House 5184

WEST VIRGINIA LEGISLATURE

2026 REGULAR SESSION

Introduced

House Bill 5184

By Delegates Pushkin, Lewis, and Garcia

[Introduced February 04, 2026; referred to the Committee on Health and Human Resources]

A BILL to amend and reenact §16-2D-9 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to certificates of need; prohibiting expanding drug and alcohol treatment facilities and services in certain counties.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:

ARTICLE 2D. CERTIFICATE OF NEED

§16-2D-9. Health services that cannot be developed.

Notwithstanding §16-2D-8 and §16-2D-11 of this code, these health services require a certificate of need but the authority may not issue a certificate of need to:

(1) A health care facility adding intermediate care or skilled nursing beds to its current licensed bed complement, except as provided in §16-2D-11 of this code;

(2) A person developing, constructing, or replacing a skilled nursing facility except in the case of facilities designed to replace existing beds in existing facilities that may soon be deemed unsafe or facilities utilizing existing licensed beds from existing facilities which are designed to meet the changing health care delivery system;

(3) Add beds in an intermediate care facility for individuals with an intellectual disability, except that prohibition does not apply to an intermediate care facility for individuals with intellectual disabilities beds approved under the Kanawha County Circuit Court order of August 3, 1989, civil action number MISC-81-585 issued in the case of E.H. v. Matin, 168 W.V. 248, 284 S.E. 2d 232 (1981) including the 24 beds provided in §16-2D-8 of this code; and

(4) An opioid treatment program: Provided, That an opioid treatment program that is an approved clinical trial, with institutional review board approval, for the study of office-based methadone versus buprenorphine to address retention in medication for opioid use disorder treatment may be developed for the limited purposes of conducting the clinical trial and shall be limited to the time frame set forth in the clinical trial, after registering with the Board of Pharmacy: Provided, however, That this exemption only permits one program to participate once in CTN-0131. and

(5) Add licensed substance abuse treatment beds in any county which already has greater than 250 licensed substance abuse treatment beds

NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to remove the prohibition of adding more licensed substance abuse treatment beds in counties who currently have more than 250 substance abuse treatment beds.

Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from a heading or the present law and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.