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2016 SESSION

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Senate Committee on Education and Health
Subcommittee Health Professions

Garrett (Chairman), Carrico, Barker, Dunnavant, Lucas, Suetterlein

Clerk: Patty Lung
Staff: Thomas Stevens, Ryan Brimmer
Date of Meeting: February 16, 2016
Time and Place: 8:30 AM - 4th Floor East

H.B. 252

Patron: Kory

Assistant speech-language pathologists; duties. Allows a person who has met the qualifications prescribed by the Board of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology (the Board) to practice as an assistant speech-language pathologist in accordance with regulations of the Board and to perform limited duties that are otherwise restricted to the practice of a speech-language pathologist under the supervision and direction of a licensed speech-language pathologist. The bill also requires the Board to review the need for and impact of licensure or certification of assistant speech-language pathologists and report its findings to the Chairmen of the House Committee on Health, Welfare and Institutions and the Senate Committee on Education and Health by November 1, 2016.

H.B. 310

Patron: Orrock

Mobile dental clinics; exemption from registration requirements. Adds to the list of mobile dental clinics exempt from the requirement to register with the Board of Dentistry mobile dental clinics operated by federally qualified health centers with a dental component that provides dental services via mobile model to adults and children within 30 miles of the federally qualified health center; mobile dental clinics operated by free health clinics or health safety net clinics that have been granted tax-exempt status pursuant to § 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code that provide dental services via mobile model to adults and children within 30 miles of the free health clinic or health safety net clinic; and mobile dental clinics that provide dental services via mobile model to individuals who are not ambulatory and who reside in long-term care facilities, assisted living facilities, adult care homes, or private homes.

H.B. 313

Patron: Orrock

Administration of immunizations. Adds physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and licensed practical nurses and pharmacists who administer pursuant to a valid prescription to the types of health professionals who may administer vaccinations to children and who may provide to the person who presents the child for immunizations a certificate stating that such immunizations have been administered. Under current law, physicians and registered nurses are authorized to administer vaccinations and provide such certificates.

H.B. 319

Patron: Rasoul

Volunteer health care providers. Requires health regulatory boards to promulgate regulations providing for the satisfaction of board-required continuing education for individuals registered, certified, licensed, or issued a multistate licensure privilege by a health regulatory board through delivery of health care services, without compensation, to low-income individuals receiving health services through a local health department or a free clinic organized in whole or primarily for the delivery of those health services. The bill has a delayed effective date of January 1, 2017.

H.B. 330

Patron: Pogge

Registration of clinical nurse specialists. Provides that the Board of Nursing may register an applicant as a clinical nurse specialist if such applicant is an advanced practice registered nurse who (i) holds a valid license to practice professional nursing and (ii) has successfully completed a graduate-level clinical nurse specialist program within a regionally accredited college or university that meets all educational qualifications and standards established by national certification guidelines and holds a national clinical nurse specialist certification that prepares the professional nurse to deliver advanced nursing services. The bill eliminates the duty of the Board of Nursing to approve programs that entitle professional nurses to be registered as clinical nurse specialists and to prescribe minimum standards for such programs.

H.B. 498

Patron: Hodges

TPA-certified optometrists; prescription of certain Schedule II controlled substances. Provides that a TPA-certified optometrist who is authorized to prescribe controlled substances may issue prescriptions for or provide manufacturer's samples of analgesics included on Schedule II consisting of hydrocodone in combination with acetaminophen to his patients.

H.B. 527

Patron: Hodges


Registration of nonresident medical equipment suppliers. Requires any person located outside the Commonwealth other than a registered nonresident pharmacy that ships, mails, or delivers to a consumer in the Commonwealth any hypodermic syringes or needles, medicinal oxygen, Schedule VI controlled devise, those Schedule VI controlled substances with no medicinal properties that are used for the operation and cleaning of medical equipment, sterile water and saline for irrigation, or solutions for peritoneal dialysis pursuant to a lawful order of a prescriber to be registered with the Board of Pharmacy. The bill requires registrants to renew registration by March 1 of each year and to notify the Board of Pharmacy of any substantive change in information previously submitted to the Board within 30 days. The bill also requires nonresident medical equipment suppliers to maintain a valid, unexpired license, permit, or registration in the state in which it is located, if required by the resident state, or to furnish proof that he meets the minimum statutory and regulatory requirements for medical equipment suppliers in the Commonwealth if the state in which the nonresident medical equipment supplier is located does not require a license, permit, or registration. The bill also requires nonresident medical equipment suppliers to maintain records of distribution of medical equipment into the Commonwealth in such a manner that they are readily retrievable from records of distribution into other jurisdictions and to provide the records to the Board, its authorized agent, or any agent designated by the Superintendent of State Police upon request within seven days of receipt of such request.

H.B. 528

Patron: Hodges


Manufacture and distribution of prescription drugs in the Commonwealth. Eliminates the requirement that the Board of Pharmacy establish and implement a pedigree system for recording each distribution of a controlled substance from sale by a pharmaceutical manufacturer to a dispenser or person who will administer the controlled substance; defines "co-licensed partner" as a person who, with at least one other person, has the right to engage in the manufacturing or marketing of a prescription drug, consistent with state and federal law, and specifies that a co-licensed partner may be a manufacturer of a controlled substance; and defines "third-party logistics provider" as a person who provides or coordinates warehousing of or other logistics services for a drug or device in interstate commerce on behalf of a manufacturer, wholesale distributor, or dispenser of the drug or device but does not take ownership of the product or have responsibility for directing the sale or disposition of the product. The bill specifies that bulk drug substances used for compounding drugs distributed by a supplier other than a licensed wholesale distributor or registered nonresident wholesale distributor must be provided by a supplier who is approved by the Board of Pharmacy as well as the federal Food and Drug Administration and requires every pharmacy, nonresident pharmacy, wholesale distributor, and nonresident wholesale distributor to comply with federal requirements for an electronic, interoperable system to identify, trace, and verify prescription drugs as they are distributed. The bill authorizes the Board of Pharmacy to deny, revoke, suspend, or take other disciplinary actions against holders of a third-party logistics provider permit, manufacturer permit, or nonresident manufacturer permit; applies the inspection and audit requirements that apply to wholesale distributors to nonresident wholesale drug distributors, third-party logistics providers, manufacturers, and nonresident manufacturers; creates a permitting process for third-party logistics providers; allows holders of a manufacturer permit to distribute the drug manufactured, made, produced, packed, packaged, repackaged, relabeled, or prepared to anyone other than the end user without the need to obtain a wholesale distributor permit; and creates a process for registration of nonresident manufacturers of prescription drugs.

H.B. 562

Patron: Robinson

Licensure of massage therapists. Requires that massage therapists be licensed, rather than certified, to practice in the Commonwealth. The bill directs the Board of Nursing to promulgate regulations to implement the provisions of the act within 280 days, provides that any person holding a certificate to practice massage therapy prior to July 1, 2017, shall be deemed to be licensed thereafter and the Board of Nursing shall at the time of renewal provide such person a license, and provides that the provisions of the act other than those directing the Board of Nursing to promulgate regulations shall become effective on July 1, 2017.

H.B. 574

Patron: Robinson

Dietitians and nutritionists. Clarifies the situations under which a dietitian or nutritionist may practice, defines "nutritional genomics," and provides that a dietician or nutritionist who receives nutritional genomics testing information shall maintain such information in accordance with applicable federal and state law.

H.B. 580

Patron: Robinson

Nurses; definitions. Adds definitions of "advanced practice registered nurse," "certified nurse midwife," and "certified registered nurse anesthetist" as they apply to the licensing chapters for the Boards of Medicine and Nursing.

H.B. 586

Patron: Yost

Confidentiality of certain information obtained by health regulatory boards in disciplinary proceedings. Provides that in disciplinary actions involving allegations that a practitioner is or may be unable to practice with reasonable skill and safety to patients because of a mental or physical disability, a health regulatory board shall consider whether to disclose and may decide not to disclose in its notice or order the practitioner's health records or his health services, though such information may be considered by the board in a closed hearing and included in a confidential exhibit to a notice or order. The bill provides that the public notice or order shall identify, if known, the practitioners' mental or physical disability that is the basis of its determination.

H.B. 802

Patron: James

Veterinary technicians; supervision; reporting of animal cruelty. Clarifies the licensing requirements for a veterinarian in charge of a licensed veterinary technician by specifying that the supervising veterinarian shall be licensed in the Commonwealth or shall be employed by the Commonwealth or the United States while engaged in the performance of his official duties. The bill also removes the current prohibition on non-salary compensation of the veterinary technician for the performance of supervised acts relating to the treatment of an animal and expands, from a veterinarian to any person regulated by the Board of Veterinary Medicine, the category of persons granted immunity from civil or criminal liability or administrative sanction for reporting suspected animal cruelty.

H.B. 1058

Patron: Rush

Practice of veterinary medicine. Provides that, effective July 1, 2018, the exemption from the requirements for licensure for veterinarians employed by the United States or the Commonwealth shall not apply to veterinarians engaged in the practice of veterinary medicine as part of a veterinary medical education program accredited by the American Veterinary Medical Association Council on Education and located in the Commonwealth and provides that the Board of Veterinary Medicine shall have the authority to establish requirements for the licensure of persons engaged in the practice of veterinary medicine as part of such programs.