HHS projects nearly $20M general-fund lapse and rising vacancies; unfunded positions total ~400

Nathan White, chief financial officer for the Department of Health and Human Services, presented the department’s quarterly budget and staffing update Nov. 21, showing HHS accounts for a large share of state health spending and faces vacancy and lapse challenges.

White said HHS represents about 44% of the state’s total operating budget and roughly 56% of the general fund portion of that budget. Within HHS’s operating budget, he said federal funds are roughly half of the total, general funds roughly 31%, with other funds making up the remainder.

Using historical patterns, White said an early projection placed the department’s general fund lapse at about $24.1 million; the department’s more current projection is "just shy of about $20,000,000." He warned, however, that statutory provisions restrict which funding sources can lapse in the first year of a biennium — the department estimates only about 33% of its general funds are eligible to lapse in the first year under those provisions.

White also described staffing and vacancy trends. The department has about 3,200 full-time authorized positions with roughly 400 unfunded positions in the current biennium; that unfunded gap accounted for about a $30 million reduction across the biennium, White said. He noted HHS personnel costs are a small share of the total HHS budget while utilization-driven program costs make forecasting more complicated.

Committee members asked how one-time 'back-of-the-budget' mandatory cuts will interact with lapse projections and urged greater coordination with the governor's budget office to understand revenue impacts; White recommended the governor's finance staff be consulted because they direct some of the mandatory reductions and appropriation timing.