WEST virginia legislature
2025 regular session
Committee Substitute
for
Senate Bill 86
By Senator Rucker
[Reported March 5, 2025, from the Committee on Health and Human Resources]
A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by adding a new section, designated §18B-1B-14, relating to creating the Unmatched Medical Graduate Advisory Council; establishing findings and purpose; establishing membership of advisory council; providing for selection of chair and vice chair; establishing quorum; setting forth subjects to be addressed by advisory council in reporting; requiring reporting of findings and recommendations by December 31, 2025; and providing that administrative support be provided by the Higher Education Policy Commission.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
(a)(1) Legislative findings. — The Legislature hereby finds that the State of West Virginia has traditionally faced shortages of medical professionals, especially in its most rural areas.
(2) The Legislature also finds that the entire country is facing a shortage of physicians that is expected to grow in the next 10 years, which could further inhibit West Virginians’ access to medical care.
(3) Despite a shortage of physicians throughout the country, the number of medical school graduate applicants for residency programs has steadily grown in the last 20 years. The number of residency programs in the country has not grown adequately to keep pace with the number of new graduates, and there is a significant number of medical school graduates who remain unmatched with a residency program each year, which can stymie their progress of fulfilling the requirements to practice medicine.
(4) The Legislature believes that it is in the best interests of the citizens of the state to work cooperatively to attempt to address this issue either through ensuring more residency programs are available to medical school graduates, or other means to assist unmatched medical school graduates to enable them to contribute to the health care system in a meaningful way while working towards fulfilling their residency requirements.
(b) Purpose. — There is hereby created the Unmatched Medical Graduate Advisory Council to examine the issue of medical school graduates who are not placed in a residency program, and to provide recommendations regarding how to assist these individuals to continue their medical training while also filling a critical need for medical professionals within the state.
(c)(1) Composition. — The Unmatched Medical Graduate Advisory Council shall consist of the following voting members:
(A) The Chancellor for Higher Education, or his or her designee;
(B) The President of the West Virginia Board of Medicine, or his or her designee;
(C) The President of the West Virginia Board of Osteopathic Medicine, or his or her designee;
(D) The Dean of the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine at Marshall University, or his or her designee;
(E) The Chancellor of Health Sciences at the West Virginia University School of Medicine, or his or her designee;
(F) The President of the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine, or his or her designee; and
(G) The Chairperson of the Governing Board of Directors for Mountain State Osteopathic Postdoctoral Training Institute, or his or her designee.
(2) The members of the advisory council shall select the chairperson and vice chairperson.
(3) The council shall hold its first meeting no later than 30 days after the effective date of this section. For purposes of the first meeting, the Chancellor for Higher Education shall call and preside over the first meeting until a chair is selected. Thereafter, the council shall meet at the call of the chairperson at least quarterly. Additional meetings shall be by the call of the chair or by a majority of the members of the council.
(4) A majority of the voting members shall constitute a quorum for the conduct of meetings.
(d)(1) Reporting. — The advisory council shall create a report of its findings and recommendations that includes the following:
(A) Allowing medical school graduates who do not match to a residency program to intern with a licensed physician;
(B) Exploring ways to counter the funding shortage from the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services for hospital residency programs, including raising the cap, requiring hospitals to pay more for residents’ cost, and allowing doctors to contribute toward the cost of their residency training; and
(C) Any other recommendations determined by the advisory council to be viable options to alleviating this nationwide issue.
(2) The advisory council shall prepare a report of its findings and recommendations on or before December 31, 2025.
(e)(1) Administrative support. — The Higher Education Policy Commission shall provide the advisory council with administrative support reasonably necessary for the advisory council to carry out its duties. In addition, the Chancellor of Higher Education may make and sign any agreements and may do and perform any acts that are necessary to receive, accept, or secure gifts, grants, and bequests of funds in the name of the advisory council.
(2) The Higher Education Policy Commission shall finance any costs of the advisory council with existing funds.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to create the Unmatched Medical Graduate Advisory Council to create a report with recommendations on alleviating the issues surrounding unmatched medical school graduates by December 31, 2025. Additionally, it requires the Higher Education Policy Commission to provide administrative support to the advisory council.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from a heading or the present law and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.