Del. Mark Sickles

Virginia Lottery Board; regulation of the manufacturing, distributing, operating, hosting, and playing of dominant skill video games; penalties. Authorizes the manufacture, distribution, operation, hosting, and playing of dominant skill video games in the Commonwealth, to be regulated by the Virginia Lottery Board. The bill specifies the licensing requirements for the manufacture, distribution, operation, and hosting of dominant skill video games and imposes criminal and civil penalties for violations of the law and regulations related to dominant skill video games. The bill imposes a 10 percent tax on all gross profits generated from the play of dominant skill video games and the sale of fills by distributor licensees to operator licensees and provides for how the tax proceeds are disbursed. The bill also establishes the Problem Gambling Treatment and Support Fund, administered by the Commissioner of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, to provide counseling and other support services for compulsive and problem gamblers, develop problem gambling treatment and prevention programs, and provide grants to support organizations that provide assistance to compulsive gamblers.

Study; Virginia State Crime Commission; thelow use of geriatric parole; report. Directs the Virginia StateCrime Commission to study the low use of geriatric parole and theappropriate structure for increasing the use of geriatric parole.

Paid family and medical leave program. Requires the Virginia Employment Commission to establish and administera paid family and medical leave program with benefits beginning January 1, 2023. Under the program, benefits are paid to eligible employees for family and medical leave. Funding for the program isprovided through premiums assessed to employers and employees beginningin 2022. The amount of a benefit is 80 percent of the employee'saverage weekly wage, not to exceed 80 percent of the state weeklywage, which amount is required to be adjusted annually to reflectchanges in the statewide average weekly wage. The measure caps theduration of paid leave at 12 weeks in any application year. The billprovides self-employed individuals the option of participating inthe program.

Critical National Security Language Grant Fundand Program established. Establishes the Critical National SecurityLanguage Grant Fund and the Critical National Security Language GrantProgram within the Department of Education for the purpose of awardinggrants on a competitive basis to any school division that providesa foreign language course in a foreign language that is currentlyidentified as critical by the National Security Language Initiativefor Youth scholarship program. Such grants are limited to $5,000per student who successfully completes a critical foreign languagecourse per school year.

Prescribing of Schedule VI controlled substances;telemedicine; store-and-forward technologies. Provides that electronic technology or media used for telemedicine services includes store-and-forward technologies and that, used in the context of prescribing ScheduleVI controlled substances through telemedicine services, "store-and-forwardtechnologies" means technologies that allow for the electronic transmissionof medical information, including images, documents, or health histories,through a secure communications system.

Peer-to-peer vehicle sharing platforms; regulation;insurance; taxation. Establishes taxation, insurance coverage, sale of insurance, disclosure, safety recall, airport operation,and recordkeeping requirements for peer-to-peer vehicle sharing platforms,as defined in the bill.

Peer-to-peer vehicle sharing platforms; taxation. Provides that peer-to-peer vehicle sharing platforms, as defined in the bill, are rentors for the purposes of taxation.

Redistricting; Virginia Redistricting Commission. Establishesthe Virginia Redistricting Commission (the Commission) pursuant to proposedamendments to Article II of the Constitution of Virginia, amending Section 6and adding Section 6-A. The Commission, tasked with establishing districts forthe United States House of Representatives and for the Senate and the House ofDelegates of the General Assembly, will consist of eight legislativecommissioners and eight citizen commissioners. The legislative commissionersconsist of four members of the Senate of Virginia and four members of the Houseof Delegates, with equal representation given to the political parties havingthe highest and next highest number of members in their respective houses. Thecitizen commissioners are chosen by a selection committee consisting of fiveretired judges of the circuit courts of Virginia, from lists submitted to theselection committee by the Speaker of the House of Delegates, the leader in theHouse of Delegates of the political party having the next highest number ofmembers in the House of Delegates, the President pro tempore of the Senate ofVirginia, and the leader in the Senate of the political party having the nexthighest number of members in the Senate. The bill contains eligibilityrequirements for the citizen commissioners, including restrictions on holdingor having held partisan national or state public office. As part of theapplication process for service on the Commission, the Division of LegislativeServices acts as a repository for applications submitted by interested personsand is tasked with screening out applicants who are ineligible or submitincomplete applications. The applications of the citizen candidates selected bypolitical leadership and submitted for consideration to the selection committeeare public records. The bill also directs the Division of Legislative Services toprovide staff support to the Commission in the redistricting of congressionaland state legislative districts. The Commission is required to submit to theGeneral Assembly plans of districts within certain time periods. Provisions toensure public participation in the redistricting process are included. Ifefforts to establish districts fail, the Supreme Court of Virginia isresponsible for establishing districts, and the bill directs the Court toappoint a special master to draw the maps for the establishment of thedistricts. The bill has a contingent effective date of November 15, 2020,provided that the voters approve the amendments to Article II of theConstitution of Virginia, amending Section 6 and adding Section 6-A, at theNovember 2020 general election.

Health insurance; payment to out-of-network providers. Provides that when a covered person receives covered emergency services from an out-of-network health care provider or receives out-of-network services at an in-network facility, the covered person is not required to pay the out-of-network provider any amount other than the applicable cost-sharing requirement. The measure also establishes a standard for calculating the health carrier's required payment to the out-of-network provider of the services, which standard is the lower of the market-based value for the service or 125 percent of the amount that would be paid under Medicare for the service. If such provider determines that the amount to be paid by the health carrier does not comply with the applicable requirements, the measure requires the provider and the health carrier to make a good faith effort to reach a resolution on the appropriate amount of the reimbursement and, if a resolution is not reached, authorizes either party to request the State Corporation Commission to review the disputed reimbursement amount and determine if the amount complies with applicable requirements. The measure provides that such provisions do not apply to an entity that provides or administers self-insured or self-funded plans; however, such entities may elect to be subject such provisions. The measure requires health carriers to make reports to the Bureau of Insurance and directs the Bureau to provide reports to certain committees of the General Assembly. This bill was incorporated into HB 1251.

Voter identification; signed statement in lieuof required form of identification; penalty. Permits a voterwho does not show one of the required forms of identification whenoffering to vote to sign a statement that he is the named registeredvoter he claims to be in order to be permitted to cast a ballot.Such statement is signed subject to felony penalties for making falsestatements, punishable as a Class 5 felony. A voter who does notshow one of the required forms of identification and does not completeor sign the statement shall be offered a provisional ballot accordingto the provisions of current law. The bill adds language regarding identification requirements for certain voters subject to the federalHelp America Vote Act of 2002.