SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – Over the past month, the Departments of Social Services and Health traveled the state to seek input on the best uses of grant money —potentially worth up to $200 million yearly.
This grant is for the Rural Health Transformation Program, put in place to help offset changes to Medicaid and Medicare over the next five years.
“Just anticipating that money coming at the end of December. We know we want to hit the ground running in January with some initial steps. So, we will be doing some preliminary planning, not putting too much time and effort into it, but doing what we need to do, so when we know our funding allocation, we’re able to start that work as soon as possible,” Laura Ringling, the Governor’s Office Senior Policy Advisor, said.
The state submitted its application with four key priorities:
Connecting Technology and Data
Advancing Rural Workforce
Keeping Healthcare Local and Strong
Transforming Systems for Sustainability
One big goal for the state is to get smaller health facilities up to date in technology.
“An electronic health record is so much more than just a patient health record. There are a lot of tools within that help increase preventative care rates and help providers collaborate on care more. There’s just a lot of tools in that space that can help providers improve metrics for folks,” Lori Dykstra, Feeding South Dakota’s CEO, said.
The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services listed food as a “not allowable expense” as part of the application. One advocate for food health said it should be thought of more in that way.
“Being able to connect both food as medicine with the health care system, we know that when patients have access to healthy and nutritious meals, there’s less chronic illness, fewer visits to the ER and clinics,” Lori Dykstra said.
The Governor’s Office will be informed of the amount of money allocated to them before the end of the calendar year.
Ringling said she doesn’t believe the state will get the full $200 million yearly possible, but likely at least something above $100 million.
