BECKLEY — Registration is open for those in Beckley who are interested in learning more about how the Affordable Care Act is poised to change the health care industry.

The controversial health care reform is broad, sweeping and can be confusing. That’s why the West Virginians for Affordable Health Care and Health Reform for West Virginia organizations will be sponsoring free training on the law Saturday at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center.

Nurses and social workers can receive free Continuing Education Units credit by attending in exchange for committing to educating friends, colleagues and neighbors about the Affordable Care Act.

“We’ll give people at the training some tools that make having that education program locally a lot easier,” WVAHC exectuvie director Perry Bryant said.

For example, he added they are provided with a copy of “Faces of Reform in West Virginia” a DVD that lets individuals tell their story of how they are affected by the Affordable Care Act. He said the goal is to teach at least 200 West Virginians, who can then teach at least 50 in their own communities.

Bryant said the reform basically amounts to three basic principles: expanding health insurance to all Americans, fundamental changes to insurance regulations and cost containment.

“Insurance companies are going to be much more like Medicare in the future,” Bryant said. “They won’t be able to deny people coverage because of pre-existing conditions or charge them more because of their health status. It really fundamentally changes how the insurance company operates.”

Containing costs, Bryant said, is accomplished by getting away from the current system of paying doctors per service, and instead looking at the results of their care.

“The incentives in that kind of arrangement is to provide more and more services,” Bryant said. “That ignores quality, so we need to really change how it is we pay health care.”

He said frequently he will encounter people who are insured and want to know why they should be concerned about extending health insurance to the uninsured. Bryant said there is more than just a moral imperative to assist those in need.

“It’s not like the uninsured don’t get sick,” Bryant said. “They do and they end up in the emergency room of hospitals in the most expensive setting possible. The cost of treating them is passed on to those of us who have commercial health insurance.”

He added that about four West Virginians die every week due to a lack of health insurance.

The ACA may also stimulate economic development in 2014 as well, Bryant said.

“Right now the single biggest deterrent to entrepreneurship in America and West Virginia is the inability to get health insurance,” Bryant said. “People are trapped in jobs they may not like because principally of inability to get health insurance if they go out and start their own business.”

Bryant said so far response from two other sessions in Morgantown and Wheeling has been overwhelmingly appreciative.

The session begins at 10 a.m. and lasts until 2:30 p.m. According to a release from the organization, the event is aimed at health care professionals, business people and interested members of the public.

To register for the event, which includes a free lunch, or for more information call Bryant at 304-344-1673 or e-mail at pbryant@wvahc.org.

— E-mail: tkuykendall@register-herald.com