Health insurance; carrier business practices; method of payment for transactions. Requires a health insurance carrier to notify the provider in a provider contract if the carrier, or entity completing a transaction on behalf of the carrier, uses a payment method that imposes a transaction or processing fee or similar charge on the provider and to offer the provider an alternative payment method that does not impose such a fee or similar charge. If the provider elects to accept the alternative payment method and has provided all required information to the carrier to enroll in such alternative method, the bill specifies that the carrier is required to pay the claim using such alternative payment method. This bill is identical to HB 2085.
Hospitals and nursing homes; licensure and inspection fees; Hospital and Nursing Home Licensure and Inspection Program Fund established. Directs the State Board of Health to require in its regulations the establishment of fees for the issuance, change, or renewal of a hospital or nursing home license to cover the costs of operating the hospital and nursing home licensure and inspection program in a manner that ensures timely completion of inspections. The bill requires the Board to distribute the costs of operating the hospital and nursing home licensure and inspection program in an equitable manner across all hospitals and nursing homes and specifies that the amount of such fees shall change no more frequently than annually. Such fee changes shall only be initiated under the bill if the expenses are more than 10 percent greater or less than the annual costs of operating the licensure and inspection program in a manner that ensures timely completion of inspections. The bill also creates the Hospital and Nursing Home Licensure and Inspection Program Fund to be used for the purposes of supporting the activities of the licensure and inspections requirements administered pursuant to current law. The bill directs the Board to adopt emergency regulations to implement the provisions of the bill related to the establishment of such fees and specifies that the provisions pertaining to the creation of the Fund shall not become effective until the Board adopts such emergency regulations. This bill is identical to SB 1484.
Department of Veterans Services; powers and duties of Commissioner; identification of incarcerated veterans. Provides that the Commissioner of the Department of Veterans Services shall assist the Department of Corrections, sheriffs, and local and regional jails in utilizing the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' Veterans Re-Entry Search Services system to identify veterans incarcerated in state prisons and local and regional jails to help such veterans prepare for release or reentry, reduce recidivism and homelessness, connect such veterans to resources to address the challenges of post-traumatic stress disorder, and divert eligible veterans to treatment dockets. This bill is identical to HB 2071.
School boards; bleeding control programs; bleeding control kits. Requires each school board to develop and implement a bleeding control program in each public elementary and secondary school in the local school division whereby the school board, among other things, requires bleeding control kits with certain enumerated contents such as bandages and tourniquets to be placed in each public elementary and secondary school building in easily accessible locations and requires annual inspection and restocking of each such bleeding control kit.
Virginia Values Veterans Program; military spouse eligibility. Provides that the comprehensive program developed by the Department of Veterans Services to reduce unemployment among veterans extends to military spouses.
Use of communications system to expose sexual or genital parts to a child; penalty. Creates a Class 1 misdemeanor for any person 18 years of age or older who uses a communications system, including computers or computer networks or bulletin boards, or any other electronic means, with lascivious intent, to expose his sexual or genital parts to any person he knows or has reason to know is a child to whom he is not legally married and such child is 15 years of age or older. Under current law, it is a Class 5 felony for any person 18 years of age or older to use such communications system for the purposes of soliciting, with lascivious intent, any person he knows or has reason to believe is a child younger than 15 years of age to knowingly and intentionally commit certain sexual activities, including exposing his sexual or genital parts to any child to whom he is not legally married or proposing that any such child expose his sexual or genital parts to such person. It is also a Class 5 felony under current law for any person to commit such acts with any child he knows or has reason to believe is at least 15 years of age but younger than 18 years of age if such person is at least seven years older than the child. As introduced, this bill was a recommendation of the Virginia Criminal Justice Conference.
Marine Resources Commission; encroachment on subaqueous beds; permitting requirements. Increases the maximum total value of projects eligible for a permit to trespass upon or over or encroach upon a subaqueous bed belonging to the Commonwealth from $500,000 to $1,000,000. The bill requires the Commissioner of Marine Resources to update the total project value every five years using the Consumer Price Index and publish such increase or decrease on the Marine Resource Commission's website. This bill is identical to SB 1169.
Compensating victims of crime. Extends, for the purpose of compensating victims of crime, the time for filing a claim by the claimant to not later than three years after the occurrence of the crime upon which such claim is based, or not later than three years after the death of the victim. Under current law, such time frame is not later than one year after either instance. The bill removes the prohibition on the Virginia Workers' Compensation Commission (the Commission) making an award where the police records show that a crime was reported more than 120 hours after the occurrence of the crime unless the Commission, for good cause shown, finds the delay to have been justified. Also, the bill requires the Commission, in determining if a report was promptly reported to the proper authorities, to consider (i) any police records; (ii) the victim's physical, emotional, mental, and family situation; and (iii) the existence of a permanent protective order, issued pursuant to relevant law, for the victim or other persons eligible for awards from the person responsible for the qualifying crime. The bill also removes the ability of the Commission to deny, reduce, or withdraw any award upon finding that any claimant or award recipient has not fully cooperated with all law-enforcement agencies, unless the law-enforcement agency certifies that the claimant or award recipient was willing but unable to cooperate due to a good faith belief that such cooperation would have endangered such claimant or award recipient and such claimant or award recipient was not provided with any victim or witness protection services when such protection services were requested by a law-enforcement agency. This bill is identical to SB 1200.
State Council of Higher Education for Virginia; recommendations on exempting certain courses of instruction operated by private and out-of-state institutions of higher education; report. Directs the State Council of Higher for Virginia (the Council) to evaluate and make recommendations on amending the provisions of law relating to certain activities and programs offered by private and out-of-state postsecondary schools that are exempt from the requirements for obtaining and maintaining certification by the Council to operate in the Commonwealth for the purpose of exempting noncredit courses of instruction offered by an entity or organization in accordance with the requirements of a nationally recognized certifying body and those intended solely to prepare students for certification as project management professions, provided that no such exempted course shall exceed the number of hours required by the applicable certifying body. The bill requires the Council to report its findings and recommendations to the Senate Committees on Finance and Appropriations and Education and Health and the House Committees on Appropriations and Education by November 1, 2025.
Drug paraphernalia; controlled paraphernalia; drug checking products; exception. Creates an exception for drug checking products used to determine the presence or concentration of a contaminant that can cause physical harm or death from the definitions of drug paraphernalia and controlled paraphernalia. Under current law, the exception applies only to narcotic testing products used to determine whether a controlled substance contains fentanyl or a fentanyl analog.
Sale of real estate for delinquent taxes; procedure; enforcement of liens; orders of publication. Amends certain procedures relating to the sale of real estate to recover delinquent real estate taxes, including the enforcement of liens for taxes assessed upon real estate. The bill clarifies that any party or entity with an interest in the subject real estate, including a lienor, a person with a claim of title, or the beneficiary and trustees under a deed of trust, shall be named as party defendants in a proceeding for the sale of such real estate. The bill also makes the process by which notice by publication is given for a proceeding to enforce a lien for delinquent real estate taxes consistent with other actions where notice by publication is authorized. This bill is a recommendation of the Boyd-Graves Conference.
Reports of certain arrests and convictions of school employees; timing; method. Removes the requirement to report certain arrests and convictions of school employees enumerated in law via fax to the fax number identified for the division superintendent or the designated division safety official, as the case may be. However, the requirements in current law to make such reports via certified mail and email are preserved.
