — especially the high prevalence conditions like diabetes — cardiovascular disease, behavioral health, tracking care quality statewide, increasing care access, expanding provider capacity, strengthening emergency medical services and encouraging easier access to virtual care.
Capehart’s presentation included a pitch for expressions of support for West Virginia’s application effort.
At the end of this, our application is going to need to demonstrate the buy in of not just the Governor’s Office and the executive branch agency that will be the applicant,” Capehart said.
“And as part of that, we will need letters of support from all quarters, especially various aspects of health care. So as we’re all thinking about that November 5 date, that is something that we would be very glad to have your all support and assistance with.”
Delegate Sarah Drennan, R-Putnam, asked a followup question to make sure she could be sure what she might be signing her name to support: “Would we able to see the application prior to submitting our letters of support, so that we know what we’re supporting?”
Capehart agreed that’s probably a good idea, although he couldn’t guarantee that will be possible. The tight deadline is a major factor, he said.
“But with that said, we’ll certainly do our best to try and get things done as quickly as we can and give you all the opportunity that you would want to have to be aware of what’s in there.”