NH officials outline Medicaid, SNAP changes and timeline for rural health transformation grant

Laurie Weaver, commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, told the Health and Human Services Oversight Committee on Sept. 26 that the department is working to finalize an application for the federal rural health transformation grant before a November 3 deadline and is continuing stakeholder roundtables and a request for information process.

The update moved quickly into federally driven changes to SNAP and Medicaid that DHHS staff said could increase state costs and administrative workload. Karen Hebert, director of the Division of Economic Stability, told the committee that recent federal legislation (referred to in testimony as HR 1 / the "Big Beautiful Bill Act") will change how SNAP is funded and administered and will likely require the state to cover a larger share of some costs beginning in federal fiscal year 2026–2027.

Hebert said the federal-state split for SNAP administrative costs will change from the current 50/50 arrangement to 75/25 (state share rising) effective in October 2026, and that the SNAP benefit itself — historically 100% federally funded — may require a state share depending on the state's error rate. "This is impactful to about the 43,000 households that receive SNAP benefits in New Hampshire," Hebert said. She explained that the state would owe some share of benefits if New…