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More Insurance Benefits Must Get to Patients

Local Columns

I have practiced orthodontics in Wheeling for 45 years. I have sat across from parents who budget carefully for braces, cleanings, and routine dental care. I have watched families try to stretch insurance benefits that look much the same as they did nearly half a century ago. Now, we have numbers that confirm what many of us have seen firsthand. The West Virginia Office of the Insurance Commissioner recently released updated dental loss ratio data. On average, only 43 cents of every premium dollar in our state goes toward patient care. Think about that for a moment. Families and ...

Improving Heart Health

Editorials

All that technology we drag around with us all the time is giving researchers data that provides insight into everything from our travel to fitness. If you have a habit of checking your health and fitness data through a smart watch and app, you are not the only one keeping track. Data from participants, provided by Apple, helped researchers produce the “Apple Heart and Movement Study.” So how are we all doing? Well, in Ohio, not so great. In West Virginia, even worse. In Ohio, we get less exercise and have higher average resting heart rates than the national average — though we ...

Douglas’ Legacy Will Still Live On

Editorials

There are so many ways to describe what Bobby Douglas meant to the world of amateur wrestling. Legend. Icon. Pioneer. Champion. All are true. So it’s important to understand just what the amateur wrestling world and the Ohio Valley lost with Douglas passing at the age of 83. Here’s a person who hitchhiked to West Liberty for classes and slept in a dorm attic because he couldn’t afford room and board, who became an NAIA national champion and NCAA national runner-up before becoming the first Black Olympic wrestler, an Olympic team captain, a collegiate coach who won an NCAA ...

Vape Bill Goes Off The Rails

Editorials

Del. David McCormick, R-Monongalia, chose a soft target with his Vape Safety Act — House Bill 5437 — perhaps hoping state House of Delegates committee members would not look too carefully at the language he wielded or be affected by the dog whistles he was blowing. First, it is important to acknowledge the vape shop industry SHOULD be better regulated in this state. McCormick knows most elected officials will understand that. So, if one does not get past the basics of the bill, it might seem like something that should earn a stamp of approval. HB 5437 would require all specialty ...

Communication Needed

Editorials

The federal government last week announced a $33 billion natural gas plant that it said would be the “largest natural gas generation project in the world.” The proposed site would be near Portsmouth, Ohio, a city not too far from Huntington, West Virginia. That, somehow, was news to the mayor of Portsmouth. “I wasn’t privy to these discussions,” Portsmouth Mayor Charlotte Gordon told The Center Square. “I started calling some of the people I thought should know and they didn’t know.” That also, somehow, was news to Gov. Mike DeWine. “We do not have any ...

Make Sure You Have Measles Vaccination

Editorials

The state of West Virginia finds itself in a fortunate spot where its neighbors can’t join them. The Mountain State, as of February 19, is still without a confirmed case of measles, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia and Pennsylvania can’t claim the same fortunes. Kentucky has four, Pennsylvania and Virginia both have five and Virginia has nine. And those totals are nothing compared to the outbreak currently seen in South Carolina. According to the American Hospital Association, the state’s Department of Health reported on Tuesday a ...