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Longtime West Virginia DHHR official Jeremiah Samples fired

The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources fired its deputy director Jeremiah Samples Thursday, multiple sources said. (Photo Provided)

CHARLESTON — Jeremiah Samples, the deputy secretary of the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources and a long-time state healthcare official, was fired Thursday according to multiple sources, though details are scant.

DHHR Secretary Bill Crouch, when reached by phone Friday morning, would not confirm or deny Samples’ firing, but said a statement was forthcoming. Brian Abraham, chief of staff to Gov. Jim Justice, also said by phone he would not confirm or deny, stating DHHR handles its own personnel issues.

DHHR Communications Director Allison Adler released a statement shortly after.

“Effective April 7, 2022, Jeremiah Samples is no longer employed by the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources,” Adler said. “Since this is a personnel issue, we are unable to provide further comment.”

In a Facebook message Friday night, Samples said he would release a full statement next week regarding his firing, but he chalked it up to a difference between himself and DHHR leadership on the direction of the agency.

“I feel very positive about the future and am not giving up the cause, just going to tackle it from different perspectives,” Samples said.

Samples has served as DHHR deputy secretary under Crouch since 2017, serving as the No. 2 in the sprawling state agency that manages more than $7 billion in state and federal funding, nearly 5,000 employees, and is on the frontlines of the state’s opioid crisis, the burgeoning foster care system and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Samples began his career at DHHR after graduating magna cum laude from West Virginia University and serving as a Herndon intern with the West Virginia Legislature in 2006. He began work at DHHR after graduation, working in the offices of communications and legislative affairs, general counsel and deputy secretary.

He later worked for the Governor’s Office of Health Enhancement and Lifestyle Planning and as director of health policy for the West Virginia Offices of the Insurance Commissioner.

Samples returned to DHHR IN 2013, serving as an assistant to former DHHR cabinet Secretary Karen Bowling, working his way up to deputy secretary in 2017 after Justice took office. According to sources in DHHR, the firing of Samples came as a shock as Samples had been on conference calls as early as Thursday morning.

The firing also took Delegate Lisa Zukoff, D-Marshall, by surprise.

Zukoff is an active member of the House Health and Human Resources Committee and part of the joint efforts between the Republicans and Democrats in the House of Delegates and Senate to reform West Virginia’s foster care system. Samples was a frequent fixture during legislative interim meetings and committees as a legislative liaison, advising lawmakers and providing testimony.

“It’s a huge institutional loss, and someone who was very responsive,” Zukoff said by phone Friday. “I never had an issue that I didn’t come to Jeremiah with and he wasn’t immediately on it with whoever it was in the department he needed to speak to and get the issue addressed with. He was very responsive as a legislative liaison.”

Samples’ firing comes after DHHR found itself in the legislative microscope during the 2022 legislative session. An effort to split DHHR into a Department of Health and a Department of Human Resources with House Bill 4020 had wide support in the Legislature, but the bill was vetoed by Justice at the end of March.

“This really concerns me, especially. It just adds to the concern that we have with DHHR and the ongoing issues at the department,” Zukoff said.

Another bill, House Bill 4344, would have provided greater transparency for the state’s foster care program including a new data dashboard, a foster care placement database, a study of DHHR’s centralized intake system for abuse and neglect cases, and pay raises for direct service workers.

But while DHHR didn’t express public opposition to that bill as it came out of the house, behind-the-scenes DHHR officials fought against those items, which were gutted from the final bill by the Senate Finance Committee, leaving only items addressing court proceedings and the foster care ombudsman office. As a result, the bill died in the final days of the session, though DHHR officials plan to implement the Child Protective Services pay raises later this year by collapsing unfilled positions within DHHR and putting those available funds into raises.

“While DHHR seemed to be receptive to that bill and those ideas, behind-the-scenes that wasn’t the case,” Zukoff said. “I think they were very concerned about that data dashboard. I don’t know why … It’s the way DHHR offices around the country are trying to put out information. The more data we have, the more information we can have about what is going on with our foster kids.”

In his veto letter of HB 4020, Justice said he was implementing a top-down review of DHHR and will implement reforms. But Zukoff said she sees the firing of Sample indicative of the problems at DHHR.

“I don’t know how it couldn’t have been. How could you not be looking introspectively at the agency when the Legislature has this kind of problem,” Zukoff said. “I think we can’t let it go. Quite frankly, I think we need to keep the pressure on at DHHR and hold the governor accountable. He said he would deal with the issue. Jeremiah leaving is a huge loss.”

Steven Allen Adams can be reached at sadams@newsandsentinel.com.

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