How federal grants to expand rural health care impacts Wisconsin

Ayush June 13, 2024

WISCONSIN RAPIDS, Wis. (WSAW) – The Biden Administration is announcing $11 million in investments to expand medical residencies in rural communities.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and White House Domestic Policy Council Director Neera Tanden announced the news right here in Northcentral Wisconsin.

Aspirus Riverview Hospital houses Mid-State Technical College’s Health Care Simulation Center. Students got to show off this really cool space that lets our future nurses and paramedics practice the skills they need on simulated patients who talk back to them. It was at a time when the secretary and director announced investments in rural health care and its future workforce.

The secretary and director got a tour of the life-like tools with students demonstrating how the center works.

There are 15 different medical systems around the country that are getting a chunk of that $11 million investment from the federal government. In Wisconsin, $750,000 is actually going to UW-Health’s OB-GYN program.

When asked what about the northern half of the state, where most of the rural communities are, Secretary Becerra said there are more opportunities for funds.

“What we were trying to do is combine with the members of Congress who want to make an investment in a health facility and say, ‘We’ll match you we’ll try to combine with you so we can increase the services,’” Becerra said. “So maybe this last round of funding didn’t get to the northern part of the state. But there are opportunities in the future.”

The main advice Becerra says is to reach out to your congressperson who can advocate for different programs to receive money. They were very impressed with the center and said more communities need this type of education embedded into existing medical spaces.

The other big message the secretary and director repeatedly noted was that Wisconsin should expand Medicaid. It’s one of 10 states in the country that hasn’t, meaning it does not have access to those extra federal dollars.

NewsChannel 7′s Emily Davies talked with Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce which does not support that.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is taking note of the efforts Northcentral Wisconsin is making toward building a rural health care workforce. We’ve heard it for years that we don’t have enough people working in the medical field as a large portion of our population ages.

While the workforce is incredibly important, over the last several years we’ve talked with both Aspirus and Marshfield Clinic along with the Wisconsin Hospital Association who all argue for one major change.

Emily Davies: “Everything that I’m hearing from our hospitals that sometimes are in the red, is that they need higher reimbursement for Medicare because that’s like half?”

HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra: “Medicaid? Medicare?”

Davies: “Medicare.”

Becerra: “So Medicare is higher than Medicaid. Let’s talk to Congress because we can’t with a flip of a switch change that that’s a federal statute, the reimbursement rates, all the rest. Without a doubt, you find a lot of doctors and providers who are saying it’s tough, but what I will tell you is this, Medicare has become the gold standard when it comes to providing broad care to the services that people need and based on how we can work with the Congress, we might see more investments in Medicare, Medicaid as well.” Medical systems in our area say nearly half of all patients served are insured through Medicare, but according to WHA, it only reimburses about three-quarters of what privately insured patients can pay.”

WHA says Medicaid expansion could help, but Medicare is a bigger issue. Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce says it does not support Medicaid expansion because it wants people working and receiving private insurance.

HHS says it has undertaken several noteworthy initiatives to improve health services and access for Americans living in rural communities These include expanding access to affordable, quality health care through the Affordable Care Act Marketplaces, and lowering the cost of prescription drugs through the Inflation Reduction Act. Additionally, HHS through the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP) provided approximately $173 million in grants during Fiscal Year 2023:

HRSA awarded $90 million to support rural behavioral health care services, including substance use disorder prevention and recovery activities through the Rural Communities Opioid Response Program. These investments build on HRSA’s steadfast commitment to expand access to treatment and create recovery pathways to prevent overdose, which to date have served over 4 million people in 1,900 rural counties.
FORHP invested almost $65 million to increase the rural workforce in critical areas of need.
FORHP awarded over $9 million to create new rural residency programs to place more medical school graduates in rural areas, building a pipeline of qualified doctors who stay to practice in rural communities.
$100 million in awards to address the increasing demand for registered nurses, nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives, and nurse faculty.
FORHP invested almost $9 million to continue building networks in rural communities to strengthen prenatal, delivery, and post-pregnancy support services, from which nearly 5,000 rural moms have benefitted.

For more information about HHS, click here.