Medicaid Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Sign Up Now For Healthcare Through The ACA

Friday, Nov. 1 is the first day of open enrollment, providing West Virginians the opportunity to enroll in a low-cost health insurance plan through the federal government.

Enrollment for health care coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, Marketplace Plans opened Friday.

West Virginians for Affordable Health Care, a non-profit dedicated to expanding access to high-quality health care in the state, held a press conference this week to encourage more than 100,000 uninsured West Virginians to consider enrolling.

During open enrollment, those not eligible for health insurance through Medicare, Medicaid, or employer-based insurance, may purchase insurance under ACA coverage provisions.

The non-profit’s Executive Director, Ellen Allen, said half of West Virginia’s population could pay as little as $10 monthly for health insurance.

“We want West Virginians to understand the Affordable Care Act is more affordable than it’s ever been with the Inflation Reduction Act passed last year. The enhanced tax credits have made the Affordable Care Act truly affordable for just about every American,” Allen said.

West Virginia’s enrollment in ACA plans has increased by 179 percent since 2020, according to Allen, with more than 51,000 West Virginians enrolling in 2023.

“I think we know that nothing keeps us up at night, nothing keeps West Virginians up at night, like the cost of healthcare, and with the rising cost of food, rent, childcare, too many families are left worrying about how to pay the bills, how to make ends meet, meaningful health care coverage is critical to live a productive, secure and healthy life,” Allen said.

West Virginia is one of 41 states that expanded its Medicaid program eligibility under the ACA in 2014. This expansion included coverage to nearly all adults with incomes up to 138 percent of the Federal Poverty Level.

According to a 2019 West Virginia Bureau for Medical Services (BMS) report, from 2013 to 2014, Medicaid enrollment increased by more than 50 percent.

“I think it’s important for everyone to understand that the Affordable Care Act also provides for the expansion of Medicaid, which West Virginia adopted under Governor Tomblin, which was just a great move for West Virginia,” Allen said. “It allowed so many more West Virginians to qualify for health care, so the Affordable Care Act provides for that as well.”

West Virginia Navigator is a federally funded nonprofit that provides free help to individuals and families deciding which health coverage options are best for them.

Nicki Bailey, assistant director of West Virginia Navigator, attended Wednesday morning’s press conference and shared resources that her team has to assist anyone trying to sign up for health insurance through the Marketplace, Medicaid, or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).

“A lot of people find it really intimidating, really confusing, to figure out how to get health insurance on their own, and that’s where West Virginia Navigator comes in,” Bailey said. “We’re able to help through the whole process and make it as seamless and as easy as possible.”

Also at the press conference, Rusty Williams, an ACA advocate and cancer survivor spoke about his experience being diagnosed with late-stage testicular cancer in 2012.

He said when he should have been focused on treatment, he was thrown headfirst into a financial fight for his life.

“I had just had the news dropped on me that I needed emergency surgery for a really gnarly bout with cancer, and then the first thing they want me to sort out is the finances,” Williams said. “It was the most terrifying situation I had ever been in my entire life. I don’t ever think that I’ve ever been in a position where I felt that hopeless. But I spent the next six weeks fighting trying to get coverage. I should have been fighting cancer.”

Williams explained that he was diagnosed with cancer before the ACA had been implemented, so people could still be discriminated against for having a preexisting condition.

“I was fighting bureaucrats, and after the third time I was denied, I had to have the most difficult conversation with my family that I could imagine,” Williams said. “I literally had to call a meeting in with my family and tell them, ‘Hey, they gave me months to live. This is what it is, right? We got four months. Let’s make it good.’ Fortunately, my mother was not about to accept that. She kept making calls and reaching out to anybody that would listen.”

Williams said he was then put into contact with the James “Tiger” Morton Catastrophic Illness Commission, a state program, administered through the Office of the Secretary of the Department of Human Services (DH).

The West Virginia Legislature created the program in 1999 as “a last resort for those in dire need of medical assistance during a life-threatening illness once all other resources are exhausted.” The Commission was able to secure the health coverage Williams needed.

Shortly after he found financial assistance from the state, the first tiers of the ACA were implemented federally and Williams said his situation completely changed.

“I was able to get the life-saving treatment that I needed, and I’m a firm believer that were it not for the Affordable Care Act, and were it not for the Medicaid expansion, I would not be here today,” Williams said. “So you know, on behalf of all the West Virginians, all the Mountaineers that found themselves in my position I can’t speak highly enough for the Affordable Care Act and what it did to me. I’m just happy to be here and happy to still be able to advocate for patients.”

Williams ran as a Democrat for a Kanawha County seat in the House of Delegates in 2022 but lost to Del. Andy Shamblin, R-Kanawha. Williams currently serves as an Advocacy Specialist for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of West Virginia.

Open Enrollment will officially end on Jan. 15, 2025, but those seeking coverage as of Jan. 1, 2025, must enroll by Dec. 15, 2024.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting with support from Marshall Health.

Rehab Facility Sued For Medicaid Fraud

An investigation into alleged Medicaid fraud at a substance use treatment facility in Wood County led West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey to file a lawsuit against the facility.

Attorney General Patrick Morrisey announced his office is seeking more than $236,000 from a Wood County drug rehabilitation facility for alleged fraudulent Medicaid claims at a press conference Wednesday morning at the Wood County Courthouse.

However, the facility, Clean & Clear Advantage, LLC said in a statement provided to West Virginia Public Broadcasting Wednesday afternoon, that the company is also a victim of fraud.

According to the statement, in 2021, a man named Clifford Marlowe forged his credentials and documentation to Clean & Clear Advantage, LLC, and the company argues, took advantage of the turbulent COVID-19 pandemic to get a job as a therapist.

Marlowe did not have the required degree and was not a licensed master-level therapist. He also did not hold a healthcare license from the state.

“From the moment this deception was uncovered, Clean & Clear has fully cooperated with the investigation conducted by the West Virginia Attorney General’s Office,” the statement reads. “Clean & Clear is a victim of Mr. Marlowe’s egregious fraud, who targeted the facility at a time of great difficulty for us and the entire country, and we are working diligently to support state authorities in holding him accountable.”

Marlowe was indicted in September and charged with two felony counts of Medicaid fraud and fraudulent schemes.

Morrisey alleges claims for 52 patients, totaling nearly $79,000, were filed by Marlowe. He said his office was tipped off and his Medicaid Fraud Control Unit investigation found fraudulent claims submitted to the state’s Medicaid program from May 2021 through January 2022.

“We believe that this individual was not qualified to render the services he did under the Medicaid law, and then, because the company did not take the steps to return the money that the company also is civilly liable to the Medicaid program for damages,” Morrisey said.

Morrisey acknowledged that Clean & Clear attempted to pay the $79,000.

“There was an effort made by the company to simply send a check in, in order to pay for the underlying amount that was alleged to have been improperly billed,” Morrisey said. “But that’s not how this works. If you allegedly violate the law, you’re not only subject to the simple money that you may have obtained improperly from overpayments. You’re likely to be subject to penalties as well. So that’s part of this process.”

Morrisey said his office is seeking three times the amount claimed as a signal to those who might try to take advantage of opioid settlement money flowing into the state.

“Anytime there’s a disaster and people are donating charitably, scammers come out to play,” Morrisey said. “But we want to send a message that that’s not going to be tolerated here in West Virginia.”

Morrisey is running in the 2024 General Election as the Republican nominee for Governor of West Virginia.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting with support from Marshall Health.

Expert: W.Va.’s Drug Epidemic Is Holding Back Its Economy And Hurting Its Children

A senior policy advisor to the Legislature presented a sobering picture of West Virginia’s drug epidemic on Monday.

Despite the state’s billion dollar response, West Virginia has led the nation in overdose death rates since 2010, according to a senior policy advisor to the legislature.

Jeremiah Samples, former deputy secretary at the now reorganized Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) and current senior policy advisor to the Legislature, presented an analysis of the state’s substance use disorder (SUD) crisis to the Joint Committee on Health on Monday.

“The bottom line is that we have not made enough progress on this crisis,” Samples said. “We’re nowhere near where we need to be, and our data relative to other states, and even our own expectations, has fallen far short. We need to reassess all of our SUD strategies and expenditures through the prism of what is impacting real people in our society.”

A survey conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) estimates that 208,000 people in West Virginia used illicit drugs in the last month.

“That’s an average,” Samples said of the number. “It’s a gut-wrenching number to hear, but that’s where we stand.”

Samples also cited a West Virginia University Match Survey that found 359,880 West Virginians used drugs in the past year.

“We can’t sustain that as a society,” Samples said. “That is, it’s crippling to the state.”

In 2010, West Virginia’s fatal overdose death rate per 100,000 people was 28.2. Even after the state spent millions combating the problem, in 2022, West Virginia’s fatal overdose death rate had grown to 80.9 per 100,000 people.

“Our overdose death rate since 2010 has increased by 135 percent,” Samples told the committee. “West Virginia’s overdose death rate is 151 percent higher than the best state in the country, 85.6 percent higher than the national average and 36.4 percent higher than the next worst state (Tennessee).”

Samples cautioned against taking overdose death reports out of context.

“Any downturn is positive,” Samples said. “Those are real lives that people, that are not dying. However, the trend, we’ve had a couple blips where we’ve gone down in the past, but the trends are really what matter, and from a trend perspective, we have increased exponentially since we started leading the nation in overdose deaths.”

According to CDC data, the nation saw a 6.7 percent decrease in overdoses from January 2023 to January 2024. During that same period, West Virginia saw a 1.92 percent increase in overdoses.

“West Virginia is not keeping pace with the decrease in other states,” Samples said. “Before the pandemic, we were at a plateau of sorts. The pandemic hits and fentanyl issues become exponentially worse. Overdose death rates across the country explode. They increased in West Virginia, more so than most states. I think we were perhaps third, we saw the third biggest increase during the pandemic. But the bottom line is, we’re not decreasing at the same rate as some of these other states. So we’re not coming back down to that plateau. We need to get to that plateau and then continue to go down.”

The Current System

Samples explained that West Virginia’s state government response involves “over a dozen agencies,” led by the Governor’s Council on Substance Abuse, founded in 2018, and the Office of Drug Control Policy (ODCP), founded in 2017.

One of those agencies is the Bureau for Behavioral Health (BBH), the designated state mental health authority recognized by the federal government as the single state agency for substance abuse services.

The bureau receives federal block grant funding for substance abuse and prevention. It is responsible for SUD provider infrastructure and manages the state’s Crisis and Referral Line, 1-844-HELP4WV, contract.

“They (BBH) apply for these big federal grants,” Samples said. “They’re responsible for the infrastructure of the state for SUD and their annual budget is roughly $225 million.”

Samples said from 2017 to 2020, BBH was forced to send $34.2 million back to the federal government for funds that were not used from those grants.

“This came up in LOCHHRA (Legislative Oversight Commission on Health and Human Resources Accountability) last year,” Samples said. “We’re unclear from 2021 forward, how much money has been sent back, but it is something that the legislature and the state should explore and investigate.”

In 2023, legislation was passed directing the ODCP to report to the governor’s office. In the DHHR reorganization, the ODCP was placed administratively within the Department of Human Services.

Samples said it is hard to track SUD spending in West Virginia, but the state fiscal year 2025 budget for the ODCP is $2.3 million.

“You can directly attribute hundreds of millions again, in direct expenditures on SUD, just in West Virginia, annually,” Samples said. “And then there’s hundreds of millions more we know that we’re spending that are indirect, for example, child protective services, the child welfare crisis, there are hundreds of millions in indirect costs in just child welfare alone.”

A 2021 study that includes the economic impacts of the crisis by the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy estimated that the drug crisis costs West Virginia $11.3 billion a year.

Samples also cited a Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report that found West Virginia experienced 1,335 known overdose deaths in 2022.

“Despite all the investment and expenditure, since 1999 we’ve seen a 1,680 percent increase in our overdose death rate,” Samples said. “Since 2010 which, again, 2010 is when we started leading the nation, [we’ve seen] a 135 percent increase. Since 2017, [we’ve seen] a 56 percent increase. So we have not been getting results. We’ve not been reversing the trend.”

According to Samples, Medicaid is the largest source of treatment funding for SUD in the state, serving approximately 50,000 members with an SUD diagnosis annually.

Medicaid is expected to spend about $140 million on SUD medical and behavioral health claims in West Virginia in 2025. In addition, Medicaid spends approximately $70 million on medication-assisted treatment (MAT) drugs.

“Medicaid’s annual expenditure, when you include MAT and the services, the claims are about $210 million,” Samples said. “Fatal overdoses have increased amongst the Medicaid population from 2018 to 2020, and so we’ve not seen appropriate progress there either.”

West Virginia Medicaid’s Substance Use Disorder Waiver

Since the launch of West Virginia’s Medicaid SUD Waiver, or 1115 Waiver, fatal overdose rates have continued to rise.

West Virginia Medicaid’s biggest SUD expenditure is the 1115 Waiver, which was developed to help increase the availability of SUD prevention and treatment services for Medicaid members.

The waiver was requested by the state and approved in 2017 by the federal government. It allows the state to provide additional services beyond what the federal government requires.

In 2018, the Bureau for Medical Services announced the expansion of services under the SUD Waiver, adding coverage of methadone as a withdrawal management strategy, a Naloxone distribution initiative, coverage of adult residential treatment, peer recovery support systems, withdrawal management services and the use of the Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) tool to identify SUD treatment needs in the Medicaid community.

The SUD Waiver cost $12.2 million in 2019 and increased to $129.3 million by 2023. The Federal Reserve was responsible for $114 million of the 2023 total. West Virginia paid $15.3 million the same year.

Projected expenditures in 2027 are expected to grow to $161 million, according to Samples.

West Virginia Medicaid has proposed further expansion of the SUD waiver to the federal government. The application is under review with the expiration of the current waiver on September 30, 2024.

Proposed expansions include:

Expanding peer support to more settings
Sending quick response teams to clients who have overdosed or are experiencing a crisis
Providing Medicaid coverage to eligible individuals incarcerated in state prisons starting 30 days before their release
Offering involuntary secure withdrawal management and stabilization for individuals deemed to be a danger to themselves or others
Supporting a holistic and integrated approach to treatment
Education and outreach for Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Hepatitis C (HCV) concerning substance use
Addressing social determinants of health to encourage self-reliance and support continued recovery housing offering clinical-level treatment services.
Supported house and supported employment
Offering the TRUST protocol for people with stimulant use disorders
Reimbursing short-term residential and inpatient treatment services in settings that qualify as an institution that treats mental diseases for Medicaid-eligible adults with serious mental illnesses.

West Virginia’s SUD Outcomes

Samples then shared some encouraging outcomes with the committee from this spending.

According to CDC provisional data, there was a decrease of 9.4 percent in overdose deaths nationally from March 2023 to March 2024. In West Virginia, that same data showed a decrease of 4.91 percent during the same time period.

Samples also cited a decrease in new HIV cases from 153 in 2021 to 100 in 2023.

“This was a really big deal a couple of years ago, Kanawha County alone, which was one of the worst hit counties, saw a 66 percent decrease from 2021 to 2023,” he said. “The 2024 data, which is available online, it’s looking really good. It’s actually even more positive than that. So kudos to everyone that’s worked on that.”

According to a 2022 report from the CDC, 2,400 people were living with HIV in West Virginia.

“Other positives, Medicaid, managed care organizations, providers, recovery homes, they’re starting to make a lot of progress in better measuring our outcomes, better measuring what’s actually happening in the state, so we can pivot and actually make progress on this crisis,” Samples said.

Samples also said he is hopeful about the West Virginia First Foundation, the organization formed by an act of the legislature that is responsible for dispersing West Virginia’s opioid settlement funds.

“The first foundation, this is a new development and something that I think we should have hope for. The foundation stems from efforts by the Attorney General Patrick Morrissey, securing an opioid settlement of approximately $1 billion,” Samples said. “This is the number one per capita opioid settlement in the United States.”

Drugs And Economics

While there are some positive indicators for the future of West Virginia’s drug epidemic, Samples said the state has not had any significant successes but has seen plenty of failure.

“The failures have consequences, the economic impact of the drug crisis,” Samples said. “One study said $8.8 billion a year in impact. Another study said $11.3 billion a year in impact, just on the economy, a 12 percent economic drag on our GDP (Gross Domestic Product), annually.”

Samples said the drug crisis costs West Virginia at least one-eighth of the state’s total economy based on spending on health care, substance use treatment, criminal justice costs, the societal burden of fatal overdoses and lost worker productivity.

The “drag” on West Virginia’s GDP is more than double that of the next highest state, Maryland where substance use disorder-related costs consumed 5.4 percent of its GDP.

Then, Samples addressed West Virginia’s labor workforce participation rate (LFPR), or, the number of people in the labor force (working or looking for work) as a percentage of the total population 16 years and older. West Virginia’s LFPR is at 55.1 percent in July 2024, according to the St. Louis Federal Reserve.

“We’re no longer last, and I don’t say that in jest,” Samples said. “I mean, we were last place in labor force participation rate from 1976 to 2022, so progress is progress, and we are making some progress in that realm, but the drug crisis is holding us back.”

According to Samples, the economic impact of productivity loss for non-fatal substance use disorders has a reported cost of $316 million dollars and 1,206 jobs to the state, while the economic impact of productivity loss due to overdose fatalities carries an additional cost of $322 million and 5,905 jobs.

“When you look at the unemployment rate, which is at 4.2 percent right now, relative to our labor force participation rate, our labor force participation rate has pretty much been level, but our unemployment rate has gone down,” Samples said. “There’s just people not in the job market looking for work, and this is attributable to the drug crisis.”

West Virginia has the highest death rate for working-aged populations and the second lowest life expectancy in the U.S. at 72.8.

“Even going back to 1990 West Virginia has had a lower life expectancy than the national average, but there’s been a gap that’s built, and even as the national life expectancy has gone down, we’ve gone down more,” Samples said.

West Virginia’s Children Pay A Price

According to Samples’ report, 83 percent of child welfare removals were from homes with known drug use.

“West Virginia’s foster care rate grew 61 percent from 2010, to 2021,” Samples said. “It’s 23 percent higher than the next worst state, and 118 percent higher than the national average.”

Data from the Annie E. Casey Foundation shows that West Virginia leads the nation in its foster care entry rate.

“The difference between the entry rate and the foster care rate, entry foster care rate, is just kids in foster care,” Samples said. “The entry rate is kids coming in.”

Samples said West Virginia has led the nation in foster care entry rates since 2010.

“We are 131 percent worse than the national average, and 54.9 percent worse than the next worst state in foster care entry rates, and that’s Alaska,” Samples said.

In 2000, six out of every 1,000 West Virginia children entered foster care. In 2021, 13 out of every 1,000 West Virginia children entered foster care. West Virginia’s entry rate increased 117 percent from 2000 to 2021.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families Administration on Children, Youth and Families Children’s Bureau, in 2020, West Virginia had the highest percentage of children nationally suffering from substantiated maltreatment with drug abuse by the caregiver.

2020 CDC data also showed West Virginia had the highest rate nationally of infants screened in by Child Protective Services (CPS) with prenatal substance exposure.

Also in 2020, there were 712 babies screened in by CPS in West Virginia with drug exposure, compared to 526 babies screened in California, which has a population of 39.5 million people. West Virginia has a population of 1.7 million people.

“We only have about 17,000 babies born in the state a year,” Samples said. “It’s not a lot. If you extrapolate from our birth score numbers, then you’re looking at and not just the difference between neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) and in uterine substance exposure. NAS is worse. The babies basically full-blown addicted, is kind of the simple way to say it. we’re looking at around 2,500 babies every year that are exposed to drugs in the womb.”

The Future

In his final address to the legislature, Samples told lawmakers West Virginia’s drug epidemic response needs to be reevaluated.

“The most important thing we need to do, in my opinion, is we need to measure what matters so that we can then pivot and organically improve our response to this crisis,” Samples said. “We need to measure every aspect of our substance use disorder policies and expenditures, and we need to tie it back to a core societal measure.”

Samples left lawmakers with a list of proposed policy solutions including:

Mandatory Treatment (Casey’s Law)
SUD Transparency Act: SUD Outcome and Expenditure Dashboard
Save Babies from Drugs Act
Improve CPS Management of Cases with Drug Addiction
Measure Outcomes of Recovery Homes
Analysis of syringe exchange outcomes and criminal penalties for illegal needle distribution
Enhanced drug testing and SUD services for those on government benefits
SUD Relocation Supports
Public Reporting on SUD expenditures and program outcomes
Expenditure and Opportunities Audit:
Ending Addiction Amongst Inmate Population
Expand Inmate SUD Services via RSAT and GOALS programs
Develop a ratio of law enforcement needs across communities and increase funding for more officers

“Our economy still struggling, I would propose that really we look at 10 core measures and that we use a smarter approach, which is really just an acronym for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time, evaluated and resourced,” Samples said.

Samples said he is “leaving the legislature next month,” but offered no further information after thanking legislative staff and lawmakers.

“It’s been an honor,” Samples said. “The President and the Speaker have been great to me. You all have been great to me. You know you’re wonderful people, and I’ll just always be available to you, should you need anything. I believe in this body, and I believe what you do, and I believe in your hearts.”

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting with support from Marshall Health.

Lawmakers Question W.Va. PATH’s Progress

Lawmakers had questions Tuesday about a seven-year project to modernize West Virginia’s public assistance programs.

The program, called People’s Access To Help, or PATH, makes it easier for the public to access programs like Medicaid, food assistance and its child welfare system.

Secretary of the Department of Human Services (DoHS), Cynthia Persily testified during a meeting of the Legislative Oversight Commission on Health and Human Resources Accountability (LOCHHRA) about the cost and implementation of the program.

In 2017, West Virginia contracted with Optum to develop a system to help the agency efficiently manage public access.

The client portal became accessible in February 2020. According to Persily, the project’s progress remained consistent after the Child Welfare portion became operational in January 2023, streamlining data to support DoHS staff in investigating child welfare cases.

In April 2024, the Integrated Eligibility and Family Assistance service went live, followed by the Child Support services and Integrated Eligibility and Child Care services in July 2024.

These services allow West Virginians to determine and track their eligibility for assistance programs. They will also help DoHS staff manage child support workflows and process payments to providers who care for those with disabilities.

The base $308 million contract lasted six years, with optional one-year renewals for four years. Persily testified DoHS is in optional year two.

DoHS paid in portions as the vendor satisfactorily met benchmarks and has paid $103 million as of August 2024, Persily said. The federal portion is $89 million and $14 million is the state share.

“I suspect we’re going to get close to that amount in the design, development and implementation,” Persily said. “There are additional invoices, the additional benchmarks that were met.”

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families (ACF), West Virginia is the only state with an operational Comprehensive Child Welfare Information System (CCWIS).

However, Persily testified on Tuesday the WV PATH system needs to be certified by the federal government.

“Different agencies from the federal government will have to certify this system,” Persily said. “We are not yet certified, but we are in the process of doing that, and that’s just a part of the normal process.”

Persily said the project contract has moved from the “implementation stage” to the “management and operation stage,” which will be handled by a “reorganized Management Information Services (MIS) department” within the Office of Shared Administration.

“We are reorganizing so that our MIS system has much more ownership of this project and can assist us with a number of the different functions,” Persily said. “So that will be helpful that will lower our costs going forward when we have in-house expertise and not paying vendors.”

During questioning by Sen. Vince Deeds R-Greenbrier, Persily said DoHS will prepare a request for proposal (RFP) when the contract with Optum reaches its 10th year.

“We will constantly (need) updates, constantly need security, and so we will need a vendor to continue with the project,” Persily said. “It will depend on who responds and wins the RFP.”

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting with support from Marshall Health.

State Human Services Implements New Technology Systems

Residents served by public assistance programs should have easier access to their eligibility status and streamlined services thanks to a new information technology system.

In 2017, West Virginia contracted with Optum to develop a system to help the agency efficiently manage programs like Medicaid, food assistance and its child welfare system.

The Department of Human Services (DoHS) announced the completed implementation of the West Virginia People’s Access to Help (WV PATH) system on Monday.

Secretary of the West Virginia Department of Human Services Cynthia Persily said in a press release the system will streamline internal processes and enhance the experience for every West Virginian who relies on their services.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families (ACF), West Virginia is currently the only state with an operational Comprehensive Child Welfare Information System (CCWIS).

In a “frequently asked questions” document, the ACF explained that switching from a Statewide Automated Child Welfare System to a CCWIS system will enable the agencies to share data between multiple systems instead of building one-size-fits-all applications. This flexibility will allow foster care agencies to tailor their information technology needs to align more closely to their unique program requirements.

The state transitioned its child welfare information system to WV PATH in January 2023. The public portal for WV PATH was launched in 2020 and can be accessed at www.wvpath.wv.gov.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting with support from Marshall Health.

New Huntington Dental Clinic Will Treat Uninsured And Underserved

Ebenezer Medical Outreach will offer general dentistry appointments to the uninsured and Medicaid recipients twice a month, starting Friday.

Huntington-area residents who are uninsured, or insured by West Virginia Medicaid, will have new dental care options starting Friday, Aug. 9.

Ebenezer Medical Outreach will offer general dentistry appointments to the uninsured and Medicaid recipients twice per month at their outreach center at 1448 10th Avenue, Suite 100, Huntington, West Virginia.

While West Virginia Medicaid includes an adult dental benefit, it is not widely accepted by providers. According to a 2023 study, for Medicaid patients, wait times average 95 days for an initial appointment and 44.9 additional days for a treatment visit.

This clinic is made possible through the volunteer efforts of Dr. David Eller, a dentist who served the region for decades until his 2021 retirement, and through the support of Marshall University’s Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine Department of Dentistry, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery.

West Virginia has a shortage of dentists. A 2022 report from the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources, a department now split into three separate agencies, found that there were 49 dentists per 100,000 population, well below the national average of 61 per 100,000.

According to that same report, The Burden of Oral Disease in West Virginia, 58 percent of West Virginian adults have seen a dentist in the past year, lower than the national average of 68 percent.

That report found that in 2020, almost six of 10 adults, or 56 percent, of West Virginians over the age of 18 had lost at least one permanent tooth.

The West Virginia Oral Health Coalition found in its 2023 analysis of West Virginia’s dental care accessibility that more than 24 percent of dental practices in West Virginia were not accepting new patient appointments and the ones that were had an average wait time of more than 70 days for the first available appointment.

Only 36.7 percent of dental care sites could offer appointments within 30 days, which falls short of the benchmark goals for Medicaid enrollees. Many states including West Virginia have goals in place for Medicaid enrollees to be seen within 30 days.

In addition to 24 percent of practices not accepting new patients and long wait times for first appointments, data analysis found the average wait time for a second appointment to treat dental decay, like a cavity, was an additional 34.6 days and ranged from 1 to 145 days.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting with support from Marshall Health.