Del. Ibraheem S. Samirah

Health insurance; mandated coverage for hearing aids for minors. Requires health insurers, health maintenance organizations, and corporations providing health care coverage subscription contracts to provide coverage for hearing aids and related services for children 18 years of age or younger when a licensed audiologist prescribes such hearing aids and related services. The coverage includes one hearing aid per hearing-impaired ear, up to a cost of $1,500, every 24 months. The measure applies to policies, contracts, and plans delivered, issued for delivery, or renewed on and after January 1, 2021.

Preventive services; coverage for outpatientmental health screenings or visits. Requires a health carrierto provide coverage as a preventive service for at least six annualtherapy or counseling outpatient screenings or visits with a licensedmental health professional for the early detection or preventionof mental illness. Health carriers are prohibited from imposing any cost-sharing requirements for mandated preventive services.

Discretionary sentencing guideline midpoints;act of domestic terrorism enhancement. Provides that in additionto any increase in the midpoint of an initial recommended sentencingrange already calculated for a defendant's criminal history, a defendantwho commits an act of domestic terrorism, as defined in the bill,shall have the midpoint of the recommended sentencing range for hisoffense further increased by 200 percent in all cases.

Individual income tax; refundable credit forcoverage under qualified health plan. Provides a refundable individualincome tax credit for taxable years 2020 through 2024 for a portionof the health care premium costs of a taxpayer insured through theindividual marketplace of the Affordable Care Act, provided thatsuch taxpayer has a household income between 400 and 500 percentabove the federal poverty line. The amount of the credit would bethe lesser of (i) the taxpayer's health care premiums or (ii) theamount by which the premium for a silver plan exceeds 10 percentof household income.

Transit funding. Raises the existing regional transportation fee, a grantor's tax, from $0.15 per $100 to $0.20 per $100 for localities in the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority that are also members of the Northern Virginia Transportation District. The bill requires half of the revenues to be deposited in the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority Fund and half to be deposited in the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) Capital Fund. The rate of tax in the other localities will remain at $0.15 per $100, with one-third of the revenues to be retained by the locality to be used for transportation purposes and the other two-thirds to be deposited in the Northern Virginia Transportation District Fund. The bill also raises the existing transient occupancy tax in the localities located in the Northern Virginia Transportation District from $2 to $3, with all of the revenues from the tax being used to support WMATA. This bill incorporates HB 977.

Health benefit plans; enrollment by pregnantindividuals. Requires health carriers to allow pregnant individualsto enroll in a health benefit plan at any time after the commencementof the pregnancy, with the pregnant individual's coverage being effectiveas of the first of the month in which the individual receives certificationof the pregnancy. The measure applies to such agreements that areentered into, amended, extended, or renewed on or after January 1,2021.

Housing; notice of educational opportunitiesfor home owners. Requires the Director of the Department of Housingand Community Development to prepare a notice form, to be made availableon the Department's website, for signature by the parties to a contractfor the sale of residential real estate, advising the purchaser toavail himself of educational programs established, administered,or promoted by the Director. The bill also requires that the ownerof residential real property provide such notice to the purchaserprior to the ratification of a real estate purchase contract.

Health insurance; coverage for mammograms.Requires health insurers, on and after January 1, 2021, to providecoverage for low-dose screening mammograms at rates that are more frequent than is currently required if the covered individual hasa family history of breast cancer. If the individual has a familyhistory of breast cancer, the bill requires coverage for annual mammogramsfrom age 30 through 49 and biannual mammograms starting at age 50.However, the age at which such coverage of annual mammograms startsshall be younger than 30 if the covered individual's mother was diagnosedwith breast cancer at an age earlier than 40, in which event coveragestarts during the year that the individual attains an age that is10 years younger than the age of the individual's mother at thetime of her diagnosis.

Board of Education; mental health break spaces; regulations. Requires the Board of Education to amend its regulations to require that each public school create and maintain a mental health break space within the public school building. The bill requires the Board of Education to collaborate with the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services in the creation of regulations for the mental health break spaces.

Uninsured and underinsured motorist insurancepolicies; bad faith. Provides that if an insurance company denies,refuses, or fails to pay its insured, or refuses a reasonable settlementdemand within the policy's coverage limits, for a claim for uninsuredor underinsured motorist benefits within a reasonable time afterbeing presented with a demand for such benefits and it is subsequentlyfound that such denial, refusal, or failure was not in good faith, then the insurance company shall be liable to the insured for thefull amount of the judgment and reasonable attorney fees, expenses,and interest from the date the initial settlement demand was presentedto the insurance company.