Vaya Health briefs Swain commissioners on Medicaid rate cuts, rural health grant and local services

Vaya Health representatives updated the Swain County Board of Commissioners on changes to Medicaid funding and a federal rural health grant opportunity, and described new local service capacity for behavioral health and addiction treatment.

Shelley Forman, Community Relations Regional Director for Vaya Health, told the board that the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services implemented provider rate reductions after the General Assembly did not fully fund the Medicaid rebase. "Medicaid rates will be reduced to providers," Forman said, noting both broad cuts and targeted reductions that will affect providers and members in the community. Forman described the Rural Health Transformation program as a five-year federal funding initiative that will total $50 billion nationally; she said roughly half of that funding is distributed evenly and that North Carolina's share of the noncompetitive portion will be about $100 million a year, with additional competitive funds to be awarded.

Forman also described local Vaya Health partnerships that affect Swain County: a contract to use inpatient behavioral beds at Cherokee Hospital for certain adult members, a 24/7 behavioral health urgent care at the Balsam Center for Hope and Recovery to support crisis triage and involuntary commitment exams, and a mobile addiction-treatment unit arriving to provide local services. She asked the board to expect more information when the state's application results are known and offered to share the state's application materials with the county.

Forman's remarks were informational; no local funding action was requested at this meeting.