Phot caption: Del. Heather Tully, R-Nicholas (right), questioned the proposed organization chart for the state’s three new health departments during the Legislative Oversight Commission on Health and Human Resources Accountability meeting on Monday, Dec. 11, 2023 in Charleston, W.Va. (Will Price | West Virginia Legislative Photo)
State lawmakers pushed to split the behemoth DHHR, but the implementation appears to some as more ‘bloated bureaucracy’
BY: AMELIA FERRELL KNISELY – DECEMBER 12, 2023 6:00 AM
As the state health department is weeks away from its deadline to split into three new departments, lawmakers are concerned that the changes won’t be enough to improve transparency and longstanding workforce issues.
State lawmakers earlier this year mandated that the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources break apart. While pushing for the massive overhaul, both Republicans and Democrats cited concerns about DHHR’s finance management and treatment of vulnerable populations, including foster children.
They were hoping siloing off workers in new departments would enable accountability when things went wrong.
On Monday, as lawmakers reviewed DHHR’s new organizational chart, Del. Heather Tully, R-Nicholas, voiced concerns that the department still hasn’t shed enough top-level administrative positions in its new Office of Shared Administration. The office will provide dozens of shared employees for the three new departments.
“I think it dilutes your responsibility,” she said. “I do have very grave concerns about this.”
Overall, state lawmakers have been optimistic about the changes and have expressed confidence in the newly-appointed secretaries for three new departments: the Department of Human Services, the Department of Health and the Department of Health Facilities.
The split, which is due Jan. 1, is being finalized as the agency is facing multiple transparency concerns about its child welfare system.
Recently, DHHR came under fire for failure to preserve emails related to a years-long class-action lawsuit about the department’s treatment of kids in the overwhelmed foster care system.
DHHR pushed the blame on the state Office of Technology, but attorneys for the children believe that DHHR deliberately destroyed emails belonging to former top health officials that could have illuminated DHHR’s response to child welfare problems. Attorneys pushed for sanctions against DHHR over the email fiasco.
Tully noted the missing evidence to DHHR leaders.
“I think when you have a bloated bureaucracy like this seems, it increases your likelihood of having errors, like losing your litigation holds,” she said. “We’ve certainly seen things slip through the cracks.”
In the wake of the missing evidence, incoming secretary for the Department of Human Services Cynthia Persily told lawmakers on Monday that the state isn’t at this time destroying any emails from DHHR employees after they leave.
There have also been transparency concerns regarding Child Protective Services, as DHHR leaders have cited child privacy laws to avoid saying if they ever checked on children in Kanawha County found living in a shed. Documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act showed CPS was aware of the situation and other possible child abuse weeks before law enforcement discovered the kids.
Two lawmakers have called for independent investigations of DHHR’s handling of the case.
Additionally, Tully, who is a nurse practitioner, said the administrative bloat would likely discourage the department’s on-the-ground workers, including social workers and nurses at state-run facilities. The state has struggled to fill positions for front-line workers, and in November, there were 171 vacancies within the Bureau for Public Health.
“I think nothing is more frustrating for those workers in the field to see an organizational chart that looks like this when they are the legs on the ground putting forth the work,” she said.
Later this week, DHHR leaders plan to host a discussion that will bring lawmakers and Shared Administration employees together to discuss operations.
Sherri Young, interim secretary of DHHR, said the employees will be there “to tell the story about what they do on a daily basis” in hopes of explaining how the department relies on the employees.
“I realized they need to tell the story,” Young said. “It is truly immense — the people that they serve and the programs that they cover.”
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