Excess skin and subcutaneous tissue can create a risk of rashes or infections, make walking and movement difficult, and make everyday chores difficult. An example of treatment that removes excess skin and subcutaneous tissue is a panniculectomy. A panniculectomy is an operative procedure that contours, or changes the shape and form, of the abdomen by removing significant excess skin and subcutaneous tissue. Removal of excess skin and subcutaneous tissue can improve a patient’s health and quality of life. This Act requires individual health insurance plans delivered under Chapter 33 of Title 18 and group and blanket health insurance plans delivered under Chapter 35 of Title 18 to cover medically necessary removal of excess skin and subcutaneous tissue, including panniculectomies. This Act also requires the State employee health insurance plan and State Medicaid plans to cover medically necessary removal of excess skin and subcutaneous tissue, including panniculectomies. Medically necessary means as defined in § 3371(8) for individual health insurance plans and as defined in § 3581(8) for group and blanket health insurance plans, State employee health insurance plans, and State Medicaid plans. This Act applies to all policies, contracts, or certicates issued, renewed, modified, alterered, amended, or resissued after December 31, 2026.
This Act adds that the Director or Deputy Director of the Division of Family Services may have a designee consent to voluntary admission and sign for admission to a psychiatric hospital for youth in DFS custody. This reflects best practices and matches the current process for surgical consents for youth in DFS custody, and under DFS policy, a designee may only act as a designee to take such action with the direct approval of the Director or Deputy Director.
This Act updates the terminology used to describe or citations used to reference those who make financial or health-care decisions on behalf of a principal or individual, including when that principal or individual lacks capacity. This Act takes effect on September 30, 2025, to coincide with when the Delaware Uniform Health-Care Decisions Act of 2023 (DUHCDA 2023) takes effect. Section 1 of this Act amends § 3982 of Title 12 by: (1) Removing the phrase “durable power of attorney for health-care decisions” and instead citing to the definition of “advance health-care directive” under DUHCDA 2023. A durable power of attorney for health-care decisions, or other similar variations on that phrase, are synonyms for a power of attorney for health care. A power of attorney for health care is included in the definition of advance health-care directive under DUHCDA 2023. For shorthand, elsewhere in this Synopsis this change will be referred to as “citing to the DUHCDA 2023 to remove synonyms.” (2) Changing "surrogate" to "default surrogate" to align with the new definitions of "surrogate" and "default surrogate" under DUHCDA 2023. For shorthand, elsewhere in this Synopsis this change will be referred to as “aligning the term ‘surrogate’ with the DUHCDA 2023”. (3) Added reference to an agent under a durable power of attorney to § 3983(4)a. since it is in § 3983(4)b. and those paragraphs should mirror each other, as paragraph (4)a. handles a situation when there is no decision maker willing or able to serve and paragraph (4)b. addresses a situation where a decision maker is determined unsuitable. Section 2 of this Act amends § 3983 of Title 12 by aligning the term ‘surrogate’ with the DUHCDA 2023. Section 3 of this Act amends § 1121 of Title 16 by: (1) Completing the list of internal citations. (2) Repealing § 1121(b)(40) because § 1122 defines the decision makers to whom third-party decision making passes when an individual lacks capacity to make decisions. Additionally, § 1121 is where resident rights are listed, not the rights of third parties. Section 4 of this Act revises § 1122 of Title 16 by: (1) Revising the description of legal standards for when decision making authority passes to a third party under the processes listed, including deleting that a standard is when a resident is "unable to communicate with others" and adding a reference to federal law since a representative payee under § 205(j) of the Social Security Act is included in the list. (2) Citing to the DUHCDA 2023 to remove synonyms. (3) Aligning the term ‘surrogate’ with the DUHCDA 2023. Section 5 of this Act amends § 1145 of Title 16 by: (1) Citing to the DUHCDA 2023 to remove synonyms. (2) Aligning the term ‘surrogate’ with the DUHCDA 2023. Section 6 of this Act amends § 2503A of Title 16 by: (1) Citing to the DUHCDA 2023 to remove synonyms. (2) Aligning the term ‘surrogate’ with the DUHCDA 2023. Section 7 of this Act amends § 5530 of Title 16 by: (1) Citing to the DUHCDA 2023 to remove synonyms. (2) Repealing subsection (e) because it refers to a list of individuals that was removed by SB 309 (GA 152) in favor of citing directly to DUHCDA 2023. Section 8 of this Act amends § 5531 of Title 16 by citing to the DUHCDA 2023 to remove synonyms. Section 9 of this Act amends § 2718 of Title 21 by: (1) Correcting the word “advanced” to “advance” in “advance care directive”. (2) Listing the advance planning documents referenced in the citation to § 9706(h) of Title 16. Section 9706(h) allows the promulgation of regulations related to EMS provider compliance with identified advance planning documents. It is not the section that establishes or defines the advance planning documents. Section 10 of this Act amends § 3912 of Title 31 by changing the term “power of attorney” to “agent” because an agent is the actor whereas the power of attorney is the document or grant of authority to act as agent. Section 11 of this Act is an effective date. This Act takes effect on September 30, 2025. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
Senate Bill 166, passed in 2022, created the Prescription Opioid Impact Fund as part of an overall structure that would both maximize the monies paid by settling Opioids defendants to Delaware and to create a structure whereby those settlement monies could be managed and distributed on a statewide basis through a stakeholder-informed process. The complete legislation is found at Title 16 of the Delaware Code, Chapter 48B, Sections 4801B through 4809B. Chapter 48B applied to settlements with entities, and did not apply to bankruptcies. This is because the bankruptcy process itself extinguishes claims and thus provides the necessary “global peace” for settling parties. At the time SB 166 was passed, it was contemplated that, in the context of the Purdue Pharma bankruptcy, the Sackler family members would obtain this type of bankruptcy-style discharge and release. However, in the summer of 2024, the United States Supreme Court ruled that such a discharge was impermissible. This decision thus required that the states negotiate a non-bankruptcy settlement with the Sacklers, which the Delaware Department has since been pursuing diligently. As announced on January 23, 2025, the Delaware Department of Justice has reached a proposed settlement-in-principle with Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family. In order to once again maximize the amount of Sackler money that Delaware will receive, it is now necessary to update the statutory bar created by the SB 166 to account for the fact that the Sackler family members are “individuals” not “entities." Consequently, the Delaware Department of Justice is recommending the amendments to Chapter 48B of Title 16 reflected in this Act.
The purpose of this Act is to protect medical providers in the State from out-of-state lawsuits and investigations that threaten the practice of medicine in the State. To that end this Act does the following: 1) Clarifies that physicians, physician assistants, and nurses that provide lawful healthcare services in the State do not engage in unprofessional conduct and cannot be disciplined for such services even if such services are illegal or considered to be unprofessional conduct or the unauthorized practice of medicine or nursing in another state. 2) In a civil action or proceeding, prohibits any healthcare provider from disclosing communications and records concerning healthcare services unless the patient authorizes such disclosure, with some exceptions. 3) Provides protections from civil and criminal actions that arise in another state that are based on the provision of health care services that are legal in Delaware. 4) Creates a cause of action for persons against whom a judgment was entered in another state based upon that person allegedly providing, receiving, or helping another person to provide healthcare services that are lawful in Delaware. (This does not apply to an action where no part of the acts that formed the basis for liability occurred in Delaware.) 5) Prohibits an insurer from taking an adverse action against a healthcare provider or organization for performing or providing healthcare services that are lawful in this State. 6) Prohibits any State or local agency, commission, board, or department from assisting a federal law-enforcement agency, another state’s law-enforcement agency, a private citizen, or a quasi-law-enforcement agency in relation to an investigation or inquiry concerning the lawfulness of healthcare services, if such services would be lawful as provided if they occurred entirely in the State.
This Act is a substitute for Senate Bill No. 101. It makes no substantive changes to Senate Bill No. 101 other than substituting the synopsis language from the prior bill for the new synopsis, as follows: This Act resolves a conflict between the Uniform Controlled Substances Act which requires an in-person examination to prescribe controlled substances for treatment of Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) and Delaware's telehealth regulations, the Telehealth Access Act which does not require an in-person examination. This bill connects and clarifies the two regulations by modifying the "patient-practitioner relationship" definition in Chapter 47, Title 16, the Uniform Controlled Substances Act, to include a practitioner treating OUD via telemedicine with Schedule III through V medication. The guardrails included in this short addition include: limiting the medication to only Schedule III through V, which has been approved by the FDA for the treatment of OUD and citing to the thorough requirements for establishing a provider-patient relationship under Section 6003 of Title 24, the 2021 Telehealth Access Act, which addresses requirements such as standard of care, medical record keeping, consent, and medical board oversight.
This Act allows drug manufacturers or their agents and wholesalers to ship dialysate drugs and devices directly to home dialysis patients without a pharmacy license.
The Department of Education (“Department”) currently administers the High Needs Educator Student Loan Repayment Program, the Speech-Language Pathologist Student Loan Repayment Program, and the Mental Health Services Student Loan Repayment Program. Annually, these programs help roughly 600 public school employees, including educators, speech-language pathologists, school counselors, school psychologists, and school social workers, through a single application process, by making loan payments directly to student loan lenders. But paying the lenders directly has caused 2 persistent issues: 1. Because the payments are considered taxable income, award recipients have the tax withheld from their paychecks, even though the payments go directly to the lenders. This lowers the award recipients’ take-home pay and can create confusion and hardship. 2. The process involves sending out 600 or more individual checks each year. And many checks are returned or delayed due to changes in lender information or system mismatches. To avoid these issues, the Department recommends combining the 3 different student loan repayment programs into a single program and changing the award process from a system that repays lenders directly to a system that pays stipends to public school employees through the State central payroll operation. These changes would streamline a system that already uses a single application and would do all of the following: 1. Avoid surprise tax impacts and imputed income issues. 2. Reduce administrative burden and failed payments. 3. Provide more timely and transparent support to award recipients. The suggested changes are easy to implement, budget-neutral, and could allow public school employees who previously declined awards due to the tax consequences to benefit from the financial support. This Act makes the changes recommended by the Department by doing all of the following: 1. Eliminates the separate Speech-Language Pathologist Student Loan Repayment Program, Mental Health Services Student Loan Repayment Program, and High Needs Educator Student Loan Repayment Program, and combines them into a single program under § 4163 of Title 14. 2. Shifts payment of awards from paying the lenders directly to paying the award recipients a stipend through the State central payroll operation. 3. Streamlines the process for determining financial need by allowing the Department to focus on collecting the income and loan information that is necessary to fairly allocate program funds. 4. Changes the title of § 4163 of Title 14 from the High Needs Educator Student Loan Repayment Program to the “Public School Employee Support Program for High Need Areas” because the 3 programs are now combined into a single program and the program is no longer a direct student loan repayment program. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
This Act provides a one-time increase of 3% in aggregate worker’s compensation medical expenses to correct reimbursements for medical services coded as evaluation and management (E&M) for worker compensation cases. This is needed as the E&M reimbursement rate for Workers’ Compensation cases has fallen below the reimbursement rate of the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services rates. This is a critical need as the State of Delaware is in critical need of physicians to accept and treat worker compensation patients.
This Senate Joint Resolution directs the Division of Medicaid & Medical Assistance (DMMA) to explore amending our Delaware Medicaid State Plan to allow for the adoption of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) From-Conception-to-End-of-Pregnancy (FCEP) option and the creation of a Health Services Initiative (HSI) that will allow our State to use federal funding to partially cover prenatal and postpartum care for individuals otherwise ineligible for free or low-cost health-care coverage due to immigration status. This Joint Resolution also requires DMMA to provide a report to the General Assembly as to its findings no later than January 1, 2026.
