West Virginia’s U.S. senators say Marshall University and West Virginia University will get federal grants to support clinical internships and field placements in mental health and drug addiction services.
Sens. Shelley Moore Capito and Joe Manchin say the Department of Health and Human Services training grants are $319,000 for West Virginia University and $213,000 for Marshall.
Last week the Senate Appropriates Committee advanced legislation with $50 million for the program nationally.
Capito, who sits on that committee, says she advocated for expanding treatment especially in rural and medically underserved areas.
A senate bill to legalize medical marijuana in the state is being fast-tracked through the West Virginia House of Delegates. Senate Bill 386, which passed out of the state Senate Wednesday night on a 28 to 6 vote, would create the West Virginia Medical Cannabis Act, legalizing medical marijuana in West Virginia.
The bill creates a 17-member commission in the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources to oversee the program and write rules for legislative approval. Certain illnesses like post-traumatic stress disorder, chronic pain, or seizures could constitute a doctor prescribing marijuana under the bill. Patients with a prescription would also be able to grow up to two plants for personal use. The medical cannabis program, however, wouldn’t begin until July 2018.
In an evening floor session Thursday, delegates took up the Senate message notifying the House of the passage of the bill.
Delegate Mike Folk, a Republican from Berkeley County, made a motion to have Senate Bill 386 bypass the committee process and be brought immediately to the floor on first reading.
Several delegates spoke in favor of the motion including Republican Charlotte Lane of Kanawha County, who criticized House leadership for being unwilling to run the bill.
Credit Perry Bennett / West Virginia Legislative Photography
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West Virginia Legislative Photography
Del. Charlotte Lane, R-Kanawha.
“It has become clear to me that my bill and other bills are never going to see the light of day,” she said, “and for those of us who have sick friends who want medical marijuana to ease their suffering, this is our only chance. I don’t know about you, but I spent the afternoon listening to all of my phone messages, and these were from people saying support medical marijuana.”
Earlier in the session, Democrat Isaac Sponaugle of Pendleton County tried to amend another bill to remove marijuana from the list of Schedule I drugs in the state. Schedule I drugs are classified as illegal with no medicinal benefit and include drugs like heroin and cocaine.
Sponaugle explained his amendment had been the first step in the process to make marijuana legal to prescribe in the state, but that motion was defeated in the House, because delegates argued the proposal hadn’t been vetted in the committee process.
But Senate Bill 386, Sponaugle says, has been.
“This bill passed out of the Senate, 28 to 6. It was vetted in the Health committee over there; it was vetted in the Judiciary committee over there,” Sponaugle noted, “This body, several weeks ago, made an amendment to lower Schedule I to Schedule IV. You stuck with your leadership team, and how many of you all got beat up for voting red? You’re not going to get another vote on this if you don’t vote today; I’m just gonna tell ya. It’s going to get buried in these committees, and you’re gonna be on the board voting against medical marijuana twice.”
Credit Perry Bennett / West Virginia Legislative Photography
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West Virginia Legislative Photography
Del. Joe Ellington, R-Mercer, House Health Committee Chair.
Delegate Joe Ellington chairs the House Health Committee, which would have likely been the first to see the bill in the chamber. He encouraged members to trust him to get the bill on his committee’s agenda.
“I am willing to put it on the committee. I’ll run it,” Ellington said, “I don’t think the Speaker’s going to have any objection to that. I promise I’ll put it on the committee agenda, so you know, it’s up to you if you want to go through the normal process. I’ve heard members from the other side won’t try to discharge bills before talk about how important the process was to go through the committee process. You know, we can decide if we’re gonna be hypocrites or not. I’m willing to put it through the committee process, and then we can go from that.”
House Judiciary Chair John Shott of Mercer County says not giving the bill time in committee would not be doing West Virginians any favors.
“We would have this bill on Second Reading tomorrow if this motion’s passed. Second Reading. It is now almost 7:00 p.m. How long do you have to prepare your amendments for tomorrow? How long do you have to even read this bill tonight and learn what’s in it? It is a complicated issue, and we need some time to do it right,” Shott explained.
Republican Delegate Mike Folk, who made the motion to bypass the committee process, commended the Senate’s work on the legislation.
“The most important thing you need to know about the bill, to allay any fears you might have, is the effective date for that bill is not even until July 2018, most of the stuff; sets up a commission to study so to develop the rules and regulations to address any concerns that anybody might have,” Folk said, “You can feel confident that there will be a structure in place in this bill.”
After an hour of debate, Folk’s motion passed 54 to 40, and the bill was read a first time on the floor. It will be on second reading Friday, and could see a final vote as early as Saturday.
Almost 8,000 West Virginians signed up for healthcare during the first month of Open Enrollment under the federal Affordable Care Act this year.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced Thursday that over 2.1 million Americans selected plans using the HealthCare.gov platform since Open Enrollment began on November 1. That includes more than 7,800 West Virginians – both new consumers and consumers who were renewing their healthcare plans.
63 percent of West Virginia Marketplace enrollees can find plans with a premium for less than $75 per month and can save an average of $728 annually in premiums for a plan in the same level of coverage by returning to shop on Healthcare.gov. That’s according to a news release from the federal Department of Health and Human Services.
Open enrollment for January coverage ends on December 15.
Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from the Benedum Foundation.
An emotional public hearing was held this morning to discuss Senate Bill 6 dealing with medical professional liability for nursing home administrators.
Over 30 people spoke to the committee; some for the bill and some against.
Many wives and children of family members who had died while in the care of nursing homes stood to recount their stories and express the pain and anger they had felt toward the quality of care their loved ones had faced. They pleaded with lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee, asking them to not pass the bill or at least to think before they pass it.
Three words remained constant among many of those family members who shared their stories. The words used were neglected, ignored, and abused.
Amy Kayson, is an attorney who has represented families of residents and the residents themselves for almost 20 years. She stood to oppose the bill.
“I want to tell you about a guy that we represented here in West Virginia who had been a World War II vet,” Kayson said, “and because there wasn’t sufficient staff to turn and reposition him in bed and to change him when he had an accident, he developed pressure sores so severe that they went to his very bone. Left in urine and feces on multiple occasions. You know what he complained about to the state investigators when they came to talk to him? He said I know they don’t have time to give me the care that I need, but the worst part is smelling my own flesh rot, and I know what that smells like because I’m a World War II vet. You want to cap his non-economic damages, but you’re going to leave his actual damages alone. He doesn’t have any economic damages. He’s not going to lose future earnings; he’s in a nursing home. What he’s lost is dignity. What he’s lost is the ability to live out the last few days of his life without pain. You cannot put a price on that. I ask that you not cap that.”
One of the speakers who supported the bill, Dr. Hoyt Burdick, a physician in Huntington, said it would broaden and clarify the definition of medical activities and providers.
“Twenty years ago, I was an aim in a medical mal-practice suit by a notorious trial lawyer from southern West Virginia, who is also one of only a couple of senators with a perfect voting record opposing medical professional liability reform,” Burdick said, “Incidentally, I was released with prejudice on the day before the trial with no real explanation. An important part of my job at Cabell and Marshall is recruiting and retaining physicians. When the malpractice lawsuit crisis was in the headlines, it seemed almost impossible to successfully recruit and retain physicians even those who grew up and were trained here. Speaking from experience, there was a time not long ago when West Virginia had serious problems with our professional liability system. Dr. Cater and others have outlined some of the progress we have made with tort reform, professional liability reform. We’ve had sustained reductions in the number of professional liability lawsuits, tax payers have benefited through reductions and suits and settlements by the board of risk management for state employed positions. The dollars that are not spent on insurance premiums and excessive tort settlements sustain medical practices, support employment in the healthcare sector.”
Andrew Paternostro, another attorney who has represented residents in nursing homes, spoke to oppose the bill.
“If you don’t want lawsuits, increase the standard of care or simply meet the standard of care,” Paternostro said, “Don’t come into a legislature and ask for a bill to be passed, so you’re damages can be limited, so a person who’s backside has rotted out and had to have surgery where the skin was taken out with a scalpel and scissors that you have to say to their loved ones, the most I can get you for the four surgeries is 250,000 dollars. The most I can get you for an amputated leg, because they allowed it to rot off, maybe 500,000 dollars, but they’ll argue profusely it’s 250,000 dollars. These cases are not defensible in a judicial system, in a fair judicial system with the judges we have and the jurors we have. I like the jurors, they listen to West Virginians, they know what to do, and to pass this act would simply take that power from jurors, from West Virginians, and it would be an imperious act to do so.”
Larry Pack, a leader at Sunrise Healthcare Management said he supports the bill because of insurance issues.
“Currently we’re experiencing major insurance problems,” Pack noted, “the type of problems we haven’t experienced, we haven’t seen since the early 2000s, before the legislature enacted the major reforms to the MPLA. Insurers simply, quite simply don’t want to write our company, they don’t even want to talk to us. We’ve only been able to find one company that’s willing to write us and were willing to quote our company. Insurance companies are leery of West Virginia; they’re leery of the litigation environment. Recent court decisions has eroded the MPLA protections, and the insurers have taken notice.”
Senate Bill 6 has already passed the Senate 31 to 1.
