Parental access to minor's health records. Requires health care entities that provide access to health records of minors through a secure website to make such health records available to the minor's parent or guardian through the same secure website.
Virginia Creative Economy Grant Program established. Establishes the Virginia Creative Economy Grant Program, to be administered by the Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation, for the purpose of awarding grants to independent content creators and creative economy entrepreneurs, as those terms are defined in the bill, for the purpose of developing and expanding the creative economy, as defined in the bill, in the Commonwealth. The bill provides for the award of grants of no more than $20,000 to any recipient.
Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services; Office of Small Farms and Virginia Small Farms Fund established; report. Creates, within the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, the Office of Small Farms, headed by the Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services. The bill authorizes the Office to facilitate the growth and development of small farms, as defined in the bill, in the Commonwealth and support and expand programs for such farms. The bill creates the Virginia Small Farms Fund to provide funding to administer the provisions of the bill. The bill requires the Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Resources to submit a written report on the operation of the Office by December 1 of each year to the Chairmen of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources and House Committee on Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources.
Virginia Public Procurement Act; contract formation and administration; methods of procurement; competitive sealed bids or negotiation exemption. Establishes that any public body that has adopted purchase procedures not requiring competitive sealed bids or competitive negotiation for certain contracts shall, through such procedures, allow for purchases from a supplier of goods and services other than professional services to be procured under such procedures when the aggregate value of the purchases exceeds the thresholds established by law or by the public body, if such supplier provides documentation to the public body certifying it has fewer than 25 employees and annual gross receipts not exceeding $3 million.
Department of Transportation; protective caps for guardrail posts; report. Directs the Department of Transportation to develop and adopt statewide standards and requirements for protective caps or other comparable shielding for exposed guardrail posts installed or replaced on or after July 1, 2027.
Department of Health; Department of Social Services; publicly accessible nursing home information portal; publicly accessible assisted living facility information portal; reporting of incidents involving emergency medical services. Directs the Department of Health to establish a nursing home information portal and the Department of Social Services to establish an assisted living facility information portal to consolidate publicly available information on nursing homes and assisted living facilities, respectively. The bill requires operators of nursing homes and assisted living facilities to submit a quarterly report to the Department of Health or the Department of Social Services, respectively, with information on incidents involving emergency medical services.
Motor vehicles; insurance; highway use fee; tangible personal property tax relief for certain vehicles. Removes the highway use fee for fuel-efficient vehicles, and maintains the same highway use fee for electric vehicles and alternative fuel vehicles. The bill removes the prohibition on motor vehicle insurers establishing a repair facility network. Under current law, insurers are prohibited from requiring an insured or claimant to utilize designated replacement or repair facilities or services as a prerequisite to settling or paying any claim arising under a policy or policies of insurance. The bill also directs each county, city, or town that receives annual reimbursements from the Commonwealth for providing tangible personal property tax relief on qualifying vehicles to, beginning in tax year 2027, ensure that after first reimbursing certain tax attributable to qualifying vehicles leased by active duty members of the United States military, as is currently required by law, (i) no qualifying vehicle owned by an individual with an annual household income in excess of $200,000 receives any reimbursement for such vehicle and (ii) the remainder of the reimbursement provided to such locality is distributed based on a sliding scale for household incomes of residents of such locality, adopted by an ordinance of the governing body of such locality, as described in the bill.
Hospitals; itemized statements; non-emergent procedures, tests, or services. Requires hospitals to provide patients with an itemized statement of charges for services rendered for any non-emergent medical procedure, test, or service.
Virginia Law Officers' Retirement System; membership. Adds (i) full-time sworn members of the enforcement division of the Department of Motor Vehicles, (ii) probation officers employed by the Department of Corrections, (iii) full-time sworn law-enforcement officers employed by the Department of Corrections, and (iv) full-time sworn law-enforcement officers employed by the Department of Juvenile Justice to membership in the Virginia Law Officers' Retirement System. The bill has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2027, and provides that such membership applies only to service earned on or after July 1, 2027.
Assault and battery; employees of state or local department of social services; penalty. Provides that any person who commits a battery against another knowing or having reason to know that such individual is an employee of a local department of social services or the State Department of Social Services who is engaged in the performance of his duties is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor. The bill also provides that the sentence of such person, upon conviction, shall include a term of confinement of 15 days in jail, two days of which shall be a mandatory minimum term of confinement.
Department of Motor Vehicles; addresses. Authorizes the Department of Motor Vehicles (the Department) to require any person submitting a form for which he must provide his current address, at the time of submission of such form, to present proof of residence at such current address. The bill authorizes the owner or lessee of any real property in the Commonwealth to notify the Department if the address of the real property is used for the issuance of a driver's license or special identification card that does not belong to any owner, lessee, or resident of the real property, and, provided certain conditions are met, authorizes the Department to revoke such driver's license or special identification card. Current law authorizes such a process in cases in which real property is used for the titling or registration of a vehicle that does not belong to any owner, lessee, or resident of such real property. The bill also authorizes, for both such cases when such certain conditions are met, the Department to disassociate the address from any account the person to whom the driver's license or special identification card was issued or the vehicle owner, respectively, holds with the Department.
Department of Medical Assistance Services; Department of Social Services; Medicaid eligibility determination appeal time limit; mailed communications time period. Directs (i) the Department of Medical Assistance Services to amend its regulations to extend the time limit for appeals of eligibility determinations and (ii) the Department of Medical Assistance Services and the Department of Social Services to amend their regulations to create a mailing time period for communications related to Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF).
