West Virginia

West Virginia secured approximately $199.5 million in Year-1 funding under the federal $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program. Year 1 is the first tranche of an estimated $1 billion five-year plan; like every RHTP award, the funding is structured by CMS as an annual award across a five-year performance period, and it is roughly 100% federally funded.

The West Virginia Department of Health administers the program, coordinated through the WV State Office of Rural Health (wvsorh@wv.gov). Secretary of Health Dr. Arvin Singh leads the effort, with Dr. Carrie Jeffries serving as Director of RHTP. Procurement runs through the Office of Shared Administration.

West Virginia is taking a distinctly economic approach it calls "Health to Prosperity." Rather than primarily propping up hospital margins, the state aims to create a "virtuous circle" between health and work — targeting a move in the state's workforce participation rate from 54.3% to at least 56.3%. The plan is organized as a flywheel across seven flagship pillars: Connected Care Grid, Rural Health Link, Mountain State Care Force, Smart Care Catalyst, Health to Prosperity Pipeline, Personal Health Accelerator, and HealthTech Appalachia.

West Virginia disclosed its Year-1 pillar allocations for the first time at its July 9 webinar:

• Connected Care Grid — $45.9M
• Smart Care Catalyst — $45.6M
• Personal Health Accelerator — $29.0M
• HealthTech Appalachia — $18.8M
• Mountain State Care Force — $15.2M
• Rural Health Link — $13.8M
• Health to Prosperity — $13.4M

Administrative costs are excluded, so the pillar figures don't sum to $199.5M. The state has set hard cost caps: administrative costs at 10%, provider payments at 15%, EMR replacement at 5%, and the Rural Tech Catalyst Fund at 10% or $20M (whichever is lower).

West Virginia is running the fastest procurement cadence in the RHTP — it reported 20+ funding opportunities released with 10+ more coming this summer. Named solicitations include the Connected Care Grid Data Spine RFP (RHT26*4, sealed bids opened July 7), the Workforce Catalyst Program AFA ($500K, due Aug 5), Mountain State Care Force Provider Rotational Staffing Pools ($1.8M, due July 28), multiple CCG telehealth and mobile-unit AFAs, and the $24.1M Personal Health Accelerator nutrition-and-lifestyle solicitation. All applications route through the wvOASIS Vendor Self Service portal. Every dated dispatch covering West Virginia is listed below, newest first.

West Virginia's solicitation deadlines move quickly and many have already passed; the most recent is the Workforce Catalyst Program AFA, due August 5, 2026. Because the state releases opportunities on a rolling basis with tight windows, live dates surface first in the dated dispatches below and on the grant opportunities portal. Vendor questions on most solicitations route to procurement officer Mike Sheets (mike.sheets@wv.gov) within three business days of posting.

The Rural Health Transformation Program was created by Section 71401 of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (2025) and is administered federally by CMS. To maximize its CMS merit score, West Virginia committed to specific state policy changes, including passing the Make West Virginia Healthy Act of 2026 (satisfying the CMS Presidential Fitness Test requirement), enacting a SNAP waiver prohibiting the purchase of soda with benefits, and moving to require nutrition-focused Continuing Medical Education for physicians. The state also established a statewide Advisory Panel and a specialized HealthTech panel to govern the program.

Eligibility runs on two tracks. Direct-to-state contracts go out as competitive RFPs and Announcements of Funding Availability (AFAs), where firms bid as prime contractors — the Data Spine, provider directory, and platform solicitations are examples. Subgrants and subawards flow to rural providers — hospitals and critical-access hospitals, FQHCs and community health centers, rural health clinics, behavioral health providers, EMS agencies, and long-term/post-acute care — and it is here that technology vendors and consultants most often engage as subcontractors or implementation partners. West Virginia signals clear preferences: multi-system collaborations, in-state hiring and local operational presence (a "flywheel effect"), and mandatory integration with the state's Connected Care Grid Data Spine; it steers away from consulting-heavy models, academic pilots, and standalone apps.

Track opportunities on the WV RHTP hub and the grant opportunities portal, submit through wvOASIS, and subscribe to the state's RHTP listserv.

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