Save Senior Centers and VOTE NO on HB 5096

Senior Centers' budgets will be hurt if HB 5096 is passed. Please encourage senators to vote no.

WV2026HB 5096

Relating to removing services from requiring a certificate of need

Last Action

To Health and Human Resources

Senate • Feb 17, 2026

Latest Version

Engrossed Version

Bill up for consideration • Senate Health and Human Resources Committee

Mar 03, 2026 02:00pm

451-M

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Your Message to the legislators

Dear (name and title inserted automatically),

Every day, your senior center directors and staff open the doors knowing they’re not just serving a meal — they’re keeping someone’s mother, father, grandmother, or neighbor alive, safe, and at home.

For many seniors in your district, the senior center is the difference between independence and isolation, between staying well and ending up in a hospital bed, and between a hot meal and going without one.

HB 5096, which removes Personal Care Services from Certificate of Need (CON) protection, threatens that stability. It will strain already-tight budgets and undercut the funding that supports nutrition programs. And when that funding gets squeezed, they don’t have “extra” places to cut — the cuts hit people. It means fewer meals served, fewer wellness checks, fewer chances to catch problems before they become emergencies.

This isn’t theoretical. It’s not politics to the seniors who rely on us. It’s a real question of whether they’ll have food, a ride, a safe place to go, and someone who notices when something is wrong.

Senior providers aren’t asking for special treatment. They rarely come asking for more money. They stretch every dollar, follow the Bureau of Senior Services’ parameters, and do the hard work quietly. But bills like HB 5096 make it harder every year to keep the doors open and services reliable — and the people who pay the price are seniors living on fixed incomes, many of them alone, many of them in rural areas with nowhere else to turn.

Please stand with your seniors. Please protect the services that keep them out of nursing homes and hospitals, and keep them connected to their community, your district.

Please, do the right thing. Vote NO on HB 5096.