HHS tells ND committee $198.9M award gives 'once-in-a-lifetime' chance, but funds must be obligated quickly

Pat Traynor, a Department of Health and Human Services official, told the Bridal Health Transformation Committee that North Dakota received a competitive rural health transformation award and that "speed is of the essence" to obligate and later liquidate the funds. Traynor described the grant as an opportunity to realign HHS work across technology, care close to home, workforce, and population health initiatives and urged legislators to connect HHS with local partners and ready projects.

The award includes both baseline and competitive components; HHS officials said the state will receive roughly $98.9 million in the current award year and described five-year target allocations across four priority buckets. Traynor listed targets for connectivity and data, care closer to home, workforce initiatives, and a community health pillar he described as "Make North Dakota healthy again," but cautioned those…