{"id":615264,"date":"2026-04-30T12:59:34","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T12:59:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/615264\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T12:59:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T12:59:34","slug":"governor-announces-28-million-starter-pack-for-rural-health-transformation-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/615264\/","title":{"rendered":"Governor announces $28 million starter pack for rural health transformation funding"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Gov. Patrick Morrisey <a href=\"https:\/\/governor.wv.gov\/article\/governor-morrisey-announces-first-2856-million-rural-health-transformation-funding\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">announced<\/a> the first $28.56 million availability for bolstering West Virginia\u2019s rural healthcare infrastructure and professional workforce.<\/p>\n<p>The initial funding, which is part of a larger federal grant, is aimed at initiatives called the Mountain State Care Force, HealthTech Appalachia and the Connected Care Grid.<\/p>\n<p>The three programs are meant to work together to expand workforce capacity, drive better health outcomes, foster health technology innovation and enhance connectivity across rural and underserved communities.<\/p>\n<p>By strengthening the medical labor market, the state hopes to improve public health outcomes and encourage more citizens to enter the workforce.<\/p>\n<p>Eligible organizations can now apply for the funding opportunities through the state\u2019s procurement and grants management system at wvOASIS.gov.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe did the work to bring this program to West Virginia, and now these resources are available to the organizations on the ground that can put them to use,\u201d Morrisey said in the announcement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs these resources are deployed, we\u2019ll see more West Virginians back on the job and stronger, healthier communities across the state.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The funding is administered through the state Department of Health.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a major step forward in our work to improve health outcomes and transform the workforce across West Virginia,\u201d said state Health Secretary Arvin Singh.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy investing in long-term, system-level solutions through initiatives like the Mountain State Care Force, HealthTech Appalachia, and the Connected Care Grid, we are making meaningful, lasting investments in our healthcare workforce and ensuring communities across the state \u2014 especially those in rural areas \u2014 have access to high-quality care now and for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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\u2019s application, the state\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p>Nationally,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2025\/12\/29\/trump-admin-doles-out-billions-for-rural-health-00707332\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">disbursements for states<\/a>\u00a0are between $145 million and $281 million for the year.<\/p>\n<p>This is through The Rural Health Transformation Program, created under the \u201cOne Big Beautiful Bill Act\u201d to distribute $50 billion over five years across all 50\u00a0states to strengthen rural health care.<\/p>\n<p>The program to support rural health\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kff.org\/medicaid\/a-closer-look-at-the-50-billion-rural-health-fund-in-the-new-reconciliation-law\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">grew out of concerns<\/a>\u00a0that changes to Medicaid under the \u201cOne Big Beautiful Bill Act\u201d would undercut already fragile rural health systems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Patrick Morrisey announced the first $28.56 million availability for bolstering West Virginia\u2019s rural healthcare infrastructure and professional&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":518078,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":["post-615264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=615264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}