(Photo by RealWV)
By Stephen Baldwin, RealWV, www.therealwv.com
A week after Charleston Area Medical Center (CAMC) announced that they planned to stop delivering babies at Greenbrier Valley Medical Center (GVMC), Governor Patrick Morrisey invited the public to a listening session in Lewisburg to address rural health care. Approximately 150 concerned citizens attended the event on Friday, held at the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine.
As folks talked at tables before Morrisey arrived, everyone wondered if he would address what has been has been the talk of the town all week. They didn’t have to wait long, as Morrisey made his feelings known quickly.
“I don’t like it,” Morrisey said at the beginning of his remarks, as two tables of CAMC executives sat in the front row. “I read about it. I didn’t like that.”
Morrisey described learning about the decision to cease labor and delivery in one of the state’s most promising regions via news reports rather than being told by CAMC directly. He said his team has been knee-deep in applying for a Rural Health Transformation program, which will bring the state at least $500 million over the next five years from the federal government and aims to bring new providers to the state.
The program was added to the federal “Big Beautiful Bill” after it cut around $1 trillion from Medicaid over the next decade. The idea was to supplement health care in certain areas, including rural states who would be impacted by the cuts.
“It’s the first time congress has put money upfront to deal with health care outcomes and getting out in front of the problem,” Morrisey said. “We asked for public input and we received it. We had a number of stakeholder meetings.”
Morrisey said the application has been submitted and will be acted upon by the end of the year. He believes it could be transformative for the state’s health outcomes.
“So why did I come here today?” Morrisey continued. “You guys got some tough news. We need OBGYN services here.”
He said of the decision to cut labor and delivery at GVMC, “It’s the opposite of what we’ve been trying to do. I want this to be a thriving community which means access to the services you need.”
Concerned citizens speak
Linda Ball of Lewisburg asked Morrisey, “I don’t understand why this is happening to our local hospital. I can’t imagine not having pediatric inpatient care. Is there anything we can do to stop this from happening? Is this the way to keep CAMC’s doors open? Is it profit-margin related?”
Morrisey replied, “I was as surprised as anyone.”
Dr. Arnold Hassan was next to the microphone, and he said, “It comes down to money. You’re gonna hear CAMC talk about the need to get sufficient income to maintain services. How can you and the legislature address that?”
“You’re right,” Morrisey conceded. “Hospitals need to make sure they have adequate reimbursement rates. If you don’t get paid enough, you’re not gonna survive. The legislature boosted the payment rates on PEIA to 110% and (gave) a boost in Medicaid payments. You could argue that may change under the (Big Beautiful Bill). But it changes over time. They’re up now from where they were two years ago.”
The audience then heard from Dr. Joseph Mouchizadeh, who serves in leadership for CAMC at GVMC, and sees the reimbursement issue differently than Morrisey. “Every single year they (elected policymakers) are cutting Medicare reimbursement, Medicaid reimbursement, reimbursements to doctors, and to hospitals. On other hand, every year the expenses go up and up and up. The Big Beautiful Bill and tariffs are going to raise our prices of everything coming in.”
“People see bills from the hospital and think they are making massive amounts of money,” Mouchizadeh continued. “Any business cannot survive if the money coming in is less than the money going out. Nobody at CAMC or GVMC wants to get rid of obstetrics, but it’s a matter of do we survive as a hospital or do we not?”
Dr. Drema Hill, Vice President and Chief Operations Officer at WVSOM and a member of the state’s Health Care Authority, served as moderator of the listening session. She took the opportunity to try and bring Morrisey and CAMC together, saying, “If we can get a commitment that y’all can get together, if we could leave here today knowing our hospital and our governor are going to get together, that would make us all feel a lot better.”
Morrisey said he would be happy to, before again reiterating that he was not consulted about the decision before it was announced and was unhappy about it.
Several young mothers also spoke, including local Physician’s Assistant Anna Stout Tuckwiller, who said, “I would not have been able to stay here and work in health care had I not had acxess to OBGYN services…Our health care system is broken…We all feel uninspired, compelled to leave, because it feels broken for the providers and feels bad to go in each day to work. I think we need to look at bigger overhauls to the system.”
After a loud applause from the audience, Morrisey said, “She’s right. There are problems. We also shouldn’t forecast our destiny…There is an opportunity for us to get healthier.”
Why is CAMC stopping deliveries?
After Gov. Morrisey left, Dr. Hill invited CAMC executives forward to share their side of the story. Why did they make this decision?
“This is a crisis that’s bigger than Lewisburg,” said Jeff Goode, Senior Vice President of Vandalie. “Half of the OB beds have gone away since 2006 in West Virginia.”
“Despite multiple candidates (for posted OBGYN positions) that have come through with very fair wage offerings to attract and keep them here, it hasn’t happened,” Goode said. “Some of the women’s health issues, vaccine issues, that makes it hard. Also it’s hard to be on call every other night.”
Dr. Mouchizadeh went into further detail, offering three reasons they cannot hire OBGYNs, saying, “They don’t want to come here because you can’t have one, you need three, a team; because of the malpractice situation; and the reputation of West Virginia. We have to work to overcome that reputation.”
“The OB citation isn’t complicated,” Goode added. “We’re just not gonna have a provider after a certain point in time (when the current provider, Dr. Perkins, retires).”
Becky Harless, Vice President, said that GVMC would continue to add services as they have been doing. “We’ve got a dermatologist coming. We hope to be able to offer chemotherapy by the end of the year. We’re gonna continue to add services.”
Is the decision to remove labor and delivery set in stone? Goode seemed open to alternative ideas from the community, saying he would be happy to work with Dr. Hill to set up a community task force to address the issue.
“I’m really interested to hear from the governor,” Harless concluded. “Drema put us on the spot here. If he’s got some opportunities then we’re definitely interested.”
Stay tuned to RealWV for additional stories on rural maternity care, the reorganization of GVMC to a Critical Access Hospital designation, and more. This is a complex, developing story that will be reported in pieces in the coming weeks.
