Amid the buzz and uncertainty surrounding the recently passed One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program, Charleston, W.Va.-based Vandalia Health is hoping to get a chunk of that funding to aid its telehealth and mobile medicine initiatives.
“We know that each state is going to get $100 million for the next five years, but there’s additional dollars that are available as well,” Jeff Sandene, executive vice president and CFO of Vandalia Health, said in a Becker’s CFO+Revenue Cycle Podcast episode. “We hope we can attract some of those dollars to our health system.”
Under the program, states, not hospitals, will receive the funding, which aims to improve infrastructure, care quality and access in rural communities. Applications for the funding are due Nov. 5. CMS will announce awardees by Dec. 31 and funding will be distributed in 2026.
“Telehealth is a big component,” Mr. Sandene said. “When you think of all of the mountainous terrain we have [in West Virginia], people can’t afford to travel up the turnpike, they maybe don’t have a vehicle, so our telemedicine network that we’ve developed since COVID, we want to take that statewide. We’ve added a significant amount of resources to our mobile medicine, CT scans and mammography clinics. They’re a part of a fleet that we want to see grow.”
Vandalia Health has also undergone significant growth over the last three years, expanding from just four hospitals to 17. The system owns 14, but manages three more.
Mr. Sandene said the system has more than $200 million in ongoing projects, including the development of its 15th hospital in Harrison County, W.Va., a rehab hospital in Charleston and access clinic sites throughout the region it services.
“It’s really centered around, how do we improve access in our communities that we serve? I call that organic growth,” he said. “As healthcare continues to change from the standpoint of relationships that we have with many different organizations, those conversations are only going to continue.”
Looking to the future, Mr. Sandene said the health system has no plans of slowing down, and could even look to out of state expansion. For other systems looking to make similar expansions, Mr. Sandene said it’s important to keep the conversation going.
“You have to think of the business differently than you did yesterday, because it’s continuing to change,” he said. “For those that aren’t thinking of what it’s going to look like tomorrow, you’re going to fall behind. You need to be thinking of what’s happening in the landscape of healthcare, and how you’re going to meet those challenges. Part of it is finding those relationships and potential affiliations that can help make you stronger.”
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