• PRINT EDITIONS
  • | CONTACT
  • | TEL: 304.645.1206 | E: hello@wvdn.com
Saturday, January 28, 2023
  • Login
  • Register
SUBSCRIBE
West Virginia Daily News
  • Home
  • News
    • All
    • Business and Tech
    • Crime
    • Local News
    • National News
    • State News
    West Virginia abortion protester receives fine, no jail time

    West Virginia abortion protester receives fine, no jail time

    West Virginia Golf Association exec Ullman joins LIV Golf

    Greenbrier Valley Solid Waste Authority to hold special meeting Jan. 30

    28 bands, thousands of visitors expected for West Virginia’s WAMSB 2023 Competition

    At the W.Va. Legislature: Senate finance hears Commerce, Economic Development budget presentations

    New lawsuits target state restrictions on abortion pills

    New lawsuits target state restrictions on abortion pills

    Trending Tags

    • Lewisburg
    • Alderson
    • White Sulphur Springs
    • Rainelle
    • Ronceverte
    • Greenbrier County
    • Monroe County
    • Rupert
    • Beckley
    • Smoot
    • Local News
    • State News
    • National News
    • Crime
  • Community
  • Obituaries
  • Sports
    • All
    • College Sports
    • High School Sports
    • Local Sports

    Basile and Virginia Tech host Syracuse

    No. 15 Auburn hosts Toussaint and West Virginia

    1972 GEHS championship basketball team to be honored Jan. 31

    Lady Spartans add game; play Bluefield tonight

    Fourth quarter falter seals Cavaliers’ fate

    Spartans’ valiant effort falls short in overtime

    Trending Tags

    • Greenbrier East
    • Greenbrier West
    • Marshall Sports
    • WVU Sports
    • Local Sports
    • High School Sports
    • College Sports
  • Government
    • All
    • City
    • County
    • State
    West Virginia Senate passes guns-on-campus bill at colleges

    West Virginia Senate passes guns-on-campus bill at colleges

    WVa gov goes on the road to tout income tax cut proposal

    WVa gov goes on the road to tout income tax cut proposal

    Lewisburg City Council to meet in special session June 2

    Lewisburg City Council holds January meeting, announces Volunteer of the Year

    Lewisburg Planning Commission to meet Feb. 2

    A Greenbrier County grand jury handed up the following indictments in Greenbrier County Circuit Court on June 9.

    Greenbrier County Commission to meet Wednesday, Jan. 25

    Greenbrier Planning Commission to meet Jan. 25

    Trending Tags

    • Greenbrier County
    • Politics
    • Senate
    • Monroe County
    • White Sulphur Springs
    • Rainelle
    • Lewisburg
    • Alderson
    • City
    • County
    • State
  • Lifestyle
  • Election Center
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • All
    • Business and Tech
    • Crime
    • Local News
    • National News
    • State News
    West Virginia abortion protester receives fine, no jail time

    West Virginia abortion protester receives fine, no jail time

    West Virginia Golf Association exec Ullman joins LIV Golf

    Greenbrier Valley Solid Waste Authority to hold special meeting Jan. 30

    28 bands, thousands of visitors expected for West Virginia’s WAMSB 2023 Competition

    At the W.Va. Legislature: Senate finance hears Commerce, Economic Development budget presentations

    New lawsuits target state restrictions on abortion pills

    New lawsuits target state restrictions on abortion pills

    Trending Tags

    • Lewisburg
    • Alderson
    • White Sulphur Springs
    • Rainelle
    • Ronceverte
    • Greenbrier County
    • Monroe County
    • Rupert
    • Beckley
    • Smoot
    • Local News
    • State News
    • National News
    • Crime
  • Community
  • Obituaries
  • Sports
    • All
    • College Sports
    • High School Sports
    • Local Sports

    Basile and Virginia Tech host Syracuse

    No. 15 Auburn hosts Toussaint and West Virginia

    1972 GEHS championship basketball team to be honored Jan. 31

    Lady Spartans add game; play Bluefield tonight

    Fourth quarter falter seals Cavaliers’ fate

    Spartans’ valiant effort falls short in overtime

    Trending Tags

    • Greenbrier East
    • Greenbrier West
    • Marshall Sports
    • WVU Sports
    • Local Sports
    • High School Sports
    • College Sports
  • Government
    • All
    • City
    • County
    • State
    West Virginia Senate passes guns-on-campus bill at colleges

    West Virginia Senate passes guns-on-campus bill at colleges

    WVa gov goes on the road to tout income tax cut proposal

    WVa gov goes on the road to tout income tax cut proposal

    Lewisburg City Council to meet in special session June 2

    Lewisburg City Council holds January meeting, announces Volunteer of the Year

    Lewisburg Planning Commission to meet Feb. 2

    A Greenbrier County grand jury handed up the following indictments in Greenbrier County Circuit Court on June 9.

    Greenbrier County Commission to meet Wednesday, Jan. 25

    Greenbrier Planning Commission to meet Jan. 25

    Trending Tags

    • Greenbrier County
    • Politics
    • Senate
    • Monroe County
    • White Sulphur Springs
    • Rainelle
    • Lewisburg
    • Alderson
    • City
    • County
    • State
  • Lifestyle
  • Election Center
No Result
View All Result
West Virginia Daily News
No Result
View All Result
Home Government County

Delegate Mike Honaker on Certificate of Need (CON) Legislation

Delegate Mike Honaker by Delegate Mike Honaker
February 3, 2022
in County
Reading Time: 3 mins read
1
15
SHARES
107
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

The whole is almost always worth more than its component pieces. In 1924, Dr. Charles H. Mayo estimated the value of the human body in a light-hearted piece in the Northwestern Health Journal. He approximated the figure at 84 cents. Thomas Edison quipped, “From his neck down a man is worth a couple of dollars a day, from his neck up he is worth anything that his brain can produce.”

More recently, Wired Magazine estimated that the chemical parts of a human body are collectively worth $17.18. But when those chemicals are combined into organs, marrow, and platelets, the value of the average human body sores to approximately $45,618,575.82. Why? Because the whole is worth more than the sum of its parts. This is also the way some legislation works and the way in which some legislation can be evaluated. It’s also the logic I applied to my vote on the bill before the Health and Human Resources Committee in relation to West Virginia’s “Certificate of Need” Law. Here are some things to think about that may help you understand that this bill was not simply about a “free market” approach to healthcare:

1. The bill did absolutely nothing to address the terrible practices and issues related to the Public Employees Insurance Agency (PEIA), which is the one insurance company in West Virginia that refuses to negotiate healthcare prices with healthcare providers in West Virginia. PEIA only pays 50 cents on the dollar for healthcare costs in West Virginia, while Medicare and Medicaid, as well as other insurance companies, routinely pay $1.50 on the dollar to the same healthcare providers in our state. PEIA refuses to negotiate health care cost with healthcare providers in West Virginia, while other health insurance companies do negotiate prices. PEIA routinely denies providing necessary healthcare coverage, routinely refuses to pay for prescriptions that doctors prescribe to their patients, and PEIA will even “shop you around” to other healthcare providers if it is cost effective for them, instead of letting you choose your own doctor or healthcare provider. PEIA is a state agency that manages a health insurance program for local and state government employees in West Virginia and it consistently fails to provide satisfactory and sufficient health insurance to many citizens in West Virginia, but the agency enjoys being exempt from the same regulations and standards to which other health insurance companies are held. This bill failed to offer alternative health insurance plans from which people can choose. Instead, this bill allowed PEIA to continue its unacceptable practice and poor treatment of patients. PEIA must be reformed or replaced with a program to offer health insurance alternatives to state and local government employees.

2. West Virginia is already experiencing a destabilization of the healthcare industry in our state and repealing the “Certificate of Need” requirement would further destabilize and undermine quality of healthcare in our communities. How? There are a couple of ways this would likely happen; 1) Hospitals do not have enough staffing right now to make all of their existing beds available for patients in their service area. For example, a hospital may have 120 beds, but can only take 70 patients because the facility only has enough staffing to adequately care for 70 patients. Employing a “free market” approach at this point in the healthcare industry would only further degrade staffing levels in existing hospitals. Meanwhile, simply repealing CON and allowing anyone and everyone to open ambulatory centers, surgical centers, imaging facilities, hospitals, assisted living facilities, and hospice care facilities would only create a “low bid” environment for healthcare in your community. And this would only further degrade the quality of care for patients.

3. To repeal the “Certificate of Need” requirement in West Virginia would essentially cause the collapse of the financial funding for the Peyton Hospice House (a non-profit end of life care facility) in the district I represent, which could result in the lone hospice facility in our county closing. In its place we would likely see the rise of low-end hospice facilities that simply exist to provide end of life care for the terminally ill for financial profit.

4. Before making my final decision on whether or not I would vote for or against the bill to repeal the “Certificate of Need” requirement in West Virginia, I reached out to and spoke with representatives from the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine, the Peyton Hospice House, the Greenbrier Valley Medical Center, the Pocahontas Memorial Hospital, the Rainelle Medical Center, and a number of doctors located in the 42nd District, which is the district I currently represent. Based on these conversations, the representatives of these organizations agreed unanimously that repealing the “Certificate of Need” statute would cause serious and irreparable harm to the availability and quality of health care in West Virginia, and especially in the availability and provision of timely and quality healthcare in the Greenbrier Valley. There was absolutely no data, no speculation, and no projection offered to the Health and Human Resources Committee in relation to how the repeal of the “Certificate of Need” would actually produce better health care options in West Virginia, instead, what I gleaned from the debate in this issue was one simple idea, which was that the “free market” would work it all out. At this point, that is not a chance I’m willing to take when it comes to the health and welfare of West Virginia’s citizens.

I am always available to discuss your concerns and the issues that matter to you. I will work diligently to keep you apprised and aware of what’s going on in Charleston during this year’s legislative session. I hope you will not hesitate to contact me as we work to move our region and West Virginia forward in the coming year.

Tags: Greenbrier CountyMonroe County

Related

DHHR Identifies COVID-19 Reporting Error; Death Toll Now 530
County

Greater Greenbrier COVID Task Force Summary, Feb 15 2022

by WV Daily News
February 15, 2022
Greenbrier County Courthouse Transactions – February 11, 2022
County

Greenbrier County Courthouse Transactions – February 11, 2022

by WV Daily News
February 11, 2022
Congresswoman Miller Announces Grant for Mountain Steer Meat Company in Greenbrier County
County

Congresswoman Miller Announces Grant for Mountain Steer Meat Company in Greenbrier County

by WV Daily News
February 4, 2022
County

Greenbrier County Commission To Meet

by WV Daily News
February 3, 2022
County

Courthouse News February 4, 2022

by WV Daily News
February 3, 2022
‘First Step’ Taken In Potential $46 Million Greenbrier Broadband Project
County

‘First Step’ Taken In Potential $46 Million Greenbrier Broadband Project

by Lyra Bordelon
January 28, 2022
Next Post

Smoot Elementary Honor Roll

Comments 1

  1. Jim says:
    12 months ago

    Thank you Delegate for looking at this so objectively and doing what is right for WV. Not everything fits into a pollical ideology. You very clearly pointed out way/how CoN is just one of those.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Latest News

Drug trafficker sentenced in overdose, dismemberment case

Drug trafficker sentenced in overdose, dismemberment case

23 hours ago
West Virginia abortion protester receives fine, no jail time

West Virginia abortion protester receives fine, no jail time

1 day ago

Basile and Virginia Tech host Syracuse

1 day ago

No. 15 Auburn hosts Toussaint and West Virginia

1 day ago

West Virginia Golf Association exec Ullman joins LIV Golf

1 day ago

1972 GEHS championship basketball team to be honored Jan. 31

1 day ago

Lady Spartans add game; play Bluefield tonight

1 day ago

Echoes of the Past: Racism in the courtroom, Vietnam War ends, and a young firefighter dies in service

1 day ago

‘American Pickers’ returning to the Mountain State, seeking locations

1 day ago

Dear Abby: Grandma’s Facebook posts strike a nerve after loss

1 day ago

Browse Articles By Categories

  • Business and Tech (143)
  • City (33)
  • Classifieds (13)
  • College Sports (151)
  • Community (2,046)
  • County (47)
  • Crime (259)
  • Entertainment (58)
  • Government (228)
  • High School Sports (694)
  • life style & culture (2)
  • Lifestyle & Culture (962)
  • Local News (2,941)
  • Local Sports (15)
  • National (4)
  • National News (5)
  • National News (571)
  • News (5,797)
  • Obituaries (1,239)
  • Politics (30)
  • Sports (1,001)
  • State (93)
  • State News (2,861)
  • State News (17)

Browse By Topics

Alderson (192) Business (314) Carnegie Hall (187) Charleston (280) college (302) Community (284) Court (286) Dear Abby (316) Education (173) EPA (245) Family (429) Featured (1863) football (185) Grant (209) Greenbrier (827) Greenbrier County (355) Greenbrier East (409) Greenbrier East High School (254) Greenbrier East Sports (329) Greenbrier West (173) health (293) High School (198) Home (616) Jim Justice (169) Justice (216) Land (280) Last (321) Lewisburg (723) Local (197) Man (217) NY (521) Park (183) Plan (420) Project (255) Ronceverte (209) School (349) State (985) The Greenbrier (498) University (232) US (1710) VA (1477) Virginia (425) West Virginia (1128) White Sulphur Springs (237) WV (1383)
QR Code
West Virginia Daily News

The West Virginia Daily News has been serving the Greenbrier Valley and southeastern West Virginia since 1852.

Learn more

Information

  • Login
  • Home
  • Subscribe to The WV Daily News
  • Privacy Policy
  • Ethics, Standards & Corrections
  • Submit News and Events
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Contact Us

Copyright © 2022 The West Virginia Daily News, powered by ECENT CORPORATION. All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • _____________
  • Home
  • Editions
  • News
    • Local News
    • National News
    • State News
    • Crime
    • Business and Tech
  • Community
  • Obituaries
  • Sports
    • Local Sports
    • High School Sports
    • College Sports
  • Government
    • City
    • County
    • State
  • Lifestyle & Culture

Copyright © 2022 The West Virginia Daily News, powered by ECENT CORPORATION. All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Sign In with Facebook
Sign In with Google
OR

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Sign Up with Facebook
Sign Up with Google
OR

Fill the forms bellow to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
west virginia daily newstaxi how muchupdown

Subscribe For Full Access

Flipbooks are available to paid subscribers only. Subscribe now or log in for access.