Senate Bill No. 603
(By Senator Bowman)
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[Introduced March 16, 2009; referred to the Committee on
Government Organization; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §16-1-2, §16-1-5 and §16-1-16 of the
Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, all relating to
definitions; appointment of the commissioner and the state
health officer for the Bureau for Public Health;
qualifications; and state health officer's duties and
responsibilities.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §16-1-2, §16-1-5 and §16-1-16 of the Code of West
Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended and reenacted, all to read
as follows:
ARTICLE 1. STATE PUBLIC HEALTH SYSTEM.
§16-1-2. Definitions.
Unless the context in which used clearly requires a different
meaning, as used in this
article chapter:
(a) "Basic public health services" means those services that are necessary to protect the health of the public. The three areas
of basic public health services are communicable and reportable
disease prevention and control, community health promotion and
environmental health protection;
(b) "Bureau" means the Bureau for Public Health in the
Department of Health and Human Resources;
(c) "Combined local board of health" is one form of
organization for a local board of health and means a board of
health serving any two or more counties or any county or counties
and one or more municipalities within or partially within the
county or counties;
(d) "Commissioner" means the Commissioner of the Bureau for
Public Health.
who is the state health officer. Administratively
within the department, the Bureau for Public Health through its
commissioner carries out the public health functions of the
department, unless otherwise assigned by the secretary. The
commissioner serves as the chief executive officer of the bureau;
(e) "County board of health" is one form of organization for
a local board of health and means a local board of health serving
a single county;
(f) "Department" means the West Virginia Department of Health
and Human Resources;
(g) "Director,"
or "director of health"
or "state director of
health," as those terms are used in article three, chapter thirty of the code and in article three of this chapter, means the state
health officer.
Elsewhere in this code the terms mean the
commissioner. Administratively within the department, the bureau
for public health through its commissioner carries out the public
health functions of the department, unless otherwise assigned by
the secretary;
(h) "Essential public health services" means the core public
health activities necessary to promote health and prevent disease,
injury and disability for the citizens of the state. The services
include:
(1) Monitoring health status to identify community health
problems;
(2) Diagnosing and investigating health problems and health
hazards in the community;
(3) Informing, educating and empowering people about health
issues;
(4) Mobilizing community partnerships to identify and solve
health problems;
(5) Developing policies and plans that support individual and
community health efforts;
(6) Enforcing laws and rules that protect health and ensure
safety;
(7) Uniting people with needed personal health services and
assuring the provision of health care when it is otherwise not available;
(8) Promoting a competent public health and personal health
care workforce;
(9) Evaluating the effectiveness, accessibility and quality of
personal and population-based health services; and
(10) Researching for new insights and innovative solutions to
health problems;
(i) "Licensing boards" means those boards charged with
regulating an occupation, business or profession and on which the
commissioner
or the state health officer serves as a member;
(j) "Local board of health," "local board" or "board" means a
board of health serving one or more counties or one or more
municipalities or a combination thereof;
(k) "Local health department" means the staff of the local
board of health;
(l) "Local health officer" means the individual physician with
a current West Virginia license to practice medicine who supervises
and directs the activities of the local health department services,
staff and facilities and is appointed by the local board of health
with approval
by from the commissioner
and the state health
officer;
(m) "Municipal board of health" is one form of organization
for a local board of health and means a board of health serving a
single municipality;
(n) "Performance-based standards" means generally accepted,
objective standards such as rules or guidelines against which
public health performance can be measured;
(o) "Program plan" or "plan of operation" means the annual
plan for each local board of health that must be submitted to the
commissioner for approval;
(p) "Public water system" means any water supply or system
which regularly supplies or offers to supply water for human
consumption through pipes or other constructed conveyances, if
serving at least an average of twenty-five individuals per day for
at least sixty days per year, or which has at least fifteen service
connections, and shall include: (1) Any collection, treatment,
storage and distribution facilities under the control of the owner
or operator of the system and used primarily in connection with the
system; and (2) any collection or pretreatment storage facilities
not under such control which are used primarily in connection with
the system. A public water system does not include a system which
meets all of the following conditions: (1) Which consists only of
distribution and storage facilities (and does not have any
collection and treatment facilities); (2) which obtains all of its
water from, but is not owned or operated by, a public water system
which otherwise meets the definition; (3) which does not sell water
to any person; and (4) which is not a carrier conveying passengers
in interstate commerce;
(q) "Secretary" means the Secretary of the State Department of
Health and Human Resources;
(r) "Service area" means the territorial jurisdiction of a
local board of health;
(s) "State advisory council on public health" is the advisory
body charged by this article with providing advice to the
commissioner with respect to the provision of adequate public
health services for all areas in the state;
(t) (s) "State Board of Health" means, and refers to, the
secretary, notwithstanding any other provision of this code to the
contrary, whenever and wherever in this code there is a reference
to the State Board of Health.
(t) "State health officer" means the person appointed by the
secretary to serve as the chief public health medical officer.
§16-1-5. Commissioner and state health officer; appointment;
qualifications; term.
The Commissioner of the Bureau for Public Health is the state
health officer and shall be appointed
by the secretary.
(a) The commissioner shall be
a physician licensed under the
laws of this state to practice medicine or a person holding a
doctorate
or a master's degree in public health administration.
The commissioner shall have not less than
four seven years'
experience in health services administration,
public or local
health administration or a related field.
(b) The state health officer shall be a physician with public
health training licensed to practice medicine under the laws of
this state. The state health officer shall have a minimum of four
years of experience in public health or a related field.
(c) The commissioner
and the state health officer serves serve
at the will and pleasure of the secretary and shall not be actively
engaged or employed in any other business, vocation or employment,
serving full time in the duties of the office as prescribed by this
article chapter.
(d) At the discretion of the secretary, the titles of
commissioner and state health officer may be conferred upon a
single individual qualified to meet the requirements of both
positions.
§16-1-16. Powers and duties of the state health officer.
The state health officer is the chief medical officer of the
bureau and the primary medical advisor on public health issues to
the secretary and has the following powers and duties:
(1) To provide medical expertise, oversight and policy
direction on a broad range of medical issues;
(2) To advise the secretary and the commissioner and other
staff within the bureau on health and medical implications of
programs, policies and actions;
(3) To serve as spokesperson and advocate on health promotion
and disease prevention issues and to speak for and on behalf of the bureau on the medical aspects of public health matters;
(4) To provide timely and accurate advice and information to
the public in cases of public health emergencies, emerging disease
outbreaks or any actual or potential threat to the public health;
(5) To serve as the secretary and statutory representative, ex
officio, with the right to vote as a member of the West Virginia
Board of Medicine, in accordance with sections four and five,
article three, chapter thirty of this code;
(6) To declare and maintain isolation or quarantine in
accordance with the provisions of sections one and two, article
three of this chapter;
(7) To review request for medical exemption from compulsory
vaccination for school children required in section four, article
three of this chapter and rules promulgated by the bureau; and
(8) To perform other duties and exercise other powers
delegated to the state health officer by the commissioner or by the
secretary and to enforce all health laws, and to pursue all other
activities necessary and incident to the authority and areas of
concern entrusted to the state health officer.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to allow for the separation
of the positions of commissioner and state health officer within
the Bureau for Public Health and to define the powers, duties and
job requirements for each position. To clean up section sixteen
and clearly defining the duties and responsibilities of the state
health officer.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.
§16-1-16 is completely rewritten; therefore, strike-throughs
and underscoring have been omitted.
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