Chapter 16, Chapter 16

(a) All moneys collected shall be deposited in a special revenue account in the state Treasury known as the West Virginia Health Information Network Account. Expenditures from the fund shall be for the purposes set forth in this article and are not authorized from collections but…

The authority is hereby granted, has and may exercise all the powers necessary or appropriate to carry out and effectuate the purposes of this article, including the following: (a) To sue and be sued in its own name and plead and be impleaded in its own name; to have a seal and a…

(a) The powers, duties, and responsibilities of the commission shall include the following: (1) Make a continuing investigation, study and review of the practices, policies and procedures of the health care and social services agencies in this state; (2) Make a continuing investi…

Coordination of benefits is permitted between two or more insurance contracts or employee benefit plans and shall be included for benefits from the Public Employees Insurance Agency and, as appropriate, from the state Medicaid program, the workers' compensation fund and the Divis…

The network is not a health care provider and is not subject to claims under article seven-b, chapter fifty-five of this code. No person who participates or subscribes to the services or information provided by the network is liable in any action for damages or costs of any natur…

(a) The "West Virginia Health Care Authority" is continued. Any references in this code to the West Virginia Health Care Cost Review Authority means the West Virginia Health Care Authority. (b) There is created a board of review to serve as the adjudicatory body of the authority …

(a) The Secretary shall appoint an executive director of the authority to supervise and direct the fiscal and administrative matters of the authority. This person shall be qualified by training and experience to direct the operations of the authority. The executive director is in…

(a) All persons providing information and data to the network shall retain a property right in that information or data, but grant to the other participants or subscribers a nonexclusive license to retrieve and use that information or data in accordance with the Health Insurance …

(a) Actions of the departments and divisions of the state, or by officers, administrators, employees, or other agents thereof, shall be exempt from antitrust action as provided in section five, article eighteen, chapter forty-seven of this code. Any actions of health care provide…

(a) For purposes of carrying out its duties, the commission is hereby empowered and authorized to examine witnesses and to subpoena such persons and books, records, documents, papers or any other tangible things as it believes should be examined to make a complete investigation. …

The authority may lend money to hospitals for the acquisition, construction, improvement or alteration of hospital facilities. A hospital loan shall not be made unless the authority is reasonably satisfied that there will be made available to the hospital from the hospital loan a…

The Secretary of the Department of Human Services shall promulgate rules to carry out the provisions of this article. The policies and procedures of the rate schedule process setting forth the methodology for determination of rates, payments, and schedules are subject to the legi…

(a) The commission shall submit annual reports to the Legislature, as required by §16-29E-5 of this code, which such reports shall describe and evaluate in a concise manner: (1) The major activities of the several health and human resources agencies for the fiscal year immediatel…

(a) The authority periodically may issue its negotiable bonds and notes in a principal amount which, in the opinion of the authority, shall be necessary to provide sufficient funds for the making of hospital loans, including temporary loans during the construction of hospital fac…

(a) The Health Care Authority is hereby authorized to propose rules under and pursuant to article twenty-nine-b of this chapter to carry out the objectives of this article. (b) To resolve disputes under this article or the rules proposed herein among participants, subscribers or …

In the discretion of the authority, any bonds, including refunding bonds, or notes issued by the authority may be secured by a trust agreement between the authority and a corporate trustee, which trustee may be any trust company within or without the state. Any such trust agreeme…

The authority may: (1) In cooperation with the secretary, propose legislative rules in accordance with §29A-3-1 et seq. of this code; (2) Hold public hearings, conduct investigations, and require the filing of information relating to matters affecting the costs of health care ser…

(a) The Health Care Authority shall ensure that patient specific protected health information be disclosed only in accordance with the patient's authorization or best interest to those having a need to know, in compliance with state confidentiality laws and the Health Insurance P…

The Secretary of the Department of Human Services may assess a civil penalty for violation of this article. In addition to the assessments the secretary may remove the health care provider from any list of providers for whose services a department or division may pay. Upon the se…

The departments each shall prepare an annual performance plan covering each program activity set forth in their respective budgets, which each shall include in an annual performance report. The plans shall: (1) Establish performance goals to define the level of performance to be …

If, for any reason, any part of this article or the application thereof to any person or circumstances is held unconstitutional or invalid, such unconstitutionality or invalidity shall not affect the remaining parts or their application to any other person or circumstance, and to…

All moneys, properties and assets acquired by the authority, whether as proceeds from the sale of bonds or notes or as revenues or otherwise, shall be held by it in trust for the purposes of carrying out its powers and duties and shall be used and reused in accordance with the pu…

The article may be cited as the "Do Not Resuscitate Act."

This article may be cited as the "West Virginia Health Care Decisions Act."

(a) No policy of life insurance shall be legally impaired, modified, or invalidated in any manner by the issuance of a do not resuscitate order notwithstanding any term of the policy to the contrary. (b) A person may not prohibit or require the issuance of a do not resuscitate or…

(a) A physician, licensed health care professional, health care facility, or employee thereof shall not be subject to criminal or civil liability for good-faith compliance with or reliance upon the directions of the medical power of attorney representative in accordance with this…

Nothing in this article shall be deemed to protect a provider from liability for the provider's own negligence in the performance of the provider's duties or in carrying out any instructions of the medical power of attorney representative or surrogate. Nothing in this article sha…

If a person with a do-not-resuscitate order is transferred from one health care facility to another health care facility, the health care facility initiating the transfer shall communicate the existence of a do-not-resuscitate order to the receiving facility prior to the transfer…

(a) Nothing in this article shall impair or supersede any legal right or legal responsibility which any person may have to effect the withholding of cardiopulmonary resuscitation in any lawful manner. In such respect, the provisions of this article are cumulative. (b) Nothing in …

(a) Health care facilities. -– Nothing in this article shall be construed to require a health care facility to change published policy of the health care facility that is expressly based on sincerely held religious beliefs or sincerely held moral convictions central to the facili…

(a) The Secretary of the Department of Health shall implement the statewide distribution of do-not-resuscitate forms as described in section six of this article. (b) Do-not-resuscitate identification as set forth in this article may consist of either a medical condition bracelet …

(a) If a person admitted to any health care facility in this state has been determined to lack capacity and that person’s medical power of attorney has been declared to be in effect or a surrogate decisionmaker has been selected for that person all in accordance with the requirem…

The withholding of cardiopulmonary resuscitation from a person in accordance with the provisions of this article does not, for any purpose, constitute suicide or murder. The withholding of cardiopulmonary resuscitation from a person in accordance with the provisions of this artic…

(a) No policy of life insurance or annuity or other type of contract that is conditioned on the life or death of the person, shall be legally impaired or invalidated in any manner by the withholding or withdrawal of life-prolonging intervention from a person in accordance with th…

It is the intention of the Legislature to recognize that existence of do not resuscitate identification correctly expresses the will of any person who bears it and that foreign courts recognize this expression and give full faith and credit to do not resuscitate identification.

The withholding or withdrawal of life-prolonging intervention from a person in accordance with the decision of a medical power of attorney representative or surrogate decision maker made pursuant to the provisions of this article does not, for any purpose, constitute assisted sui…

(a) The provisions of this article are cumulative with existing law regarding an individual's right to consent to or refuse medical treatment. The provisions of this article shall not impair any existing rights or responsibilities that a health care provider, a person, including …

The provisions of this article are severable and if any provision, section or part thereof shall be held invalid, unconstitutional or inapplicable to any person or circumstance, such invalidity, unconstitutionality or inapplicability shall not affect or impair any other remaining…

Nothing in this article shall be construed to abrogate the common law doctrine of medical necessity.

(a) A living will or medical power of attorney may be revoked at any time only by the principal or at the express direction of the principal by any of the following methods: (1) By being destroyed by the principal or by some person in the principal's presence and at his or her di…

(a) An attending physician who has been notified of the existence of a living will or combined medical power of attorney and living will executed under this article, without delay after the diagnosis of a terminal condition of the principal, shall take steps as needed to provide …

(a) Purpose. -- The purpose of this article is to ensure that a patient's right to self-determination in health care decisions be communicated and protected; and to set forth a process for private health care decision making for incapacitated adults, including the use of advance …

(a) Findings. -- The Legislature hereby finds that: (1) Although cardiopulmonary resuscitation has saved the lives of persons experiencing sudden, unexpected death, present medical data indicates that cardiopulmonary resuscitation rarely leads to prolonged survival in persons wit…

A living will executed prior to the effective date of this article and which expressly provides for the withholding or withdrawal of life-prolonging intervention or for the termination of life-sustaining procedures in substantial compliance with the provisions of section four of …

A living will medical power of attorney, mental health advance directive, medical orders (portable orders for scope of treatment or do-not-resuscitate card), or similar advance directive or medical orders form executed in another state is validly executed for the purposes of this…

(a) A health care provider or health care facility without actual knowledge of a living will or medical power of attorney completed by a person is not civilly or criminally liable for failing to act in accordance with the directives of a principal's living will or medical power o…

Under no circumstances may the presence or absence of a living will or medical power of attorney be used to deny a person admission to a health care facility.

For persons with psychiatric mental illness, intellectual disability or addiction who have been determined by their attending physician or a qualified physician to be incapacitated, a second opinion by a qualified physician or qualified psychologist that the person is incapacitat…

(a) The Secretary of the Department of Health shall implement the statewide distribution of standardized portable orders for scope of treatment (POST) forms. (b) Portable orders for scope of treatment forms shall be standardized forms used to reflect orders by a qualified physici…

As used in this article, unless the context clearly requires otherwise, the following definitions apply: (a) "Attending physician" means the physician selected by or assigned to the person who has primary responsibility for treatment or care of the person and who is a licensed ph…