Union Leader – March 4, 2026
By KEVIN LANDRIGAN
The Executive Council voted to table $773 million in contracts for a new rural health initiative over concerns about bypassing council approval and issuing sole-source grants without competitive bidding.
The Executive Council voted to table $773 million in contracts for its new rural health initiative over concerns that five hubs managing the programs would bypass council approval and could issue sole-source grants without competitive bidding.
Executive Councilor Karen Liot Hill, D-Lebanon, said she was surprised to learn this would be the process for distributing grant awards under the Governor’s Office of New Opportunities & Rural Transformational Health (GO-NORTH).
“I cannot in good conscience approve the contracts as presented,” Liot Hill said.
A short time later Liot Hill added, “Giving out $760 million in sole-source contracts does not pass the smell test. … I would hope you would make modification for these contracts that will allow greater transparency and doesn’t bypass the council’s role in this.”
Gov. Kelly Ayotte defended her plan for nonprofits and higher education systems to manage grant award decisions rather than have all spending go through the Executive Council approval process.
“It has to be practical. One of the reasons we have structured it with five hubs is because we have to move quickly. We do have to make sure the money gets out in the community and there will be complete transparency,” Ayotte said.
The governor said she’ll call a special meeting of the council on this topic for March 16 to keep the program on schedule.
“The bottom line is this is an opportunity (in) New Hampshire for us to really improve our rural health care,” Ayotte said. “We are going to work very diligently so the money gets out there and we achieve the outcomes that we need.”
GO-NORTH Executive Director Donnalee Lozeau said the program’s new website went live Wednesday and will be updated in real time with every approved contract.
Lozeau said the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services approved having this initiative run through five centers that include the University of New Hampshire in Durham, the Community College System of New Hampshire, the Foundation for Healthy Communities, the Community Development Finance Authority and the NH Community Behavioral Health Association.
A fifth contract, worth $132 million for the behavioral health program, was a late item on the council’s agenda Wednesday.
“If we are going to transform rural health and they (Trump administration) want it to be transformational, we all have to be transformative in how we do it, how we approve it, how we can communicate about it,” Lozeau said.