TITLE: Virginia Commerce and Labor (S02) Committee Docket — 2020-01-13
DATE: 2020-01-13T00:00:00
SESSION: 2020 Regular (20201)
CHAMBER: Senate
SOURCE_API: https://lis.virginia.gov/Calendar/api/GetDocketsByIdAsync?docketID=15556
COMMITTEE_PAGE: https://lis.virginia.gov/committee-details?committeeId=23&sessionCode=20201

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
  - Richard L. Saslaw (D) Chair

STAFF: Autumn Green, Thomas Stevens

DOCKET / AGENDA:

[Senate Bills in Committee]
  999. SB9 - Workers' compensation; presumption of compensability for certain diseases, conditions before 7/1/20.
       Patron(s): Saslaw
       Summary: Workers' compensation; presumption of compensability for certain diseases. Adds cancers of the colon, brain, or testes to the list of cancers that are presumed to be an occupational disease covered by the Virginia Workers' Compensation Act when firefighters or certain employees develop the cancer. The presumption shall not apply for any individual who was diagnosed with one of the conditions before July 1, 2020. The measure removes the compensability requirement that the employee who develops cancer had contact with a toxic substance encountered in the line of duty. The bill also reduces the n
  999. SB58 - Workers' compensation; presumption of compensability for certain diseases.
       Patron(s): Cosgrove
       Summary: Workers' compensation; presumption of compensability for certain diseases. Adds cancers of the colon, brain, or testes to the list of cancers that are presumed to be an occupational disease covered by the Virginia Workers' Compensation Act when firefighters or certain employees develop the cancer. The measure removes the compensability requirement that the employee who develops cancer had contact with a toxic substance encountered in the line of duty. This bill was incorporated into SB 9.
  999. SB216 - Health insurance; catastrophic health plans.
       Patron(s): Suetterlein
       Summary: Health insurance; catastrophic health plans. Authorizes health carriers to offer catastrophic plans on the individual market and to offer such plans to all individuals. The measure provides that a catastrophic plan is deemed to provide an essential health benefits package and to meet certain requirements of federal law. A catastrophic plan is a high-deductible health care plan that provides essential health benefits and coverage for at least three primary care visits per policy year. Under the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended, catastrophic plans satisfy requiremen
  999. SB233 - Insurance agents; licensing and registration renewal.
       Patron(s): Chafin
       Summary: Insurance licensing and registration renewal. Makes changes related to renewal of insurance agents' licensure and registration. In 2019, legislation was enacted that becomes effective January 1, 2021, to change the licensing and registration renewal cycles for agents, public adjusters, and others to a new cycle based on both month and year, with biennial renewal. The bill removes references in the current law to biennial renewal, removes a requirement in the law as it will become effective that limited lines agents renew their licenses before May 1, 2021, and adds a requirement in the law as i
  999. SB234 - Human Resource Management, Department of; health insurance for local school board employees.
       Patron(s): Chafin
       Summary: Department of Human Resource Management; health insurance for local school board employees. Allows local school boards to elect to have all of their employees and retirees, as well as the dependents of such employees and retirees, be eligible to participate in the state employee health insurance plan in lieu of the current state-administered local health insurance plan. Any participating local school board shall be responsible for whatever portion of the cost of such insurance is not paid by the employee, except any portion that the General Assembly elects to pay.
  999. SB250 - Medicare; supplement policies for certain individuals under age 65.
       Patron(s): Edwards
       Summary: Medicare supplement policies for certain individuals under age 65. Requires each insurer issuing Medicare supplement policies or certificates in the Commonwealth to offer the opportunity of enrolling in at least one of its issued Medicare supplement policies or certificates to any individual under age 65 who resides in the Commonwealth, is enrolled in Medicare Part A and B, and is eligible for Medicare by reason of disability. The provisions of the measure are applicable to health plans and health maintenance organizations.
  999. SB251 - Pharmacy benefits managers; licensure and regulation definitions.
       Patron(s): Edwards
       Summary: Pharmacy benefits managers; licensure and regulation. Provides that no person is authorized to provide pharmacy benefits management services or otherwise act as a pharmacy benefits manager without first obtaining a license from the State Corporation Commission. The measure prohibits a carrier on its own or through its contracted pharmacy benefits manager or representative of a pharmacy benefits manager from (i) causing or knowingly permitting the use of any advertisement, promotion, solicitation, representation, proposal, or offer that is untrue; (ii) charging a pharmacist or pharmacy a fee re
  999. SB252 - Pharmacy benefit managers; licensure and regulation.
       Patron(s): Edwards
       Summary: Pharmacy benefit managers; licensure and regulation. Provides that, beginning January 1, 2021, no person is authorized to provide pharmacy benefit management services or otherwise act as a pharmacy benefit manager without first obtaining a license from the State Corporation Commission. Such licenses are to be renewed annually. The bill prohibits a pharmacy benefit manager from participating in spread pricing, defined in the bill, and provides that except for any agreed-upon administrative fee, all funds, including any rebates received by the pharmacy benefit manager in relation to providing ph
  999. SB265 - Workers' compensation; occupational disease presumptions.
       Patron(s): Bell
       Summary: Workers' compensation; occupational disease presumptions. Adds correctional officers and full-time sworn members of the enforcement division of the Department of Motor Vehicles to the list of public safety employees who are entitled to presumptions that hypertension, heart disease, and certain infectious diseases are occupational diseases compensable under the Virginia Workers' Compensation Act.
  999. SB280 - Health insurance; mental health parity, required report.
       Patron(s): Barker
       Summary: Health insurance; mental health parity; required report. Codifies an existing requirement that the State Corporation Commission's Bureau of Insurance make an annual report regarding claims information for mental health and substance use disorder benefits. The bill adds information regarding network adequacy to such report and requires the Bureau to submit the report to the House Committee on Labor and Commerce and the Senate Committee on Commerce and Labor by September 1 of each year. The bill directs the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) to conduct a third-party review of 
  999. SB302 - Utility easements; fiber optic cable.
       Patron(s): Stanley
       Summary: Utility easements. Provides that any utility easement, granted before, on, or after July 1, 2020, whether granted publicly or privately, by statute, local ordinance, deed, or other recorded instrument, or by prescription, shall be deemed to include the laying, hanging, and maintenance of fiber optic cable. The bill further provides that any utility easement shall also be deemed to include access over private or public lands to permit the grantee to have physical access to such cable, unless the instrument granting the easement was recorded prior to July 1, 2020, and specifically states otherwi
  999. SB345 - Workers' compensation; occupational disease presumptions, correctional officers, etc.
       Patron(s): Bell
       Summary: Workers' compensation; occupational disease presumptions. Adds correctional officers and full-time sworn members of the enforcement division of the Department of Motor Vehicles to the list of public safety employees who are entitled to a presumption that certain infectious diseases are compensable occupational diseases. The presumption does not apply to correctional officers and full-time sworn members of the enforcement division of the Department of Motor Vehicles who were diagnosed with such infectious diseases before July 1, 2020.
  999. SB364 - Commonwealth Care Health Benefits Program; association health plans for individual market.
       Patron(s): Dunnavant
       Summary: Joint Commission on Health Care; association health plans for the individual market; review. Directs the Joint Commission on Health Care (JCHC) 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 
  999. SB381 - Workers' compensation; presumption of compensability for certain diseases.
       Patron(s): McPike
       Summary: Workers' compensation; presumption of compensability for certain diseases. Adds cancers of the colon, brain, or testes to the list of cancers that are presumed to be an occupational disease covered by the Virginia Workers' Compensation Act when firefighters and certain employees develop the cancer. The measure also incorporates some of the recommendations of the 2019 study of the workers' compensation system and disease presumptions conducted by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission by (i) reducing the required number of years of service from 12 to five; (ii) removing the requireme
  999. SB404 - Health insurance; short-term limited-duration medical plans, definitions, effective date.
       Patron(s): Hashmi
       Summary: Health insurance; short-term limited-duration medical plans. Prohibits carriers from issuing in the Commonwealth, on or after July 1, 2021, any short-term limited-duration medical plan with a duration that exceeds three months or that can be renewed or extended beyond six months, or if the plan's issuance would result in a covered person being covered by a short-term limited-duration medical plan for more than six months in any 12-month period. The bill prohibits a carrier from issuing a short-term limited-duration medical plan during an annual open enrollment period. The bill has a delayed ef
  999. SB424 - Health plans; calculation of enrollee's contribution to out-of-pocket maximum requirement.
       Patron(s): DeSteph
       Summary: Health plans; calculation of enrollee's contribution to out-of-pocket maximum or cost-sharing requirement; rebates. Requires any carrier issuing a health plan in the Commonwealth to count the amount of any rebates received or to be received by the carrier or its pharmacy benefits manager in connection with the dispensing or administration of a prescription drug when calculating the enrollee's overall contribution to any out-of-pocket maximum or any cost-sharing requirement under the carrier's health plan.
  999. SB470 - Utility easements; encroachments.
       Patron(s): Reeves
       Summary: Utility easements; encroachments. Declares that the damages to which a provider of utility services is entitled when the owner of the servient tract improves, occupies, or otherwise encroaches on an easement in which the provider has utility facilities shall be determined only on the basis of (i) any reduction in the value of such easement as a result of such construction, occupation, or other encroachment and (ii) the additional costs reasonably anticipated to be incurred by the entity in its provision of utility services. If the owner of the servient tract and the provider are unable to agre
  999. SB531 - Workers' compensation; presumption of compensability for certain diseases.
       Patron(s): Vogel
       Summary: Workers' compensation; presumption of compensability for certain diseases. Adds cancers of the colon, brain, or testes to the list of cancers that are presumed to be an occupational disease covered by the Virginia Workers' Compensation Act when firefighters and certain employees develop the cancer. The measure removes the compensability requirement that the employee who develops cancer had contact with a toxic substance encountered in the line of duty. The measure also removes the definition of a toxic substance as a known or suspected carcinogen, as defined by the International Agency for Res
  999. SB539 - Utility easements; broadband or other communications services.
       Patron(s): Peake
       Summary: Utility easements; broadband or other communications services. Declares that it is policy of the Commonwealth that (i) existing or future easements for the location and use of electric facilities be used to provide or expand broadband or other communications services; (ii) such use of such easements is in the public interest; (iii) the use of such easements for the provision of broadband or other communications services, where no additional poles are erected, does not constitute a change in the physical use of the easement, interfere with or impair any vested rights of the owner or occupier of
  999. SB561 - Workers' compensation; post-traumatic stress disorder, law-enforcement officers and firefighters.
       Patron(s): Vogel
       Summary: Workers' compensation; post-traumatic stress disorder; law-enforcement officers and firefighters. Provides that post-traumatic stress disorder incurred by a law-enforcement officer or firefighter is compensable under the Virginia Workers' Compensation Act if a mental health professional examines a law-enforcement officer or firefighter and diagnoses the individual as suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the individual's undergoing a qualifying event, defined as an incident or exposure occurring in the line of duty on or after July 1, 2020, (i) resulting in serious bodil
  999. SB573 - Health plans; calculation of enrollee's contribution to out-of-pocket maximum requirements.
       Patron(s): Dunnavant
       Summary: Health plans; calculation of enrollee's contribution to out-of-pocket maximum or cost-sharing requirement; rebates. Requires any carrier issuing a health plan in the Commonwealth to count the amount of any rebates received or to be received by the carrier or its pharmacy benefits manager in connection with the dispensing or administration of a prescription drug when calculating the enrollee's overall contribution to any out-of-pocket maximum or any cost-sharing requirement under the carrier's health plan.
  999. SB613 - Public utilities; third-party advertising prohibited.
       Patron(s): Suetterlein
       Summary: Public utilities; third-party advertising prohibited. Requires the State Corporation Commission to include in its procedures for public utilities for services not found to be competitive that a public utility is prohibited from (i) sending by mail or electronically to its customers any third-party advertising or other promotional materials or (ii) authorizing a third party to use the public utility's name, logo, or trademarks in advertising or other promotional materials sent by mail or electronically to the public utility's customers.
  999. SB634 - Alternative and efficient energies; subsidies and effective clause.
       Patron(s): Surovell
       Summary: Alternative and efficient energies; subsidies and rebates. Creates incentive programs relating to the adoption of alternative and efficient energies. The bill establishes the Energy Efficiency Subsidy Program to fund grants to subsidize residential energy efficiency measures and directs the Department of Taxation to study the possibility of incorporating an electric vehicle rebate into the Program. The provisions of the bill are contingent on funding in a general appropriation act.
  999. SB741 - Workers' compensation; occupation disease presumptions, PTSD.
       Patron(s): McPike
       Summary: Workers' compensation; occupation disease presumptions; PTSD. Establishes a presumption that if certain firefighters, law-enforcement officers, hazardous materials officers, animal protection police officers, or 9-1-1 emergency call takers, dispatchers, or similarly situated employees (i) receive a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from a licensed physician, licensed clinical psychologist, licensed professional counselor, or licensed clinical social worker; (ii) suffer death or any impairment resulting in total or partial disability from work caused by the PTSD; and (iii) rece
  999. SB794 - Utility easements; location of broadband and other communications facilities.
       Patron(s): Lewis
       Summary: Utility easements; location of broadband facilities. Declares that it is the policy of the Commonwealth that (i) easements for the location and use of electric and communications facilities may be used to provide or expand broadband or other communications services; (ii) the use of easements to provide or expand broadband or other communications services is in the public interest; (iii) the installation, replacement, or use of public utility conduit, including the costs of installation, replacement, or use of conduit of a sufficient size to accommodate the installation of infrastructure to pro
  999. SB862 - Pharmacy benefits managers; required to register with Commissioner of Bureau of Insurance.
       Patron(s): Pillion
       Summary: Pharmacy benefits managers. Requires pharmacy benefits managers to register with the Commissioner of the Bureau of Insurance. The measure prohibits a carrier on its own or through its contracted pharmacy benefits manager or representative of a pharmacy benefits manager from (i) causing or knowingly permitting the use of any advertisement, promotion, solicitation, representation, proposal, or offer that is untrue, deceptive, or misleading; (ii) charge a pharmacist or pharmacy a fee related to the adjudication of a claim; (iii) engaging, with the express intent or purpose of driving out competit
  999. SB924 - Workers' compensation; post-traumatic stress disorder, law-enforcement officers and firefighters.
       Patron(s): Cosgrove
       Summary: Workers' compensation; post-traumatic stress disorder; law-enforcement officers and firefighters. Provides that post-traumatic stress disorder incurred by a law-enforcement officer or firefighter is compensable under the Virginia Workers' Compensation Act if a mental health professional examines a law-enforcement officer or firefighter and diagnoses the individual as suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the individual's undergoing a qualifying event, which includes an event occurring in the line of duty on or after July 1, 2020, in which a law-enforcement officer or fir