The House of Delegates passed a bill aimed at ensuring West Virginia will be able to draw down millions of dollars from the federal Rural Health Transformation Fund.
House Bill 4740 passed on a 92-1 vote, with Democrat Kayla Young as the lone vote against the legislation after she expressed concern about exposure to fraud or federal clawbacks. The bill now goes to the state Senate.
West Virginia officials have said the bill needs to be in place to establish the structure for $199 million to flow from the federal government next year for the state’s rural health plan.
Mainly, the bill rolls back Division of Purchasing requirements for the rural healthcare program but maintains Department of Health purchasing rules.
“I am worried about similar fraud issues that happened during covid,” Young said after today’s House floor session. “I don’t think we should be giving up our state’s control.”
Last week, during an appearance in Parkersburg, Gov. Patrick Morrisey emphasized the importance of moving ahead with deploying the rural health dollars.
“That’s going to really help us move the needle to get people healthier,” said Morrisey, a Republican.
“And when you get people healthier, you get more people going into the workforce. You get a more productive workforce, and what does that do? That creates a virtuous circle, where we’re lifting up our standard of living, we’re growing and strengthening the economy, which then helps people become healthier again.”
In late December, officials announced that West Virginia has secured $199 million this year from the federal Rural Health Transformation Fund. The award almost doubled the guaranteed minimum for the first year.
Of the full amount, $25 billion is being evenly divided among the 50 states, and discretionary dollars are being 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.
Nationally, disbursements for states are between $145 million and $281 million for the year.
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.
Delegate Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha, voted in favor of the accompanying state bill but delivered a speech underscoring the federal legislative history.
“I, for one, refuse to call it beautiful, because what it’s going to wind up doing is kicking a lot of West Virginians off their health care in the long run,” Pushkin said.
The bill passed by lawmakers emphasizes the need to quickly unleash the dollars, particularly that “the federal Rural Health Transformation Program requires rapid, targeted deployment of the awarded funds.
“That such utilization be performed within rigid time frames, with the understanding that failures to comply with the limitations on how these funds may be used — as well as requirements on proper processes for the deployment — may result in clawbacks of funds both currently awarded as well as jeopardizing future awards by CMS. “