Oral Health Care To Be Part of Plan
Yesterday, Governor Morrisey announced the submission of West Virginia’s Rural Health Transformation Fund application, a plan to modernize rural healthcare and improve health outcomes statewide through an unprecedented investment from the Center for Medicaid Services.
A quick review of the summary outlines initiatives that may relate to oral health provision/professionals:
“For healthcare services that require travel, transportation options will be drastically enhanced under a new initiative called Rural Health Link. This initiative will use a range of transportation option to get patients to their medical appointments, including public buses, rideshare apps like Uber and Lyft, and private vehicles made available through faith-based or other organizations. Allowing more patients to regularly make it to their medical appointments will directly improve health outcomes.”
“To,,,grow the state’s base of rural healthcare professionals, Gov. Morrisey will implement an intensive, multifaceted recruiting and retention effort known as the Mountain State Care Force.
- recruitment will begin in high school
- the state will add healthcare faculty at regional and technical colleges to train more graduates.
- Financial incentives will be used to attract providers to rural areas and keep them there.
- Healthcare professionals will be recruited from other states.
- workers already in the healthcare field will receive support to climb the career ladder and continually improve their skills and credentials, through both in-person and virtual training.
“(Medicaid) will transition the state to a value-based care model in which providers have financial incentives to improve outcomes—and thereby decrease costs.”
The application focuses on seven initiatives, which are outlined here.
A summary of West Virginia’s application can be found here.
