Mannix Porterfield
CHARLESTON — Health care providers grabbed center stage Wednesday with Senate approval of bills putting pharmacists under the medical malpractice reform umbrella and making it a felony to practice medicine without a license.
Early in the session, pharmacists and representatives of pharmacies from across the state set up booths in the Capitol to plead for inclusion in massive medical malpractice reforms enacted a few years ago.
At that time, clinics were closing and many surgeons were pulling up stakes and leaving West Virginia, with insurance either unavailable or too steep to afford.
In the frenzy to approve reforms, however, the pharmacy community was overlooked.
For the complete version of this story, see Thursday's edition of The Register-Herald.
