Agency Overview
The Wyoming Department of Health’s mission is to promote, protect, and enhance the health of all Wyoming residents. With a biennial budget of approximately $1.9 billion and nearly 1,400 authorized employees, the Wyoming Department of Health (WDH) is one of the largest executive branch agencies in Wyoming. Unlike many other large organizations, personnel costs do not represent a large portion of WDH spending. Approximately 90% of WDH spending goes out to communities or healthcare providers in the form of reimbursement for services. Approximately 10% of WDH spending goes to personnel costs. The majority of WDH personnel are located at facilities or field offices (e.g., Public Health Nursing offices).

Agency Background and Structure
WDH programming provides not only access to health insurance for low-income residents, via Medicaid, but also access to numerous healthcare services via community-based behavioral health providers, programs to serve the elderly, and public health programs which provide both direct services and population-based initiatives to enhance the health of communities in Wyoming. The WDH is considered a “super agency” because it contains the following divisions under the leadership of a single state agency:

Aging Division (including three state-run aging facilities)
Public Health Division
Behavioral Health Division (including two state-run behavioral health facilities)
Division of Healthcare Financing (which houses the Wyoming Medicaid and KidCare CHIP programs)

The WDH also owns and operates five healthcare facilities:

Wyoming State Hospital, Evanston

Wyoming Life Resource Center, Lander

Veterans' Home of Wyoming, Buffalo

Wyoming Retirement Center, Basin

Wyoming Pioneer Home, Thermopolis

In addition to the four operating divisions, there are numerous support service units generally housed in the Director’s Office, including:

Fiscal Services
Human Resources
Office of Privacy, Security, and Contracts
Office Administration
Director’s Unit for Policy, Research, and Evaluation (DUPRE)