CHARLESTON — West Virginia health and human resources officials have been talking with employees about splitting the agency into three, and more talks are ahead with the governor and his top advisers.
Dr. Jeffrey Coben, acting director of the Department of Health and Human Resources, said he could not yet go into detail with lawmakers about initial plans to divide the agency because that meeting with the governor is next week.
“I have not yet had the requisite meetings with the Governor’s Office to discuss that plan in depth and to really provide their input to help craft the plan,” Coben told members of the Oversight Commission on Health and Human Resources Accountability.
He added, “those meetings will be in depth. They will be our initial meetings. Some decisions, I hope, will be made during that time. We may need to have subsequent meetings following those meetings next week to really finalize the plans as to the governor’s thoughts moving forward.”
The three agencies under the new structure would be the Department of Health, the Department of Human Services and the Department of Health Facilities.
West Virginia lawmakers passed House Bill 2006 after months of consideration. The bill goes into effect next month, but the full division of the agency isn’t supposed to take effect until 2024.
Senate President Craig Blair, R-Berkeley, asked Coben to describe any factors that might complicate the restructuring.
“What obstacles do you see to implementing what we’ve got that are out there? Enlighten us. I know that you’re seeing some of them. Tell us what the obstacles are on being able to implement the will of the Legislature on the reformation of the DHHR,” Blair told Coben.
“If you don’t have that list then the next time you come back you can have one for me. I want to know what roadblocks are going to be showing up.”
Coben responded that interacting with the federal government will be a challenge to monitor, particularly regarding matching funds. He also described the need to update communications resources like signage and websites. “There are a number of things we’ll need to navigate as we go through the next nine months,” he said.
On broader matters, he said, “I’ll get back to you but quite frankly at this point I don’t see substantial obstacles from a policy perspective.”
Delegate Heather Tully, R-Nicholas, noted that communications issues were highlighted in a review of DHHR. She asked for a description of communications efforts now “because I think that’s one of the areas we’re going to have to work on very hard and very diligently if we’re going to make an impact,” she said.
Coben described 21 town halls that involved about 2,500 employees. He also described an intranet site with frequently asked questions. Coben said he told employees they would be looped in again in May, following the discussions with the governor’s staff and legislators.
“As you can imagine, not all employees are reading legislative bills,” Coben said. “So I’ve spent a fair amount of time condensing the bill to what I thought was really the meat and potatoes of what folks needed and wanted to know.
“The things that were of most concern, as you would expect, were things around employee security, job security — ‘Am I going to need to change my office location, am I going to change my direct supervisor’ — those types of things. Also, the timeline for how things are anticipated to be implemented was something we spent a fair amount of time talking about.”
Delegate Bob Fehrenbacher, R-Wood, asked more about the discussions of job security.
“Have you seen changes in staffing, the rate of attrition or departure or announced departures since this bill passed, or is it about the same or less?” Fehrenbacher said.
Coben said he’s pleased that there’s been no departures among DHHR’s leadership team and he considers it stronger.
For other workers, “I think the anxiety that was expressed by our employees was adequately addressed during the town hall sessions that we’ve had. Feedback on that has been quite good. I do not believe we’ve had attrition in that regard.”
But Coben sees more up ahead.
“I think there will be additional uncertainties and challenges. As you can imagine with the new department structure being stood up in 2024 and the appointment of new cabinet secretaries expected at that time at the same time the governor will be entering the final year of his administration, there will be some challenges and uncertainties in that regard.
“Those will be the things I’ll be discussing with the governor’s team. I think if we can all come out of our subsequent conversations with a consistent theme for the employees, I think that will be terrific.”
