Senate committee advances Medicaid monitor coverage, child-welfare tech pilots, mental‑health payment parity and other bills

A West Virginia Senate committee voted to report a series of health, child‑welfare and human‑services bills to the full Senate with recommendations that they pass, while sending several measures for further fiscal review.

The committee moved forward with Senate Bill 252, which would require Medicaid to cover self‑measured blood pressure devices for people who are pregnant or within 12 months postpartum and who have uncontrolled hypertension. Counsel told the committee the Bureau of Medical Services must draft a state plan amendment to include coverage for the device, an extra cuff and reimbursement for related services. A fiscal note estimates the 2026 fiscal‑year impact at $308,512 — $79,827 in state funds and $228,685 federal — and an estimated increase of about $192.82 per qualifying person per year. "We cannot put a number on the savings that we may have over the course of this time," Sen. Mason said, adding that home monitoring may prevent future problems.

The committee also approved a committee substitute for Senate Bill 821, which would require child protective service (CPS) workers to attempt to use body‑worn cameras during investigations and to obtain consent from the person being investigated. Counsel said the substitute permits a worker to refrain from using the camera when its use would compromise a child's privacy and treats the recording as part of the confidential case file under existing CPS records law. Senators discussed concerns the Department of Human Services raised that body cameras are traditionally a law‑enforcement tool and could change the tone of civil CPS investigations. The substitute instructs workers to "attempt" to utilize cameras and to obtain consent, reflecting those privacy concerns.

Senate Bill 822 was converted in committee to a two‑county pilot requiring the Department of Human Services to use mobile technology customized for child‑welfare casework. Counsel said the platform must create contemporaneous digital records uploaded daily, be interoperable with other systems, and include…