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2014 SESSION

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Senate Committee on Commerce and Labor

Chairman: Richard L. Saslaw

Clerk: Maribeth Turner
Staff: Frank Munyan
Date of Meeting: February 3, 2014
Time and Place: Monday, 1/2 hour after adjournment, Senate Room B

S.B. 45 Virginia Health Benefit Exchange; established and operated by new division within SCC.

Patron: Watkins

Virginia Health Benefit Exchange. Creates the Virginia Health Benefit Exchange, which will be established and operated by a new division within the State Corporation Commission (SCC). The Exchange shall facilitate the purchase and sale of qualified health plans and qualified dental plans to qualified individuals and qualified employers, making qualified plans available to qualified individuals and qualified employers. The SCC may delay the effective date as it deems necessary to permit the completion of the establishment of the Exchange. The bill authorizes the SCC to review and approve accident and sickness insurance premium rates applicable to health benefit plans in the individual and small group markets and health benefit plans providing health insurance coverage in the individual market through certain non-employer group plans. The Exchange will be funded by assessments on health insurers offering plans in the Exchange. A health plan will not be required to cover any state-mandated health benefit if federal law does not require it to be covered as part of the essential benefits package. The essential health benefits are items and services included in the benchmark health insurance plan, which is the largest plan in the largest product in the Commonwealth's small group market as supplemented in order to provide coverage for the items and services within the statutory essential health benefits categories. The SCC may contract with other eligible entities and enter into memoranda of understanding with other agencies of the Commonwealth to carry out any of the functions of the Exchange, including agreements with other states or federal agencies to perform joint administrative functions. Such contracts are not subject to the Virginia Public Procurement Act (§ 2.2-4300 et seq.).

S.B. 118 Mortgage loan originators; transitional licensing.

Patron: Watkins

Transitional mortgage loan originators; licensing. Authorizes the State Corporation Commission to issue a transitional mortgage loan originator license to an individual who either (i) has an active license to originate mortgage loans pursuant to the laws of another state or a U.S. territory and satisfies certain registration requirements or (ii) was formerly a registered loan originator and is in the process of meeting the requirements necessary to obtain a mortgage loan originator license. Transitional licenses may be issued only if permitted by under federal law.

S.B. 120 Benefits consortium; exemption and exclusions.

Patron: Watkins


Benefits consortium; exemption and exclusions. Exempts a benefits consortium and its sponsoring organization from regulation as an insurer and from the license tax levied on insurance companies. A benefits consortium is a trust that, among other conditions, operates as a nonprofit voluntary employee beneficiary association within the meaning of § 501(c)(9) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 and is subject to federal law and regulations applicable to multiple employer welfare arrangements.

S.B. 201 Health insurance; prescription drug formularies, notices.

Patron: Puller

Health insurance; prescription drugs; formularies. Requires any health insurer, corporation providing individual or group accident and sickness subscription contracts, or health maintenance organization that applies a formulary to prescription drug benefits provided under its policy, contract, or plan to provide 60 days' prior written notice to each insured, subscriber, enrollee, participant, beneficiary, or other individual covered under the policy, contract, or plan of a modification to the formulary that results in the movement of a prescription drug to a tier with higher cost-sharing requirements.

S.B. 350 Net energy metering by municipalities & multifamily customer-generators; projects authorized.

Patron: Edwards

Net energy metering by municipalities and multifamily customer-generators. Authorizes municipal renewable energy net metering projects. Participating municipalities are authorized to aggregate the electric energy load of their governmental buildings, facilities, and any other governmental operations requiring the consumption of electric energy for the purpose of net energy metering from a renewable energy generating facility. To be eligible, the generation facility for the municipal renewable energy net metering project shall use as its sole energy source solar power, wind power, or aerobic or anaerobic digester gas and landfill gas; not have an aggregate generation capacity of more than five megawatts unless a utility elects a higher capacity; be located on land owned or controlled by the municipality; be interconnected and operated in parallel with an electric utility's transmission and distribution facilities; and be used primarily to provide energy to metered accounts of the municipality. The aggregated municipal net metered accounts may be served by multiple meters. The aggregated load shall be served under the appropriate rate schedules. The measure also requires the State Corporation Commission, by July 1, 2015, to establish a program of multifamily net energy metering, which will allow a customer or customers that operate a renewable energy generating facility in a condominium, apartment complex, neighborhood, or homeowners association served by a common distribution circuit to be an eligible multifamily net metering customer-generator. The generation facility for multifamily net metering shall use as its total source of fuel renewable energy; not have an aggregate generation capacity of more than 500 kilowatts; be located on land owned or controlled by the eligible condominium, apartment complex, or homeowners association or on customers' property within the condominium, apartment complex, neighborhood, or homeowners association; be interconnected and operated in parallel with an electric utility's transmission and distribution facilities; and be used primarily to provide energy to metered accounts of the eligible multifamily net metering customer-generator. Eligible multifamily net metering customer-generators are exempt from the monthly standby charge assessed on other eligible customer-generators.

S.B. 477 Health benefit plans; exception for certain plans previously approved, waiver for navigator program.

Patron: Newman

Noncompliant health benefit plans. Authorizes a health carrier to continue offering, issuing, issuing for delivery, delivering, selling, or renewing any health benefit plan that provides the same coverage, limits, conditions, restrictions, and benefits as a health benefit plan that the State Corporation Commission had approved prior to July 1, 2013. The measure also directs the Secretary of Health and Human Resources (HHR) to obtain from the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services a waiver from the requirements of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in order to have all federal funds allocated for navigators in the Commonwealth be paid into the general fund and to allow the Secretary of HHR to establish criteria for, select, and award grants to navigators for the Commonwealth.

S.B. 580 Electric utility regulation; renewable energy portfolio standard program, etc.

Patron: Edwards

Renewable energy portfolio standard program; renewable energy certificate registration and tracking system. Requires the State Corporation Commission to establish a system for registering and tracking renewable energy certificates in order to facilitate the creation and transfer of such certificates. To the extent practicable, the system shall be consistent with and operate in conjunction with the system developed by PJM Interconnection LLC. The system shall include a registry of information regarding available renewable energy certificates and renewable energy certificate transactions. The measure establishes limits on the duration of a renewable energy certificate. The Commission is also directed to establish requirements for documentation and verification of renewable energy certificates by licensed energy suppliers and renewable energy generators, including net energy metering program participants. The measure eliminates provisions for double or triple credit toward meeting the renewable energy portfolio standard for energy derived from specific renewable energy sources, except that a utility will receive double credit toward meeting the standard for energy derived from onshore wind obtained via power purchase agreements entered into prior to January 1, 2013.

S.B. 590 Minimum wage; increases wage from its current federally mandated level.

Patron: Marsden

Minimum wage. Increases the minimum wage from its current federally mandated level of $7.25 per hour to $8.25 per hour effective July 1, 2014, and to $9.25 per hour effective July 1, 2015, unless a higher minimum wage is required by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.

S.B. 618 Health insurance; essential health benefits, abortion coverage.

Patrons: Locke, McEachin

Essential health benefits; abortion coverage. Removes the prohibition on the provision of coverage for abortions in any qualified health insurance plan that is sold or offered for sale through a health benefits exchange established or operating in Virginia.

S.B. 646 Health insurance; essential health benefits, abortion coverage.

Patron: McEachin

Essential health benefits; abortion coverage. Removes the prohibition on the provision of coverage for abortions in any qualified health insurance plan that is sold or offered for sale through a health benefits exchange established or operating in Virginia.