Senate Bill No. 619
(By Senators McKenzie, Prezioso, Bowman, Buckalew,
Dugan, Boley, Sprouse and Anderson)
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[Introduced February 19, 1998; referred to the Select Committee on Public Employees' Insurance; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend article sixteen, chapter five of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated section five-a, relating to the West Virginia public employees insurance agency; creation of a legislative oversight commission on public employees insurance accountability; membership composition, appointment, compensation and expenses; expenses of commission; powers, duties and responsibilities of commission; and reports to the Legislature.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That article sixteen, chapter five of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended by adding thereto a new section, designated section five-a, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 16. WEST VIRGINIA PUBLIC EMPLOYEES INSURANCE ACT.
§5-16-5a. Creation of legislative oversight commission on public employees insurance accountability.
(a) There is hereby created a joint commission of the Legislature known as the legislative oversight commission on public employees insurance accountability. The commission shall be composed six members of the Senate appointed by the president of the Senate and six members of the House of Delegates appointed by the speaker of the House of Delegates. No more than four of the six members appointed by the president of the Senate and the speaker of the House of Delegates, respectively, may be members of the same political party. In addition, the president of the Senate and the speaker of the House of Delegates shall be ex officio members of the commission and shall designate the cochairpersons. At least one of the Senate appointees and one of the House of Delegates appointees shall be the chairperson of the committee on health and human resources of the Senate and House of Delegates, respectively, and at least one of the Senate appointees and at least one of the House of Delegate appointees shall be a member of the committee on finance of the Senate and House of Delegates, respectively. The members shall serve until their successors shall have been appointed as hereinbefore provided.
(b) Members of the commission shall receive such compensation and expenses as provided in article two-a, chapter four of this code. Such expenses and all other expenses including those incurred in the employment of legal, technical, investigative, clerical, stenographic, advisory and other personnel as may be needed by the commission shall be paid from an appropriation to be made expressly for the commission: Provided, That if no such appropriation be made, such expenses shall be paid from the appropriation under "Fund No. 0175 for Joint Expenses" created pursuant to the provisions of that chapter: Provided, however, That no expense of any kind payable under the account for joint expenses shall be incurred unless first approved by the joint committee on government and finance.
(c) The commission shall meet at any time both during sessions of the Legislature and in the interim or as often as may be necessary.
(d) The powers, duties and responsibilities of the commission include the following:
(1) To make a continuing investigation, study and review of the practices, policies, procedures, administration and management of the agency and its finance board;
(2) To investigate, study and review the practices, policies and procedures utilized by the finance board in projecting revenues and apportioning necessary costs equitably among participating employers, employees, retired employees and providers of health care services utilized in all financial plans promulgated by the financial board, pursuant to section five of this article;
(3) To conduct studies on the costs and quality of managed health care services provided to members through plans authorized pursuant to section seven of this article;
(4) To meet jointly with the advisory board to coordinate the collection and analysis of information and to consider and review recommendations of the advisory board;
(5) To request and obtain any and all information, documents, records, publications, books, data and any other materials from the agency and the financial board for the purposes of carrying out its duties and responsibilities pursuant to this section.
(e) The commission shall make annual reports to the Legislature of its findings, conclusions and recommendations from the results of all investigations, studies and reviews of the commission pursuant to this section, together with drafts of any proposed legislation necessary to effectuate its recommendations. The reports may specify in what manner any practice, policy or procedure of the agency or the finance board may or should be modified to ensure compliance with the purpose and intent of this article.

NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to create a Legislative Oversight Commission on Public Employees Insurance Accountability; set forth commission membership of six senators and six House of Delegate members and payment of their compensation and expenses; powers, duties and responsibilities of the commission; require reports to the Legislature of their findings and recommendations.

This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and underscoring have been omitted.