WHEELING — WVU Medicine Wheeling Hospital will continue to serve patients who use West Virginia’s public employee health insurance system.

After Gov. Jim Justice signed a bill that would keep PEIA solvent – and change the Medicare reimbursement rates to state hospitals — WVU Medicine announced that move would allow Wheeling Hospital to keep serving PEIA patients.

“We are grateful to Governor Justice and the West Virginia Legislature for stabilizing and improving PEIA,” a WVU Medicine spokesperson said Friday. “Because of their work, Wheeling Hospital will be able to continue participating with PEIA.”

WVU Medicine officials said in January that, if PEIA reimbursement rates weren’t corrected in the 2023 legislative session, Wheeling Hospital no longer would accept PEIA patients for inpatient care. The health system said that the old reimbursement rates were not sufficient, and Wheeling Hospital was the most adversely affected by that.

In signing SB 268 Friday, Justice called it close to a permanent fix for PEIA, which was slated to see a $424 million deficit by 2027. The bill returns PEIA to an 80/20 employer-employee match beginning in July for in-state medical care and 70/30 for out-of-state medical care for non-contiguous out-of-state counties.

State employees could see their premiums increase by approximately 26%, though Justice said state employees earning less than $133,000 annually would still see a net increase in pay when factoring their $2,300 pay raise and the tax cut/rebate benefits.

“(The pay raises) backstop the increase in premiums in everything to PEIA,” Justice said. “With anybody … that their pay is less than $133,000 a year will end up with a pay raise and their PEIA covered. To me, it’s a major step in the right direction. Maybe we could have continued to backstop it and everything with just pulling out some surplus dollars and keep kicking the can down the road, but this doesn’t kick the can down the road.”

SB 268 also sets the reimbursement rate for all healthcare providers at a minimum level of 110% of what Medicare reimburses providers, sets numerous requirements for members of the PEIA Finance Board, requires a five-year analysis of potential future costs to the program and an actuarial study of the plans offered by PEIA.

The bill would change the price of the plan for spouses of PEIA plan participants who have access to health insurance coverage to the actuarial value of the PEIA plan, which could cost plan participants an additional $147 per month during the next plan period according to PEIA.

According to figures from the Senate Finance Committee, SB 268 would provide $76 million in savings in year one and more than $500 million in savings by 2027. Speaking after the bill signing ceremony, Justice said he believes the bill will keep PEIA solvent but encouraged future governors and lawmakers to avoid raising premiums in the future.

“I would tell anybody going forward that if this does not completely fix PEIA, don’t go back to the well and just raise premiums. Don’t do that,” Justice said. “If we continue to do as we’re doing and everything, you may have to take a little bit of surplus dollars to underwrite it … If you have to do it, do that. These people work very hard.”

Justice also said that the PEIA bill was part of the package of getting members of the House and the Senate on board a comprehensive tax reform plan and pay raises for public employees.

“The headwind I was running upon was, we probably wouldn’t have gotten the pay raise across the finish line,” Justice said.