H. B. 4480
(By Delegates L. White, Manuel, Mezzatesta,
Hubbard, Beane, Facemyer and Hutchins)
[Introduced February 18, 1998; referred to the
Committee on Finance.]
A BILL to amend article sixteen, chapter five of the code of West
Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended,
by adding thereto a new section, designated section five-a,
relating to the West Virginia public employees insurance
agency; creation of a legislative oversight commission on
public employees insurance accountability; membership
composition, appointment, compensation and expenses;
expenses of commission; powers, duties and responsibilities
of commission; reports to the Legislature.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That article sixteen, chapter five of the code of West
Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be
amended by adding thereto a new section, designated section
five-a, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 16. WEST VIRGINIA PUBLIC EMPLOYEES INSURANCE ACT.
§5-16-5a. Creation of legislative oversight commission on public employees insurance accountability.
(a) There is hereby created a joint commission of the
Legislature known as the legislative oversight commission on
public employees insurance accountability. The commission shall
be composed six members of the Senate appointed by the president
of the Senate and six members of the House of Delegates appointed
by the speaker of the House of Delegates. No more than four of
the six members appointed by the president of the Senate and the
speaker of the House of Delegates, respectively, may be members
of the same political party. In addition, the president of the
Senate and the speaker of the House of Delegates shall be ex
officio members of the commission and shall designate the
cochairpersons. At least one of the Senate appointees and one of
the House of Delegates appointees shall be the chairperson of the
committee on health and human resources of the Senate and House
of Delegates, respectively, and at least one of the Senate
appointees and at least one of the House of Delegate appointees
shall be a member of the committee on finance of the Senate and
House of Delegates, respectively. The members shall serve until
their successors shall have been appointed as hereinbefore
provided.
(b) Members of the commission shall receive such
compensation and expenses as provided in article two-a, chapter
four of this code. Such expenses and all other expenses including those incurred in the employment of legal, technical,
investigative, clerical, stenographic, advisory and other
personnel as may be needed by the commission shall be paid from
an appropriation to be made expressly for the commission:
Provided, That if no such appropriation be made, such expenses
shall be paid from the appropriation under "Fund No. 0175 for
Joint Expenses" created pursuant to the provisions of that
chapter:
Provided, however, That no expense of any kind payable
under the account for joint expenses shall be incurred unless
first approved by the joint committee on government and finance.
(c) The commission shall meet at any time both during
sessions of the Legislature and in the interim or as often as may
be necessary.
(d) The powers, duties and responsibilities of the
commission include the following:
(1) To make a continuing investigation, study and review of
the practices, policies, procedures, administration and
management of the agency and its finance board;
(2) To investigate, study and review the practices, policies
and procedures utilized by the finance board in projecting
revenues and apportioning necessary costs equitably among
participating employers, employees, retired employees and
providers of health care services utilized in all financial
plans promulgated by the financial board, pursuant to section five of this article;
(3) To conduct studies on the costs and quality of managed
health care services provided to members through plans authorized
pursuant to section seven of this article;
(4) To meet jointly with the advisory board to coordinate
the collection and analysis of information and to consider and
review recommendations of the advisory board;
(5) To request and obtain any and all information,
documents, records, publications, books, data and any other
materials from the agency and the financial board for the
purposes of carrying out its duties and responsibilities pursuant
to this section.
(e) The commission shall make annual reports to the
Legislature of its findings, conclusions and recommendations from
the results of all investigations, studies and reviews of the
commission pursuant to this section, together with drafts of any
proposed legislation necessary to effectuate its recommendations.
The reports may specify in what manner any practice, policy or
procedure of the agency or the finance board may or should be
modified to ensure compliance with the purpose and intent of this
article.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to create a Legislative
Oversight Commission on Public Employees Insurance Accountability; set forth commission membership of six senators
and six House of Delegate members and payment of their
compensation and expenses; powers, duties and responsibilities of
the commission; require reports to the Legislature of their
findings and recommendations.
This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.