Health Workforce Woes Cited as Federal Spending Plan Moves Forward in North Dakota

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(North Dakota Monitor) – North Dakota’s Rural Health Transformation Program budget bill along with four related policy bills passed their votes in the Legislature.

The budget bill, House Bill 1623, is the reason the North Dakota Legislature reconvened this week for the special session. It gives the North Dakota Department of Health and Human Services the authority to spend incoming federal Rural Health Transformation Program dollars.

The program was created by Congress last summer as part of its budget reconciliation bill. It was advertised as a way to partially make up for funding rural states will lose from Medicaid cuts included elsewhere in the legislation

North Dakota received $199 million from the federal government for the first year of the five-year program. Qualifying organizations will be able to apply for a slice of that funding in the coming months.