State Health Department to begin awarding $200M rural health grants within two weeks – WCHS

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by SHELBY BURROUGH
CHARLESTON, W.Va (WCHS) — The Rural Health Transformation fund is finally seeing movement following the legislative session. Governor Morrisey signed Senate Bill 570 into law, allowing the state to use the federal dollars that are available in the program.
"The Rural Health Transformation grants that we have provide us with a unique opportunity because it allows the state of West Virginia and all the states to be proactive in trying to address and attack the disease-state outcomes that are hurting our state,” Morrisey said.
The state Department of Health will start releasing competitive rewards for the available funding which is approximately $200 million. These awards will be made available over the next two weeks.
Morrisey said West Virginia was able to secure more per capita than any bordering state.
The initial grants are going to focus on the workforce, recruitment and the community based nutrition side of the program.
"Rural health transformation allows us to build a virtuous circle where we focus on improving healthcare outcomes, which allow more people to go into the workforce, which means that we can improve our productivity, we can strengthen our economy, and we can grow,” Morrisey said.
The overall program is set for 5 years and totals $50 billion. It aims to upgrade and expand rural healthcare.
It was approved in the One Big Beautiful Bill act, the same measure that made substantial cuts to Medicare and Medicaid.
"That's going to provide facilities and health care providers across the state with opportunities to make deep improvements in terms of how they're delivering care to patients. More accessibility in terms of the ability to access the health care choices that you need. Improvements in terms of recruiting, retention, that matters tremendously,” Morrisey said.
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