West Virginia

Quick Facts

Key Provisions

• The governing statute for DPC in West Virginia is the Direct Primary Care Practice Act, enacted via House Bill 2301 in 2017 and codified under West Virginia Code Chapter 30, Article 3F.
• The Act explicitly states that a direct primary care membership agreement is not insurance and is not subject to regulation by the West Virginia Offices of the Insurance Commissioner.
• A DPC relationship must be formalized through a written "direct primary care membership agreement" between the provider and the patient (or their representative).
• The law applies to licensed "primary care providers" in West Virginia, which includes physicians and other practitioners operating in private practices or ambulatory facilities.
• The 2017 Act provides a permanent legal framework for DPC, replacing the state's earlier "Preventive and Primary Care Pilot Program" which ran from 2006 to 2016 and helped establish the model's viability in the state.
• While the Act does not specify fee structures, it permits providers to charge a periodic membership fee for a defined set of primary care services outlined in the patient agreement.
• The law does not mandate any specific termination notice periods within the patient agreement, leaving those terms to be defined by the provider and patient in the contract.

Medication Dispensing

The West Virginia Direct Primary Care Practice Act does not contain specific provisions addressing in-office medication dispensing for DPC practices. Therefore, DPC clinics must adhere to the general state regulations that govern physician dispensing. These rules are established and enforced by the West Virginia Board of Pharmacy and the relevant medical licensing boards, such as the Board of Medicine and the Board of Osteopathic Medicine. Any DPC practice wishing to dispense medications directly to patients must comply with all standard registration, labeling, storage, and record-keeping requirements applicable to any medical clinic in the state.