North Dakota Gets Ready to Distribute Rural Health Funds

(Adobe Stock via Prairie News Service)

(By Mike Moen. Prairie News Service) – Rural health leaders in North Dakota are eager to see new investments to boost access to care after the state authorized the use of new federal funds.

All U.S. states are getting started on an initial wave of aid under the Rural Health Transformation Program approved by Congress last summer. It will provide $50 billion over the next five years, and North Dakota will see $200 million in the first year. With the legislature giving the green light last week, providers and organizations working on solutions are eyeing the grant application process.

Jacob Warren, director of the Center for Rural Health at the University of North Dakota, is confident the rural health care workforce will see more stability.

“That is a really unifying theme that we hear as we work with hospitals, clinics, and other providers across the state of North Dakota,” Warren observed. “The ability to rethink how we do recruitment, to focus in on how we retain the providers that we are able to recruit.”

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