Cynthia “Cindy" Beane, MSW, LCSW, has served as the Commissioner for the West Virginia Bureau for Medical Services since 2014. She has over 20 years' experience working with health care in both the public and private sectors to improve the quality of life for West Virginians. Commissioner Beane was named WV Living Magazine's “Wonder Woman of the Year" in 2022 and served as President of the National Association of Medicaid Directors (NAMD) 2023-2024. Cindy is proud to represent a state that values health coverage and help available for people in need. As the Administrator of the West Virginia State Medicaid Program, Single State Agency, Commissioner Beane directs, plans, and organizes the programs, functions and activities of the agency including Policy Coordination and Operations, Finance and Administration, Human Resources, Medical Director, General Counsel, Communications and Special Projects. Cindy led policy implementation changes under the Affordable Care Act, which enabled approximately 165,000 West Virginians to have healthcare coverage. Cindy and her team have implemented programs being modeled nationwide. West Virginia was the first state in the nation to obtain approval for coverage of the Neonatal Abstinence Centers. Her team undertook developing and administering a Continuum of Care waiver designed to treat substance use disorders (SUD) among the Medicaid population. Additionally, Cindy is enhancing children services for West Virginia's most vulnerable at-risk children by developing and implementing the Children with Serious Emotional Disorders Waiver services. West Virginia expanded managed care to include behavioral health and works with dedicated staff to develop an oversight plan to detect and eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse.
Cindy wants the Medicaid program to be recognized as the gap for low-income families, bridging health care needs between jobs, providing for medically complex children, and supporting our elders to age in place or close to home. These values are the forefront of Cindy's focus on improving Medicaid services and coordination and center discussions about the people we serve.
Cindy's leadership team is creating a foundation where staff are building, not just careers, but legacies of their contributions to West Virginia. Most recently, the West Virginia Children's Health Insurance Program (WV CHIP) moved under Cindy's leadership. Cindy remains committed to administering, promoting, and assuring appropriate, cost conscience strategies to strengthen health care services for the people of West Virginia to be healthy and have full lives – enhancing what West Virginia offers as a place to live and work.