The House Committee on Health and Human Resources convened at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 12 in 215-E to consider five bills, one of which being a bill that would permit the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to increase salary schedules for state DHHR employees.
The bill, an originating bill in the Health and Human Resources Committee, would permit the Secretary of DHHR to increase salary schedules in needed fields, such as Child Protective Services workers, nurses, dieticians, and other underserved fields. They would be permitted to increase the classification schedule to align with the market rate to better compete with the private sector.
“Bureaucracy is still slow,” said DHHR Secretary Bill Crouch. “We need to move quicker on these classifications.”
Crouch stated to the committee that upwards of $18 million has been paid to staffing agencies in order to find qualified DHHR employees, and that passage of the bill would alleviate some of that pressure. The Department of Health and Human Resources currently has 310 employees.
There was some concern in the committee regarding the amount of power the bill would give to the Secretary of the department if passed.
Delegate Andrew Robinson, D- Kanawha, spoke against the originating bill.
“This would give the department a sweeping grab of authority, and too much power,” said Robinson.
Delegate Matthew Rohrbach, R- Cabell, and Jordan Hill, R-Cabell proposed an amendment that passed. The amendment made some technical clean-up to the language that clarified the bill would apply to the entire Department.
After a lengthy discussion, the originating bill was voted to be advanced to the House floor with the recommendation that it pass.
The committee also had a consideration of House Bill 2849, a bill that clarified the process in which pharmacy technicians are registered in the state of West Virginia.
The bill specifically defines the scope in which a nuclear pharmacy technician can operate. It defines the nuclear pharmacy technician’s certificate and specifies the duties each category of pharmacy technician is permitted to perform under supervision of a licensed pharmacist.
House Bill 2849 was also advanced to the House floor with the recommendation that it pass.
Another bill that was advanced to the House floor was House Bill 2768, a bill that would make several clarifications to the Opioid Reduction Act that was passed by the WV Legislature last year.
The House Health and Human Resources also had a consideration of House Bill 2947. This bill would permit a physician practicing telemedicine to prescribe or order a Schedule II medication over a telemedicinal forum for immediate administration in the hospital.
This bill was approved by the committee, and now moves to the House Committee on the Judiciary for a second reference.
House Bill 2100, a bill that would establish a pilot program encourage WV schools to develop school-based mental health services in lieu of disciplinary, also passed through the committee on this day.
This bill uses existing mental and behavioral services in schools and encourages the utilization of these programs in a disciplinary fashion. House Bill 2100 would require the WV Department of Education to develop a pilot program to provide mental and behavioral health services as an alternative to suspending students for disruptive behaviors.
The bill passed through the committee unanimously, and was advanced to the House Education Committee for a second reference.
