Health and Human Services committee reports and advances multiple Senate bills on Medicaid billing, assisted-living monitoring, screenings and public-health law

Delegate Rodney Willett, chair of the Health and Human Services full committee, opened the meeting and led the panel through committee reports and votes on a slate of Senate bills advancing public-health and social-services measures.

The committee reported Senate Bill 73 with amendment. Unidentified Speaker (S2) summarized SB 73 as directing the Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services to provide training to local school-division staff on Medicaid billing and related rules and guidance; the committee voted to report the bill with amendment by a recorded vote of 14 to 2.

Unidentified Speaker (S2) then described Senate Bill 409 as permitting residents of assisted-living facilities to install electronic monitoring devices (fixed-position video and/or audio) in their rooms and establishing privacy and roommate-consent provisions; the committee reported SB 409 by a vote recorded as 17 to nothing.

The committee advanced Senate Bill 556, introduced in the transcript as from Senator Perry, which the speaker said would expand mandatory-reporting duties to cover additional child-related and obscenity-related offenses and apply those duties to public and private school athletics coaches, directors and adult volunteers. The committee reported SB 556 and referred it to the Appropriations Committee; the transcript contains an ambiguous vote phrase for this item (see audit).

Senate Bill 564, described as requiring operators of unlicensed care homes to register with the Department of Social Services, was reported and referred to Appropriations by a vote recorded as 18 to nothing.

The committee then considered a set of bills introduced to the Health committee. SB 278 was described as creating a work group to evaluate the Commonwealth's drug-pricing program and pharmacy access in rural and underserved areas; the committee reported SB 278 with amendment by a vote of 18 to nothing.

SB 374 was presented as an addition of Gaucher disease to newborn screening panels; the committee reported the bill as amended and referred it to Appropriations by a vote of 19 to nothing.

SB 392 was read into the record as directing the Board of Health to establish cleanup guidelines for residential and other sites formerly used in illicit-drug manufacture (expanding existing methamphetamine-only guidelines). The committee reported SB 392 and referred it to Appropriations by a vote of 20 to nothing.

SB 633, described as directing the Department of Health to publish guidance for event planners on emergency-medical-service availability and the benefits of on-site medical support for large or high-risk events, was reported by a vote of 20 to nothing.

Chair Hope presented SB 183, which the transcript describes as directing the Board of Health to promulgate regulations requiring restaurants to mark items that have been altered as substitutes for consumer-identified food allergies or sensitivities for carryout and delivery; the committee reported SB 183 by a vote of 14 to 6.

Chair Hope also presented SB 683, described in the transcript as allowing the Commissioner of Health to petition the circuit court where a public or private waterworks is located to appoint a receiver (an authority previously limited to private waterworks); the committee reported SB 683 by a vote of 18 to 2.

In closing, Delegate Willett thanked members, leadership, staff and clerks, mentioned forthcoming informational presentations and adjourned the committee.

Quotes used in this report are verbatim from the transcript and attributed to the speaker labels available in the record.