What’s old is new again

After a flurry of activity last Monday, February 4 – the legislature reached cross-over.  This means that the Senate can only hear House bills and the House of Delegates can only year Senate Bills.  Monday was extremely hectic because so many bills of interest were yet to be acted upon by the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee.  But hear them it did for a long afternoon and evening.  Of particular interest to IIAV was our legislation on navigators – SB 1261.  It must be good because some legislators think we went too far and others think we didn’t go far enough.  The bill passed the committee on a 12 – 4 vote and then passed the Senate on effectively a 29-11 vote.

Following the vote however we learned that Attorney General Cuccinelli had communicated with both of our bills sponsors – Senator Puckett and Delegate O’Bannon – that he now opposed our bills and might have his staff speak against the bills following crossover.  Our House bill by the way, HB 2246 passed the House on a 81-19 vote.  We have been trying to meet with the AG’s staff to ascertain why this change of position/interest and the first explanation left us wondering if his office had in fact read our bill.  The IIAV bill does in effect two things – makes navigators subject to Virginia’s applicable fair trade and privacy regulations and subjects them to the regulatory authority of the Bureau of Insurance for violations of those Code sections.  This is virtually no different than the Federal and State GLBA laws.  While our original bill provided substantial regulation over navigators, we backed off this effort given arguments that have not been established on whether or not the Bureau would have the regulatory authority to conduct such authority over navigators.  Thus is the complicated nature of Affordable Care Act and its constantly moving regulations.

As you review the updated – post crossover – legislative table, you’ll see that there’s just not that much left to get worked up about.  You’ll see that a lot of tort reform bills have worked their way through the system and we might even see a strong prohibition on texting and driving bill move through the legislature.  Having said that, you’ll see most of the remaining activity in the legislature on transportation issues and amending the budget.  If we hear more about the AG’s opposition to our navigator bills, we’ll let you know.

Otherwise, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Robert N. Bradshaw
IIAV President & CEO
804-929-4134

Legislative ALERT

On the last day of crossover IIAV's legislative proposals on health care navigators has passed both the House and Senate having survived significant opposition.  The Affordable Care Act has created a classification of health care navigators who are supposed to "help facilitate enrollment" in the health care plans in a Federal Exchange.

In short, IIAV's proposals:

·         Protects the Virginia consumer by ensuring that Federally approved navigators do not abuse their functions or improperly use private information;
·         Establishes that navigators are subject to Virginia fair trade practices and privacy regulations;
·         Establishes that navigator functions are limited as set forth by the Affordable Care Act and that they are NOT licensed agents;
·         Gives Virginia consumers an avenue of assistance through the Bureau of Insurance if they have difficulty with navigators; and
·         Requires the Bureau of Insurance to report back to the House/Senate Commerce and Labor Committees in 2014 and 2015 on any issues related to navigators.

Now HB 2246 carried by Delegate O'Bannon must go to the Senate and SB 1261 carried by Senator Puckett will go to the House and if they pass would then go to the Governor for his signature.  The Federal Exchange could be operational in Virginia by January 1, 2014 with navigators activated as early as October this year.

The bills faced significant opposition from legislators who were opposed to anything related to the Federal law despite the consumer protection functions of IIAV's bills.

IIAV worked closely with the Bureau of Insurance, consumer groups and representatives of VAHU and NAIFA-Virginia.  Stay tuned to a possible important announcement on these bills later this week.

The Navigators are coming, the Navigators are coming!

After a long and grueling week with Joe and I visiting all members of the House Commerce and Labor Committee, our navigator bill HB 2246 passed the committee on a 15 to 6 vote.   On the same afternoon our amendment to the "cancel by email" HB 1607 was accepted and approved without fanfare.  Having said that, following the vote on 1607 some legislators had second thoughts on their vote when they could not find that the consumer absolutely has to opt in to dealing with the insurer electronically.  Legislators quickly came to us and we had to show them the opt in reference.  Nothing like rescuing a bill you don't like in the first place. 

As mentioned, the debate on Navigators won the award for most contentious and longest debated of the day. There remains substantial confusion on the Affordable Care Act and several legislators were reluctant to vote for our bill until the Federal Health and Human Services Department (HHS) provides more information and final guidance.  As well they were concerned about acting based on today's deadlines since HHS has not met any deadlines to date asking if we could wait until next year for our legislation.  Some wanted more regulation then we proposed while others felt any vote on our bill was a vote in support of "Obama Care". 

So there are now two areas of concern.  The Navigator bill now goes to the floor of the House where it's sure to receive another debate.  And our companion bill in the Senate – SB 1261 -  comes before the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee on Monday. Another busy day. While Joe and I have met everyone on Senate C&L, we again expect a “spirited” discussion.  And crossover is Wednesday.  In short each house must complete work on bills that generated in their house by the end of the day on Tuesday.  Then the Senate must work on House bills and the House must work on Senate bills. 

Also on Thursday the House Commerce & Labor Committee took off the table the Bureau's bill that prevents felons from owning agencies.  The bill was amended that say that felons could not "own and operate" an agency.  IIAV strongly supported the original language of this bill and certainly supported this watered down version. 

So take a look at the table that accompanies this report and let me know if you have any questions.  We're here at the General Assembly for you until the bitter end - February 23. 

By the way, thanks to everyone who attended the Insurance Day on the Hill.  We had a great program and even heard news in progress with the report by Lt. Governor Bill Bolling. 

Call me if you have any questions! 

Robert N. Bradshaw
IIAV President & CEO
804-929-4134