Introduced Version
Senate Bill 655 History
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Key: Green = existing Code. Red = new code to be enacted
Senate Bill No. 655
(By Senators Wells, Hunter, White, Minard, Bailey, Love, Barnes,
Green, Sypolt and Kessler)
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[Introduced February 13, 2008; referred to the Committee on
Banking and Insurance; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by
adding thereto a new section, designated §5-16-7f, relating to
public employees insurance coverage for maternity and
post-delivery care to dependants of state employees who become
pregnant.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended
by adding thereto a new section, designated §5-16-7f, to read as
follows:
ARTICLE 16. WEST VIRGINIA PUBLIC EMPLOYEES INSURANCE ACT.
§5-16-7f. Required coverage for maternity and post-delivery care
for dependents of an employee.
(a) All group hospital and surgical insurance plan or plans or
any group major medical insurance plan or plans for eligible
employees offered pursuant to this article shall include:
(1) Maternity benefits for any dependent of an employee who
becomes pregnant. This includes coverage for inpatient care in a duly licensed health care facility for the dependant mother and her
newly born infant for the time which the attending physician
considers medically necessary for the dependant mother or her newly
born child. A plan may not deny payment for a dependant mother or
her newborn child prior to forty-eight hours following a vaginal
delivery, or prior to ninety-six hours following a caesarean
section delivery, if the attending physician considers discharge
medically inappropriate; and
(2) Post-delivery care to a dependant mother and her newly
born child in the home, coverage for inpatient care following
childbirth as provided in subdivision (1) of this subsection if
inpatient care is determined to be medically necessary by the
attending physician. Those plans may also include, but are not
limited to, medicines, medical equipment, prosthetic appliances,
and any other inpatient and outpatient services and expenses
considered appropriate and desirable by the agency. Following
medically necessary post-delivery care the dependant mother and her
newly born child shall immediately transition to the Right from the
Start Program operated by the Bureau for Public Health.
(b) For purposes of this section a dependant or dependant
mother is an unemancipated minor residing with the employee who is
neither married nor who has been emancipated pursuant to applicable
federal law or as provided by section twenty-seven, article seven,
chapter forty-nine of this code.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to provide maternity benefit coverage and post-delivery care for pregnant dependants of state
employees.
This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.