Valley Health Says Certificate Of Need Exemption Helped Expand Imaging Services For Berkeley County

Health care providers at a Berkeley County medical campus hope new imaging equipment will bolster access to care for residents of West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle. And they say the investment began with changes to a health care regulation process that has been drawing wider attention.

Valley Health is a regional, not-for-profit health system based in Winchester, Va. It operates six hospitals and more than 70 health care facilities across northern Virginia and eastern West Virginia, according to the organization’s website.

Among those facilities is Valley Health Spring Mills, a center that offers a variety of medical services in the northern Berkeley County community of Spring Mills. The facility recently unveiled two new pieces of medical technology: a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine, plus a computed tomography (CT) scan machine with artificial intelligence capabilities.

Staff at the facility described the new tech as first of their kind locally, purchased thanks to a 2023 state law that loosened oversight for outpatient imaging services. An early change to the state’s decades-old certificate of need process, that bill’s effect is just beginning to be felt by providers.

A regulatory exemption

Back in 2023, Senate Bill 613 created an exemption for certain outpatient medical imaging services from the state’s certificate of need (CON) process, which was a focal point for lawmakers during this year’s legislative session. Outpatient services refer to medical imaging done at an independent clinic or facility, not inside a hospital or major medical center.

Jacob Meza serves as Valley Health’s vice president of operations, ambulatory, post-acute and community services. He said outpatient imaging services create a quicker turnaround for diagnostics and results.

“We worked through the legislation to be able to allow us to build the advanced imaging site and bring it to market, where we have community physicians who have expressed a desire and need to … get their patients in a little bit faster,” Meza said.

Meza likened the process to orthopedics, where patients may go to an outpatient facility to address immediate needs, but still get referred back to a hospital if they are found to need additional care.

“The wait time can be an awful long time, so this really helps,” Meza said.

Before 2023, providers like Valley Health needed to receive a certificate of need to open new imaging services. That meant undergoing review from the West Virginia Health Care Authority, which remains a prerequisite for most new health facilities and services.

For decades, the certificate of need process has required providers to prove new amenities fill an existing need in the local community, and to create a back-up plan for continuing care in the event of demand shortfalls or funding issues.

During this year’s legislative session, Gov. Patrick Morrisey called for the outright elimination of the CON process.

Critics have alleged CON reduces competition in the health sector, which they worry prevents lower-cost health care facilities from opening in order to protect existing hospitals. Proponents of the CON process say regulating the state’s health network is key to addressing coverage gaps, especially for rural communities with limited access to care.

Despite pushes to repeal the process in both the West Virginia Senate and the West Virginia House of Delegates, state lawmakers decided against eliminating CON. Similar efforts to eliminate CON failed in the state legislature in 2022 and 2024.

That means exemptions like the one passed in 2023 remain limited, which some lawmakers viewed as a win for the state’s health network.

Meanwhile, staff members at Valley Health Spring Mills hope expanding imaging services in the Eastern Panhandle will mean more access for residents.

New tech in Berkeley County

Meza described the new imaging services as one piece of a broader “continuum of care” in the Eastern Panhandle, which he hopes will “decompress the hospitals.”

“Physicians can refer patients for advanced imaging MRI and CT with the goal of being able to get in much quicker, at a lower cost or price point for patients that are insured or uninsured in our area,” Meza said. “Most hospitals experience a long wait time for advanced imaging. There’s a high demand.”

Meza said having a center dedicated to imaging services could help patients get imaging results — and diagnoses — back faster than they would from a physician with farther-reaching responsibilities. Plus, offering imaging services in a new location can mean a shorter commute for nearby patients, he added.

“We hope that they’ll have a much better experience being able to just walk into an off-site care site, versus having to navigate the hospital,” Meza said.

Sherrie Humbertson, clinical manager for imaging at Valley Health Spring Mills, said the new equipment at her facility has expanded capabilities that could benefit patients. The new CT scan machine uses less radiation and captures 80 images per rotation, well above the industry-standard 64.

“It helps speed up the exam,” Humbertson said.

The CT scan machine also uses AI technology to alert operators when they set up improperly, like if they position the wrong body part for a scan. Plus, the machine is simply wider than average, which can eliminate the feelings of claustrophobia some patients encounter.

Humbertson does not have experience as an MRI technician, but said the facility’s new MRI machine is state of the art and comes with a skilled team of clinicians.

“The idea [is] to get patients in and out a lot quicker,” Humbertson said. “It’s really quick and easy, and I’ve been blessed with amazing staff.”

Meanwhile, the Eastern Panhandle is the fastest-growing region of West Virginia, so demand for medical services is likewise on the rise. Meza said population growth locally was a driving factor in the decision to expand medical offerings for Berkeley County and neighboring communities.

“There’s been growth in the market, which would increase the demand,” Meza said. “But honestly, the demand has been here for a long time. This has been a need that we’ve identified years ago that we’re still working on.”