The bill would give optometrists the ability to perform certain surgical procedures—but it’s opposed by ophthalmologists.
The Senate started talking about Senate Bill 230 during its 11 a.m. floor session, but ultimately moved the
bill to the end of the list of bills on second reading and continued discussing
it after lunch.
Sen. Ed Bowman (D-Hancock) amended the bill, and Sen. Jeff
Kessler (D-Marshall) immediately stood to amend Bowman’s amendment.
Both senators wanted to change a portion of the bill that
would allow optometrists to perform four types of laser surgery procedures:
three for glaucoma, one for cataracts.
Sen. Evan Jenkins (D-Cabell) stood to oppose Kessler’s
amendment, and explained what both men were trying to do.
“I just want to make sure everybody understands where we are
on this,” he said. “The committee substitute as it is before us allows for optometrists
to use four laser procedures.
“Through the discussion over this past weekend, last week
the chair of Government Organization announced that he would be running an
amendment today to take those four laser procedures, take three of them out and
leave one. That’s what the amendment from the senator from Hancock does. What the
amendment to the amendment does is add two lasers back in.”
Sen. Ron Stollings (D-Boone) also opposed Kessler’s
amendment, and stood to talk about his own experience with glaucoma surgery in
the hands of an ophthalmologist.
“I became very sweaty and nauseated and I had to stop,” he
said. “I was glad I was in a place where this person had done many of them and recognized
my problem. So these are not benign procedures, and treating glaucoma is not a
simple task.”
Although no one spoke supporting Kessler’s amendment, when
the senators stood to vote, the amendment passed.
Sen. Roman Prezioso (D-Marion) made an amendment of his own,
which would eliminate the ability of optometrists to perform any laser
surgeries.
“Ladies and gentlemen, make no mistake what I’m trying to do
here,” he said. “I’m trying to eliminated all four laser surgeries.”
But Kessler pointed out that the Senate’s rules prohibit amending an amendment
that’s already passed.
“As I see the amendment’s been presented, it would appear to
be addressing the exact same section of the code that we just amended,” Kessler
said. “My amendment to the amendment passed. I’m just wondering if it’s
appropriate at this time to have further amendments to that section at this
point.”
The bill will be up for passage on Tuesday, but senators
will still be able to amend it.
Monday was the last day to introduce bills, and more than 50
were introduced in the Senate. But a bill addressing the billions of dollars of
unfunded liabilities in West Virginia’s
Other Post-Employment Benefits fund wasn’t among them.
Sen. Brooks McCabe (D-Kanawha) says his committee studying
the issue had a hard time finding consensus among OPEB’s stakeholders.
“It continues to be a big issue,” McCabe said. “This is not
any indication at all that we’re backing away from the issue. It’s just a
matter of style and trying to do it in a way that’s sensitive to some of the
stakeholders’ concerns, as well as keeping in place the Senate’s strong
feelings about how we might proceed.”
Right now, OPEB is an almost $8 billion unfunded liability.
This figure represents all the money West Virginia
expects to have to pay for retirees’ health care for the next 40 years.
“My goal is that sometime this spring, early summer we can
have a special session with an agreed-upon bill, so that we can come in and get
it passed without a lot of contentious debate,” he said. “That we’ve worked out
the details in advance and everyone would be comfortable with it. So we have a
good bit of work ahead of us, but we’re clearly still working on it.”
McCabe says his committee will continue to meet until they
reach a consensus.