West Virginia gets more than $200 million for Rural Health Transformation in 2027

The state of West Virginia will get more than $200 million dollars during the second year of a federal grant program aimed at improving rural healthcare.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on Monday announced $10 billion in Rural Health Transformation program grants to all 50 states for 2027. West Virginia will receive $202,081,355 in year two, CMS announced.

“President Trump made a historic investment in rural America, and HHS is putting those resources to work in every state,” U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said in the news release Monday. “This next $10 billion will expand access to care, strengthen the rural health workforce, improve prevention and help states build solutions that fit the needs of their own communities. 

“We are giving rural America the resources and flexibility to build stronger health systems that deliver better care and better outcomes,” he said. 

The federal program aims to “transform the existing rural healthcare infrastructure and build sustainable health care systems that expand access, enhance quality of care, and improve outcomes for patients.” The program was part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which made historic cuts to healthcare and food assistance. 

The state received about $199 million from the program in 2026. 

The state Department of Health said last week it had obligated all of the 2026 funds, despite an October federal report that said as of July West Virginia hadn’t reported any of its Rural Health spending to CMS. 

“The CMS report reflects a snapshot ending July 31 and does not represent where the program stands today,” Gailyn Markam, director of communications for the state Department of Health, wrote in an email last week to West Virginia Watch. She added that the state had $4.3 million in administrative obligations as of July 31, including contracted implementation support. 

“From the beginning, West Virginia took a deliberate approach,” Markham wrote. “Rather than simply transferring large sums between government agencies or through intermediaries to meet obligation requirements, we prioritized direct agreements with the healthcare providers, vendors and community organizations responsible for carrying out the work.

“That approach required more contracting and coordination upfront, but it provides greater accountability and ensures funding is tied to specific projects, deliverables and results,” she said. “We have now made more than 140 awards and agreements across our seven initiatives, with approximately 90% of those awards going to West Virginia organizations.”

Under Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s plan for the program, schools, libraries and other community institutions in rural West Virginia would be outfitted for use in telemedicine. The state also plans to use the funding to address the state’s healthcare worker shortage by recruiting high school students to healthcare careers, adding healthcare faculty at regional and technical colleges and using financial incentives to attract and keep providers in rural areas. 

Morrisey has announced several awards for the funding, including opening a freestanding birthing center to address complex labor and delivery births, strengthening mental health and recovery services, expanding breast cancer screenings, helping people in recovery get back to work, expanding care for patients with chronic health conditions, helping rural hospitals address staffing shortages and more. 

This story may be updated.