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2004 SESSION

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Senate Committee on Commerce and Labor

Chairman: William C. Wampler, Jr.

Date of Meeting: February 9, 2004
Time and Place:

S.B. 22

Patron: Miller

Labor; minimum wage. Increases the state minimum wage to six dollars and fifty cents from the federal minimum wage set by the Fair Labor Standards Act. Currently, the federal minimum wage is five dollars and fifteen cents.

S.B. 240

Patron: Norment

Business entities; fictitious names. Eliminates the requirement that certain business entities must file a fictitious name certificate in each locality in whose jurisdiction business is transacted. A local filing will still be required for business conducted by persons or general partnerships. The bill also adds registered limited liability partnerships to the list of business entities to which the fictitious names requirements would apply.

S.B. 242

Patron: Norment

Anti-price gouging. Adds a new chapter to Title 59.1 titled "Virginia Post-Disaster Anti-Price Gouging Act." The bill prohibits price gouging by suppliers selling, leasing, or licensing, or offering to sell, lease, or license, necessary goods and services during times of disaster. A time of disaster is the period of time in which a declaration of a state of emergency by the Governor or the President of the United States is in effect, or 30 days after the occurrence of the event that constitutes the disaster, whichever is shorter. To determine whether price gouging has occurred, the following must be considered: the prices charged by a supplier 10 days prior to the disaster; whether the price charged by the supplier during the time of disaster grossly exceeded the price at which the same or similar goods or services were readily obtainable in the trade area during the 10 days prior to the time of disaster; and whether the increase in the amount charged by the supplier was attributable solely to additional costs incurred by the supplier in connection with the sale of the goods or services. Violations are handled in the same manner as are other violations of the Virginia Consumer Protection Act except that no private cause of action is available.

S.B. 282

Patron: Wampler

Localities providing local exchange telecommunications services; cost allocation manuals. Requires that if the State Corporation Commission finds acceptable a cost allocation manual filed by a locality that provides local exchange telecommunications services, it shall deem the cost allocation manual to be sufficient indication of the lack of cross-subsidization so as not to require any further cost study to be maintained by such locality. The bill requires the locality to maintain and update the cost allocation manual on an annual basis if any changes occur during the year.

S.B. 291

Patron: O'Brien

Insurance; reimbursement rates to health care providers. Requires insurers or other health carriers issuing individual or group accident and sickness insurance policies and other carriers using provider panels to deliver health benefits coverages on an expense-incurred basis to provide written notification to health care providers at least 30 days prior to a change in the rates or fees that will be paid to providers for health care services.

S.B. 428

Patron: Wagner

Minimum wage. Provides that no public body may require the payment of a minimum wage that exceeds the federal minimum wage to the employees of an employer, or his subcontractor, contracting to provide goods or services to the public body.

S.B. 433

Patron: Wagner

Property and casualty insurance; Virginia Property Insurance Association; windstorm and windstorm and hail coverage. Authorizes the issuance of windstorm as well as windstorm and hail insurance policies by the Virginia Property Insurance Association ("VPIA"). The VPIA provides a residual market for basic property insurance. A coordinate provision in the bill authorizes property insurers underwriting in the voluntary market of Virginia's coastal areas to exclude (in new policies only and not renewals) coverage on owner-occupied dwellings for losses resulting from windstorm or windstorm and hail. The Virginia coastal area is defined as that part of the Commonwealth lying east of 76 degrees, 30 minutes west longitude. The exclusion is authorized on the condition that insurers desiring to do so (i) issue premium credits for such exclusions and (ii) furnish written disclosures to insureds describing the exclusions and informing insureds that coverage for windstorm or windstorm and hail can be obtained through the VPIA.

S.B. 547

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.

S.B. 558

Patron: Norment

Workers' compensation; lien by employer on settlement or verdict. Provides that an employer's payment of workers' compensation benefits creates not only a subrogation interest, but an actual lien against any proceeds obtained by verdict or settlement from a third party or recovered pursuant to the uninsured or underinsured motorist provisions of a motor vehicle insurance policy carried by the employer. Under current law, the employer has a subrogation interest in a recovery by the employee against a third party that it must enforce independently or perfect prior to verdict. The bill also provides that where the employer must sue to recover on its lien, it is not required to pay the employee's cost of defending the suit.

S.B. 582

Patron: Colgan

Workers' compensation; presumption as to death or disability. Adds volunteer or salaried emergency medical service providers to those employees for whom there exists a presumption that a (i) respiratory disease, (ii) hypertension or heart disease, or (iii) cancer, which causes death or disability, is an occupational disease, suffered in the line of duty.

S.B. 618

Patron: Wagner

Insurance; provider panels. Allows a health insurance provider to send a provider directory electronically to its insureds.

S.B. 641

Patron: Ticer

Insurance; mandated healthcare coverage; hearing aids for minors. Requires the state health plan, health insurers, health maintenance organizations, corporations providing health care coverage subscription contracts, and Medicaid to provide coverage for hearing aids and related services for children from birth to age 5 when a licensed audiologist prescribes such hearing aids and related services. Such coverage shall include one hearing aid per hearing-impaired ear, up to a cost of $1,400, every 36 months. The insured may choose a higher priced hearing aid and pay the difference in cost above $1,400. No copayment will apply. Hearing aids are not to be considered durable medical equipment.

S.B. 663

Patron: Wagner

Natural gas companies; right of entry upon property. Provides interstate natural gas companies with the same limited right of entry for survey and study purposes that is granted to intrastate natural gas companies under existing law. A company must seek the landowner’s permission by certified mail, and may enter the property only with landowner permission or, if permission is withheld, only after providing at least 15-days’ notice by certified mail. A company using the right of entry is liable for any actual damages resulting from its entry upon the land. The bill does not authorize interstate natural gas companies to exercise the power of condemnation.

S.B. 673

Patron: Cuccinelli

Voice-over-Internet Protocol; State Corporation Commission; regulation; taxation. Excludes Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) from regulation by the State Corporation Commission (SCC) by excluding VoIP from the definition of telecommunications service and telephone service. The bill also limits the definition of telecommunications service and telephone service for purposes of local taxation. State taxes on telecommunications and telecommunications companies as provided in § 58.1-400.1 (Minimum tax on telecommunications companies) and Chapter 26 (Taxation of Public Service Corporations) of Title 58.1 refer to the power of the SCC to authorize a person to provide telephone service. Exempting VoIP from the regulation of the SCC will also exempt these services from those taxes.

S.B. 679

Patron: Martin

State-mandated health insurance; Consumer Choice Benefits Plan Act. Creates the Consumer Choice Benefits Plan Act, which permits companies offering accident or sickness insurance policies or plans to offer a policy or plan that, in whole or in part, does not offer or provide state-mandated health benefits. Each insurer or health maintenance organization providing a consumer choice benefits plan must provide a written disclosure that must be signed by the prospective or current insured. The disclosure must include an acknowledgement that the consumer choice benefits plan does not provide some or all of the state-mandated health benefits and a list of the mandated benefits not included. If the insured is an individual policyholder, the disclosure must also state that the purchase of the plan may limit the policyholder's future coverage options in the event the policyholder's health changes, and needed benefits are not available under the consumer choice benefits plan. Certain coverage will still be required, including payment to dentists and certain other health care providers for covered services; coverage of cancer screenings; the prohibition against discrimination in § 38.2-508.4; the certificate of quality assurance requirements pursuant to § 32.1-137.2; coverage of newborn, adopted, and dependent children; coverage of mental health and substance abuse services; coverage for diabetes; and the option relating to conversion coverage pursuant to § 38.2-3416. The bill permits the State Corporation Commission to adopt rules as necessary to implement the new act.