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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 23, 2004
Time and Place: 1/2 hour after adjournment, Senate Room B, General Assembly Bldg

H.B. 221

Patron: Hargrove

Miscellaneous casualty insurance. Defines "miscellaneous casualty insurance" as insurance against liability, and against loss, damage, or expense arising out of injury to the economic interests of any person. It does not include any other statutorily-specified class of insurance, and would not include insurance that is contrary to law or public policy.

H.B. 288

Patron: Griffith

Unemployment compensation; disqualification for benefits. Provides that misconduct, for purposes of disqualification for unemployment compensation benefits, includes a willful and deliberate violation of a standard or regulation of the Commonwealth, by an employee of an employer licensed by the Commonwealth, which violation would cause the employer to be sanctioned or have its license suspended by the Commonwealth. The Workers' Compensation Commission may consider mitigating circumstances in determining whether misconduct occurred.

H.B. 322

Patron: Griffith

Health insurance carriers; fair business practices; retroactive denials. Prohibits a health insurance carrier from imposing any retroactive denial of payment or seeking recovery or refund of a previously paid claim unless the carrier specifies in writing the specific claim for which the retroactive denial is to be imposed or the recovery or refund is sought. The carrier must also explain why the claim is being retroactively adjusted.

H.B. 342

Patron: Kilgore

Business entities; conversions; mergers; registration. Requires different business entities involved in conversions or mergers to make certain filings with the State Corporation Commission. The bill expands what must be included in the application for registration, reentry, or reinstatement that must be filed with the Commission in order for a foreign business entity to transact business in Virginia. The bill also includes technical amendments.

H.B. 363

Patron: Hargrove

Legal services plans. Transfers responsibility for regulating legal services plan sellers from the State Corporation Commission's Bureau of Insurance to the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. The measure establishes requirements for the registration of legal services plan sellers, authorizes the Board of Agriculture and Consumer Services to prescribe regulations relating to legal services plan sellers, and authorizes the Department to investigate violations. Legal services plan sellers must make contract records available to the Department upon request and maintain a true copy of each contract for its term. A seller who knowingly and willfully violates the requirement shall be guilty of a Class 3 misdemeanor.

H.B. 460

Patron: Drake

Powers of attorney; fidelity and surety insurers. Eliminates the requirements that powers of attorney binding fidelity and surety insurers be recorded. The power of attorney must be attached to the bond or other obligation. The measure does not apply to surety bail bondsmen.

H.B. 553

Patron: Hargrove

Insurance; rates. Allows insurers, other than workers' compensation insurers, to limit the amount of a premium increase applicable to the renewal of a policy, and to phase in the increase over a specified period.

H.B. 596

Patron: Dudley

Virginia Property and Casualty Insurance Guaranty Association. Recognizes the existence of Virginia Property and Casualty Insurance Guaranty fund coverage for certain qualifying claims that have been assumed as direct obligations of the insolvent insurer prior to the insurer's being declared insolvent. The bill clarifies that certain transactions, including routine reinsurance transactions and surplus lines transactions, are not novations that would establish a direct obligation of the insurer to the insured. The bill also expands the definition of "insolvent insurer" to include an insurer that is licensed in Virginia when the obligation with respect to the covered claim was assumed.

H.B. 625

Patron: O'Bannon

Charitable corporations; purposes for which assets are held. Provides that the assets of a charitable corporation shall be deemed to be held in trust for such purposes as are established in the governing documents of the charitable corporation, the gift or bequest to the corporation, or other applicable law. Existing language providing that the assets are to be held for such purposes as established by the donor's intent as expressed in the corporation's governing documents, is repealed. This provision is stated not to modify the standard of conduct applicable to directors of charitable corporations under existing law.

H.B. 628

Patron: O'Bannon

Health maintenance organizations; Medicaid; Family Access to Medical Insurance Security Plan. Removes the requirement that Medicaid HMOs include in the evidence of coverage a statement entitling any Medicaid recipient or FAMIS participants to conversion of their coverage to an individual contract. The measure conforms the requirements for the explanation of benefits for Medicaid recipients and FAMIS participants to the standards prescribed in the state plan for medical assistance services and the FAMIS Plan. Statutory requirements will not apply to the extent such requirements differ from the Department of Medical Assistance Services' standards. A second enactment clause declares that an emergency exists and this measure will become effective upon passage.

EMERGENCY

H.B. 687

Patron: Morgan

Commissioner of Labor and Industry. Provides that any reference to the Commissioner of Labor and Industry shall include his authorized representatives, except where the context clearly indicates the contrary. The bill allows the Commissioner to appoint a designated representative to carry out functions assigned to the Commissioner. Under current law, the Commissioner can appoint designated representatives in the occupational safety and health area, but his ability to make such appointments in other areas is not explicit.

H.B. 689

Patron: Morgan

Virginia Telephone Privacy Protection Act; telephone solicitation. Expands the definition of a "telephone solicitation call" to include solicitation calls made to any wireless telephone with a Virginia area code. A telephone solicitor is prohibited from calling a telephone number that has been placed on the federal Do Not Call Registry. The bill provides that the use of a version of the federal Do Not Call Registry obtained no more than three months prior to the date of the telephone solicitation is an affirmative defense to an action alleging a violation of the Telephone Privacy Protection Act. The bill requires telephone solicitors to play a prerecorded identification message that states the name and telephone number of the person on whose behalf the telephone solicitation call was being made, whenever a live person is not available within two seconds of completing the greeting. This bill is identical to SB 344.

H.B. 864

Patron: Byron

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 bear any share of the reasonable legal expenses of the employee for that portion of its lien that was not preserved.

H.B. 884

Patron: Plum

Nonstock corporations; terms of directors. Provides that where the articles of incorporation or bylaws of a nonstock corporation are silent, the term of a director elected by the board of directors to fill a vacancy expires at the next meeting at which directors are elected. Current law contains no provision allowing the articles of incorporation to govern this matter.

H.B. 1181

Patron: Bryant

Insurance; annuity nonforfeiture. Incorporates model provisions adopted by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners' Standard Nonforfeiture Law for Individual Deferred Annuities. The measure also establishes a formula that uses an index-based interest rate to determine the minimum nonforfeiture amounts for individual deferred annuity contracts issued on or after July 1, 2005 and details application of the formula, including that it may be applied to certain contracts issued before July 1, 2005.

H.B. 1183

Patron: Bryant

Limited Liability Company Act; registered agents. Permits a member or manager of a limited liability company that is a member or manager of a new or existing limited liability company to be the registered agent for the limited liability company. This provision is consistent with similar provisions applicable to limited partnerships, registered limited liability partnerships, and business trusts.

H.B. 1186

Patron: Bryant

Insurance; actuarial opinions. Requires every insurer to submit annually an actuarial opinion and supporting documents, including a summary of opinion or issues, memoranda, and work papers prepared in conformity with appropriate National Association of Insurance Commissioners annual statement instructions. The documents shall be privileged and confidential and not discoverable or admissible in a civil action. The new requirements apply to fraternal benefit societies, health services plans, health maintenance organizations, and dental or optometric services plans.

H.B. 1187

Patron: Bryant

State Corporation Commission refunds. Authorizes the State Corporation Commission, relative to the Virginia Limited Liability Company Act, the Virginia Business Trust Act, the Virginia Revised Uniform Limited Partnership Act, and the Virginia Uniform Partnership Act, to refund any overpayment of fees, or fees collected for a document that is not accepted for filing, within one year from the date of the payment of the fee. The Commission is currently authorized to make such refunds under the Virginia Stock and Nonstock Corporation Acts.

H.B. 1238

Patron: Griffith

Virginia Insurance Continuing Education Board; Virginia Association of Health Underwriters. Adds one representative from the Virginia Association of Health Underwriters to the Virginia Insurance Continuing Education Board and decreases, from two to one, the number of representatives on the Board from the Virginia Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors.

H.B. 1267

Patron: Byron

Workers' compensation; electoral board members. Clarifies that electoral board members are considered county and city employees who are defined as "employees" for purposes of eligibility for workers' compensation benefits. The measure is stated to be declaratory of existing law.

H.B. 1269

Patron: Drake

Banks; loans and other extensions of credit to executive officers and directors. Requires that Federal Reserve Board Regulations govern the maximum amount of loans and other extensions of credit a bank may make to any of its executive officers or directors, and the conditions and procedures for approval of such extensions of credit, regardless of whether the bank is a member of the Federal Reserve System.

H.B. 1327

Patron: Dudley

Insurance; multiple employer welfare arrangements. Excludes from the State Corporation Commission's regulatory jurisdiction any multiple employer welfare arrangement (MEWA) comprised only of banks and their employees that (i) is duly licensed as a MEWA by the insurance regulatory agency of a state contiguous to the Commonwealth, (ii) files with the Commission a copy of its certificate of authority or other proper license from the contiguous state, and (iii) has no more than 50 Virginia residents who are employees of its member banks enrolled in or receiving accident and sickness benefits as insureds, members, enrollees, or subscribers of the MEWA.

H.B. 1424

Patron: Dudley

Personal Information Privacy Act; date of birth on checks. Prohibits a person who accepts checks in the transaction of business from recording, or requesting or requiring a person to record, a date of birth upon the check as a condition of accepting the check. The section does not affect collection of a birth date for reasons unrelated to accepting the check, nor does it block a requirement that the payor provide his year of birth.