BConley@DominionPost.com
MORGANTOWN – With at least $500 million in anticipated federal funding coming to West Virginia between fiscal years 2026 and 2030 for the purpose of improving rural health care, Monongalia County Health Officer Dr. Brian Huggins is cautiously optimistic about the role public health practitioners can play.
Earlier this month, Gov. Patrick Morrisey announced West Virginia had submitted its application to the Rural Health Transformation Program, a provision of the One Big Beautiful Bill that will allocate $50 billion over five years to help mitigate the impact of reductions to federal Medicaid funding and tighter beneficiary eligibility constraints on rural hospitals and other providers.
Assuming all 50 states apply, half the money will be distributed in $100 million annual installments to each state over the five-year period.
The remaining $25 billion will be distributed following a yet-to-be-finalized formula that will consider the percentage of the state’s population that lives in a rural area; the proportion of rural health facilities in the state relative to the number nationwide; the “situation” of Medicaid disproportionate share hospitals in the state; and other factors to be determined.
During a recent report to the Monongalia County Board of Health, Huggins said that while health departments were not included in the initial discussion regarding West Virginia’s submission, there’s conversation circulating among public health officials as to the impact they can have on this process.
“We’re looking at it going, ‘What does that mean for us?’ A lot of this when you read it is going to be very hospital-focused. Having said that, this is not the field that most hospitals are in, and so I’m very confident that this is something our hospital partners will probably be asking us. What is the best way to do prevention? How can we get into the community? Help us do these things rather than having to hire our consultants and do other things,” Huggins said. “It would be beneficial for them to work with health departments, and I think we’re postured really well right now to be able to help do this initiative from the federal government and the state, working with our hospital partners.”
The Rural Health Transformation Program falls under the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or CMS, which lists “promoting evidence-based, measurable interventions to improve prevention and chronic disease management” among the top priorities of the funding.
That directive falls in line with what Huggins has said must become a priority for public health leaders in West Virginia.
“Almost all the statistics that make us 50th deal with some kind of chronic disease. Yet public health in West Virginia does not focus on chronic disease. We focus on clean water, clean food, communicable disease, immunizations, and all of those things are very important. That’s kind of the Public Health 1.0 model,” he said earlier this year. “But if we’re going to get West Virginia out of 50th, somebody has to be looking at how we are preventing chronic disease.”
Running parallel to those prevention efforts is a push currently underway at the Monongalia County Health Department to become the source for critical data used to inform decisions, like those coming with the distribution of RHTP funds.
“One of our strategic planning objectives is to become the chief health strategist for the area. What does that mean? It means that when people want to ask about health statistics, or when people want to ask about public health prevention, we are that subject matter expert for the community,” Huggins said. “Us being able to competently collect data and analyze the data, that is a huge part of being that chief health strategist. So this is the future. In my opinion, this is the future of where public health in West Virginia needs to move. We are taking the lead on that as Mon County.”
