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ACROSS SESSIONS
- Subject Index: Since 1995
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2004 SESSION
Chairman: William C. Wampler, Jr.
Clerk: Jocelyn R. Lance
Date of Meeting: January 26, 2004
Time and Place: 1/2 hr after adjournment-Senate Room B, General Assembly Building
Patron: Ruff
Virginia Employment Commission workforce plan. Eliminates the Virginia Employment Commission's requirement to develop a workforce plan for times of economic recession, natural disaster or military mobilization whereby necessary workers can be provided. The requirement for the Department to develop a workforce plan is duplicative because workforce demands are addressed by other initiatives. Under the Workforce Investment Act, local workforce investment boards are required to develop workforce demand plans annually and submit them to the Virginia Workforce Council. These demand plans are developed locally and are therefore more responsive to local needs. In addition, during recent years the Governor and Secretary of Commerce and Trade have appointed task forces to deal with emergencies and recessions. Most recently, these include a task force developed to deal with worker displacement in response to the September 11, 2001, attack on the Pentagon and the closure of Regan National Airport, and the Governor's establishment of coordinated economic relief centers in response to massive layoffs in Southwest and Southside Virginia. This bill is a recommendation of the Joint Subcommittee to Study the Operations, Practices, Duties, and Funding of the Commonwealth's Agencies, Boards, Commissions, Councils, and Other Governmental Entities pursuant to HJR 159 (2002).
Impact Statements
Patron: Puckett
Insurance; Fire Programs Fund; assessment on motor vehicle insurance. Requires insurance companies that write motor vehicle insurance to pay an assessment of one percent of the total direct gross premium income from such insurance. The assessments will be paid into the Fire Programs Fund, which is administered by the Department of Fire Programs under policies established by the Virginia Fire Services Board.
Impact Statements
Patron: Watkins
Electric utility restructuring; municipal and state aggregation. Provides that a municipality or other political subdivision may aggregate the electric energy load of residential, commercial, and industrial retail customers within its boundaries on either an opt-in or opt-out basis, eliminates the requirement that customers must opt in to select such aggregation, and eliminates the requirement that such municipality or other political subdivision may not earn a profit from such aggregation.
Impact Statements
Patron: Watkins
Electric utility restructuring; minimum stay requirements; wires charges. Authorizes any large industrial or commercial customer that is returning to its incumbent electric utility or default provider after purchasing power from a competitive supplier to elect to accept market-based pricing as an alternative to being bound by the minimum stay period (currently 12 months unless otherwise authorized) prescribed by the State Corporation Commission. Customers exempted from minimum stay periods will not be entitled to purchase retail electric energy from their incumbent electric utilities thereafter at the capped rates unless such customers agree to satisfy any minimum stay period then applicable. This bill also authorizes industrial and commercial customers, as well as aggregated customers in all rate classes, to switch to a competitive service provider without paying a wires charge if they agree to pay market-based prices if they ever return to the incumbent electric utility. Customers who make this commitment and obtain power from suppliers without paying wires charges are not entitled to obtain power from their incumbent utility at its capped rates.
Impact Statements
Patron: Lambert
Department of Labor and Industry; information to be provided the Commissioner. Specifies, with respect to the statistical or other information that local and state officials are to provide the Commissioner of the Department of Labor and Industry, that such information includes but is not limited to medical records, emergency medical response reports, fire department reports, police and sheriff's office reports, and medical examiners' reports. States that the Commissioner shall maintain the confidentiality protections applicable to such information under Virginia law.
Impact Statements
Patron: Cuccinelli
Judgment rate of interest. Makes the judgment rate of interest for judgments not relating to a contract the prime rate plus two percent set as of the July 1 immediately prior to the date of judgment. Under current law, the judgment rate of interest is nine percent. A money judgment entered in an action arising from a contract shall carry interest at the rate lawfully charged on such contract, or the prime rate plus two percent set as of the July 1 immediately prior to the date of judgment, whichever is higher. Under current law, the judgment rate is the rate lawfully charged on such contract, or nine percent, whichever is higher.
Patron: Edwards
Fire Programs Fund. Requires the Executive Director of the Department of Fire Programs to establish written standards for determining the extent to which clients outside the Commonwealth shall be financially responsible for the cost of fire and emergency services training provided by the Department of Fire Programs. Revenues generated shall be retained in the Fire Programs Fund and used solely for providing additional training to members of Virginia's fire and emergency services.
Patron: Blevins
Unemployment compensation, benefit charges. Provides that benefit charges attributable to an employer do not include those benefit charges due to unemployment resulting from a temporary work closure forced by a natural disaster. Under current law, if an employer is forced to shut its business as a result of a natural disaster, the employees may be eligible for benefits and the employer's tax rate would increase as a direct result of any benefits paid. Under this bill, such benefit charges would instead be assigned to the pool tax.
Patron: Norment
Electric utility restructuring; electrical generating facility certificates. Extends by two years the expiration date of certain certificates granted by the State Corporation Commission ("Commission") to construct and operate electrical generating facilities. Only those certificates for which applications were filed with the Commission prior to July 1, 2002, will receive an extension.
Impact Statements
Patron: Puckett
Insurance; accident and sickness; mandated coverage for infertility. Requires the state health plan, health insurers, health maintenance organizations and corporations providing accident and sickness subscription contracts to provide coverage for the treatment of infertility. The bill's provisions are applicable to policies, plans, and contracts delivered, issued for delivery, or renewed on and after July 1, 2004. They are not applicable to short-term travel, accident-only, limited, or specified disease policies, or to short-term nonrenewable policies of not more than six months' duration.
Patron: Stolle
Health records privacy; access to health records; compliance with federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act regulations. Revises statutes relating to the Freedom of Information Act, civil procedure, denial of access to health records, juvenile and domestic court proceedings, health records privacy, involuntary commitment, court-appointed guardians and conservators; release of mental health information, and health insurance information to provide for consistency and assurances of compliance with federal regulations concerning disclosure and electronic transmission of protected health information promulgated pursuant to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. The bill provides a modified procedure for a patient to pursue obtaining his own records when a treating physician or clinical psychologist has placed a statement in his record denying such access. The standard for such statements is changed to reasonably likely to endanger the life or physical safety of the individual or another person, or that a reference in the health records to another person, who is not a health care provider, would be reasonably likely to cause substantial harm to the referenced person. The individual may, at his own expense, designate a reviewing physician or clinical psychologist with equivalent credentials to those of the physician or clinical psychologist denying him access to his records to determine whether he can have access to the information. In the alternative, the relevant health care entity is obligated to designate a physician or clinical psychologist, at its expense, to determine whether the individual will obtain access to his information. The decision of the designated physician or clinical psychologist must be followed. Virginia's patient privacy provision is amended through various syntax changes in terminology, definitions, and forms, and revisions and additions to the definitions, such as "health care entity," a term including all health care providers, health plans or health care clearinghouses. Technical amendments to laws relating to disclosure of mental health information clarify (i) who may submit a bill to a third party payor; (ii) that the information on the patient must include his address and date of birth; (iii) that patient consent or authorization (a HIPAA term) is required for disclosure of mental health information; and (iv) that patient consent or authorization must be in writing and must be dated and signed and must also comply with the requirements for authorization set out in the health records privacy law. Compliance with federal regulations concerning protected health information promulgated pursuant to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act is ensured while providing access to health records and information for guardians ad litem and attorneys representing minors in juvenile and domestic court proceedings, proceedings to authorize treatment for patients incapable of providing consent to treatment, persons who are subject to petitions for involuntary commitment, and respondents who are the subjects of petitions to appoint guardians or conservators or both.
Patron: Williams
Virginia Telephone Privacy Protection Act; telephone solicitation. Adds wireless telephones with a Virginia area code to the list of those telephone numbers that a telephone solicitor cannot call at any time other than between 8:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. A telephone solicitor is prohibited from calling a telephone number when such number has been placed on the federal Do Not Call Registry. The bill provides using a version of the federal Do Not Call Registry that was obtained no more than three months prior to the date of the telephone solicitation as an affirmative defense to an action brought for a violation of this section. The bill requires telephone solicitors to play a prerecorded identification message that states only the name and telephone number of the person on whose behalf the telephone solicitation call was being made, and that the call was for “telemarketing purposes,” whenever a live person is not available within two seconds of completing the greeting.
Patron: Colgan
Insurance; domestic reciprocals. Requires prior written approval of material transactions, and timely disclosure of most other transactions, between a domestic reciprocal and a related party and, when the transaction is material to the reciprocal, between any two or more of the reciprocal’s related parties. The annual filing of a related parties summary also is required. The bill adds to the list of standards required for transactions between a domestic reciprocal and a related party the requirement that a reciprocal’s surplus following any dividends or distribution to any of the reciprocal’s related parties shall be reasonable in relation to the reciprocal’s outstanding liabilities and adequate to its financial needs. The bill defines “related parties” and “control,” and redefines “material transaction,” as used in the section.
Patron: Miller
Insurance; health maintenance organizations. Amends the definition of “net worth” to include "capital and surplus" as an interchangeable term with "net worth." This is a technical revision that will provide consistency between terms used in Chapter 43 and the National Association of Inurance Commissioners' (NAIC) health organization annual statement form that health maintenance organizations (HMOs) are required to use when reporting their financial condition. The bill also requires a disclosure from any persons owning or having the right to acquire five percent or more of voting securities or subordinated debt of an entity applying for a license to establish or operate an HMO. This disclosure requirement is based on a model act adopted by the NAIC, and it provides consistency between the documentation required when applying for licensure as a Virginia HMO and the requirements of other states.
Patron: Stosch
Insurance; funding agreements. Authorizes insurers licensed to write life insurance or annuities in Virginia to issue funding agreements. "Funding agreements" are defined as agreements that authorize the insurer to accept funds and that provides for an accumulation of funds for the purpose of making one or more payments in fixed or variable amounts, or in both, that are not based on mortality or morbidity contingencies. The bill lists the types of benefits, activities, agreements, and programs that can be funded with a funding agreement; addresses accounting treatment; and clarifies that a funding agreement does not qualify as life insurance, an annuity, or any other form of insurance although it constitutes transacting an insurance business in the Commonwealth. The bill also provides that in a liquidation of an insurer pursuant to § 38.2-1509, the holders of a funding agreement will receive the same priority as is already accorded to policyholders.
Patron: Stosch
Asset-Backed Securities Facilitation Act. Creates the "Asset-backed Securities Facilitation Act." The bill provides that any property, assets, or rights purported to be transferred in a securitization transaction shall be deemed to no longer be the property, assets, or rights of the transferor. The bill also provides that a transferor in a securitization transaction, its creditors or, in any insolvency proceeding with respect to the transferor or the transferor's property, a bankruptcy trustee, receiver, debtor, debtor in possession, or similar person, to the extent the issue is governed by the laws of the Commonwealth, shall have no rights to reacquire, reclaim, recover, repudiate, disaffirm, redeem, or recharacterize as property of the transferor any property, assets, or rights purported to be transferred by the transferor. In the event of a bankruptcy, receivership, or other insolvency proceeding, to the extent the issue is governed by the laws of the Commonwealth, the property, assets, and rights shall not be deemed to be part of the transferor's property, assets, rights, or estate.
Impact Statements
Patron: Stosch
Business Entities. Amends the Stock Corporation Act, the Nonstock Corporation Act, the Limited Partnership Act, the Limited Liability Company Act, the Business Trust Act, and the Limited Liability Partnership Act to clarify provisions relating to the reinstatement of administratively terminated entities. The changes also (i) authorize limited liability company operating agreements to provide for contractual appraisal rights, arbitration and exclusive jurisdiction, and multiple classes of members and managers; (ii) clarify the ability of limited liability companies to indemnify members, managers, and other agents; (iii) permit limited liability companies to engage in any business, purpose, or activity, regardless of whether the activity constitutes a business; and (iv) conform charging order provisions of the limited liability company, limited partnership, and partnership statutes. Also makes other technical changes to the limited liability company, partnership, and limited partnership acts.
Patron: Puckett
Workers' compensation; AmeriCorps members. Provides that members of AmeriCorps are employees for the purposes of receiving workers' compensation to reimburse medical costs from covered injuries, but shall not be eligible to receive weekly compensation.
Impact Statements
Patron: Stosch
Uniform Securities Act. Repeals the current Securities Act and replaces it with the Uniform Securities Act, which as of January 1, 2004, had been adopted by two states. Much of the bill does not differ substantially from the way the State Corporation Commission currently regulates securities activity. However, there are several major differences including differences relating to (i) electronic records and signatures, (ii) securities registration, (iii) registration of broker-dealers, agents, investment advisors, and investment advisor representatives, and (iv) fraud and liabilities.
Patron: Wampler
Virginia Economic Development Partnership Authority; membership of the board of directors. Increases the membership of the board of directors of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership Authority from 13 to 18 by adding three members appointed by the Speaker of the House of Delegates and two members appointed by the Senate committee on Privileges and Elections. The bill also provides for staggered initial terms of the new members.
Impact Statements
Patron: Howell
Insurance; coverage for prescription contraceptives. Requires health insurers, corporations providing accident and sickness subscription contracts, and health maintenance organizations, whose policies, contracts, or plans include prescription drugs on an outpatient basis, to include coverage for any prescribed drug or device approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration for use as a contraceptive.
Patron: Wagner
Workers' Compensation Commission; powers. Provides that with respect to all matters within its jurisdiction, the Commission shall have the power of a court of record to administer oaths, to compel the attendance of witnesses and the production of documents, to punish for contempt, to appoint guardians pursuant to Title 31 and to enforce compliance with its lawful orders and awards.
Patron: Norment
Electric Utility Restructuring Act; extension of rate caps and fuel factors; electrical generating facility certificates; municipal and state aggregation; minimum stay requirements; wires charges; net metering. Extends until December 31, 2010, the rate caps currently in place for incumbent electric utilities unless terminated sooner by the State Corporation Commission ("SCC") upon a finding of an effectively competitive market for generation services in the service territory of an incumbent utility. After January 1, 2004, an incumbent electric utility not, as of July 1, 1999, bound by a rate case settlement adopted by the SCC that extended in its application beyond January 1, 2002, may petition the SCC for approval of a one-time change in its rates. If capped rates are continued after July 1, 2007, such an incumbent electric utility may at any time after July 1, 2007, again petition the SCC for approval of a one-time change in its rates. If a majority of electric cooperatives elect to be exempt from certain provisions of the Electric Utility Restructuring Act, then all cooperatives will be exempt, and if such election is made, the cooperatives will revert back to cost-of-service regulation. The bill provides for an extension of the fuel costs recovery tariff provisions (fuel factors) in effect on January 1, 2004, for any electric utility that purchases fuel for the generation of electricity and that was, as of July 1, 1999, bound by a rate case settlement adopted by the SCC that extended in its application beyond January 1, 2002. The fuel factors shall remain in effect until the earlier of (i) July 1, 2007; (ii) the termination of capped rates; or (iii) the establishment of tariff provisions as directed by the SCC. The bill also extends by two years the expiration date of certain certificates granted by the SCC to construct and operate electrical generating facilities. Only those certificates for which applications were filed with the SCC prior to July 1, 2002, will receive an extension. The bill provides that a municipality or other political subdivision may aggregate the electric energy load of residential, commercial, and industrial retail customers within its boundaries on either an opt-in or opt-out basis, eliminates the requirement that customers must opt in to select such aggregation, and eliminates the requirement that such municipality or other political subdivision may not earn a profit from such aggregation. The bill also authorizes any large industrial or commercial customer that is returning to its incumbent electric utility or default provider after purchasing power from a competitive supplier to elect to accept market-based pricing as an alternative to being bound by the minimum stay period (currently 12 months unless otherwise authorized) prescribed by the SCC. Customers exempted from minimum stay periods will not thereafter be entitled to purchase retail electric energy from their incumbent electric utilities at the capped rates unless such customers agree to satisfy any minimum stay period then applicable. This bill also authorizes industrial and commercial customers, as well as aggregated customers in all rate classes, to switch to a competitive service provider without paying a wires charge if they agree to pay market-based prices if they ever return to the incumbent electric utility. Customers who make this commitment and obtain power from suppliers without paying wires charges are not entitled to obtain power from their incumbent utility at its capped rates. Finally, the bill increases from 25 kilowatts to 500 kilowatts the amount of electric generating capacity a nonresidential customer-generator's facility can produce and still qualify to participate in the net metering program, which makes available a contract or tariff to eligible customer-generators on a first-come, first-served basis in each electric distribution company's service area until the rated generating capacity owned and operated by eligible customer-generators in the state reaches 0.1 percent of each electric distribution company's adjusted peak-load forecast for the previous year.