Sen. Chris Head

Commending Feeding Southwest Virginia.

Nursing homes; regulations; electronic monitoring. Directs the Board of Health to include in regulations governing nursinghomes a provision prohibiting a nursing home from refusing to admit,transferring, or discharging a patient on the grounds that the patienthas implemented or requested to implement electronic monitoring,provided such request and electronic monitoring is in accordancewith regulations of the Board.

Commending the Honorable M. Kirkland Cox.

Home care organizations; personal care services; supervision; regulations. Directs the Board of Health to includein regulations governing home care organizations a provision forsupervision of home care attendants providing personal care servicesby a licensed nurse through use of audio-only telephone communication.

Telemedicine. Clarifies that nothing shallpreclude coverage of telehealth services by an insurer proposing to issue individual or group accident and sickness insurance policiesproviding hospital, medical and surgical, or major medical coverageon an expense-incurred basis; a corporation providing individualor group accident and sickness subscription contracts; or a healthmaintenance organization providing a health care plan for healthcare services. The bill requires the Board of Medical AssistanceServices to amend the state plan for medical assistance to providefor payment of medical assistance for remote patient monitoring servicesprovided via telemedicine for certain high-risk patients, and providesfor the establishment of a practitioner-patient relationship viatelemedicine for the prescribing of Schedule II through VI controlledsubstances.

Health insurance; credentialing; health care providers. Provides that provisions requiring health insurers and other carriers to establish reasonable protocols and procedures for reimbursing a health professional for services provided while such professional's credentialing application is pending also apply to certain health maintenance organizations and to corporations operating dental or optometric plans.

Hospitals, nursing homes, and certified nursing facilities; regulations; patient access to intelligent personal assistant. Directs the Board of Health to amend regulations governing hospitals, nursing homes, and certified nursing facilities to require each hospital, nursing home, and certified nursing facility to establish and implement policies to ensure the permissible access to and use of an intelligent personal assistant provided by the patient while receiving inpatient services. "Intelligent personal assistant" is defined in the bill as a combination of an electronic device and a specialized software application designed to assist users with basic tasks using a combination of natural language processing and artificial intelligence, including such combinations known as "digital assistants" or "virtual assistants."

Virginia Small Business Financing Authority;Board of Directors; membership; small business lending experience.Requires at least five of the nine citizen members of the VirginiaSmall Business Financing Authority to have experience in small businesslending. This bill is a recommendation of the Joint Legislative Auditand Review Commission.

Celebrating the life of Michael Wayne Woods.

Celebrating the life of Joseph Charles LaRocco.