West Virginia Department of Human Services Story Archives

W.Va.’s First Foster Care Ombudsman Resigns

The appointed watchdog of the West Virginia Foster Care System has resigned, effective June 6.

The first West Virginia Foster Care Ombudsman, Pamela Woodman-Kaehler, will resign effective June 6 to pursue new opportunities.

“We very much appreciate Pamela’s work over the years and her passion for serving the children of this state,” said Ann Urling, interim inspector general for the Departments of Health, Human Services, and Health Facilities. ”We wish her well in all of her future endeavors.”

Elizabeth Hardy will serve as the acting office director foster care ombudsman in her place.

“It has been an incredible honor and pleasure to serve the citizens of West Virginia as the state’s first foster care ombudsman. I am choosing to pursue a new opportunity, but the program is exceptionally well positioned to serve our foster care system,” said Woodman-Kaehler. “I extend grateful thanks to department leaders and other stakeholders who have supported the important work of the foster care ombudsman.”

The foster care ombudsman, a position allowed for by legislation passed in 2019 and 2020, advocates for the rights of foster children, investigates and resolves complaints, and provides assistance to foster families, among other responsibilities.

Since then, lawmakers have been expanding the scope and independence of the Foster Care Ombudsman’s Office.

In 2023, House Bill 3061 was passed, permitting the foster care ombudsman to investigate reported allegations of abuse and neglect for critical incidents and to investigate children placed in the juvenile justice system. Previously, the ombudsman could only investigate complaints involving a foster child, foster parents or kinship parents.

Kelli Caseman, executive director of Think Kids WV, a statewide advocacy group focused on the health and well-being of West Virginia’s children, was one of the advocates pushing for the creation of an ombudsman.

Bills to further clarify the foster care ombudsman’s authority regarding child abuse and neglect investigations did not pass during the 2024 legislative session.

“I think that she really has given a voice to families, you know, of course, kids don’t have that opportunity to share their concerns, their challenges, their trauma. We are rightfully protective of their personal information,” Caseman said. “But so they really don’t have a voice, and we often find that their parents don’t have that voice either, and so Pamela really gave a voice and a platform to some of these challenges.”

Woodman-Kaehler’s resignation garnered praise for her work ethic in a difficult field but left some wondering if the ombudsman is encumbered by outside influences.

News of Woodman-Kaehler’s resignation broke less than a week after an April deposition of former deputy secretary of the previous Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR), Jeremiah Samples, was made public.

The deposition was conducted in connection with a 2019 class action lawsuit, filed by A Better Childhood (ABC), a New York-based nonprofit, along with Shafer and Shafer and Disability Rights West Virginia against the now-split DHHR.

Marcia Robinson Lowry, the lead plaintiff for the class, and executive director of A Better Childhood, said she has been interested in interviewing Samples since his departure from the department.

“We took his deposition and we expected that we would get this kind of information,” Lowry said. “We didn’t know exactly what we would get, of course. But we were not surprised to get this kind of information.”

The lawsuit alleges the DHHR failed to properly care for thousands of foster kids, putting some in dangerous and unsafe situations.

In the original court filing, the plaintiffs allege, “Children in West Virginia’s foster care system have been abused and neglected, put in inadequate and dangerous placements, institutionalized and segregated from the outside world, left without necessary services, and forced to unnecessarily languish in foster care for years.”

The group filed a complaint in federal court in October 2019, denouncing the DHHR’s “over-reliance” on shelter care, shortages in case workers and a “failure to appropriately plan for the children in its custody.”

The following year, a motion for class action status was filed but left undecided when the case was dismissed in 2021. In 2022, that decision was reversed by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and the class action motion was renewed in May 2023.

“It’s been delayed twice, because of the defendants failing to produce materials to us,” Lowry said. “So it is going forward, and the trial will be in November.”

In the deposition, Samples, who is now senior advisor to the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Government and Finance, testified that the Department of Human Services (DoHS) was not providing certain information to the Foster Care Ombudsman’s Office.

“There was an effort in 2023, through legislation, to accomplish that (investigative access for the ombudsman),” Samples said. “It was then stated by the ombudsman that they were still not being provided access because of a discussion or because of a position by Ms. [Cammie] Chapman.”

Samples testified that in early 2024, he learned that Deputy Secretary of Children and Adult Services Cammie Chapman was not providing investigative data to the ombudsman, due to the department’s interpretation of House Bill 3061.

“It was relayed that it was the interpretation of the department and Ms. Chapman that the ombudsman would not have access to that information,” Samples said.

Furthermore, Samples testified that the ombudsman had to contend with the previous DHHR secretary, Bill Crouch, who retired in 2022. He recalled a conversation with the ombudsman during the deposition.

“She said that she was called in to Secretary Crouch’s office,” Samples said. “And I don’t recall specifically how she worded it. But the tone of the conversation was that it was a threat, to be very careful about conversations that she had with the legislature and documents that she would release.”

Legal Director of Disability Rights West Virginia Mike Folio praised Woodman-Kaehler’s work but called her resignation a failure of the department.

“The resignation of Pamela Woodman-Kaehler is a sad chapter in DHHR’s and DoHS’ failed history to protect vulnerable children,” Folio said. “Sworn testimony exists that shows former DHHR Secretary Bill Crouch and current DoHS Deputy Secretary Cammie Chapman have meddled in the foster care ombudsman’s affairs, directed her to conceal information from the legislature, and withheld information from her that would have enabled her to conduct investigations to protect the state’s vulnerable children. Pam is a champion for children and her resignation highlights the state’s failure to safeguard children.”

Samples testified that he and Woodman-Kaehler also discussed shortfalls in the Child Protective Services (CPS) system. He said topics of conversation included CPS not properly conducting investigations and CPS case workers not being prepared in court.

“There would be a referral to centralized intake and concerns that these referrals were being screened out inappropriately,” Samples said. “For example, I recall specifically talking to her about the percentage of cases that were being investigated historically. So you go back to 2017, for example, there might have been 67, 69 percent of all referrals investigated. And now, I think the last time I saw the data, it was 60 point something percent.”

Samples also testified that the ombudsman found that there was fear of retaliation by CPS workers. He said he’s received similar complaints, “as recently as this week,” in the April 18, 2024 deposition.

“There were certainly reports at the time that CPS workers were using their authority to retaliate against foster parents, biological families,” Samples said. “And those concerns continue to be reported through constituent referrals to me at the legislature.”

Caseman said Woodman-Kaehler prepared a report for the legislature in 2021, documenting these findings.

“That (report) explained that over 90 percent of the people who called her office, either primary or secondary reason was out of fear of retaliation of the system, which really opened a lot of eyes, that there needs to be more transparency and more effort to ensure that our foster care families, our biological families, families that are transitioning through the child welfare system are treated with, you know, compassion and respect,” Caseman said.

During his weekly media briefing, Gov. Jim Justice addressed Woodman-Kaehler’s resignation.

“She got a better job, guys,” Justice said. “I mean, that’s all there is to it. You know, I mean, this business of attacking people and everything and … digging into everything coming and going. I mean, if she’s telling us she got a better job, you know, and why don’t we celebrate that?”

Justice brought up Sample’s deposition and said “this” all started with Crouch’s firing of Samples.

“From what I understand, Bill Crouch and Jeremiah Samples were butting heads,” Justice said. “Jeremiah Samples was the second in charge. He was in charge, the second man in charge here for a decade plus. And now he runs through the building saying everything in the world was wrong? Why didn’t he fix it? Why in the world didn’t he fix it? If something was wrong?”

Justice said he thinks everyone who works in the West Virginia government is doing their best.

“I really think for the most part, these people surely got their heart in and are trying really hard and they don’t deserve, you know, to be beat on,” Justice said.

According to the West Virginia Child Welfare Dashboard, there are 6,094 children in state care.

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

Man Held At Sharpe Hospital Sues State Officials

A patient at Sharpe Hospital has filed a lawsuit against the facility, its CEO and state health officials.

Editor’s note: The following may be disturbing for some readers.

Disability Rights West Virginia (DRWV) has filed a lawsuit on behalf of an adult male, referred to as J.P., with developmental disabilities that says he has been physically abused and wrongfully held at William R. Sharpe Hospital for more than 570 days.

DRWV is the state’s federally-mandated protection advocacy system for people with disabilities.

On Sept. 14, 2022, J.P. was removed from a Westbrook facility and sent to Sharpe Hospital.

Westbrook is a company that runs residential housing for people with disabilities. Sharpe Hospital is a psychiatric facility under state operation.

According to the Office of Health Facility Licensure and Certification (OHFLAC), Westbrook’s care provider and licensed social worker falsely represented to the Wood County mental hygiene commissioner that J.P. “violently and aggressively attacked his roommate” to attempt to justify J.P.’s improper involuntary civil commitment.

Tina Wiseman, the OHFLAC director who oversaw the investigation of the incident stated, according to the lawsuit, the incident did not occur.

“We did an investigation when I was at OHFLAC and what the provider wrote down on the commitment papers didn’t take place,” Wiseman said. “We watched it on the video, and it did not take place. There needs to be something that holds that provider accountable when they falsify commitment papers to get the person out of there. I mean they’re stripping someone of their rights there’s just no accountability…You never ever would have known, I mean they said he [J.P.] viciously attacked his roommate. He never touched him. He never touched him. It was pretty horrible.”

Legal Director for Disability Rights West Virginia, Mike Folio said J.P. is being held unlawfully at Sharpe Hospital.

“J.P.’s case is absolutely egregious because he was in a community setting, and evidence provided by the former OHFLAC director is that Westbrook, a community-based provider that was responsible for caring for J.P. falsified the application to get him involuntarily committed,” Folio said.

A month after arriving at the facility, on Oct. 12, 2022, Sharpe Hospital determined that J.P. was “eligible for discharge and clinically stable.”

The hospital determined that his purported behaviors were related to his developmental disability and “not any psychosis,” as is required by West Virginia state code for involuntary commitment to a state hospital.

“A diagnosis of dementia, epilepsy, or intellectual or developmental disability alone may not be a basis for involuntary commitment to a state hospital,” state code states.

On or before Oct. 12, 2022, Sharpe Hospital reported that Westbrook refused to accept J.P. if he were to be discharged. The hospital also documented that Westbrook’s strict criteria are unrealistic and attainable for J.P. and questioned the original mental hygiene petition, or referral to Sharpe, since the hospital has not observed the behavior reported in the petition.

On Oct. 19, 2022, five days after Sharpe Hospital’s finding that J.P. was clinically stable and ready for discharge, the Lewis County Mental Hygiene Commissioner, Brian W. Bailey held a hearing and entered an order that civilly-committed J.P. to Sharpe Hospital.

According to the lawsuit, Sharpe Hospital clinicians have shared that J.P and other persons in similar situations are “decompensating” during their commitment to the hospital given the chaotic psychiatric hospital environment.

“J.P. is really, sadly, he’s the poster child for a failed system where the Department of Human Services that’s responsible for overseeing and providing community placements isn’t doing it, then it’s a failure of the Secretary of the Health Facilities to continue to keep somebody locked up,” Folio said.

Sharpe CEO Patrick Ryan, Department of Human Services Secretary Cynthia Persily and Department of Health Facility Secretary Michael Caruso were also named as defendants.

“We’re naming all of the responsible parties, including the Chief Medical Officer who has the ability to discharge him, the Administrator of Sharpe Hospital who continues to allow him to be unlawfully committed, the Secretary of the Department of Health Facilities that has the authority to discharge him or direct the discharge, but he won’t,” Folio said. “And then Secretary (Cynthia) Persily, who’s the Secretary of the Department of Human Services that oversees the community placements. So all of these individuals collectively and individually, have really combined to create this pattern of J.P. being unlawfully committed and continuing to be unlawfully committed.”

On Jan. 30, 2023, Westbrook notified J.P.’s mother and guardian that Westbrook had discharged J.P. and he was prohibited from returning to his prior residence. In addition, Westbrook stopped providing IDD Waiver services to J.P. and charged him rent for a Westbrook residence from the time of his involuntary civil commitment until his discharge from Westbrook’s service even though he was not living there.

J.P.’s Sharpe Hospital records reveal that J.P.’s behaviors escalate over his frustration with remaining at Sharpe Hospital and he repeats, “Go home, go home.”

On or about June 9, 2023 one or more Sharpe Hospital employees abused and physically assaulted J.P., according to an investigation by Legal Aid of West Virginia (LAWV), cited in the lawsuit.

LAWV obtained a statement from Dr. Abid Rizvi, J.P.’s primary treating psychiatrist, and Dr. Rizvi observed that J.P. was physically abused.

In an interview with LAWV, Rizvi said the bruising could not have been self-inflicted and that a bruise on J.P.’s back resembled a shoe print.

“So you have a staff member who physically battered a vulnerable protected person,” Folio said. “And again J.P.’s own physician has said this, not us J.P.’s own physician or psychiatrist and the person who battered him walks around with impunity that consequences are nothing.”

Ryan and Caruso have stated that J.P. was not abused or assaulted.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health Facilities and Department of Human Service’s Office of Shared Administration told West Virginia Public Broadcasting:

“The West Virginia Department of Health Facilities and Department of Human Services are in receipt of the complaint and are reviewing it with litigation counsel at this time.”

A patient advocate took photos of J.P. inside Sharpe Hospital following the alleged abuse.

Courtesy Photos

A Winding Search For Accountability In The Starving Death Of Boone County Child

The advocacy organization representing those with disabilities in West Virginia has filed a notice of suit against Gov. Jim Justice, other top state officials and agencies.

Disability Rights West Virginia filed a notice of legal action Thursday against Gov. Jim Justice, Secretary of the Department of Human Services (DoHS) Cynthia Persily, Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and the West Virginia Department of Human Services itself.

The letter was sent to each party and members of the media, alleging the DoHS violated its Child Protective Services Policy and the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) in connection with the death of a child in Boone County, W.Va.

History Of The Case

On April 17, Julie Anne Stone Miller was arrested and charged with child neglect causing death after her daughter was found “emaciated to a skeletal state,” the Boone County Sheriff’s Office told Eyewitness News. She has pleaded not guilty to the charge.

Deputies responded to a death call in Morrisvale, Boone County that morning and found the girl, later identified as 14-year-old Kyneddi Miller, on the bathroom floor on a foam pad.

According to the complaint, she had an eating disorder for several years. The child’s grandmother was interviewed as part of the investigation and told deputies the girl had not attended school or left the house, except possibly two times, in the last four years.

The grandmother also said the child had not been eating for months, and was unable to function on her own for four to five days prior to her death due to her physical state.

On May 20, Kyneddi’s grandparents, Donna and Jerry Stone, who shared the home with Kyneddi and her mother, were arrested and charged with child neglect causing death.

Was CPS Involved Or Not? A Timeline Of Seeking Accountability.

After the news of Kyneddi’s death broke, media outlets across the state began asking questions of state officials.

DoHS Cabinet Secretary Cynthia Persily released a statement April 22. The press release provided no further information on the case, but cited West Virginia Code that all records and information concerning a child or juvenile that are maintained by DoHS are confidential and may not be released or disclosed to anyone, including any federal or state agency.

The release further cited CAPTA, one of the laws Disability Rights West Virginia now accuses the department of violating, as requiring it to preserve the confidentiality of all child abuse and neglect reports.

“The role of DoHS’s CPS is to investigate allegations of abuse and neglect when the allegations are against a parent, guardian or custodian,” the release reads. “Child safety is paramount in all CPS investigations. CPS policy and Chapter 49 of the West Virginia Code require that any report alleging abuse or neglect of children is to be investigated/assessed by DoHS.”

The statement by Kyneddi’s grandmother, Donna Stone, saying she hadn’t been in school since 2019 prompted the media to ask Justice during his weekly media briefing on April 23 if the girl had been homeschooled and if so, why an academic assessment hadn’t brought attention to her condition.

“I think the answer just got to be just one thing,” Justice said. “The CPS folks, from what I understand, [had] no idea about this, about this child, no idea whatsoever.”

On April 26, Eyewitness News reported that they had received documents through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) confirming Kyneddi started homeschooling in February 2021 at the request of her mother, citing concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic.

Television station WSAZ published evidence from their own investigation and a whistleblower on May 6 as part of their investigation into the incident, Deadly Details Denied.

Reporter Curtis Johnson was denied documents by the Department of Human Services and referred back to the statement. In the law on confidentiality, he found that the department, in case of a child neglect fatality, “shall make public information relating to the case.” Johnson found that same requirement in federal law.

Johnson submitted a FOIA request for any history that CPS had with the Boone County teenager. His request was denied.

Johnson later set up an interview with Persily where he repeatedly asked her if the DHS had any knowledge of Kynneddi.

“We have no record of contact with this family — about this particular child,” Persily told Johnson.

After speaking with Persily, the station received a response to their FOIA request sent to the West Virginia State Police. The response includes notes from a welfare check on the teenager in March 2023. The trooper who responded can be heard on audio files obtained by the station saying he is referring the child to CPS.

On May 8, Justice walked back his prior comments during a regular media briefing.

“Will I stand behind what I said two weeks ago now that I know the information I know today? No way,” Justice said in response to a question from Johnson.

Justice blamed the DoHS attorneys for the confusion.

“When they give us information, then we’ve got to act on the information they give us,” Justice said.

The Justice administration has said it is exploring ways to legally provide better information to the public.

“I’ll absolutely direct them to follow the law. You know, without any question,” Justice said.

Persily said that the administration is also looking to other states to understand their transparency practices. Persily advised journalists and members of the public to obtain and use the critical accident report that is filed annually.

“That report, of course, has not been reported on in the media,” Persily said. “And we would just encourage everyone who wants to have information about child fatalities in the state to look at that report and the information is contained there.”

However, that report shows limited details on CPS actions, responsibility and culpability. The current report does not have any information of the death of Kyneddi Miller.

On May 21, Persily released a statement refuting the report from WSAZ.

“We are aware of information suggesting that West Virginia State Police intended to make a referral on this child in March 2023,” Department Secretary Cynthia Persily said. “However, a comprehensive search of DoHS records suggests no referral was ever made.”

Nearly two weeks after WSAZ’s report, Persily reiterated the department had no records of abuse.

“DoHS never received an abuse or neglect referral relating to the death of Kyneddi Miller, and was therefore not involved in the life of this child prior to her passing,” Persily said.

In the same statement, Persily said that the whistleblower broke state and federal law by sharing the information with WSAZ.

“We are extremely disappointed by the disclosure of information relating to those prior matters by an anonymous informant and by members of the local media,” Persily said.

Notice Of Suit

On May 23, Disability Rights West Virginia filed a notice of legal action against state officials and the DHS alleging the department concealed documents and information related to Kyneddi’s death.

The notice demands the named parties “cease and desist from any further violation of applicable law regarding the mandatory public disclosure of information and documents related to the Boone County death, child abuse cases, child abuse investigation and child abuse findings.”

The notice also requests documents and electronically stored information from DoHS leadership computers, phones and tablets be preserved.

The advocacy group cited the federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, which mandates that child abuse information be publicly disclosed.

The notice also asked that the agency “cease and desist from any threats, intimidation, termination or retaliatory actions against any person and any DHS worker who fulfills DHS’s mandatory duty of disclosing required documents and information.”

Tension Between Media And Executive Branch

In an incident recorded and published on May 22 by WSAZ, Justice’s Chief of Staff Brian Abraham could be heard yelling down a Capitol hallway, “Channel 3 is banned,” as reporters Johnson and Sarah Sager were working to learn more about Kyneddi’s case.

Abraham can be heard saying, “You’re not very good at your job.” He went on to say, “You are not doing a very good job at all.”

According to the reporters, this happened as Sager was waiting to interview state Sen. Eric Tarr, R-Putnam, and Speaker of the House Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, about their closed-door meeting with the DoHS and members of the governor’s staff.

During a virtual press briefing on May 24, West Virginia Public Broadcasting asked Justice his response to the filing and accusations of retaliatory behavior.

“I don’t know, the allegation about, you know, threats or whatever, but I want to tell everybody that works in any capacity for me, and this government in any way, that I want you to always be 100 percent transparent on anything, and nobody, nobody’s gonna come back on you for anything, you know, if you’re just being that transparent and telling the truth,” Justice said.

Justice said if someone wants to file a lawsuit against him, they can.

“From the standpoint of the lawsuit against me, well, you know, people can do that if they choose,” Justice said. “But there’s no champion ever, is going to champion more transparency, and trying to do goodness, and help our kids and look after our kids than myself.”

Also during that press briefing, Eyewitness News’ Leslie Rubin and WSAZ’s Johnson said they’ve received multiple reports that the police officer who visited Kyneddi’s home drove straight to his local DoHS office, in person, to make the CPS report.

“There’s an officer that says that he drove, I guess his personal vehicle or whatever, he drove to the offices and went in and made that report,” Justice said. “At the same time, there’s no evidence that I can uncover so far that a report was made.”

Justice asked the public to remain vigilant and asked anyone with concerns about a child to call the Centralized Intake for Abuse and Neglect Hotline at 1-800-352-6513.

DoHS Promises Transparency In Spending New Reserve Fund

Following a special session focused largely on funding her department, the Secretary of the West Virginia Department of Human Services, Cynthia Persily, released a statement promising transparency Tuesday.

Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle and both chambers made one thing clear this special West Virginia Legislative session: they do not trust the Department of Health and the Department of Human Services to spend money.

Following a special session focused largely on funding her department, West Virginia Department of Human Services (DoHS) Cabinet Secretary Cynthia Persily released a statement promising transparency Tuesday.

“Today’s restoration of more than $183 million in funds will allow DoHS to continue to provide essential services through its Bureau for Child Support Enforcement, Bureau for Behavioral Health, Bureau for Family Assistance, Bureau for Medical Services, Bureau for Social Services, and the Office of Drug Control Policy,” Persily said.

Instead of restoring the budget line items cut from the state budget passed on the last night of session, Senate Bill 1001 appropriates money to a new reserve fund of $183 million. The bill also makes $5 million available to the Department of Health. Lawmakers hope the cabinet secretaries of the departments will spend on underfunded line items.

The secretaries have the ability to move only 5 percent of any money from one existing account to another. The reserve fund is new and it will expire March 31, 2025. It is not encumbered, so the cabinet secretaries are not required to spend the money on specific items.

The House and Senate could not agree on how the money should be allocated and how much transparency and accountability should be attached to the funds.

Del. Amy Summers, R-Taylor, amended the bill in the House Finance Committee to require increasing reimbursement rates for companies and their employees providing services for people with disabilities.

The House sent that version over to the Senate, where Summers’ amendment was stripped and the Senate reverted to their plans – Sen. Eric Tarr’s, R-Putnam, original amendment.

“That reserve fund is there so that the quarterly disbursements, if they aren’t enough for any given line that has been cut, they can make a transfer, but the secretary has to sign off on it,” Tarr told West Virginia Public Broadcasting. “She has to report on the transfers monthly to the joint committee.”

Tarr’s amendment also includes language that requires the unexpended reserve funds be returned to the Treasury by March 31, 2025.

House language to prohibit any funds from being transferred out of the home and community-based waiver programs was retained in this version.

When the bill arrived back in the House, delegates from both sides of the aisle expressed outrage at the Senate’s actions. They refused to concur and sent the bill back to the Senate.

The Senate then adjourned sine die. By taking no action, the Senate left the House to jump through hoops to get Senate Bill 1001 back on the floor and up for consideration.

Procedurally, the House had to move backward in order to take the bill back up. They had to vote to undo their Monday night actions, then vote to concur with the Senate, lest the bill die and the funding be left incomplete.

The House did just that and passed the bill, as amended by the Senate, with a nearly unanimous vote. The bill now awaits Gov. Jim Justice’s signature.

In her statement, Persily said she plans to use more than $89 million to remedy the anticipated Medicaid shortfall for Fiscal Year 2025.

Persily also said she heard the legislator’s concerns about the need for transparency and that the DoHS is committed to providing it while continuing to analyze reimbursement rates for all providers of services.

“As appropriate and feasible, DoHS will continue to make adjustments to rates as necessary for providers as early as July,” she said. “The department appreciates the work of the legislature and thanks each member for their time and attention to the crucial needs of West Virginia’s most vulnerable residents.”

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

First Extraordinary Legislative Session Of 2024 Began Sunday

The West Virginia Legislature met Sunday evening in response to a call from Gov. Jim Justice to address issues with the state budget passed during the regular session, among others.

The House of Delegates met first and completed the first reading of 16 bills. The body then sent three bills to the House Finance Committee for further discussion.

One of those, House Bill 101, if passed, sends more than $9 million to the West Virginia Department of Health and the Department of Human Services.

Bills must be read over three successive days unless a chamber suspends rules and allows it to be read three times on one day.

The Senate did just that with about half of the introduced bills. But first, Senate Finance Chairman Eric Tarr, R-Putnam, offered a strike and insert amendment on Senate Bill 1001. His amendment replaced the original bill, changing how some funding is allocated for state hospitals.

The Senate passed eight bills and sent them to the House for consideration and advanced six other bills to second reading, or the amendment stage.

The Senate did not take up the 16th bill introduced in the House regarding having the Public Employees Insurance Agency (PEIA) pay for certain weight loss medications. That bill was not on the call from the governor.

The Senate also entered two resolutions to encourage the U.S. Department of Education to expedite processing of Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) applications and extended the governor’s state of emergency regarding student aid.

Advocates, Lawmakers Worry For Future Of Medicaid In W.Va.

Health care services for nearly 30 percent of West Virginia’s population may be difficult to access if lawmakers don’t fully fund the Medicaid program in an expected special session.

Medicaid provides free or low-cost health coverage to low-income people, families and children, pregnant women, the elderly and people with disabilities.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), West Virginia has the highest percentage of Medicaid enrollment in the U.S., with more than 564,000 people enrolled, or 29 percent of the state’s population in 2017.

According to the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, the Fiscal Year 2025 budget the legislature passed this year underfunded the state’s Medicaid program by about $150 million.

The budget Gov. Jim Justice originally proposed fully funded Medicaid, according to Kelly Allen, executive director of the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy.

“By our analysis, it was underfunded by about $150 million relative to the governor’s proposed budget, which would have fully essentially funded Medicaid according to what Medicaid agency officials were saying that they needed to keep current levels of services,” Allen said.

Medicaid is a joint federal and state program, which means for every dollar the state allocates toward the program, the federal government matches those funds through the Federal Medicaid Assistance Percentage (FMAP).

Each state’s FMAP is based on a formula in the federal Medicaid statute that is based on state per capita income. The lower a state’s per capita income, the higher the state’s FMAP, or federal Medicaid matching rate will be. These rates vary from 50 percent to 74 percent.

West Virginia’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 FMAP percentage is 73.84 percent with a multiplier of 2.8 percent.

“Because Medicaid is a matching program,” Allen said. “For every dollar of state funding that we spend, we pull down almost $3 in federal funds, that can actually total over $600 million in potential cuts to Medicaid, which is about 12 percent of the entire program.”

The governor’s proposed budget allocated about $517 million to Medicaid, whereas the enacted budget allocated $438 million.

Justice said during a press briefing on April 17 that he is not to blame for the budget cuts and said he would check and see if there was any way that it could be funded, without bloating the budget.

“Why did we do this? Why in the world did we do this? Why did we strip $100 million out of something that we didn’t have to do and absolutely we knew it was going to really hurt people,” Justice said.

Lawmakers said the budget cuts were necessary due to possible federal government clawback of $465 million in COVID-19 relief funding for schools.

Justice announced Friday that West Virginia will not face that clawback.

“I don’t think that argument ever carried a lot of water because I don’t think that was a reason to underfund the budget itself, I think that was a reason to hold on to surplus dollars, those one time dollars that they didn’t allocate,” Allen said.

Allen said before the pandemic, the state was spending more on Medicaid than it is now. That is because during the pandemic, a public health emergency allowed additional federal funds to be distributed to programs like Medicaid.

“One factor that allowed the state to have a flat budget for all of these years was, we didn’t, we weren’t really able to reduce our state spending on Medicaid, because we were getting all this extra federal Medicaid money due to the pandemic,” Allen said.

In 2023, federal spending stopped with the end of the public health emergency and the passage of the Consolidated Appropriations Act.

“This isn’t really an issue of Medicaid spending being out of control or a big spike in Medicaid spending,” Allen said. “It’s really just that that federal, extra match expired, which we always knew it was going to. And the state’s responsibility now is essentially to go back to its pre-pandemic levels of Medicaid funding.”

If lawmakers don’t amend the budget in an expected May special session, there are a few ways that Medicaid costs could be reduced including a reduction in eligibility.

Currently, single adults who make about $20,000 a year, or a family of four earning around $40,000 annually qualify for Medicaid. The program also covers insurance for children and people with disabilities.

Cynthia Persily, secretary of the West Virginia Department of Human Services, testified in front of the Joint Health Committee on April 15 that services could be cut if the program is not fully funded.

“Whenever there’s a shortage in Medicaid dollars, there are several things that we can do, right,” Persily said. “We can decrease enrollment in Medicaid, we can decrease services, or we can decrease the reimbursement rate. And so there would have to be some sort of combination of those three pieces in order for us to make Medicaid whole.”

Allen said there are many services the federal government considers optional.

“But I don’t think you and I and most West Virginians would think they’re optional,” Allen said. “That’s things like prescription drugs, substance use treatment, physical and occupational therapy, things like waiver programs, intellectual and developmental disability programs. These are all programs that are optional for states to offer, but they’re really, really important to people.”

A representative from the Department of Human Services, Whitney Wetzel said in an email statement to West Virginia Public Broadcasting that the department is hopeful the budget will be restored in a special legislative session. However, if cuts are sustained, the DoHS’s Bureau for Medical Services (BMS) will review optional services and rates.

Wetzel further explained that Medicaid eligibility rules are mandated by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

“There are currently no plans that would impact members’ eligibility,” Wetzel wrote.

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