Health insurance; prior authorization; required contract provisions; work group. Requires any provider contract between a carrier and a participating health care provider or its contracting agent to contain specific provisions that (i) require a carrier to establish and maintain a prior authorization application program interface for processing prior authorization requests and (ii) require a participating health care provider to ensure that any electronic health record or health information technology system owned by or contracted for the provider to maintain the health record of an enrollee has the ability to access such application program interface. The bill amends requirements for the existing work group on electronic prior authorization.
Virginia Fire Personnel and Equipment Grant Program established; report. Establishes the Virginia Fire Personnel and Equipment Grant Program (the Program) for the purpose of awarding grants to localities to hire additional firefighters and to improve their firefighting and emergency medical services. The bill specifies that the Department of Fire Programs (the Department) shall administer the Program and two types of grants shall be made from the Program. The first shall provide grants to localities to increase the number of firefighters. Such grants shall be made for up to three years and shall be used by localities for programs to (i) hire new, additional full-time firefighters; (ii) convert part-time or volunteer firefighters to full-time firefighters; or (iii) recruit and retain volunteer firefighters. The second shall award grants to localities for improving firefighting and emergency medical services, including by acquiring firefighting and emergency medical services vehicles and equipment and modifying facilities. For both grants, the bill provides that funds shall not be used to supplant any funds currently provided by the Commonwealth or by the locality and shall be used to increase the total amount of funds available for the provision of firefighting or emergency medical services.The bill requires the Department to submit a report annually, beginning November 1, 2027, to the Governor and the General Assembly containing a list of grants, the amount of each approved grant, information on the performance assessment system that the bill directs the Department to create, an evaluation of each grant based on such system, and any other criteria deemed relevant by the Department.
Department of Housing and Community Development; work group to examine the future of redevelopment and housing authorities in the Commonwealth established; report. Directs the Department of Housing and Community Development to establish in collaboration with the Virginia Housing Development Authority a work group to examine the future of redevelopment and housing authorities in the Commonwealth for the purpose of examining the need to repurpose and find a new mission for redevelopment and housing authorities that serve the goals of promoting housing affordability, effectuating redevelopment, and conserving land where deemed appropriate, and to develop a plan to address the diminishing role of the federal government in supporting housing authorities. The bill requires the work group to meet at least six times between July 1, 2026, and September 30, 2027, and to submit a report of its findings and recommendations no later than September 30, 2027.
Virginia Resiliency Grant Program and Fund. Establishes the Virginia Resiliency Grant Program and Fund, administered by the Department of Emergency Management, to award local governing bodies grants of up to $100,000 to support disaster recovery from those disasters and emergencies for which federal assistance under the Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act is unavailable. The bill also authorizes the Department to establish a Virginia Disaster Individual Assistance Program to support households impacted by disasters or emergencies for which federal individual assistance is unavailable or insufficient.
Virginia Minimum Wage Act; enforcement; penalties. Provides that an employer that violates provisions relating to minimum wage is liable to the employee for the applicable remedies, damages, penalties, and other relief available in a proceeding brought pursuant to the civil action provisions currently available for the nonpayment of wages. Such provisions currently available provide that an employee may bring an action in a court of competent jurisdiction to recover payment of the wages, and the court is required to award the wages owed, an additional equal amount as liquidated damages, plus prejudgment interest thereon, and reasonable attorney fees and costs. Under current law, if the court finds that the employer knowingly failed to pay wages to an employee, the court is required to award the employee an amount equal to triple the amount of wages due and reasonable attorney fees and costs. The bill provides that criminal and civil penalties currently applicable to the nonpayment of wages shall apply to an employer that violates the Virginia Minimum Wage Act.
Electric utilities; recovery of certain project development costs. Permits an investor-owned electric utility to petition the State Corporation Commission at any time for the approval of a rate adjustment clause for the recovery of project development costs for up to five electric generation facilities, regardless of fuel source. The bill also exempts such facilities from requirements in existing law to retire or decommission such facilities. The provisions of the bill have a contingent expiration date of one year after the effective date of any regulations promulgated by the State Air Pollution Control Board to establish carbon dioxide emissions allowances pursuant to current law.
Gift certificates; redeemable cash value; Virginia Consumer Protection Act. Requires that any gift certificate with a cash value of less than $10 be redeemable by the holder of the certificate for its cash value from the issuing merchant. A violation of the provisions of the bill is a violation of the Virginia Consumer Protection Act.
Financial services; right of buyer to refinance certain payments; exemption. Provides that provisions authorizing a buyer of consumer goods to refinance an installment payment when such payment is greater than 10 percent more than the regular installment payments do not apply to the purchase of a motor vehicle, provided that the financing agreement includes a payment schedule that is disclosed to the buyer and no installment payment is more than 50 percent greater than the regular installment payments.
A BILL to amend the Code of Virginia by adding in Title 24.2 a chapter numbered 6.1, consisting of sections numbered 24.2-684.1 through 24.2-684.17, relating to statewide referendum ballot questions; fairness and transparency requirements; Ballot question fairness Commission; readability standards; language accessibility; public comment; judicial review.
Virginia Retirement System; return to work for law-enforcement officers. Allows a retired sworn law-enforcement officer to return to work full time in any covered position and continue to receive his pension under the Virginia Retirement System if such person has a break in service of at least six calendar months before reemployment and meets certain other requirements, including having retired in good standing from his sworn law-enforcement officer position. The bill has a delayed effective date of January 1, 2027.
Health insurance; coverage for doula care services. Requires health insurers, corporations providing health care subscription contracts, and health maintenance organizations whose policy, contract, or plan includes coverage for obstetrical services to provide coverage for doula care services provided by a state-certified doula. The bill requires such coverage to include coverage for at least eight visits during the antepartum or postpartum period and support during labor and delivery. The bill provides that health insurance carriers are (i) not required to pay for duplicate services actually rendered by both a state-certified doula and another health care provider and (ii) prohibited from requiring supervision, signature, or referral by any other health care provider as a condition of reimbursement for doula care services, except when those requirements are also applicable to other categories of health care providers.
Virginia Institute of Marine Science; duties; oyster stock assessment; report. Directs the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) to conduct, in collaboration with the Virginia Marine Resources Commission (VMRC), a stock assessment of the oyster population in the waters of the Commonwealth beginning in calendar year 2026 and occurring no less frequently than every three years thereafter. The bill directs VIMS to report its findings and any recommendations to the Secretary of Natural and Historic Resources, VMRC's Shellfish Management Division, and the Chairs of the House Committee on Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources and the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources no later than December 1 of the calendar year in which such assessment has been conducted. The bill also directs VMRC to utilize the findings and recommendations of such assessment in its fisheries and restoration management decisions no later than July 1 of the calendar year following the calendar year in which such assessment has been conducted.
