West Virginia Health Care Law

Having worked imbedded within the medical field for more than a decade before joining the health group at Bowles Rice, I can tell you that most medical practices do not know what to do when they receive a subpoena from a lawyer’s office.  Most of the time, the initial reaction will be to quickly comply in order to avoid initiating a confrontational situation with the lawyer.  However, there are many occasions in which simply answering the subpoena is the wrong answer, and it can get the health care provider in a lot of trouble.  As such, it is important that the health care provider, when served ...

One of the more interesting legal landscapes to monitor within West Virginia will develop over the next few months as the Mountain State approaches its July 1 kickoff of the Medical Cannabis Act (which is discussed in more detail here).  The West Virginia Medical Cannabis Act comes at a particularly fascinating time for employment lawyers, as it arrives almost two years to the day after the effective date of the West Virginia Safer Workplace Act on July 7, 2017.  The Safer Workplace Act was heralded by Governor Jim Justice for its dramatic (and, from an employer’s perspective, largely ...

As most of us in West Virginia look forward to the arrival of summer, employers throughout the Mountain State may be feeling a little bit of trepidation.  After more than two years in the waiting, the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) Bureau for Public Health can begin issuing the patient and caregiver identification cards necessary to obtain medical cannabis on July 1, 2019. 

As February came to an end, a bill that sought to impose work or other work-like requirements on Medicaid recipients died in the West Virginia House of Delegates.  President Donald Trump has been vocal in his support of states tying the receipt of Medicaid benefits to work, and our own GOP-led House of Delegates had hoped to implement new work requirements in the Mountain State this session.