North Dakota departments of health and human services merge into one agency

BISMARCK — North Dakota’s departments of well being and human companies turned one on Thursday, Sept. 1, as laws merging the 2 businesses took impact.

State lawmakers

permitted a large 263-page proposal

final yr to mix the businesses into the Division of Well being and Human Providers, although the invoice solely survived the Senate by a single vote. Gov. Doug Burgum then signed the invoice into regulation.

Human Providers Director Chris Jones will lead the newly merged division, whereas State Well being Officer Dr. Nizar Wehbi will “present imaginative and prescient, management and session on state well being priorities,” based on a information launch.

“North Dakota’s Division of Well being and Division of Human Providers have an extended historical past of working collectively to serve North Dakotans,” Burgum stated within the launch. “As a unified well being and human companies group, HHS has the chance to rework the citizen expertise and assist North Dakota turn into the healthiest state within the nation.”

Lawmakers who supported the merger stated it could create effectivity and permit workers to collaborate extra simply on health-related matters.

Invoice sponsor Rep. Robin Weisz, R-Hurdsfield, stated final yr there isn’t any requirement or expectation that the consolidated division minimize jobs within the close to future, however positions may very well be eradicated down the highway. About 2,4000 public workers work for the departments.

Opponents of the merger stated the departments serve two totally different roles and mixing them would not essentially generate a extra environment friendly company.

Jones stated the division’s precedence can be to “streamline and strengthen the trail to high quality and equitable applications and companies by working as one group.”

The Division of Human Providers, which presents dozens of social applications, was already one of many state’s largest businesses, with a

biennial finances of greater than $4.7 billion.

The Division of Well being has

a biennial finances of about $280 million.

North Dakota joins Michigan, Nebraska and a handful of different states which have merged well being and human companies departments.