Cindy Beane, M.S.W., L.C.S.W.

Cindy Beane, MSW, LCSW, is the commissioner for the West Virginia Bureau for Medical Services. Ms. Beane has over 20 years of experience working with health care in both the public and private sectors. Commissioner Beane was competitively selected to be a Medicaid Fellow for the National Medicaid Leadership Institute Class of 2018. Ms. Beane, along with five additional Medicaid directors (Florida, Indiana, Minnesota, Tennessee and Texas), participated in a 10-month leadership program to develop additional skills and expertise necessary to lead and improve their programs in an ever-changing financing environment.  

Commissioner Beane has extensive experience in Mental Health program policy development and development of Home and Community-Based programs. She led policy implementation for changes under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which enable approximately 165,000 West Virginians to have healthcare coverage. Beane also manages and oversees project development, implementation of health policies and assures compliance with federal and state regulations, while creating innovative health care services to address the needs of West Virginians.

Under Commissioner Beane, West Virginia was the first state in the nation to obtain approval for coverage of the Neonatal Abstinence Centers. In addition, her team developed and is administering a Continuum of Care waiver designed to treat substance use disorders (SUD) among the Medicaid population. Additionally, Beane has implemented the Health Homes initiatives to improve quality outcomes for members with chronic conditions, including diabetes and bi-polar disorder, expanded managed care to include behavioral health, and worked with dedicated staff to develop an oversight plan to detect and eliminate fraud, waste and abuse.

Commissioner Beane and her team are currently undertaking efforts to enhance children services for our most vulnerable at-risk children and continues to be committed to administering, promoting, and assuring appropriate, cost conscience strategies to strengthen health care services for the people of West Virginia to improve their quality of life.