Published: August 26, 2008 10:03 pm         

They don't care

Board of Pharmacy attempting to derail care for the needy

We’re not sure whether its ego, politics or simple ignorance, but the West Virginia Board of Pharmacy is taking a track which will cause irreparable damage to the free clinics in West Virginia, jeopardizing health care for more than 200,000 needy adults.

Please understand some facts about who these West Virginians are that go to free clinics.

The majority are actually members of the workforce but cannot obtain health insurance because it is not offered or is unaffordable. They don’t have Medicaid cards. Stuck in the middle.

Most free clinic patients are being treated for long term and chronic illnesses with maintenance medications. They are all adults and at no time are narcotics distributed.

In the 25 years of free clinic operations in the Mountain State there have been no lawsuits or complaints of negligence.

You see, these facilities are not Doc-in-the-Box walk-in clinics. They are staffed by physicians donating their time, along with nurses and practitioners, to offer free care and free medication for a huge segment of our population that needs us the most.

It disgusts us that in the greatest country in the world we still have major trouble with the delivery of health care. Someday, maybe that will change, but in the meantime we have to do what we can to tend to our own.

Earlier this year, the Board of Pharmacy had legislation (SB722) introduced to require the free clinics to employ a pharmacist or technician to dispense the free meds. This would require some of the clinics to pay out a minimum of $100,000 per year and up to $300,000 at the larger sites to satisfy this rule.

Definitely enough of a fiscal burden to close nearly all of West Virginia’s 10 free clinics.

This caused quite an uproar and the bill eventually passed with lawmakers assuring the free clinics that they would have a voice and would be able to actively participate in the process to create the rules.

The legislators’ intent was good, but the Board of Pharmacy, through the direct actions of its executive director, never really involved or considered what the free clinics had to say when it came time to promulgate the aforementioned rules.

Bullying the needy and for what?

This Friday at 3 p.m. is the deadline for public comment on the rules and a two-hour period is all that will be afforded to make any changes before the document is readied for submission to the Legislature.

If this measure isn’t stopped, the multi-million dollars in uncompensated health care already provided annually by state hospitals will skyrocket.

Time is of the essence, we encourage you to send a letter today to the West Virginia Board of Pharmacy, 232 Capitol St., Charleston, WV, 25301 and express your disdain over this egregious act; however, you also might want to get in touch with your state legislators, as well.

At this point, it seems as if they will be the only ones capable of squelching this power grab that negatively impacts so many West Virginians.