By Eric Douglas
Money from the Rural Health Transformation Program is about to start flowing into West Virginia.
At Princeton Community Hospital in Mercer County, Gov. Patrick Morrisey had a ceremonial signing Thursday of Senate Bill 570, legislation that allows the state Department of Health to receive nearly $200 million in federal Rural Health Transformation Program funds.
The program was created in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act last summer to support rural health programs across the country.
“We’re going to have a whole plan you’re going to hear about that’s going to provide facilities like this and health care providers across the state with opportunities to make deep improvements in terms of how they’re delivering care to patients,” he said.
The Rural Health Transformation Program was created to offset cuts to Medicare and Medicaid that are expected to hurt smaller, rural hospitals. Those cuts are estimated to be roughly $900 million a year in West Virginia.
The legislation itself wasn’t without controversy as it was slow to pass the finish line and make it to the governor’s desk.
“At its core, 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 outcomes that are hurting our state,” Morrisey said. “The incentives are good, and we get to build a coalition in West Virginia.”
Morrisey noted that 40 different groups came together behind the state’s application.
“We were able to secure more per capita than any of the states that we touch, and we worked it pretty hard,” he said. “We currently have the lowest workforce participation rate in America, 54.3%. Imagine if we could make it 56.3%. Can you imagine what would happen to our economy and what happened to health care? And that’s part of why we focus on this.”
