Senate Bill No. 756
(By Senators Wooton, Ball, Bowman, Dittmar, Hunter, Oliverio,
Ross, Snyder, White, Buckalew, Deem and Kimble )
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[Originating in the Committee on the Judiciary;
reported March 3, l998.]
A BILL to amend article one, chapter twenty-five of the code of
West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated section
eight, relating to authorizing the commissioner of the
division of corrections to assess inmates in state penal and
correctional facilities reasonable charges for health care and
treatment services provided to them by the state.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That article one, chapter twenty-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 eight,
to read as follows:
ARTICLE 1. ORGANIZATION AND INSTITUTIONS.
§25-1-8. Charges assessed against inmates for services provided
by state.
(a) The commissioner is authorized to assess inmates serving a sentence in any state penal or correctional facility reasonable
charges for health care and treatment services provided to them by
the state. The charges assessed against an inmate may be deducted
directly from the inmate's trustee account without the inmate's
consent. The inmate shall be notified of the amount deducted and
the charges to which it has been applied.
(b) As used in this section, a "reasonable charge" may not
exceed the sum of five dollars for any billable service. Inmates
shall be notified of the fee schedule, billable services and exempt
services. Services initiated by the inmate shall be assessed a
fee, except that no charge may be assessed for: (1) A specific
health care service required under the law of this state,
including, by way of illustration, tuberculin testing; (2) an
emergency service following a traumatic injury other than a self- induced injury, or necessary to prevent death or severe or
permanent disability; (3) diagnosis and treatment of communicable
diseases, including, by way of illustration, tuberculosis or
hepatitis; (4) treatment of diagnosed severe mental illness; (5)
treatment of specific chronic conditions identified by the
commissioner, including heart disease and diabetes; (6) staff- initiated care, including follow-up and referral visits; (7)
preventive services that the commissioner determines are to be
provided or made available to all inmates, including services
related to disease prevention and promotion of proper health habits; or (8) such other services as may be exempted by rule of
the commissioner. No inmate may be denied any necessary billable
medical service because of inability to pay the charge.
(c) Each inmate shall be afforded an opportunity at least
quarterly to review all deposits into, withdrawals from and balance
remaining in the inmate's trustee account during the preceding
three months.
(d) The commissioner shall promulgate interpretive rules
implementing this section pursuant to article three, chapter
twenty-nine-a of this code prior to making any assessment under
this section. The rules may establish the fee schedule and list of
billable services and further define services to be exempted.
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(NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to allow the Commissioner
of the Division of Corrections to assess inmates in state penal and
correctional facilities reasonable charges for health care and
treatment services provided to them by the state.
This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.)
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