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Wyoming Health Department outlines plan to invest $205 million federal award in perpetuity to shore up rural hospitals, EMS and workforce
Summary
The Wyoming Department of Health told the Joint Appropriations Committee it received a $205 million first-year award under the federal Rural Health Transformation Program and proposes placing roughly 70% into a perpetuity fund that would generate annual returns to support critical access hospitals, EMS regionalization and workforce programs; the plan requires legislative authorization and federal approval steps.
Stefan Johansen, director of the Wyoming Department of Health, told the Joint Appropriations Committee that Wyoming’s first-year award under the federal Rural Health Transformation Program is $205,000,000 and outlined a proposal to use the bulk of the money to create a perpetuity fund to sustain rural health services.
“We believe our first year award is $205,000,000,” Johansen said, describing an approach that would invest about 70% of the initial payment in a long-term corpus and reserve the remainder for time-limited initiatives. The department told members it targets roughly a 4% annual return on invested funds so a modest distribution could continue annually over decades.
The nut graf: the department framed the proposal as an effort to convert a one-time federal windfall into a durable revenue stream for top-ranked needs identified during statewide public engagement — sustaining emergency departments and obstetrics at critical access hospitals, stabilizing EMS systems and expanding workforce…
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