Committee ideas: workforce, mobile clinics, pharmacy interoperability and local capacity top list for rural health application

Committee members spent the reconvened session presenting and discussing program ideas to be included in the Department of Health and Human Services’ rural health transformation application to CMS. The conversation combined suggestions from listening sessions, provider and local-government outreach, and committee members’ local experience.

Key ideas and how DHHS said they would treat them - Nutrition and rural food access: Members asked DHHS to expand support to rural grocery stores and convenience stores to increase healthy food availability, and to explore point-of-sale changes for SNAP so smaller outlets can accept benefits. DHHS said that SNAP point-of-sale work and cooperative purchasing are allowable in the plan and that the department will consult the Department of Agriculture on costs and vendor approaches. Senator Mather and others noted existing ties to the Great Plains Food Bank and cooperative produce purchasing in Park River.

- Dentistry, optometry and workforce supports: Legislators pressed DHHS to explicitly include dental and vision provider workforce strategies — mobile clinics, school-based sealant/cleaning programs, outreach and equipment modernization — and asked whether scope-of-practice changes (for hygienists) were allowed. DHHS said dentist and optometrist inclusion in workforce, mobile clinics and equipment strategies fits the current framework, but clarified that changing licensed scopes of practice is outside the department’s authority and would require separate policy action.

- Scholarships, recruitment and relocation: Multiple legislators proposed targeted scholarships and other…