Rep. Melissa Minor-Brown

This Act aims to make the robbery section of Delaware’s Criminal Code simpler and fairer. The Act deletes the carjacking sections and embeds them within the existing robbery statutes to remove duplication from the code. Under this Act, robbery in the first degree includes the theft of a vehicle where there is physical injury or the use, a display or threat of a deadly weapon or death which is a Class B felony; this carries a 3 year minimum mandatory sentence and a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison. Robbery in the Second Degree, a Class E felony, is elevated to a Class D felony if the theft involves a vehicle and elements that pose additional risk to public safety. The Act removes minimum mandatory sentences for some conduct and eliminates sentence enhancements based on prior convictions and the age of victim. The ability to impose lengthier sentences for subsequent conduct or for crimes against vulnerable victims rests with the discretion of sentencing judges.

This Act aims to make the burglary section of Delaware’s Criminal Code simpler and fairer. The Act consolidates the crime of home invasion with existing burglary statutes. Furthermore, this Act recognizes the sanctity of the home and the varied schedules of 21st century homeowners by treating the burglary of an occupied dwelling the same whether the crime occurs during daytime or nighttime hours. The Act removes minimum mandatory sentences for some conduct, but preserves for home invasion a 6 year minimum mandatory sentence and a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison. Finally, the Act eliminates sentence enhancements based on prior convictions and the age of victim. The ability to impose lengthier sentences for subsequent conduct or for crimes against vulnerable victims rests with the discretion of sentencing judges.

This Act prohibits a pelvic, rectal, or prostate examination by a health care practitioner or professional on an individual who is anesthetized or unconscious. This Act provides exceptions and they are if informed consent is provided, the examination is for diagnostic or treatment purposes, an emergency exists and the examination is necessary, or the examination is ordered by a court. The Act also defines informed consent as a signing of a consent form that is written in plain language, is dated, includes a description of the procedure to be performed and states that a medical student or resident may perform or be present during the examination. Finally, this Act provides that a health-care practitioner or professional who violates the section may be subject to discipline by the appropriate professional licensing board.

This Act prohibits the practice known as patient brokering, which is the practice where patient brokers are paid a fee to place insured people in treatment centers so that the treatment centers receive thousands of dollars in insurance claim payments for each patient. Increasingly, patient brokers fraudulently enroll patients in low-deductible health plans with out-of-network treatment benefits. Patient brokers target individuals with substance use disorders, who are told that they are receiving their treatment through a scholarship. Not only does this perpetrate fraud against insurers, when insurance plans are terminated for nonpayment of the premium, individuals are discharged from the treatment program with no services or housing and often in a state that is far from home.

This Act adds coverage for Medication Assisted Treatment ("MAT") for drug and alcohol dependencies to the mental health parity laws for health insurance. This Act requires health insurance carriers to provide coverage for prescription medications approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for MAT at no greater financial burden than for prescription medication for other illness or disease, without step therapy requirements, and at the lowest tier of the drug formulary. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

This Bill modifies the impact of criminal history on an applicant’s eligibility for licensure. It gives the Board discretion to grant waivers for felony convictions for crimes committed against a person where more than 3 years have elapsed, and more than 2 years have elapsed for other felonies. The Board is precluded from considering a conviction where more than 10 years have elapsed since the date of conviction.

This Bill modifies the impact of criminal history on an applicant’s eligibility for licensure and thereby removes certain barriers to employment. It gives the Board the discretion to grant a waiver of a felony conviction for a crime committed against a person where more than 3 years have elapsed since the date of conviction, and for all other felonies, more than 2 years have elapsed since the date of conviction. The Board will be precluded from considering a conviction where more than 10 years have elapsed since the date of conviction, if there have been no other criminal convictions in the intervening time. The statute already prohibits licensure to anyone that has a felony sexual offense conviction.

This Act modifies the impact of criminal history for applicants for licensure to the Board of Electrical Examiners (Board). Specifically, this Act: (1) Permits the Board to grant waivers for felony convictions for crimes committed against a person where more than 3 years have elapsed, and more than 2 years have elapsed for other felonies. (2) Permits the Board to grant waivers for felony and misdemeanor convictions if the applicant is on Level I or II probation. (3) Precludes the Board from considering a conviction where more than 10 years have elapsed since the date of conviction. (4) Requires an applicant to submit evidence that the applicant has not been convicted of a felony sexual offense. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

This Act expands the membership of the Primary Care Reform Collaborative and creates an Office of Value-Based Health Care Delivery in the Department of Insurance to reduce health care costs by increasing the availability of high quality, cost-efficient health insurance products that have stable, predictable, and affordable rates. The Office of Value-Based Health Care Delivery will work with the Primary Care Reform Collaborative and the State benchmarking process. This Substitute Bill differs from Senate Bill No. 116 as follows: 1. Adds the Insurance Commissioner to the Primary Reform Collaborative. 2. Limits the definition of "carrier" to health insurers licensed under Title 18 or certified as a qualified health plan on the Delaware Health Insurance Marketplace. 3. Requires the Insurance Commissioner to promulgate regulations to implement Section 2 of this Act instead of adopting policies and procedures. 4. Removes the deadline to adopt the initial policies under this Act.

Delaware is one of only 3 states that does not offer some form of adult dental coverage through Medicaid (alongside Tennessee and Alabama). Dental care is health care. And, studies have shown that poor dental health care can result in serious infections and abscess in the face, neck, and jaw areas requiring some individuals to go to the emergency room where they may spend days in intensive care or even die. This ultimately costs states more money through their Medicaid program that could be saved if dental care were covered. This Act expands Delaware's Public Assistance Code to provide dental care to all eligible adult Medicaid recipients. Payments for dental care treatments are subject to a $3 recipient copay and the total amount of dental care assistance provided to an eligible recipient may not exceed $1,000 per year, except that an additional $1,500 may be authorized on an emergency basis for dental care treatments through a review process established by the Department of Health and Social Services. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. This Substitute Act differs from Senate Bill No. 92 (150th General Assembly) because it changes the effective date of this Act to be April 1, 2020, and removes provisions made unnecessary by the change.