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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 16, 2004
Time and Place: 1/2 hour after adjournment, Senate Room B, GAB

H.B. 231

Patron: Athey

Virginia Consumer Protection Act; admissibility of cure offers. Permits a supplier to introduce a cure offer into evidence in a proceeding for damages under the Consumer Protection Act if the cure offer is delivered prior to the filing of the supplier's initial responsive pleading. If the damages awarded in the proceeding do not exceed the value of the cure offer, the supplier will not be liable for the person's attorneys' fees and court costs. A cure offer is an offer to remedy a loss claimed to be suffered as a result of a consumer transaction, which includes an additional amount of at least 10 percent or $500, whichever is greater; however, the minimum additional amount need not exceed $4,000. This measure is identical to SB 324.

H.B. 474

Patron: Nixon

Workers' Compensation Insurance; self-insurers; deposit to secure payment. Authorizes the Workers' Compensation Commission to accept certificates of deposit, U.S. government bonds, letters of credit, and cash as instruments that will secure the payment of workers' compensation liabilities of self-insured employers. Currently, such employers may be required to deposit an acceptable security, indemnity, or bond. This bill is identical to SB 323.

S.B. 56

Patron: Miller

Workers' compensation; choice of physician. Eliminates the requirement that an employer offer an employee a choice of three physicians and permits the employee to select a physician entirely of his own choosing.

S.B. 116

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.

S.B. 117

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.

S.B. 239

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.

S.B. 383

Patron: Norment

Telecommunications; basic services regulation. Creates a new form of regulation known as "basic services regulation." Telephone companies choosing to opt for such form of regulation would be required to offer basic services that are limited to one or more unbundled, single line, unlimited usage, residential, or business voice local exchange telephone services. Prices for these services shall be provided under tariff and cannot increase by more than 10 percent per year. After a transition period, such prices would be the same throughout the company’s local service territory. Telephone companies may set without filing tariffs nonrecurring prices for basic services. A telephone company opting into basic services regulation must offer under tariff a universal service plan guaranteeing low prices to recipients of Medicaid and food stamps. Network components of enhanced 911 services shall be offered under tariff at prices set by the telephone company. All other services may be offered without tariff at prices set by the telephone company. The State Corporation Commission (SCC) would retain authority to set rules governing (i) network service quality standards limited to those necessary to maintain the public health and safety; (ii) technical network and database standards of emergency 911 service; (iii) customer notice for tariffed rate changes and tariffed service withdrawals; (iv) disconnection of residential customers for nonpayment of local exchange service; and (v) customer deposits. The SCC would also retain authority to (i) review provisions not related to rates in tariffs; (ii) enforce the Underground Utility Damage Prevention Act; (iii) administer the Telecommunications Relay Service; and (iv) designate carriers of last resort that have responsibility to provide basic services to anyone in their service territory. The SCC would not retain any authority to (i) set rules to govern retail customer service standards; (ii) approve affiliate transactions; and (iii) approve equity and debt financing. The SCC would retain limited authority to handle customer complaints. There are no changes in the provision of wholesale services to competitors.

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. 475

Patron: Ticer

Employment discrimination; prior convictions. Prohibits discrimination in employment on the grounds that an individual has been convicted of one or more criminal offenses, unless the criminal conviction relates directly to the occupation or profession for which employment is sought. The purpose of the bill is to promote public safety by allowing constructive and uninhibited reintegration of ex-offenders, to reduce the burden placed on family members, to increase the chances of gainful employment, and to decrease the likelihood for recidivism.

S.B. 650

Patron: Deeds

Health insurance; exclusion for prophylactic surgical procedures for difficult-to-diagnose pathologies; genetic predisposition. Prohibits health insurers, corporations providing accident and sickness subscription contracts, and health maintenance organizations from refusing to provide coverage for prophylactic surgical procedures and medical services directly related thereto, in cases where the covered person's treating physician has determined that the person has a genetic factor or family history indicating a predisposition to a difficult-to-diagnose pathology, the risks to the covered person of developing the difficult-to-diagnose pathology as a result of such person's predisposition render such services medically appropriate, and coverage for treatment of the difficult-to-diagnose pathology would be provided under the terms of the policy, contract or plan if the difficult-to-diagnose pathology has been diagnosed. A difficult-to-diagnose pathology is a disease that is asymptomatic or otherwise not susceptible to diagnosis until reaching a stage at which the likelihood of successful treatment is significantly less than it would be had the treatment been performed when the disease was asymptomatic or not susceptible to diagnosis. A prophylactic surgical procedure is a surgical procedure that is performed prior to the diagnosis of or presentation of symptoms of a difficult-to-diagnose pathology, in order to prevent, eliminate or reduce the likelihood of the development of the difficult-to-diagnose pathology.

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.

S.B. 687

Patron: Devolites

Virginia Birth-Related Neurological Injury Compensation Act. Increases the participating physician assessment and participating hospital assessment by $100 and $10,000 per year, respectively, or five years, to a maximum of $5,500 and $200,000 respectively. Increases the non-participating physician assessment by $10 per year, for five years, to a maximum of $300 per year. Establishes specific criteria for determining whether requests for attorney fees are reasonable. Provides that if the results of a biennial actuarial valuation indicate that the Injury Fund is not sound, then the valuation shall be made on annual basis until the Fund is deemed sound.