Virginia Bills

Provides that if a pharmacy has provided notice through an intermediary of its agreement to accept reimbursements at rates applicable to preferred providers, the insurer or its intermediary may elect to respond directly to the pharmacy instead of the intermediary. The measure does not require a carrier to contract with a pharmacy's intermediary and does not prohibit an insurer or its intermediary from contracting with or disclosing confidential information to a pharmacy's intermediary.

Provides that Charitable Gaming Board regulations relating to the approval and conduct of game variations for raffles, bingo, network bingo, and instant bingo games shall be exempt from the Administrative Process Act, provided that (i) such variations result in games that are consistent with the provisions of charitable gaming law and Board regulations and (ii) such regulations are published and posted. This bill is identical to

Prohibits a person from conducting or transacting business under any assumed or fictitious name unless such person files in the office of the clerk of the State Corporation Commission a certificate of assumed or fictitious name. The measure specifies the requirements for a certificate of assumed or fictitious name. A person who signs a certificate the person knows is false in any material respect with intent that the certificate be delivered to the Commission for filing is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor. The measure eliminates the existing requirement that a person conducting business under an assumed or fictitious name file a certificate with the clerk of the circuit court where the business is to be conducted. An enactment clause provides that the act shall be applied prospectively only, does not affect the validity of a certificate filed prior to the act's effective date, and does not require any person who was in compliance with applicable laws regarding fictitious or assumed name certificates prior to the act's effective date to take any action to comply with the act's requirements. The measure has a delayed effective date of May 1, 2019.

Requires the Secretary of Transportation or his designee to convene a task force to study the feasibility of establishing a one-stop online portal for citizen address changes in order to develop a single statewide address database for utilization by state entities. The task force shall submit to the Governor and the General Assembly a report on its findings and recommendations by November 1, 2017. The bill has an expiration date of July 1, 2018.

Provides that the duties of a community services board include reviewing any existing Memorandum of Understanding between the community services board and any other community services boards that serve the regional jail to ensure that such memorandum sets forth the roles and responsibilities of each community services board in the preadmission screening process, provides for communication and information sharing protocols between the community services boards, and provides for due consideration, including financial consideration, should there be disproportionate obligations on one of the community services boards.

Inserts "real estate" in several places related to the priority of tax liens so that the operative language now reads "on a parity with liens for unpaid local real estate taxes." This bill is identical to

Increases the Class 1 misdemeanor computer trespass crimes to a Class 6 felony if the computer affected is one that is exclusively for the use of, or used by or for, the Commonwealth, a local government within the Commonwealth, or certain public utilities.

Establishes the parameters of a program under which small agricultural generators may sell the electricity generated from a small agricultural generating facility to its utility. Effective July 1, 2019, enrollment by eligible agricultural customer-generators in an existing net energy metering program conducted by an electric cooperative will cease, though a cooperative's customers who were participating as eligible agricultural customer-generators before that date are allowed to remain in the net metering program for not more than 25 years. A small agricultural generator is defined in this measure as a customer who operates an electrical generating facility as part of an agricultural business, which generating facility, among other conditions, has a capacity of not more than 1.5 megawatts, uses renewable energy as its total source of fuel, has a capacity that does not exceed 150 percent of the customer's expected annual energy consumption based on the previous 12 months of billing history, uses not more than 25 percent of contiguous land owned or controlled by the agricultural business for purposes of the renewable energy generating facility, and is a PURPA qualifying small power production facility. The program for small agricultural generators requires the generator to enter into a power purchase agreement with its supplier to sell all of the electricity generated at a rate not less than the supplier's State Corporation Commission-approved avoided cost tariff for energy and capacity. The program also provides for utilities to recover distribution service costs and costs incurred to purchase electricity, capacity, and renewable energy certificates from the small agricultural generator through its Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard (RPS) rate adjustment clause if the utility has a Commission-approved RPS plan and rate adjustment clause or, if the utility does not have a Commission-approved RPS rate adjustment clause, then the costs shall be recoverable through the supplier's fuel adjustment clause or through the utility's cost of purchased power. Finally, the measure directs the Commission to conduct a single docketed proceeding to implement the provisions of this measure. The bill incorporates

Designates "Song of the Mountains" as the state television series. This bill is identical to

Extends the maximum period that the State Corporation Commission is authorized to suspend the implementation of a proposed rate increase rates from 150 to 180 days. The measure applies only to certain investor-owned water utilities.