Community members who have West Virginia Public Employees Insurance Agency (PEIA) Preferred Provide Benefit (PPB) plans now have more choices for accessing in-network care.

Memorial Health System announced Thursday that all of its facilities, campuses and providers are now in-network for WV PEIA PPB plans A, B and C. These plans are administered by UMR, a United Health Care company, according to a media release. The release said the change took effect on Feb. 1. During the WV PEIA open enrollment period, members can choose any of the available plans and receive in-network care for themselves and their families.

MHS has been actively working on re-establishing itself as in-network with WV PEIA since 2011, the release said.

“We’ve been trying since that time because we think it’s important to service our community,” MHS Associate Vice President of Service Excellence Jennifer Offenberger said.

Offenberger said the community is people in Ohio and West Virginia and many members of the community work for employers where PEIA PPB plans are their health insurance.

Before this change, if community members wanted to get in-network care at Memorial Health System they had to seek it elsewhere.

Now they can get in-network care from MHS, according to Offenberger.

“They have that choice,” she said.

Choice is “especially important when you think of specialities,” Offenberger said.

The release said that “WV PEIA patients now have access to in-network care, meaning more affordable costs and easily accessible care, from providers they choose from the health system.”

Offenberger said she did not know how many new patients the change to in-network would bring to MHS, but they “anticipate people will (now have) greater care than they’ve ever had before” MHS knows that people seek care on both sides of the river and it is glad that it can give access to in-network care to the community, according to Offenberger.

“We’re very excited about what this means for our community,” she said.

To learn more about available plans and providers for WV PEIA PPB plans, visit www.peia.wv.gov.