Healthcare

Department of Education; School Health Services Committee; annual mental health screenings for public school students in grades six through 12; recommendations on guidance and best practices. Directs the School Health Services Committee (the Committee), in collaboration with the Department of Education, to study and make recommendations on best practices for annual mental health screenings for public school students in grades six through 12 that utilize evidence-based tools. The bill directs the Committee to include its findings and recommendations in its annual report required pursuant to applicable law.

Medical malpractice information disclosures; report. Requires insurers who issue medical malpractice liability insurance polices covering health care providers in the Commonwealth to disclose, for the preceding calendar year, information regarding (i) premiums; (ii) claims activity; (iii) claim payments and litigation costs; and (iv) insurer financial condition. The bill further requires every hospital or health system licensed in the Commonwealth that maintains self-insurance, captive insurance, risk retention arrangements, or other retained financial risk for medical malpractice liability to disclose information regarding (a) the numbers of physicians and health care providers covered under the malpractice liability program; (b) claims activity; (c) malpractice expenditures; and (d) the total malpractice liability expenditures for the reporting year. The bill further requires such insurers, hospitals, and health care systems to provide a list of verdicts during the reporting year in medical malpractice actions in which the jury verdict exceeded the medical malpractice limitation on recovery. The bill provides that such disclosures and information be submitted to the Chairs of the House and Senate Committees for Courts of Justice and to the ranking Delegate and Senator of the minority party serving on such Committees on or before September 1, 2026, for the 2025 calendar year and on or before March 31 of each year thereafter for the preceding calendar year.

Collaborative agreements; practitioners; diagnosis. Removes registered nurses from the list of practitioners whose diagnoses may form the basis of drug therapy conducted pursuant to a collaborative agreement between a practitioner and a pharmacist.