North Dakota legislators meet in special session next week.
The purpose is to deal with the $199 million federal grant to the state to improve rural health care.
An interim committee has approved 5 bills dealing with that subject. Sen. Brad Bekkedahl (R-Williston) chaired that committee. And he told the Legislative Management Committee the appropriations bill is built on four pillars.
"Oe is bringing high quality health care closer to home," Bekkedahl said. "We're anticipating to spend about 58 percent of the grant on that category. Next one is to connect technology and providers, with 17 percent going into that category. Third is to strengthen and stabilize the rural workforce, and about 16 percent will be spent on that, and 'Make North Dakota Healthy Again, about nine percent there."
Bekeedahl said the other bills are policy bills.
"First, a bill draft to require schools to utilize the Presidential Physical Fitness Test," Bekkedahl said. "The next one nutrition education for physicians. Then there's a bill draft for the state to join a physician assistance licensure compact, and then a bill draft to expand the scope of practice for pharmacists, related to laboratory testing and prescriptive authority."
State Health and Human Services Interim Director Pat Traynor told the Committee his department is also setting up an “office of Health Transformation,” that will look at the issue from a longer-term perspective.
"If we have people healthier in North Dakota, we have less costs," Traynor said. "We have greater quality of life."
The special session convenes next Wednesday.
