DHHS outlines public‑health history, reorganization and continuing UNH partnerships

Patricia Tilley, associate commissioner of the Department of Health and Human Services, told the House Finance Division II on Monday that the division’s organizational changes and external contracts should inform lawmakers as they consider the governor’s budget.

Tilley opened by placing the division’s authority in historical context, noting the state first legislated a health department in the 1880s and that the current statutory charge—cited during the hearing as RSA 125:9—directs the commissioner to “take cognizance of the interests of the health and life among the people and make invested investigations and inquiries.” She said that history helps explain where some longstanding general‑fund investments now sit in the division.

Tilley summarized five points she planned to cover, including: a brief history of public health authority; where general‑fund investments have been made (not dollars but program areas); the division’s pre‑ and post‑pandemic organizational structures; how prevention and public health interact with behavioral‑health services; and time for committee questions.

She described the division’s pre‑pandemic configuration (FY2018) as six bureaus with roughly 250 full‑time authorized positions. During the pandemic the division reorganized to seven bureaus, chiefly by splitting the former Bureau of Population and Community Health into a Bureau of Family Health and Nutrition and a Bureau of Prevention and Wellness, and by moving an emergency services unit into the Division of Public Health Services and renaming it the Bureau of Emergency Preparedness, Response and Resilience.…