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ACROSS SESSIONS
- Subject Index: Since 1995
- Bills & Resolutions: Since 1994
- Summaries: Since 1994
Developed and maintained by the Division of Legislative Automated Systems.
2011 SESSION
Chairman: R. Edward Houck
Clerk: Patty Lung, Jocelyn Lance
Staff: J.Eades, N.Cheuk
Date of Meeting: January 27, 2011
Time and Place: Thursday - 8:30 AM; Senate Room B, General Assembly Building
Patron: Reynolds
Drug Control Act; pseudoephedrine. Adds pseudoephedrine to Schedule III of the Drug Control Act, which would prohibit it from being sold without a prescription.
Patron: McDougle
Board of Health; regulation of facilities. Requires the Board of Health to promulgate regulations containing minimum standards for policies related to infection prevention, disaster preparedness, and facility security of hospitals, nursing homes, and certified nursing facilities.
Patron: Miller, J.C.
Boards of visitors; adding two members. Adds two members to the boards of visitors of each public college and university, to be chosen by the other members.
Patron: Howell
Video-monitoring system; school bus violations. Authorizes local school divisions to install and operate video-monitoring systems on school buses in order to detect drivers passing stopped school buses.
Patron: Northam
Family life education. Requires each school division to implement the standards of learning for the family life education program promulgated by the Board of Education, or a family life education program consistent with the guidelines developed by the Board, which shall have the goals of reducing the incidence of pregnancy, sexually transmitted disease, and substance abuse among teenagers. Any curricula or materials used must be evidence-based and supported by peer reviewed medical research.
Patron: Locke
Certificate of public need; exempts Veterans Services facilities. Exempts any facility of the Department of Veterans Services from the certificate of public need requirements.
Patron: Puckett
Dental hygienists; extension of educational and preventive care protocol. Extends for one year the protocol allowing dental hygienists to provide educational and preventive dental care in the Lenowisco, Cumberland Plateau, and Southside Health Districts, which are designated as Virginia Dental Health Professional Shortage Areas by the Department of Health. The bill also delays the report required until January 1, 2012.
Patron: Puckett
Drinking water community confidence reports; publication. Requires the Department of Health to include in its regulations governing waterworks, water supplies, and pure water a process whereby waterworks serving fewer than 10,000 people may seek and the Governor may grant a waiver of the requirement that the waterworks mail copies of its community confidence report to each customer of the system at least once annually. Such waterworks shall instead provide notice of the report via publication in a newspaper of general circulation and by such other means as the waterworks deems appropriate and make copies of the report available to the public upon request.
Patron: Puckett
Disclosure of health records; dispensing of controlled substances. Clarifies that nothing in the Health Records Privacy Act shall prohibit a health care provider who dispenses a controlled substance to a patient from disclosing information obtained from the Prescription Monitoring Program and contained in a patient's health care record to another health care provider when such disclosure is related to the care or treatment of the patient. This bill also provides that nothing shall prevent a person who prescribes or dispenses a controlled substance from redisclosing information obtained from the Prescription Monitoring Program to another prescriber or dispenser who prescribes or dispenses a controlled substance to a recipient.
Patron: Barker
Certificate of public need; nursing facilities. Removes an exception to the COPN requirements for certain nursing facilities, and clarifies provisions allowing certain nursing facilities in continuing care retirement communities to participate in the Medical Assistance Program.
Patron: Barker
Notification of breach of medical information. Extends the requirement to notify individuals of a breach of their medical information to all individuals and public and private entities, rather than just governmental agencies. The bill also allows the Attorney General to impose a civil penalty not to exceed $150,000 per breach of the security system.
Patron: Barker
In-state tuition; National Guard. Provides in-state tuition for any person who met the requirements for in-state tuition prior to being called to active duty in the National Guard of another state following completion of active duty service if during active duty that person maintained one or more of the following in Virginia rather than in another state or jurisdiction: a driver's license, motor vehicle registration, voter registration, employment, property ownership, or sources of financial support. The bill contains an emergency clause.
EMERGENCY
Patron: Hanger
Youth health risk survey. Requires the Department of Health to develop and administer an annual random survey of students in public middle and high schools to facilitate planning and implementation of effective programs for substance abuse prevention through collection of information identifying trends in alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use and the assessment of risk and protective factors among youth of the Commonwealth. The bill provides that a student shall not be required to participate if his parents refuse consent in writing prior to administration of the survey, and requires local school boards to develop policies for the notification of parents of students selected for participation in the survey.
Patron: Hanger
Prescribing Schedule II, Schedule III, or Schedule IV controlled substances. Requires any prescriber who prescribes a controlled substance included in Schedule II, Schedule III, or Schedule IV of the Drug Control Act to request and review information about that patient from the Prescription Monitoring Program, and to continue to do so at least annually for so long as the prescriber continues to prescribe the controlled substance to the patient.
Patron: Hanger
Pharmacies; access to Prescription Monitoring Program. Provides that the Board of Pharmacy shall include in its regulations that (i) every pharmacy shall ensure that at least one pharmacist who is physically present at the pharmacy shall have access to the Prescription Monitoring Program at all times and (ii) nothing shall prevent a pharmacist who is eligible to receive information from the Prescription Monitoring Program from requesting and receiving such information.
Patron: Wampler
University of Virginia; management agreement. Clarifies that the University of Virginia is authorized to make full use of the additional financial and operational authority granted to it in its management agreement in providing assistance to the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center.
Patron: Northam
Death certificates; who may sign. Allows supervised nurse practitioners and physician assistants to determine cause of death and sign death certificates, provided they have access to the decedent's medical history and the death is due to natural causes. In addition, the bill expands the description of which physicians may determine cause of death and sign a death certificate and provides civil immunity to physicians, physician assistants and nurse practitioners who sign death certificates and determine cause of death, in the absence of gross negligence or willful misconduct.
Patron: Quayle
Certificate of public need; amendment authorized. Allows the Commissioner of Health to accept and approve a request to amend the conditions of a certificate of public need issued to a continuing care provider registered with the State Corporation Commission pursuant to Chapter 49 (§ 38.2-4900 et seq.) of Title 38.2 of the Code of Virginia in which nursing facility or extended care services are provided to allow such continuing care provider to continue to admit community patients, other than contract holders, to its nursing facility beds through December 31, 2014, if the following conditions are met: (i) the facility is located within the City of Suffolk and operated as a not-for-profit and (ii) the facility's contract holder occupancy rate is less than 85 percent at the time of such application.
Patron: Quayle
Schedule II drugs; identification required in filling prescriptions. Specifies that certain duties imposed upon a pharmacist in the delivery of Schedule II drugs may be undertaken by the agent of the pharmacist. The bill also makes discretionary provisions enacted in 2010 requiring that a pharmacist record the name and address of any person who seeks to fill a prescription for a Schedule II drug if the person is not the patient for whom the drug is prescribed, make photocopies of proof of identity and maintain records of names and addresses. The bill eliminates the requirement that copies of identification documents be kept for at least one year.
Patron: Smith
Certificate of public need; amendment authorized. Allows the Commissioner of Health to approve a request to amend the conditions of a certificate of public need issued to a continuing care provider registered with the State Corporation Commission in which nursing facility or extended care services are provided to allow such continuing care provider to continue to admit community patients, other than contract holders, to its nursing facility beds through December 31, 2014, if the following conditions are met: (i) the facility is located within the County of Botetourt and operated as a not-for-profit and (ii) the facility's contract holder occupancy rate is less than 85 percent at the time of such application.
Patron: Vogel
Registered nurses; provisional licensure. Allows the Board of Nursing to issue a provisional license to an applicant for licensure as a registered nurse who has met the educational and examination requirements for licensure, in order to allow the applicant to obtain clinical experience. A person practicing under a provisional license shall only practice under the supervision of a licensed registered nurse, in accordance with regulations established by the Board.
Patron: Obenshain
Sexually violent predators. Establishes a procedure for rescission of a respondent's refusal to participate with a mental health examination and makes clear that a sheriff who is transporting a respondent for purposes of a hearing or annual review is not required to keep the respondent segregated by sight and sound from other prisoners.
Patron: Obenshain
Professional engineering of onsite treatment works; Department of Health oversight. Contains several provisions restricting the Department of Health's oversight of the requirements for and the review of onsite treatment works submitted by professional engineers.
Patron: McWaters
Eligibility for in-state tuition charges. Ensures that the established Virginia domicile of a spouse of an active duty military service member, and therefore in-state tuition eligibility, must not be affected by the establishment and maintenance of a place of residence in another jurisdiction for the purpose of maintaining a joint household with such member. The bill also provides that the spouse of an active duty military service member, if such spouse has established domicile and claimed a dependent student on federal or state income tax returns, must not be subject to minimum income tests or requirements.
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Patron: McEachin
Dental school faculty; licensure. Revises several provisions related to temporary licenses for dental school faculty who are not otherwise licensed to practice dentistry in the Commonwealth.
Patron: Obenshain
Charter schools; employees. Allows public charter school employees to choose whether to participate in the Virginia Retirement System and specifies that they are not party to any existing collective bargaining agreement. Also allows only 75 percent of public charter elementary school teachers to be licensed, 50 percent of public charter middle and high school teachers to be licensed, and specifies that all teachers be otherwise be highly qualified, as defined by the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
Patron: Newman
Certificate of public need; relocation of nursing home beds. Allows an entity that has relocated nursing home beds in certain circumstances and thereafter closed the facility to, within 36 months of such closure, relocate the remaining beds to another facility, either existing or new, under common ownership or control, without regard to the criteria set forth in this section. The bill allows the Commissioner to issue a certificate of public need for such relocation. The bill contains technical amendments.
Patron: Lucas
Podiatry; expands definition. Expands the definition of podiatry to include the diagnosis and treatment of lower extremity ulcers, provided that the treatment of severe lower extremity ulcers beyond the foot and ankle only be performed by appropriately trained, credentialed podiatrists in certain approved hospitals or ambulatory surgery centers.
Patron: Ticer
Kinesiotherapists; licensure required. Requires the Board of Medicine to license and regulate kinesiotherapists.