The President of the North Dakota Hospital Association said he’s happy the state received $199 million to help strengthen healthcare in rural communities.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid made the award, to support the first year of a statewide rural health transformation program.
The money comes from the “one big beautiful bill” Congress passed.
Association president Tim Blasl said he is happy to see one of the top priorities is strengthening and stabilizing the rural health workforce.
"Bodies is kind of our challenge," Blasl said. "I think if we can put some of those dollars to try and grow our own in the state of North Dakota — we may have to look outside the state, or outside the country — but I'm very excited to see what these dollars can do in terms of helping the workforce challenges in healthcare, here in the state of North Dakota."
Blasl said he’s also pleased that another priority is to try to provide more and better care in the more rural areas of the state.
"A lot of people in those rural areas want to have care provided in their local communities," Blasl said. "I think some of those dollars can be used for that, to keep people in their local communities, and providing access. That's exciting."
The Legislature will meet, starting January 21st, to approve the plans to spend this initial federal grant.
