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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.
2016 SESSION
Chairman: Frank W. Wagner
Clerk: John Garrett
Staff: Frank Munyan
Date of Meeting: February 1, 2016
Time and Place: 15 minutes after adjournment / Senate Room B
Revised to add SB 646
Patron: Yancey
Electric utility regulation; solar energy facilities. Clarifies that a provision enacted in 2015 that authorizes an investor-owned electric utility to recover the costs of purchasing certain solar generation facilities through a rate adjustment clause did not alter existing provisions that authorize the utility to recover the costs of constructing certain other types of facilities. The measure contains a statement that it is declarative of existing law. The measure applies to any petition or application filed before the State Corporation Commission on or after July 1, 2015.
EMERGENCY
Patron: Marsden
Minimum wage. Increases the minimum wage from its current federally mandated level of $7.25 per hour to $8.00 per hour effective July 1, 2016, to $9.00 per hour effective July 1, 2017, and to $10.10 per hour effective July 1, 2018, unless a higher minimum wage is required by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The measure also provides that the cash wage paid to a tipped employee shall not be less than 50 percent of the minimum wage and that the tip credit shall equal the difference between the cash wage required to be paid to a tipped employee and the minimum wage.
Patron: Marsden
Workers' compensation; disease presumption; correctional officers. Provides that correctional officers are entitled to a presumption that hypertension, heart disease, hepatitis, meningococcal meningitis, tuberculosis, MRSA, or HIV causing the correctional officer's death or resulting in his total or partial disability is an occupational disease suffered in the line of duty and is compensable under the Virginia Workers' Compensation Act.
Patron: Marsden
Correctional Officer Procedural Guarantee Act. Creates the Correctional Officer Procedural Guarantee Act to establish procedural guarantees for correctional officers when allegations are made against such officers involving matters that may lead to their dismissal, demotion, suspension, or transfer for punitive reasons.
Patron: Edwards
Minimum wage. Increases the minimum wage from its current federally mandated level of $7.25 per hour to $8.00 per hour effective July 1, 2016, to $9.00 per hour effective July 1, 2017, and to $10.10 per hour effective July 1, 2018, unless a higher minimum wage is required by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act FLSA). The measure also provides that the Virginia minimum wage applies to persons whose employment is covered by the FLSA.
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.
Patron: Stuart
Unfair claim settlement practices; appraisal of automobile repair costs. Authorizes the repair facility or the insurer making the appraisal of the cost of repairing an automobile that has been damaged as the result of a covered loss to prepare an initial repair appraisal, which may be the final repair appraisal, on the automobile either from personal inspection of the vehicle by a representative of the repair facility or insurer or from photographs, videos, or electronically transmitted digital imagery of the automobile. The measure prohibits an insurer from requiring an owner of an automobile to submit photographs, videos, or electronically transmitted digital imagery as a condition of an appraisal. Currently, a person is prohibited from making appraisals of the cost of repairing an automobile that has been damaged as a result of a collision unless the appraisal is based upon a personal inspection. An insurer's violation of the requirement with such frequency as to indicate a general business practice constitutes an unfair claim settlement practice.
Patron: Stuart
Real estate settlement agents. Adds to provisions relating to real estate settlement agents a new term, "closing disclosure," defined in the bill as the combined mortgage loan disclosure statement of final loan terms and closing costs prescribed under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (12 U.S.C. § 5301 et seq.), Regulation X (12 U.S.C. § 1024 et seq.), and Regulation Z (12 U.S.C. § 1026 et seq.), to comply with changes made by the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to the real estate closing process. The bill also makes the settlement agent's registration fee nonfundable. The bill removes the requirement of the Bureau of Insurance to notify the Virginia State Bar to terminate a settlement agent's registration upon termination of his last appointment because the Bureau and not the Virginia State Bar administers the licensing process.
Patron: Alexander
Automobile clubs. Repeals provisions relating to the licensure and operations of automobile clubs. Requirements are deleted regarding the authority of insurance agents to negotiate automobile club contracts on behalf of licensed automobile clubs and the issuance of guaranteed arrest bond certificates by an automobile club or association.
Patron: McEachin
Equal pay irrespective of sex. Amends existing law requiring equal pay for equal work irrespective of sex to (i) increase the penalty for a violation from double unpaid wages to triple unpaid wages plus reasonable attorney fees; (ii) prohibit employers from punishing employees for sharing salary information with their coworkers; and (iii) prohibit unequal provision of benefits and privileges. The measure also deletes the exemption for employers covered by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act from the Commonwealth's prohibition on discrimination in the payment of wages on the basis of sex.
Patron: Petersen
Workers' compensation; recovering damages from other party. Expands the type of persons against whom an injured employee may bring a cause of action to recover damages for injury, occupational disease, or death to include statutory coemployees. The measure provides that a determination of whether a person is a stranger to the employer's work shall be made without regard to whether the person was performing work that is part of the trade, business, or occupation of the injured employee's employer. The measure affirms that an "other party" shall not include the injured employee's employer or a fellow employee.
Patron: Wexton
Paid sick days for employees; civil penalties. Requires private employers to give to each full-time employee paid sick days, to be accrued at a rate of no less than one hour for every 30 hours worked. An employee would be entitled to use accrued sick days beginning on the ninetieth calendar day of employment. An employer may limit an employee's use of paid sick days to 24 hours or three days in each calendar year. The bill would require an employer to provide paid sick days, upon the request of the employee, for diagnosis, care, or treatment of health conditions of the employee or the employee's family member. The bill would prohibit an employer from discriminating or retaliating against an employee who requests paid sick days. The bill would require employers to satisfy specified posting and notice and recordkeeping requirements and would require the Commissioner of Labor and Industry (the Commissioner) to administer and enforce these requirements and to investigate alleged violations of these requirements. The bill would authorize the Commissioner to impose specified civil penalties for violations. The Commissioner or Attorney General would be authorized to bring an action to recover specified civil penalties against an offender, as well as attorney fees and costs. The measure would not apply to employees covered by a collective bargaining agreement that provides for paid sick days, nor would it lessen any other obligations of the employer to employees.
Patron: DeSteph
Step therapy; psychiatric medicines. Prohibits a health insurer or other carrier from using step therapy in a manner that results in a denial of or delay in coverage for any psychiatric medication under a health insurance policy or plan. The measure applies only to health insurance policies or plans that provide coverage for prescription drugs on an outpatient basis. If the health benefit plan utilizes a closed drug formulary, the prohibition applies only to psychiatric medications on the formulary.
Patron: DeSteph
Step therapy protocols. Requires health benefit plans that restrict the use of any prescription drug through the use of a step therapy protocol to have in place a clear, convenient, and expeditious process for a prescribing medical provider to request an override of such restrictions for a patient. A step therapy protocol is a protocol or program that establishes the specific sequence in which prescription drugs for a specified medical condition are medically appropriate for a particular covered person and are covered by a health benefit plan or that conditions coverage of a prescription medication on a patient first trying an alternative medication without success. The measure requires the granting of a step therapy protocol override if (i) the required prescription drug is contraindicated or will likely cause an adverse reaction or physical or mental harm to the patient; (ii) the required prescription drug is expected to be ineffective on the basis of the known relevant physical or mental characteristics of the covered person and the known characteristics of the prescription drug regimen; (iii) the covered person has tried the required prescription drug while under his current or a previous health benefit plan or another prescription drug in the same pharmacologic class or with the same mechanism of action and such prescription drug was discontinued due to lack of efficacy or effectiveness, diminished effect, or an adverse event; or (iv) the required prescription drug is not in the best interest of the covered person, based on medical appropriateness.
Patron: Lewis
Workers' compensation; cost of automobile. Authorizes the Workers' Compensation Commission, in awards entered for incapacity for work and upon determination by the treating physician and the Commission that it is medically necessary, to require an employer to provide up to $42,000 for the purchase by the employee of a suitably equipped automobile. Such payment may be required if modifications to or equipment for the employee's automobile are not appropriate. The provision of funds for an automobile under this measure is separate from the $42,000 aggregate cap on expenses for modifications to or equipment for the employee's automobile and for bedside lifts, adjustable beds, and modification of the employee's principal home consisting of ramps, handrails, doorway alterations, or any appliances prescribed by the treating physician.
Patron: Vogel
Health insurance; parity of coverage for oral chemotherapy medications. Requires health insurers, health care subscription plans, and health maintenance organizations, whose policies provide coverage for cancer chemotherapy treatment, to provide coverage for a prescribed, orally administered anticancer medication on a basis no less favorable than that on which it provides coverage for intravenously administered or injected anticancer medications. Such a policy, contract, or plan shall not require a higher copayment, deductible, or coinsurance amount for a prescribed, orally administered anticancer medication than what it requires for an intravenously administered or injected anticancer medication that is provided, regardless of formulation or benefit category determination by the insurer, corporation, or health maintenance organization. The measure applies to the state employees' health insurance plan and to the local choice health program. The measure replaces a provision enacted in 2012 that requires health insurers, health care subscription plans, and health maintenance organizations whose policies, contracts, or plans include coverage for intravenously administered, injected, and orally administered anticancer drugs to consistently apply the criteria for establishing cost sharing applicable to orally administered cancer chemotherapy drugs and cancer chemotherapy drugs that are administered intravenously or by injection.
Patron: Dance
Health benefit plans; prescription drugs; tiers. Prohibits a health carrier offering a health benefit plan that provides coverage for prescription drugs from implementing a formulary that places a prescription drug on the highest cost-sharing tier unless at least one prescription drug that is in the same therapeutic class and is a medically appropriate alternative treatment for a given disease or condition is available at a lower cost-sharing tier under the formulary.
Patron: McPike
Workers' compensation; presumption of compensability for certain diseases. Substitutes colorectal cancer, which is cancer that starts in the colon or rectum, for rectal cancer on the list of cancers that are presumed to be an occupational disease covered by the Virginia Workers' Compensation Act when certain employees develop the cancer after contact with a known or suspected carcinogen that causes, or is suspected to cause, the specific type of cancer.
Patron: Norment
Health benefit plans; federal law changes; large and small employers. Deletes provisions that as of January 1, 2016, changed the definition of a "large employer," for purposes of a group health plan or health insurance coverage, from an employer who employed an average of more than 50 employees to an employer who employed more than 100 employees during the preceding calendar year. The definition of "small employer" is correspondingly revised to include employers who employ an average of 50 or fewer employees, which prior to January 1, 2016, was the threshold for delineating large employers from small employers. The measure also authorizes health carriers to sell, issue, or offer for sale any health benefit plan that would otherwise not be permitted to be sold, issued, or offered for sale due to conflict with the requirements of the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, to the extent the requirements of such Act are amended by any federal law. The measure has an emergency clause.
EMERGENCY
Patron: DeSteph
Workers' compensation; presumption of compensability for certain diseases. Expands the current list of diseases that are presumed to be an occupational disease compensable under the Virginia Workers' Compensation Act if contracted by firefighters and certain officers to include any malignancy or chronic medical condition. The claimant is required to have had an exposure to a toxic substance encountered in the line of duty. The definition of "toxic substance" is expanded to include a substance that causes, or is suspected to cause, a chronic medical condition.
Patron: Stanley
Direct primary care agreements. Provides that the Commonwealth's insurance laws do not apply to direct primary care agreements. The measure further provides that (i) a direct primary care practice is not be subject to the jurisdiction of the State Corporation Commission (SCC) and is not required to obtain a certificate of authority or license to market, sell, or offer to sell a direct primary care agreement; (ii) entering into a direct primary care agreement shall not be considered to be engaging in the business of insurance; and (iii) a direct primary care agreement is not a contract of insurance and is not subject to regulation by the SCC. The bill defines a direct primary care agreement as an agreement entered into between a health care provider and an individual patient under which the provider charges a predetermined fee as consideration for providing primary care to the patient, subject to certain conditions.
Patron: Wagner
Workers' compensation; fee schedules for medical services. Directs the Workers' Compensation Commission (the Commission) to adopt regulations establishing fee schedules setting the maximum pecuniary liability of the employer for medical services provided to an injured person pursuant to the Virginia Workers' Compensation Act, in the absence of a contract under which the provider has agreed to accept a specified amount for the medical service. The regulations implementing the fee schedules shall become effective on January 1, 2018. The initial fee schedules will set amounts based on a reimbursement objective, which is the average of all amounts paid to providers in the same category of providers for the medical service in the same medical community. The Commission is required to retain a firm to assist it in establishing the initial fee schedules. The firm will recommend a methodology that will provide statistically valid estimates of the reimbursement objective for fee scheduled medical services within the medical communities. Reimbursements for medical services provided to treat traumatic injuries and serious burns are excluded from the fee schedules and liability for their treatment costs will be based, absent a contract, on 80 percent of the provider's charges. However, the required reimbursement will be 100 percent of the provider's charges if the employer unsuccessfully contests the compensability of the claim. The Commission is required to review and revise the fee schedules in the year after they become effective and biennially thereafter. The liability of the employer for certain medical services not included in a fee schedule will be set by the Commission. A stop-loss feature allows hospitals to receive payments or reimbursements that exceed the fee schedule amount for certain claims when the total charges exceed a charge outlier threshold, which initially is 150 percent of the maximum fee for the service set forth in the applicable fee schedule. Providers are prohibited from using a different charge master or schedule of fees for any medical service provided for workers' compensation patients than the provider uses for health care services provided to patients who are not claimants. The measure requires the Commission, when determining whether the employee's attorney's work with regard to a contested claim resulted in an award of benefits that inure to the benefit of a third-party insurance carrier or health care provider, and in determining the reasonableness of the amount of any fee awarded to an attorney, to consider only the amount paid by the employer or insurance carrier to the third-party insurance carrier or health care provider for medical services rendered to the employee through a certain date and not to consider additional amounts previously paid to a health care provider or reimbursed to a third-party insurance carrier. The Commission shall have an independent, peer-reviewed study conducted every two years. The regulations setting fee schedules are exempt from the Administrative Process Act if the Commission utilizes a regulatory advisory panel to assist in the development of such regulations and provides an opportunity for public comment on the regulations prior to adoption. The measure prohibits certain practices involving the use by third parties of contracts whereby a provider agrees to accept payment of less than the fee scheduled amount, including restricting the sale, lease, or other dissemination of information regarding the payment amounts or terms of a provider contract without the express written consent and prior notification of all parties to the provider contract and prohibiting an employer from shopping for the lowest discount for a specific provider among the provider contracts held in multiple PPO networks. The regulatory advisory panel is directed to make recommendations to the Commission prior to July 1, 2017, on workers' compensation issues relating to (i) pharmaceutical costs not previously included in the fee schedules; (ii) durable medical equipment costs not previously included in the fee schedules; (iii) certain awards of attorney fees; (iv) peer review of medical costs; (v) prior authorization for medical services; and (vi) other issues that the Commission assigns to it. The existing peer review provisions are repealed. The measure has an emergency clause.
EMERGENCY
Patron: Alexander
Health insurance; proton radiation therapy coverage decisions. Prohibits health insurance policies and plans from holding proton radiation therapy to a higher standard of clinical evidence for benefit coverage decisions than is applied for other types of radiation therapy treatment. The measure applies to policies and plans that provide coverage for cancer therapy.
Patron: Stanley
Insurance policies and annuity contracts; exemption from creditors' claims. Provides that the cash surrender value or proceeds of any life insurance policy; the withdrawal value of an optional settlement, annuity contract, or deposit with a life insurance company; or any other benefit from such a policy, contract, or deposit shall not be liable to execution, attachment, garnishment, or other legal process in favor of any creditor of (i) the person whose life is insured by the related policy or contract; (ii) the person who is protected by that contract, deposit, indemnity, policy, or settlement, provided that such person is the insured or owner of the contract, deposit, indemnity, policy, or settlement or the spouse or intended spouse of, a dependent child of, or any other person dependent on the insured or owner of the contract, deposit, indemnity, policy, or settlement; (iii) the person who can, may, or will receive the benefit of such an item, if the person is the insured or owner of the contract, deposit, indemnity, policy, or settlement or the spouse or intended spouse of, a dependent child of, or any other person dependent on the insured or owner of the contract, deposit, indemnity, policy, or settlement; (iv) the person who owns the related contract, deposit, or policy; or (v) the person who effected the related contract, deposit, or policy. These exemptions from creditors' claims apply regardless of whether the right to change the beneficiary thereof is reserved or permitted or the insured person, the annuitant, the owner of the policy or contract, or the person effecting the policy or contract, or any of their estates, is a contingent beneficiary of the policy, contract, or deposit. These provisions do not apply (a) to any claim by a creditor with respect to a life insurance policy, annuity contract, or deposit with an insurance company that was taken out, made, or assigned in writing for the benefit of the creditor; (b) if the policy, contract, or deposit was paid with the intent to defraud creditors; or (c) to a policy, contract, or deposit issued or effected during the six months preceding the date that the person claiming the exemption files a voluntary petition in bankruptcy or is provided similar relief.
Patron: McDougle
Fantasy Contests Act; registration required; conditions of registration; civil penalty. Creates the Fantasy Contests Act (the Act), which applies to fantasy contests with an entry fee offered in Virginia. The bill defines "fantasy contest" as any fantasy or simulated game or contest in which (i) the value of all prizes and awards offered to winning participants is established and made known to the participants in advance of the contest; (ii) all winning outcomes reflect the relative knowledge and skill of the participants and are determined predominantly by accumulated statistical results of the performance of individuals, including athletes in the case of sports events; and (iii) no winning outcome is based on the score, point spread, or any performance of any single actual team or combination of teams or solely on any single performance of an individual athlete or player in any single actual event. The bill requires operators of fantasy contests to register annually with the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. The bill sets forth the conditions for registration and penalties for violation of the Act. The bill provides that such contests are not illegal gambling.
Patrons: Favola, Dance
Minimum wage. Increases the minimum wage from its current federally mandated level of $7.25 per hour to $10.00 per hour effective July 1, 2016, to $13 per hour effective July 1, 2017, and to $15 per hour effective July 1, 2018, unless a higher minimum wage is required by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The measure also provides that the Virginia minimum wage applies to persons whose employment is covered by the FLSA.
Patron: Deeds
Medicare supplement policies for individuals under age 65. Requires insurers issuing Medicare supplement policies in the Commonwealth to offer the opportunity of enrolling in a Medicare supplement policy to any individual who resides in the Commonwealth, is enrolled in Medicare Part B, and is eligible for Medicare by reason of disability.
Patron: Wagner
Promotion of cybersecurity in the Commonwealth. Initiates several efforts to promote economic development, research and development, and workforce development of the cybersecurity industry in the Commonwealth. The bill creates two new matching grant funds: one administered by the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Investment Authority for private entities that collaborate with one or more public institutions of higher education on research and development related to cybersecurity and one administered by the Department of Education for public elementary and secondary schools for STEM-related programs. The bill directs the Virginia Economic Development Partnership Authority (VEDP), in consultation with the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, to develop an online cybersecurity network. VEDP will be aided by an advisory committee consisting of representatives from higher education, the community college system, the Joint Commission on Technology and Science, and the Secretaries of Commerce and Trade, Education, and Technology. Finally, the bill directs the Secretary of Technology to organize and convene a Virginia Cybersecurity Conference to showcase Virginia's leadership in the field of cybersecurity. This bill is a recommendation of the Joint Commission on Technology and Science.
Patron: Surovell
Health insurance provider contracts; accepting enrollees as patients. Requires certain contracts between a health insurance carrier and a provider of health care services to include provisions that prohibit a participating provider from (i) refusing or declining to accept an enrollee who has sustained an injury as a patient or (ii) refusing or declining to provide covered services to an enrollee who has sustained an injury on the basis of the mechanism of the injury sustained by the enrollee. The State Corporation Commission shall not have jurisdiction to adjudicate individual controversies arising out of this measure.