SB457 H H&HR AM D1

    The House Committee on Health and Human Resources moves to amend the bill on page eight, section five, line three, following the word “accounts, by inserting a period and striking the remainder of the subsection;

    On page nine, section six, line four, following the word “state” and the period by inserting the following: The vice chancellor shall work closely with an advisory panel created in subsection (b)of this section.”

    On page nine, section six, line nine, following the letter (b) by inserting the following:

(b)(1) The advisory panel, which shall be appointed by the governor after consulting with the vice chancellor, shall consist of two community members representing rural communities, five members who are rural health care providers, two of whom shall be representatives of rural health care facilities selected from lists submitted by associations interested or involved in the provision of rural health care, two of whom shall be physicians engaged in the private practice of rural medicine, and one of whom shall be an advanced nurse practitioner or a nurse midwife with experience in rural health care delivery; the dean or designee from each of the participating health sciences schools, ex officio; one representative from private colleges; one representative from the state college system; the commissioner of public health, ex officio; and the director of the office of community health systems and health promotions, ex officioa representative from the Senate and the House appointed by the chairs of the Legislative Oversight Commission on Education Accountability and a member fro the Senate and the House appointed by the Chairs of the Legislative Oversight Commission on Health and Human Resource Accountability, all serving as ex officio members.. Except for the ex officio members, members of the panel shall serve for staggered three-year terms: Provided, That one third of the initial appointments shall be designated by the governor for one-year terms and one third of the initial appointments shall be designated by the governor for two-year terms.

Members of the advisory panel shall be reimbursed for the cost of reasonable and necessary expenses actually incurred in the performance of their duties: Provided, That members of the panel who are employed by the state of West Virginia shall not be reimbursed for their expenses under the provisions of this section.

(2) The functions and duties of the panel are to recommend policies and procedures to the vice chancellor related to the rural health initiative and to oversee and coordinate implementation of those policies and procedures.

(e) The advisory panel shall provide an ongoing evaluation of the rural health initiative and shall make the reports required under this article.

(3) For purposes of addressing primary care physician and other health care provider recruitment and retention efforts, there is hereby created within the rural health advisory panel a committee on recruitment and retention, which shall include member representatives of health care providers, consumers, members of the advisory panel and the health sciences schools. All member representatives shall be selected by the vice chancellor for health sciences in conjunction with the director of the office of community health systems and health promotion. All operational costs of the recruitment and retention committee shall be paid by the rural health advisory panel.

(A) The recruitment and retention committee and the vice chancellor of health sciences, in conjunction with the director of the office of community health systems and health promotion , may facilitate statewide and interagency coordination of the recruitment and retention of primary care physicians and other health care related providers to serve the state of West Virginia.

(B) Such responsibility for and coordination of primary care physician recruitment and retention efforts shall include, but are not limited to, working cooperatively with health care agencies and economic development agencies of the state.

(C) As part of its duties, the recruitment and retention committee shall provide by the thirty-first day of December,2012 and no less than annually thereafter, a report of its findings to the legislative oversight commission on education accountability and the legislative oversight commission on health and human resources accountability. The report shall address the success of the state’s primary care physician and other health care related provider recruitment and retention efforts, recommendations for improvements in all related areas of recruitment and retention efforts, recommendations for statutory or regulatory changes, as well as any other matters which the recruitment and retention committee or the rural health advisory panel deems relevant to carrying out the intent of this article.” and relettering the remaining subsections.