Eyewitness News Investigates: Prescription copays for W.Va. veteran nursing home residents

CLARKSBURG, W.Va. (WCHS) — The West Virginia Veterans Nursing Facility in Clarksburg consists of 120 beds dedicated to the needs of older state residents who served their country with honor, but a recent decision by the Department of Veterans Assistance added to the financial burden of those residents.

A call to Eyewitness News Investigates sparked a series of events which led to a policy reversal and money back into the pockets of veterans like 88-year-old Charles Cox.

Before he moved into the Clarksburg facility, Cox had a long and productive life. He’s an Army veteran who served in Germany during the Korean War, but most probably remember him for his post-military career. For decades, he was a South Charleston mainstay where he worked as a barber right across the street from the famous mound.

Following retirement, his health and other factors led Cox's daughter, Shelley Baston, to place him in a private nursing facility.

“He was then in need of long-term care,” she said. ”During the course of the last five years we paid for that care out of his funds, and it came to the point where his resources became exhausted and we had to find another solution to get his daily needs met.”

Baston said the next move for Cox was to the state veterans nursing facility where he’s been for seven months.

"He enjoys it," she said. "He enjoys the camaraderie of the other veterans and he likes it much better than where he was in Charleston."

In Clarksburg, Cox enjoyed free medical care, physical therapy and prescription drugs, but Baston said that quickly changed.

“Around the middle of May we received a letter from the VA that said that they were changing the way that they administered their prescription drugs and that the veteran would be solely responsible for getting a Medicare Part D plan and then paying all of their co-pays and associated costs for their prescription drugs,” Baston said. “His costs have gone from zero to his co-pays being $120 a month.”

Baston met with the facility’s interim director, Sherri Reed. She was told the new prescription policy was there to stay.

“The answer was that they needed to cut costs and they had discontinued the contract with the Veterans Administration federally,” Baston said.

She then contacted a member of the legislature's Veterans Affairs Committee and was promised someone would look into it. She waited three weeks and heard nothing back. That's when she contacted Eyewitness News.

When the administrators at the West Virginia Veterans Nursing Facility decided to change insurance plans they introduced co-pays into the mix for prescription drugs. Of course, those extra costs would have to be paid by the veterans themselves, in some cases totaling more than $1,000 a year.

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice has long said he's a strong supporter of West Virginia's veterans and that the state should do everything possible for them. So Eyewitness News contacted the governor to see what he thought about the decision.

“Well first of all, Kennie, let me thank you guys. I mean, really and truly. The bottom line is you brought it to our attention,” Justice said. “We were told basically that we're gonna move to an improved system and everything. It's going to be great, you're going to save money and 99%, or all of the other states in the country are doing this. We were not told about a co-pay that would be assessed to our veterans, and you know how I feel about our veterans. I mean, for crying out loud, we owe everything in life we have to them, and everything. So when we found out that there was a co-pay that was being assessed we moved forward and said, ‘No, no. We're not doing that.’ We're covering a 100% of that.”

A spokesman for the Department of Veterans Assistance says the decision about switching to Medicare and imposing prescription copays was being reviewed because of a greater impact on the nursing home's residents than had been predicted. But there was no timetable for a decision and no guarantee that the policy would be overturned. Justice's deadline was right now and he ordered staffers to take care of the veterans.

“The very second it came to my attention I said ‘what in the world are we doing?’ I mean for crying out loud, you know we've gotta move and move now to take care of this,” Justice said. “And we did, but we would have not uncovered that if you had not brought it to our attention.”

Paying for the veteran nursing home residents' prescription co-pays will cost the state about $150,000 a year. It will save residents like Cox more than $1,000 annually.

“I think that that is wonderful for not only my father, but for all veterans at the facility that are there now and for those to come,” Baston said. “Because they have fought hard during their service and they deserve not to have to go through this at the end of their life.”

The Department of Veterans Assistance said West Virginia is now the only state where nursing facility veterans’ prescription co-pays are taken care of.

If you have a story for Eyewitness News Investigates, send us a message to news@wchstv.com.