Health Care Decisions Act; patients incapable of making informed decisions, absence of next of kin.
Summary
Health Care Decisions Act; patients incapable of making informed decisions; absence of next of kin. Authorizes, for purposes of the Health Care Decisions Act, the patient care consulting committee to make health care decisions for a patient incapable of making informed decisions when no next of kin is reasonably available.
Bill status
passed
3 of 5 stages cleared
Introduction
Dec 2025
Committee Review
Jan 2026
Senate Passage
Jan 2026
House of Delegates Passage
Governor
Introduced Dec 17, 2025
Last action Feb 9, 2026
Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison
What changed between versions
Introduced
→
Engrossed
·
1 edit
·
Jan 27, 2026
MINOR
The bill text shows formatting and layout changes between the introduced and engrossed versions, with no substantive policy modifications to the Health Care Decisions Act. The core provisions regarding advance directives, patient capacity, and decision-making authority remain unchanged. The differences appear to be related to document formatting, spacing, and header information rather than legislative content.
TECHNICAL
Formatting and layout changes including spacing adjustments, header information updates (ENGROSSED status, amendment dates), and line number reorganization. No substantive policy content was modified.
Floor votes · Senate Jan 23, 2026
How they voted
38–0
Passed · 1 other
Total votes 39
Jan 23, 2026
D
Democratic20
100% Yea
R
Republican19
94% Yea
Vote distribution
All Yea
All Nay
Mixed
No data
Full legislative history
Actions timeline
Total actions
17
Key actions
7
Committee
6
Amendments
1
Jan 27, 2026
Committee
Rereferred to Committee for Courts of Justice
upper
Jan 27, 2026
Upper · Passed
Passed by temporarily
upper
Jan 26, 2026
Upper · Passed
Education and Health Amendment agreed to
upper
Jan 23, 2026
Upper · Passed
Passed by for the day
upper
Jan 23, 2026
Upper · Passed
Passed by for the day Block Vote (Voice Vote)
upper
Jan 22, 2026
Upper · Passed
Reported from Education and Health with amendment (11-Y 2-N 1-A)
upper
Jan 22, 2026
Upper · Passed
Senate committee offered
upper
Jan 20, 2026
Upper · Passed
Senate subcommittee offered
upper
Jan 20, 2026
Committee
Assigned Education sub: Health
upper
Dec 17, 2025
Committee
Referred to Committee on Education and Health
upper
1 primary · 2 co-sponsors
Sponsors
Role
Legislator
Party
State
District
P
Barbara Favola
DDemocratic
Co
Kannan Srinivasan
DDemocratic
Co
Saddam Salim
DDemocratic
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