Comanche County Medical Center is in line for $6.83 million in Rural Texas Strong grants across three separate awards, but none of the three has a signed contract, according to a state list updated Oct. 14. The Health and Human Services Commission says a grant is not awarded until the contract is fully executed.
The list matters because the state has announced the program in terms of money already committed. On Oct. 15, Gov. Greg Abbott’s office said HHSC plans to award $78 million to 216 rural providers. That announcement named no hospitals. The HHSC rural health transformation page carries the names: a spreadsheet of 312 grant lines for 282 distinct recipients that HHSC labels “intent to award,” the stage after negotiations when the agency has decided to issue a contract.
The Dispatch totaled the spreadsheet. The 312 lines add up to $474.99 million in listed award amounts, with $137.23 million of that designated as the first-year portion. Only 97 lines are marked as having a fully executed contract. Those 97 total $289.81 million, with $70.90 million in the first year. Neither the full-list figures nor the executed-contract figures match the $78.09 million and 216 providers in the governor’s announcement, and the HHSC page does not explain how that figure was derived.
Comanche County Medical Center appears three times: $4.51 million under initiative 1, $1.60 million under initiative 6 and $725,000 under initiative 4. All three show “No” in the column for an executed contract. In nearby counties, some contracts are further along. A $3.5 million initiative 1 grant each for Fisher County, Scurry County and Haskell Memorial is marked executed. Fisher County Hospital District has one executed grant, $725,000 under initiative 4, and another, $2 million under initiative 6, that is not. Scurry County Hospital District’s $725,000 grant is not yet executed.
The list is not limited to hospitals. It also names pharmacies and limited liability companies, such as Best Value Medical Center Pharmacy and Burn/Survival LLC, each listed at $725,000 under initiative 4.
HHSC’s own note on the list gives its side of the timing. The agency says applications “are being processed quickly” given the volume, but that it cannot say when all awards will be final. It says the list is updated weekly. For a rural hospital planning a budget, the difference between intent and a signed contract is the difference between a promise and money it can spend.
The next weekly update of the HHSC list should show whether Comanche County Medical Center’s three contracts have been signed.