Legislative Update
Long-Term Care & Medicaid
| Bills | Committee | Last action | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| HB 159 - Hope - Nursing home patients; notice to Long-Term Care Ombudsman when patient is discharged or transferred. | (H) Committee on Health, Welfare and Institutions | (H) Continued to 2013 in Health, Welfare and Institutions | 01/19/12 |
| notes: Provides that in cases in which a nursing home patient is involuntarily transferred or discharged from a nursing home, a copy of the written notice of such transfer or discharge shall be sent to the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman at the same time such notice is sent to the patient. | |||
| HB 178 - O'Bannon - Continuing care facilities; residents meetings. | (H) Committee on Health, Welfare and Institutions | (H) Subcommittee recommends laying on the table | 01/30/12 |
| notes: Requires that the issues discussed at meetings between the governing body of a continuing care facility and the residents of the facility or their representatives include income, expenditures, and financial matters as they apply to the facility and proposed changes in policies, programs, facilities, and services. Currently, these issues may be, but are not required to be, discussed at such meetings. | |||
| HB 220 - Head - Home care organizations; licensure. | (H) Committee on Health, Welfare and Institutions (S) Committee on Education and Health | (S) Referred to Committee on Education and Health | 01/23/12 |
| notes: Provides that the Commissioner of Health may revoke or suspend the license of any home care organization that has been excluded from participation in any federal health care program. | |||
| HB 270 - Peace - Public guardianship and conservator program; VDA to adopt person-centered practice procedures. | (H) Committee on Health, Welfare and Institutions (S) Committee on General Laws and Technology | (S) Referred to Committee on General Laws and Technology | 01/23/12 |
| notes: Requires the Department for the Aging to adopt, as part of its public guardianship and conservator program, person-centered practice procedures that shall (i) focus on the preferences and needs of the individual receiving public guardianship services and (ii) empower and support the individual receiving public guardianship services, to the extent feasible, in defining the direction for his life and promoting self-determination and community involvement. | |||
| HB 419 - Watts - Estate tax; reinstated for persons dying on or after July 1, 2012. | (H) Committee on Finance | (H) Subcommittee recommends laying on the table | 01/25/12 |
| notes: Reinstates the estate tax for persons dying on or after July 1, 2012. No estate tax will be imposed on a gross estate if the majority of the assets of the estate is an interest in a closely held business or a working farm. The revenues from the estate tax would first be used for funding staffing standards in nursing homes required to be established under the bill, which staffing standards would require a minimum period of time of direct care services to each resident per 24-hour period. | |||
| HB 505 - Garrett - Income tax, state; increases long-term care insurance credit. | (H) Committee on Finance | (H) Subcommittee recommends reporting (5-Y 0-N) | 02/03/12 |
| notes: Increases the amount of the credit an individual may claim for long-term care insurance premiums from 15 percent to 30 percent of the amount of the premiums paid. The bill would be effective for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2012. | |||
| HB 534 - Orrock - Certificate of public need; exemption from Request for Applications (RFAs) process. | (H) Committee on Health, Welfare and Institutions | (H) Continued to 2013 in Health, Welfare and Institutions | 01/24/12 |
| notes: Allows the Commissioner of Health, in his discretion, to accept and approve applications for a certificate of public need that have been submitted without the Commissioner having issued a Request for Applications. | |||
| HB 535 - Orrock - Certificate of public need; exemption from RFAs process for relocation of nursing home beds. | (H) Committee on Health, Welfare and Institutions | (H) Read first time | 02/03/12 |
| notes: Creates an exemption from the Request for Applications process for the relocation of nursing home beds from one facility to another if certain occupancy criteria are met, while removing an existing similar exemption from the definition of "project" for purposes of the certificate of public need process. Also, the bill allows for an extension of the one-time open admissions period in continuing care retirement communities, during which such communities can accept direct admissions to its nursing home beds, if the facility's occupancy rate for the year prior to the requested extension did not average 75 percent of its authorized nursing beds. | |||
| HB 595 - Crockett-Stark - Aging services; changes deadlines for submission of four-year plan. | (H) Committee on General Laws (S) Committee on General Laws and Technology | (S) Referred to Committee on General Laws and Technology | 01/26/12 |
| notes: Changes the deadline for submission of a four-year plan for aging services from June 30, 2013, to October 1, 2015, and the deadline for submission of an update to the current plan from October 1, 2011, to October 1, 2013, in order to align state deadlines for the four-year plan for aging services with federal deadlines for such plans. | |||
| HB 735 - Jones - Community-based continuing care (CBCC) providers; required to be registered with SCC. | (H) Committee on Commerce and Labor | (H) Reported from Commerce and Labor (22-Y 0-N) | 02/02/12 |
| notes: Requires providers of community-based continuing care (CBCC) to be registered with the State Corporation Commission as a continuing care provider and file a statement regarding the provider's CBCC program. Community-based continuing care is a program providing or committing to provide a range of services to an individual, other than an individual related by blood or marriage, pursuant to an agreement that is effective for the life of the individual or for a period in excess of one year, and in consideration of the payment of an entrance fee. A CBCC program includes the provision of the services in the individual's private residence as long as medically feasible and facility-based long-term care services when required. CBCC providers are required to deliver a copy of a disclosure statement regarding the CBCC program. Provisions regarding the escrowing of entrance fees and terms of contracts are analogous to existing requirements for continuing care providers. | |||
| HB 918 - Minchew - Medicaid; appeals of agency determinations. Regarding overpayments. | (H) Committee for Courts of Justice | (H) Subcommittee recommends continuing to 2013 | 02/01/12 |
| notes:
Provides that all recommended or final case decisions in administrative hearings regarding Medicaid overpayments shall be made in accordance with the Administrative Process Act, shall be based on the whole evidentiary record, and shall be limited to a determination of whether the Director's initial decision was within the scope of his statutory or legal authority. The bill also provides that no recommended or final case decision shall be based on principles of contract law or equity. Same as SB426. |
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| HB 920 - Brink - Medicaid Managed Care Ombudsman; established. | (H) Committee on Health, Welfare and Institutions | (H) Tabled in Health, Welfare and Institutions | 01/26/12 |
| notes: Establishes the Office of the Medicaid Managed Care Ombudsman within the Department of Medical Assistance Services to promote and protect the interests of covered persons under managed care programs of the Department. Duties of the Medicaid Managed Care Ombudsman include assisting persons receiving medical assistance under the state plan for medical assistance services furnished by managed care programs in understanding their rights and the processes available to them under their managed care plan, developing information on the types of managed care programs available in Virginia, and monitoring and providing information to the General Assembly on managed care issues. | |||
| HB 938 - Lingamfelter - Military training, etc.; regulatory boards to accept as equivalent to requirements for licensures. | (H) Committee on General Laws | (H) Committee substitute printed 12104855D-H1 | 02/02/12 |
| notes: Requires the regulatory boards within the Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation, the Department of Health Professions, or any board named in Title 54.1 to accept the military training, education, or experience of a service member returning from active military service in the armed forces of the United States, to the extent that such training, education, or experience is substantially equivalent to the requirements established by law and regulations of the respective board for the issuance of any license, permit, certificate, or other document, however styled or denominated, required for the practice of any business, profession, or calling in the Commonwealth. The bill provides that to the extent that the service member's military training, education or experience, or portion thereof, is not deemed substantially equivalent, the respective board shall credit whatever portion of the military training, education, or experience that is substantially equivalent toward meeting the requirements for the issuance of the license, permit, certificate, or other document. The bill authorizes a regulatory board to require the service member to provide such documentation of his training, education, or experience as deemed necessary to determine substantial equivalency. The bill defines the term "active military service." | |||
| HB 971 - Bell, Robert B. - Barrier crimes; adds extortion and felony violations of protective orders to statute. | (H) Committee on Health, Welfare and Institutions | (H) Read first time | 02/03/12 |
| notes: Adds the following crimes to various barrier crimes statutes: abduction, extortion, and felony violations of protective orders. People who have been convicted or are the subject of pending charges of one of those crimes will not be able to work in a licensed nursing home, home care organization, or hospice and cannot work, volunteer, or provide services on a regular basis at a children's residential facility that is regulated or operated by the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, certain structured residential programs for juveniles, or children's residential facilities regulated or operated by the Departments of Social Services, Education, or Military Affairs. Persons convicted of such crimes cannot be approved by a child placing agency as adoptive or foster parents and cannot be an adult foster care home provider or a provider of home-based adult services. In addition, they cannot work at certain schools, assisted living facilities, adult day care centers, child welfare agencies, or family day homes. | |||
| HB 988 - Loupassi - Medical Fraud Control Unit; Attorney General to appoint investigators. | (H) Committee on Appropriations | (H) Assigned App. sub: Compensation and Retirement | 02/03/12 |
| notes: Authorizes the Attorney General to appoint unit investigators to investigate fraud, abuse, or neglect in the provision of care under the plan for medical assistance. Such investigators would be considered law-enforcement officers and would be sworn to enforce the laws of the Commonwealth through the investigation of medical fraud and abuse. Such investigators would also be authorized to carry a concealed handgun while in the discharge of their official duties. | |||
| HB 1274 - Hope - Nursing facility transfer & discharge procedures; workgroup to clarify requirements and guidelines. | (H) Committee on Health, Welfare and Institutions | (H) Read first time | 02/03/12 |
| notes: Creates a workgroup for the purposes of clarifying requirements and develop guidelines applicable to nursing homes when transferring or discharging a resident. | |||
| SB 24 - Stuart - Welfare and other entitlement fraud; penalties. | (S) Committee on Finance | (S) Rereferred to Finance | 02/01/12 |
| notes: Requires a 180-day mandatory minimum sentence for misdemeanor entitlement fraud, a one year mandatory minimum sentence for felony entitlement fraud, a repayment of three times the benefits received, and a lifetime bar on receipt of entitlement. The entitlements covered by the bill are housing assistance programs, medical assistance, food stamps, energy assistance, and any other program designated under regulations of the State Board of Social Services, State Board of Health, or Board of Medical Assistance Services. | |||
| SB 92 - Howell - Nursing homes; involuntary discharge notification. | (S) Committee on Education and Health | (S) Continued to 2013 in Education and Health (15-Y 0-N) | 01/19/12 |
| notes: Requires that a copy of the written notice of intent to involuntarily discharge a patient from a nursing home also be sent to the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman. Also contains a technical correction. | |||
| SB 97 - Edwards - Barrier crimes; clarifies individual crimes included in background check and barrier crime statutes. | (S) Committee for Courts of Justice | (S) Rereferred to Courts of Justice | 01/20/12 |
| notes: Clarifies the individual crimes included in the background check and barrier crime statutes affecting the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, certain licensees of the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, the Department of Social Services, and certain licensees of the Department of Social Services. | |||
| SB 191 - Miller, J.C. - Intellectual disability and developmental services; replaces certain terminology, tech. amendments. | (S) Committee on Education and Health | (S) Incorporated by Education and Health (SB387-Martin) (15-Y 0-N) | 02/02/12 |
| notes: Replaces the terms "mental retardation" and "mental deficiency" with the term "intellectual disability" when referring to the diagnosis of, and with the term "developmental" when referring to services for, individuals with intellectual disabilities; replaces the terms "mentally retarded," "mentally deficient," and "mentally defective" with the term "individual with intellectual disability." This bill has technical amendments. | |||
| SB 266 - Norment - Community-based continuing care (CBCC) providers; required to be registered with SCC. | (S) Committee on Commerce and Labor | (S) Read third time and passed Senate (38-Y 0-N) | 02/03/12 |
| notes: Requires providers of community-based continuing care (CBCC) to be registered with the State Corporation Commission as a continuing care provider and file a statement regarding the provider's CBCC program. Community-based continuing care is a program providing or committing to provide a range of services to an individual, other than an individual related by blood or marriage, pursuant to an agreement that is effective for the life of the individual or for a period in excess of one year, and in consideration of the payment of an entrance fee. A CBCC program includes the provision of the services in the individual's private residence as long as medically feasible and facility-based long-term care services when required. CBCC providers are required to deliver a copy of a disclosure statement regarding the CBCC program. Provisions regarding the escrowing of entrance fees and terms of contracts are analogous to existing requirements for continuing care providers. | |||
| SB 341 - Newman - Income tax, state; increases long-term care insurance credit. | (S) Committee on Finance | (S) Referred to Committee on Finance | 01/10/12 |
| notes: Increases the amount of the credit an individual may claim for long-term care insurance premiums from 15 percent to 30 percent of the amount of the premiums paid. The bill would be effective for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2012. | |||
| SB 426 - Ruff - Medicaid; appeals of agency determinations. Regarding overpayments. | (S) Committee for Courts of Justice | (S) Rereferred to Courts of Justice | 01/26/12 |
| notes:
Provides that all recommended or final case decisions in administrative hearings regarding Medicaid overpayments shall be made in accordance with the Administrative Process Act, shall be based on the whole evidentiary record, and shall be limited to a determination of whether the Director's initial decision was within the scope of his statutory or legal authority. The bill also provides that no recommended or final case decision shall be based on principles of contract law or equity. Same as HB918 |
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| SB 659 - Martin - Medicaid; DMAS to develop and implement long-term care system. | (S) Committee on Education and Health | (S) Assigned Education sub: Health Care | 01/23/12 |
| notes: Directs the Director of the Department of Medical Assistance Services to develop and implement a statewide fully integrated risk-based long-term care system that integrates Medicaid-reimbursed primary, acute, and long-term care services. The long-term care system shall expand access to and utilization of cost-effective home and community-based alternatives to institutional care for Medicaid-eligible individuals. The system shall include a nursing facility transition initiative, along with an expansion of community-based services, and an acuity-based methodology for reimbursement of nursing facility services. | |||
| SJ 49 - Barker - Retirement Communities, Continuing Care; Virginia Housing Commission to study. | (S) Committee on Rules | (S) Referred to Committee on Rules | 01/10/12 |
| notes: Directs the Virginia Housing Commission to study Continuing Care Retirement Communities, including the fiduciary responsibility the Community has to protect residents in contractual obligations and the role residents play in managing the Continuing Care Retirement Community. | |||
