Dave Ramsey, president and CEO of Charleston Regional Medical Center in West Virginia, was surprised when staff from Sens. Joe Manchin (D) and Shelley Moore Capito (R) called over the summer to ask about the situation. Does the 956-bed hospital have any projects it needs funding.

As a nonprofit teaching hospital and regional referral center in one of the poorest states in the country, the answer is naturally yes.

Senators are asking because congressional Democrats are recovering after a 10-year hiatus special allocation, which allows individual lawmakers to direct funds to appropriations bills that target specific domestic needs.

Manchin and Capito receive $15 million in collective funding in Senate health and human services funding bill to fund new clinical imaging equipment, expanded intensive care unit and new facility designed to attract medical students to Charleston Regional Medical Center Education and Research Building.

“We have a very poor payer mix. We’re not a wealthy hospital. We’re not from a wealthy state, and we have challenges every year when it comes to capital,” Ramsay said. “The selection of these three projects is an amazing thing for us and it relieves the pressure on our funding needs.”

Nonprofit hospitals and other providers to receive millions special allocation Passing the spending bill could come as soon as next month.

Congress could allocate about $15 billion in earmarked appropriations in fiscal 2022, which is less than 1 percent of federal discretionary spending.

According to Modern Healthcare Analysis, the Senate earmarked more than $728 billion for health-related programs to be allocated by the Health Resources and Services Administration.

House Version Includes $367 million in earmarks to fund projects for the construction and renovation of medical facilities, including the purchase of new equipment. Franz Wolfmans Dobler, a senior adviser at the Bipartisan Policy Center, said the House and Senate would have to reconcile the differences between the bills, but the $15 billion cap would allow all items already included in the appropriations bill. get sponsors. Has advocated the return of special funds.

The majority of the grant will go to health care providers, including nonprofit hospitals, academic medical centers, community colleges, nursing homes and assisted living facilities, public health departments and local governments, behavioral health care providers and other nonprofit organizations.

Much of the money goes to facilities and equipment, as cash-strapped suppliers struggle to get funding.

Especially since some of these projects have been on hold since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, getting earmarked funding could give them the boost they need.

Brooklyn Hospital Center in New York will receive one of the largest earmarks in a Senate bill: $9.2 million for the emergency department at the request of the state’s Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Chamber of Commerce Majority Leader Chuck Schumer modernization.

The funding will help the 464-bed community teaching hospital modernize its emergency department, taking into account lessons learned from the pandemic, including the need for more isolation rooms. Improvements have been part of the system’s strategic plan for years, but there is no clear way to fully fund it. Then the special money came back.

“It’s a small wish list, and we’re trying to figure out how to make it happen,” said Lenny Singletary, the hospital’s senior vice president of external affairs.

The funds will also pay for new examination and treatment rooms, rapid assessment treatment areas, psychiatric observation rooms, cardiac treatment and bereavement rooms, new waiting areas and new specialist services equipment.

“We didn’t know we could get funding to complete the project in addition to getting the equipment that institutions of our time desperately need,” Singletary said.

After Republicans won a congressional majority in the 2010 election, they banned earmarks, citing corruption, waste and increased federal spending.

Proponents of restoring the earmarks argue that the money will be spent no matter what, and that letting lawmakers control where it goes is preferable to letting federal agencies make those decisions.

The new earmarking process is also more transparent, requiring member requests and approved projects to be posted online. earmarked grants are limited to nonprofit entities and government agencies. Members of the House of Representatives can only make 10 petitions per year.

“In the past, there has been concern that the powerful elders in the House and Senate get most of the earmarked money, while other members may be left out because of their lack of power,” said Kevin Corsar, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. “It democratized it,” he said.

It’s still true that powerful lawmakers — especially those on the Senate Appropriations Committee — do receive some of the largest health earmarks.

The Senate bill allocates $30 million for Missouri State University to build a new health and life sciences center, a priority for Sen. Roy Blunt, the top Republican on the spending group.

Blunt has won several other earmarks, including $12 million for the Missouri Primary Health Care Alliance in Jefferson City and $10 million for facilities and equipment for the Jordan Valley Community Health Center in Springfield.

Meanwhile, another appropriator, Sen. Lindsey Graham (RS.C.), was awarded $17 million for operating room renovations at Beaufort Memorial Hospital.

Despite the large number, the average earmarked value in a Senate bill is about $1.3 million.

While FY 2022 grant applications are no longer being accepted, applications for the next fiscal year will likely begin in the coming months and end in the spring.

Nonprofits interested in earmarking should check their membership websites for the types of projects approved this year and connect with industry associations and community groups well-connected on Capitol Hill, says Michelle Gilbert, senior policy analyst Division Bipartisan Policy Center.

Items selected by the legislator’s staff must also be approved by committee staff when requested through the legislator’s office. Requesting entities should also demonstrate community support for a project, she said.