Rep. John L. Mitchell

This Act establishes the ability to grant a waiver for participation in interscholastic sports when a child exercises the right for choice from one school to another school of choice provided the standards for the waiver are met. In addition, this Act takes into consideration a new charter school or newly added grades to a charter school.

The Board of Pension Trustees has established policies and practices for the administration of the Delaware Public Employees Retirement System. Based on the recommendations of the Board’s Best Practices review, this Act will codify some of these policies and practices. The Act also indemnifies committee members and clarifies the frequency of Board meetings and authorized methods of communication for obtaining quorum and voting.

This Act extends the Office of Foreclosure Prevention and Automatic Residential Foreclosure Mediation Program an additional two years, from January 18, 2018 until January 18, 2020. The Office of Foreclosure Prevention and the Automatic Residential Foreclosure Mediation Program were originally scheduled to sunset on January 18, 2014, two years after their enactment. The sunset date was extended to January 18, 2018 (six years) in 2013 via 79 Del. Laws c. 27 (House Bill No. 40, as amended by Senate Amendment No. 1, 147th General Assembly).

Section 1 of this Act updates the Delaware Code relating to the Board of Nursing (“Board”) by eliminating conflicting definitions of an “advanced practice registered nurse” in the Code, correcting inaccurate cross-references, and eliminating references to the Joint Practice Committee, a now defunct body, and replacing such references with the newly enacted Advanced Practice Registered Nurse Committee. Section 2 of this Act corrects the Delaware Code to use the correct defined term, “advanced practice registered nurse” rather than “advanced practice nurse,” which is deleted by Section 1 of this Act. Section 3 of this Act adds passage of the national examination to the qualifications for licensure as a registered nurse currently listed in § 1910, Title 24. Section 4 of this Act eliminates reference to the national examination for registered nurses in § 1911, Title 24. The change made by Sections 3 and 4 of this Act ensures that all of the qualifications in § 1910, Title 24, including passage of the examination, are required to be a registered nurse. Section 5 of this Act makes a technical correction to make it clear that “state” and “territory” as referenced in § 1912, Title 24 means a state or territory of the United States. Additional changes of this type are made in Sections 8 and 12 of this Act. Section 6 of this Act adds passage of the national examination to the qualifications for licensure as a licensed practical nurse currently listed in § 1914, Title 24. Section 7 of this Act eliminates reference to the national examination for licensed practical nurses in § 1915, Title 24. The change made by Sections 6 and 7 of this Act ensures that all of the qualifications in § 1914, including passage of the examination, are required to be a licensed practical nurse. Section 8 of this Act corrects the reciprocity provision for licensed practical nurses who obtain licensure in another jurisdiction on or after July 1, 1983, so that the licensed practical nurse provision is consistent with the registered nurse provision in § 1912, Title 24. Section 9 of Act clarifies what an advanced practice registered nurse who has been out of active clinical practice for at least 2 years must complete in order to renew a license. In addition, this Section adds a provision that specifically allows nursing licensees to apply for inactive status. Section 10 of this Act adds a provision authorizing the Board to impose a monetary penalty upon a licensee guilty of any offense described in § 1922, Title 24. Section 11 of this Act eliminates redundant purposes of the Advanced Practice Registered Nurse Committee. Section 12 of this Act adds a provision that enables an advanced practice registered nurse applicant to apply by endorsement. Section 13 of this Act clarifies that only advanced practice registered nurses with at least 2 years and 4,000 hours of experience who seek to obtain independent practice are required to maintain a collaborative agreement. Each Section of this Act makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

This Act clarifies that after a physician-patient relationship has been properly established in accordance with this section, subsequent communications and treatment may be conducted as the doctor and patient deem appropriate. As with all practice of medicine, such subsequent interactions must still meet the standard of care for the given field of medicine. The Act also clarifies that this statute is not intended to limit the practice of radiology or pathology – fields in which it has long been standard for an off-site specialist to examine records created by a treating physician or technician.

This Act requires that health insurance offered in this State provide coverage for fertility care services, including in vitro fertilization ("IVF") procedures for persons, who along with their partner, suffer from a disease or condition that results in the inability to procreate or to carry a pregnancy to viability. Like all other diseases, infertility should be covered by insurance. According to the National Infertility Association, RESOLVE, infertility affects 1 in 8 couples and 1 in 4 cannot afford treatment. Everyone deserves the right to procreate. Right now, many Delaware families diagnosed with infertility fall into a “coverage gap” and pay out-of-pocket for fertility care services. Only certain employers provide any fertility care coverage in Delaware and many of these plans provide very limited coverage. Families generally must pay high co-pays or adhere to service restrictions and lifetime dollar caps that strictly limit their treatment options, and thus make it unaffordable for many of them to proceed without risking their financial security or without achieving a successful pregnancy. For example, 1 IVF cycle can cost between $15,000 and $25,000 and, on average, it takes 2 to 3 cycles to achieve pregnancy. Additionally, highly inflated managed care pharmacy prices for IVF medications, where families with coverage can pay as much as 100% more for medications compared to prices charged to self-pay families, often contribute to 25-50% or more of total IVF costs, which can quickly drain lifetime caps and severely limit overall IVF care options. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 15 states currently have laws requiring insurance coverage for infertility diagnosis or treatment, including 2 states that border Delaware, New Jersey and Maryland. This puts the State at a significant competitive disadvantage, as many reproductive age residents intentionally change employers and leave Delaware to gain more attractive fertility care benefits. It is also well-documented that individuals who self-pay for IVF procedures, or have limited benefits, often demand that 2 or more embryos be transferred to their uterus. This is a dangerous and costly approach for heavily burdened health care resources, and can be completely avoided, with greater access to covered fertility care services. This Act require insurers to cover fertility care services based on the latest IVF technologies to increase pregnancy success rates for singleton births at the lowest possible costs. This will greatly reduce the risk of multiple births and greatly reduce hospital and health care costs, thus saving employers money. Several recent studies have found that the cost of perinatal and neonatal care for twins is about $100,000, whereas singleton pregnancies cost about $13,000. Triplet pregnancies can cost $400,000 or more. For every 100 pregnancies from IVF that are singletons (but could have been twins), about $8.7 million dollars is saved, on top of reduced pain and suffering for parents and premature babies. This Act would significantly reduce this high financial and societal burden, with the promotion of IVF technologies that exclusively use single-embryo transfers. This Act could increase the number of persons treated for infertility, but also increase the number of babies born in Delaware by 2-300 per year, thus increasing the state’s birth rate by 1-2% and providing a boost to the local economy, while also decreasing health care costs.

This Act increases the State’s alcoholic beverage tax rates. The rate for beer increases by 2¢ per 12 ounce can. The rate for wine increases by approximately 3¢ per 5 ounce serving. The rate for spirits containing more than 25% ethyl alcohol by volume increases by 15¢ per 750 ml bottle.

Vapor products, commonly known as e-cigarettes or vape products, are increasing in popularity. This Act adds a definition of vapor products to Chapter 53, Title 30 (regarding Tobacco Product Tax), includes vapor products as a type of tobacco product, and makes other amendments to the Chapter to require those who deal in vapor products to obtain licenses just like those who deal in traditional tobacco products and to impose a tax on vapor products. This Act also increases the tax on tobacco products. Specifically, this Act does the following related to tobacco product and vapor product taxes: (1) Increases the tax on cigarettes from $1.60 to $2.10 per 20 cigarette pack. (2) Increases the tax on all tobacco products other than vapor products, moist snuff, and cigarettes from 15% of the wholesale price to 30% of the wholesale price. (3) Imposes a tax of 5 cents per fluid millimeter of vapor product. (4) Increases the tax on moist snuff from 54 cents per ounce to 92 cents per ounce. This Act also increases the fees charged for retail tobacco product licenses and tobacco product vending machine licenses. These license fees were originally established in 1964. The retail license fee was last increased in 1969. The vending machine license fee was last increased in 1976. The licensing fees adopted by this Act are similar to, or less than, the fees charged by other states in the region. By including vapor products in the definition of tobacco products, vapor product wholesalers, retailers, and vending machine operators must pay license fees at the same rates as for traditional tobacco products. Section 28 establishes when the Sections of this Act take effect and how increases in existing taxes are to be handled. Finally, this Act makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

This Bill is the Fiscal Year 2018 Bond and Capital Improvements Act.

This resolution creates the Administrative Law Improvement Task Force, which is charged with reviewing Delaware’s Administrative Procedures Act and other related statutes for the purpose of making recommendations to modernize Delaware’s administrative tribunal process, including judicial review of administrative tribunal decisions and processes for disputes involving land use and real property, including the Landlord Tenant Code.