Assigned Rules sub: Subcommittee #1
Provides that an individual who is delinquent in child support payments or has failed to comply with a subpoena, summons, or warrant relating to paternity or child support proceedings is entitled to a judicial hearing if he makes a written request within 30 days from service of a notice of intent to suspend or renew his driver's license. Current law provides such an entitlement if such request is made within 10 days from such notice. The bill further allows the Department of Motor Vehicles to renew a driver's license or terminate a license suspension imposed on an individual if such individual has reached an agreement with the Department of Social Services to satisfy the child support payment delinquency within a 15-year period, an increase of five years over the period allowed under current law, and has made at least one payment of at least five percent of the total delinquency or $600, whichever is less, as opposed to whichever is greater under current law, under such agreement. The bill further provides that, where such a repayment agreement has been entered into and such an individual has failed to comply with such agreement, the Department of Motor Vehicles shall suspend or refuse to renew such individual's driver's license until it has received certification from the Department of Social Services that such individual has entered into a subsequent agreement to pay within a period of 10 years, an increase of three years over the period allowed under current law, and has paid the lesser amount, as opposed to greater amount under current law, of at least one payment of $1,200 or seven percent, as opposed to five percent under current law, of the current delinquency. The bill provides that an individual who fails to comply with such a subsequent agreement may enter into a new agreement if such individual has made a payment in the lesser amount, as opposed to the greater amount under current law, of $1,800 or 10 percent, as opposed to five percent under current law, and agrees to a repayment schedule of not more than seven years, which is consistent with the timeframe provided by the current law.
Referred to Committee on General Laws
Directs the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC), as part of its review and evaluation of the agencies and programs under the Secretary of Health and Human Services, to examine and review the implications of the establishment, implementation, and administration of a program, to be known as the Commonwealth Care Health Benefits Program (the Program), under which a division of the State Corporation Commission (the Commission), or nonprofit corporation established by the Commission, will be the sponsor of association health plans through which it will sell individual health insurance coverage in the Commonwealth. The bill provides that JLARC shall request and consider information and input from the Commission's Bureau of Insurance and the Secretary of Health and Human Resources. The measure provides that elements of the Program to be reviewed and examined by JLARC shall include: (i) implementation of the Program would be contingent on the approval of the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services of a state innovation waiver under § 1332 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA); (ii) the Commission will retain staff sufficient to establish and implement the Program; (iii) the Program will arrange for a number of third-party administrators, sufficient to ensure competition but in no event fewer than two; (iv) the Program will design and implement health plans that those currently sold through the federal exchange; (v) the covered benefits provided under a plan offered through the Program would provide coverage that a large group plan or association health plan subject to ERISA is required to provide so long as one or more health plans provide additional benefits as may be required to provide coverage that is at least as comprehensive and affordable as plans currently offered on the exchange pursuant to the ACA or otherwise to comply with the Guardrail requirements of the ACA; (vi) the Program will address the establishment of a reinsurance program; (vii) health plan premiums for individuals with a household income between 100 percent and 400 percent of the federal poverty level would be subsidized; (viii) the Program will offer a cost-sharing reduction feature that removes disincentives to Program participation by low-income individuals who are enrolled in the Medicaid program; (ix) individuals will still be able to purchase individual health insurance coverage outside of the Program; (x) premiums for the plans offered through the Program will be set by the third-party administrators, subject to approval by the Commission with assistance of qualified actuaries; (xi) the Program would be designed and operated in order to ensure that any shortfall in revenues is addressed by the reinsurance program and by self-funding a reserve that is determined by the Corporation's actuary to be adequate, and (xii) the Program will include premium incentives for compliance with wellness or chronic disease management benefit programs. The bill requires JLARC to report its findings and conclusions to the Joint Committee for Health and Human Resources Oversight.
Assigned Education sub: Public Education
Adds to the list of medical care facilities for which a certificate of public need is required any facility that has common ownership with an affiliated licensed hospital located within 35 miles of the facility and that includes, as part of the facility, a dedicated emergency department as defined in 42 C.F.R. § 489.24(b) that is subject to the requirements of the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act. The bill exempts proposed medical care facilities for which an application for a certificate of public need was received by the Department of Health by December 31, 2017, or for which any appeal of the issuance or denial of a certificate of public need was filed by December 31. 2017, and is currently pending from the provisions of the bill.
Provides that in addition to any penalties imposed under FOIA, (i) if a court finds that any officer, employee, or member of a public body failed to provide public records to a requester in accordance with the provisions of FOIA because such officer, employee, or member of a public body altered or destroyed the requested public records with the intention of avoiding the provisions of FOIA prior to the expiration of the applicable record retention period set pursuant to the Virginia Public Records Act, the court may impose upon such officer, employee, or member in his individual capacity a civil penalty of up to $100 per record altered or destroyed and (ii) if a court finds that a member of a public body voted to certify a closed meeting and at the time of such certification such certification was not in accordance with the requirements of FOIA, the court may impose on each such member voting to certify in his individual capacity a civil penalty of $500.
Provides a 30-day stay for eviction and foreclosure proceedings for tenants and homeowners who request a stay and provide proof, defined in the bill, that they are (i) an employee of the United States government, (ii) an independent contractor for the United States government, or (iii) an employee of a company under contract with the United States government who was furloughed or was otherwise not receiving wages or payments as a result of the partial closure of the United States government beginning on December 22, 2018. The bill contain a sunset date of September 30, 2019.
Requires each public institution of higher education to provide a refund of the tuition and mandatory fees paid by any veteran student for any course from which he is forced to withdraw, for the first time, due to a service-connected medical condition during a semester, as certified in writing to the institution by a physician licensed to practice medicine who treated the veteran student for such medical condition.
Provides that a tether meets the requirement that an animal be given adequate space if the tether is four times the length of the animal or 15 feet long, whichever is greater, and does not cause injury or pain or weigh more than one-tenth of the animal's body weight. The bill provides that the walking of an animal on a leash by its owner shall not constitute tethering for the purpose of the definition of "adequate space."
Authorizes a school attendance officer or division superintendent or his designee acting as an attendance officer to complete, sign, and file with the clerk of court a motion for a rule to show cause regarding the violation or enforcement of a school attendance order entered by a juvenile and domestic relations district court in response to the filing of a petition alleging the juvenile is a child in need of supervision. The bill also provides that such a filing is not considered the unauthorized practice of law.
Agreed to by Senate
