WEST VIRGINIA LEGISLATURE
2025 REGULAR SESSION
Introduced
House Bill 3160
By Delegates Flanigan and Eldridge
[Introduced March 05, 2025; referred to the Committee on Health and Human Resources]
A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by adding a new section, designated §16-5C-1, relating to medical directors for nursing homes; establishing certification requirements; providing definitions; providing exemptions; and providing time frames.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
## ARTICLE 5C. NURSING HOMES.
##
(a) (1) A skilled nursing facility shall not contract with a person as a medical director if the person is not, or will not be within five years of the date of initial hire as the facility’s medical director, certified by the American Board of Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine, or an equivalent organization as determined by the Department of Health, as a Certified Medical Director, except as set forth in subdivision (2) of this section.
(2) A medical director already employed in a skilled nursing facility as of January 1, 2025, shall have until January 1, 2030, to become a Certified Medical Director pursuant to this section.
(b) A skilled nursing facility shall submit to the Department of Health whether its medical director is certified as a Certified Medical Director according to the requirements established by the American Board of Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine or an equivalent organization as determined by the Department of Health and if the medical director is not yet certified, the expected date of certification.
(c) A skilled nursing facility shall notify the Department of Health of any changes in its medical director's certification by providing proof of certification or progress toward certification for its medical director within 10 calendar days of those changes.
(d) All skilled nursing facilities shall report to the Department of Health the name and certification status of the facility’s medical director and proof of certification or progress toward certification for its medical director no later than June 30, 2026.
(e) (1) Subdivisions (a) through (d), inclusive, do not apply to a skilled nursing facility that is operated as a distinct part of an acute care hospital.
(2) A skilled nursing facility that is operated as a distinct part of an acute care hospital shall designate a qualified physician as a medical director who is responsible for standards, coordination, surveillance, and planning for improvement of medical care in the facility.
(3) For purposes of paragraph (2), "qualified physician" means either of the following:
(A) The physician is certified, or pursuing certification, by the American Board of Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine as a Certified Medical Director.
(B) The physician is board certified in a medical specialty consistent with the type of care provided in the skilled nursing facility, including, but not limited to, physical medicine and rehabilitation or pulmonology, and whose role as the medical director of the skilled nursing facility has been reviewed and approved by the hospital’s leadership.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to require medical directors of nursing homes to be certified.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from a heading or the present law and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.