2015 General Assembly Session at Crossover

 

Legislation of Interest to the Virginia Business Community

 

On Tuesday, February 10, 2015, all surviving legislation in the House of Delegates and the Senate crossed over to the other chamber for consideration. Through "Bills We're Watching" the Virginia Chamber of Commerce tracks nearly 400 pieces of legislation of interest to the Virginia business community, taking positions on over 100 bills. This document focuses on the most important business-related legislation.

 

Education and Workforce Development 

Education and Workforce Development is Blueprint Virginia's #1 priority recognizing that a highly talented and educated workforce is the lynchpin of maintaining and elevating Virginia's economic competitiveness. Concerning Virginia's youngest learners, legislators have introduced budget amendments to reform and better fund early childhood education. Regarding K-12, in order to give all Virginia students access to a high quality education, there are bills to increase accountability and to encourage innovation. Policies include reforms to improve educational instruction and student achievement. Also put forward is an agenda to make higher education more affordable and accessible. There is legislation that would hold down costs, open up additional enrollment slots, and allow colleges and universities to offer a discounted "flat-fee degree" for high-demand jobs. Lastly, a comprehensive bill has advanced in the General Assembly to require Virginia's Workforce System to deliver more business driven and efficient services.

 

Health Care 

Access to quality, transparent and cost-effective care is important to the business community. A healthy workforce impacts a business' productivity and a company's bottom line. Businesses pay approximately 60 percent of all health premiums. To reduce health care costs and increase efficiency, a bill has advanced to provide more flexibility to doctors and patients in using telemedicine technologies. Unfortunately, there were several health care mandate bills introduced that would've increased health care costs, but nearly all of these bills have been killed. 

 

Business Climate 

A pro-business climate is important to our economic competitiveness. As set forth in Blueprint Virginia, the Virginia Chamber promotes pro-business policies, including minimizing burdensome regulations and promoting efficient regulatory oversight. In regards to regulatory reform, the legislature is considering a bill that would allow the General Assembly to suspend an agency regulation if such regulation has an adverse economic impact on Virginia businesses. Also, there is a measure under consideration to remove the regulatory burdens on small businesses to allow entrepreneurs to raise money for startup businesses through crowdfunding.

 

While many tax bills crossed over in the General Assembly session, we're very supportive of the bill that would provide a $5 million exemption for companies that bring business back to the Virginia from outside the country. At a time when other states are attempting to punish inverted companies through legislation, Virginia can stand out as a leader by acknowledging that until the federal government addresses the nations archaic, burdensome tax code, Virginia must take matters into its own hands in order to remain competitive in a global economy.

 

Energy 

Affordable and reliable energy that meets the growing needs of our population and business community is a high priority of Blueprint Virginia and vital for the state's economic competitiveness. Because of this reality, legislators have introduced bills to address the detrimental effects of the Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Power Plan regulations. We must make sure that Virginia's implementation plan is cost-effective, attainable and avoids harming jobs and the economy.

 

Military and Veterans Affairs 

In order to better serve our veterans, the legislature has advanced an impressive array of policies. There is legislation to provide funding for new Veterans Care Centers in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads. Further, there is legislation that would require community colleges to offer academic credit to military members who have completed military training commensurate to a given certificate or degree. Lawmakers are also considering incentives to businesses that employ veterans. 

House of Delegates Passes "Administrative Process Act"

 

Last week, the House of Delegates voted 96-0 to pass HB 1751, the Administrative Process Act. This bill, patroned by Delegate Margaret Ransone and backed by the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, would require the Joint Council on Administrative Rules (JCAR) to review each proposal that the Department of Planning and Budget identifies as having adverse economic impact on businesses or would impose a significant adverse economic impact. In addition, the regulations are referred to the House Appropriations and Senate Finance Committees for review.

 

Regulations cost Americans $1.7 trillion per year. While many regulations are necessary to ensure that there are clear rules for operating in a complex society, excessive and burdensome regulations harm the economy and inhibit job creation. The Virginia Chamber will continue to advocate for the passage of this bill in order to minimize burdensome regulations and promote efficient regulatory oversight.  

Telemedicine: Improving Access, Decreasing Costs 

  

Telemedicine uses technology to provide long-distance care and monitoring and allows the exchange of information between doctors and patients. Basically, it's bringing technology into the health care sector, with smartphones, teleconferencing, monitoring devices and more. In a new report from the Georgia Public Policy Foundation, Ronald Bachman, says telehealth can reduce health care costs while, at the same time, increasing the quality of care.

 

Telehealth is currently experiencing explosive growth. By 2018, the telehealth market is projected to increase from $240 million in revenue to $1.9 billion, and by 2015, 500 million smart phone users will be using apps to monitor their health.

 

But while telehealth is convenient, can it provide comparable quality, cost, and access to care as traditional health care does? Bachman says yes:

 

• Telehealth improves patients' access to doctors when they might otherwise face delays or be unable to reach a physician. It can allow patients to interact with both primary care doctors and specialists over live video, limiting the need for an office visit.
• As for quality, a 2012 study from Johns Hopkins University concluded that telemedicine didn't just produce equal clinical outcomes to in-hospital care but, in some cases, produced better outcomes. Similarly, studies from the Rand Corporation and the University of California -- Davis Children's Hospital found that children's health care in rural areas improved thanks to telemedicine.
• Costs are much lower with telehealth, because it removes the need for transportation and can displace the need for patient monitoring at a hospital. A 2011 study found that chronically ill patients saw between 30 and 53 percent reduction in annual health care costs thanks to telemedicine's ability to detect problems early. Similarly, a Health Affairs study found that chronically ill Medicare enrollees using telehealth saved up to 13 percent each quarter compared to their peers.

The goal of Blueprint Virginia's Health Care Industry Council is to "use innovation to transform Virginia's health care system." As an innovation in health care, telemedicine could restructure medical care and improve patients' access to doctors. In the 2015 General Assembly Session, lawmakers introduced several bills to modernize the Code in order to better accommodate telemedicine. Both Senator McWaters and Delegate Kilgore put forward legislation to amend the definition of telemedicine to include the use of electronic technology or media, including interactive audio or video. The bill would redefine telemedicine in a technology-neutral manner that does not pit one technology over another, or require that we continuously update the Code as certain technologies become obsolete. Lastly, Senator Wagner introduced a piece of legislation to establish a three-year telemedicine pilot program designed to reduce patient use of emergency department facilities for the treatment of low-acuity conditions. The bill would require the Department of Health to report the results of the pilot program to the State Board of Health and to the General Assembly by October 1, 2018. All three bills are making their way through the General Assembly.