One of the state’s top health officials updated lawmakers on the Legislative Oversight Commission on Health and Human Resources (LOCHHRA) Tuesday about the complex reorganization of West Virginia’s old Department of Health and Human Resources.
Secretary of the Department of Health Sherri Young presented an update to lawmakers who sit on the committee. The DHHR had long been troubled, but came under fire in recent years for staffing shortages and other problems, allegedly compromising the care provided to children in the foster care system or those living in state hospitals.
Following an investigation and the filing of a class action lawsuit, in 2023, the Legislature decided to divide the agency. House Bill 2006 was signed into law by Gov. Jim Justice on March 6, 2023.
The DHHR was split into three departments by an act of the Legislature in 2023. Those three departments are The Department of Human Services (DoHS), the Department of Health (DH) and the Department of Health Facilities (DHF).
The same legislative act directed the three departments to be overseen by the Office of Shared Administration (OSA) which consists of six offices: the Office of Finance, the Office of Human Resources Management, the Office of Constituent Services, the Office of Communications, the Office of Operations and the Office of Management Information Services.
In December 2023 lawmakers shared concerns about efficiency and fears of overlap in the restructuring process. Secretary of DH, Sherri Young told the committee following that December meeting that they could hold question-and-answer sessions with the heads of each of the six offices.
“We had a great discussion back in December, getting to know the directors of each of these offices…and it was felt at that time that this is where they rightly belonged and that they were able to serve all three departments as they continue to do,” Young said. “We had the office directors there, and sometimes it’s better to hear directly from the directors as to how are things going. It was a great meeting. I would put that up as an option again, if you’re interested in coming to talk to the directors and learning more about how OSA is going from an additional perspective.”
On Tuesday morning, during September interim meetings of the Legislature, Young told lawmakers about the ongoing development of the OSA, noting that officially, OSA has only been seated since July 1, 2024.
“But even with 70 days in, we’ve had a lot of wins and a lot of efficiencies and some heavy lifts in other places,” Young said. “If we had to give a percentage, we’re over 80 percent, but we still are committed to getting that work done.”
Young reported a small decrease in staffing in the OSA.
“We’ve had a net loss of a little bit more than five positions, some of those, they may have been open positions that may not have been renewed,” Young said. “I’ll give an example: in Operations where we had a retirement, we just eliminated that position and then moved his folks into other divisions, and [it] is actually working a little bit more efficiently, even.”
Individual Office Updates
During her December 2023 OSA presentation, Young described each of the six offices and their functions. During Tuesday’s testimony, she provided updates about the development of those offices.
“You’ve met with these directors,” Young said. “They do a fantastic job. They’re committed to making sure that the departments are up and running, and even though it’s been a heavy lift, we have an integrated support system. And with the three departments and the three department secretaries working directly with OSA, that has been a benefit because they also had that institutional knowledge.”
Young told lawmakers that institutional knowledge is vital to the future success of the DoHS, DH and DHF.
“They [OSA Directors] have been there far before the three secretaries came to be for the departments,” Young said. “So they are giving us that historical perspective of learning how to do budgets and learning how to manage HR, how to use communications, both internally and externally. So very important functions that they are doing to keep us going. So having that, as far as building out the departments, having that historical knowledge, has been very, very, very good.”
Young used the Office of Communications as an example of efficient downsizing done in the past year. She said when OSA started, the Office of Communications had five filled positions. Now they have four, but two are dedicated to DoHS, one to DH and one to DHF. According to Young, this new structure helps keep messaging consistent and allows for personal expertise.
“They do forward-facing communications,” Young said. “They do our social media, they do our press releases, they make announcements, but they do a lot of internal reviews as well. So any PowerPoint that goes out to for someone doing information at a conference, or any information that goes out to the public, it is vetted through communications for fact finding. It is vetted through communications to make sure everything is consistent, because we want to make sure that the message going out is consistent and that is appropriate for whoever is receiving that, whether it be press inquiries or anything that it does affect the public.”
Young also told lawmakers the Office of Finance has encountered the most obstacles in the transition because of the nature of their work.
“You’re not taking one big account and creating three separate accounts,” Young said. “You’re creating line items out of several little, little accounts that are directed towards offices. The great thing is, it gives more visibility, but that unwinding piece has taken a lot of time and a lot of effort.”
Young told lawmakers Finance also works to acquire funding from the federal government.
“It’s still a process just to get some of the paperwork changed to make sure we’re in compliance with federal government regulations to receive funds because their work was with DHHR previously,” Young said. “Now, their work is with the Department of Health.”
Young said the Office of Human Resources Management was “impacted” by the shift, because of the department’s work with the federal government.
“Benefits and everything change from one DHHR to again, going into the three different departments,” Young said. “Even how they list the open positions, has been a change. So all of that needed to be changed. The good thing is that those changes have been made. We’re doing good.”
Young also told lawmakers the OSA is continuing to work with the Department of Commerce on rebranding.
“We think that we have a good operational rhythm, and the three secretaries have respect of each other in respect of each other’s departments,” Young said.
Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting with support from Charleston Area Medical Center and Marshall Health.
