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Health and Human Services

Tuesday, February 3, 2026·1h 17m·▶ Watch / Listen

The Virginia Health and Human Services Full Committee advanced more than two dozen bills, with the most contested debates centering on a mandatory bias-reduction training requirement for physicians and nurses (HB 1147, passed 14–6) and an expansion of radiologic technology licensure exceptions (HB 452, passed 11–6); the committee also tabled a nonemergency medical transportation fee-disclosure bill (HB 1115) for further work after constituent testimony revealed a $2,100 surprise bill and industry pushback.

Key Actions

·HB 1147 – Bias Reduction Training for Physicians and NursesPassed

+ 12 more actions

Controversies

HB 1147 – Mandatory bias reduction continuing education for physicians and nurses

Delegate Griffin argued it is wrong for politicians to require doctors and nurses to get bias and racism training, calling it divisive and asserting doctors and nurses are not racist. Delegate Hayes, the patron, countered that disparities in health outcomes equate to 'policy violence and policy murder' and cited sickle cell disease as an example of conditions many in the medical community are unaware of. Delegate Scott acknowledged the need for such training based on personal experience with a daughter with trisomy 18 but voted against, stating there are other ways to meet this need and citing concern about adding more requirements to the plate.

+ 3 more controversies

Notable Quotes

“Five or six months later, we received a bill that was an estimated of 2, $2,700, which completely took me off guard. 500 of it was covered by my health insurance. I have really great health insurance, and so a little over 2,100 is currently on me to pay for. When I contacted my insurer thinking that there had been a mistake, I was told that non emergency ground ambulance services are largely unregulated and that surprise charges and surprise bills are often very common.”

Misty (constituent, Virginia parent) — Misty testified in support of HB 1115, which would require nonemergency medical transportation providers to disclose fees upfront, describing the bill as addressing the surprise bills families receive after ambulance transfers.

+ 2 more quotes

Votes

Report HB 1147 with substitute (bias reduction training for physicians and nurses)Passed
No (2)Delegate Griffin (stated intent), Delegate Scott (stated intent)
Report HB 452 as amended (radiologic technology licensure exceptions; sunset July 1, 2029)Passed
No (1)Delegate Waksman (stated intent)
Report HB 855 (Medicaid estate recovery; multiple languages)Passed
No (1)Delegate Griffin (stated intent)
Report HB 879 as amended (public notice for bulk social services records requests)Passed
Report HB 1116 with substitute, refer to Appropriations (nursing home and ALF information portals)Passed
Report HB 1240 with substitute, refer to Appropriations (Medicaid appeal timelines and mailing periods)Passed
Strike HB 1478Passed
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TranscriptPreview
Good morning. Welcome to Health and Human Services full committee. Your chair, Delegate Rodney Willett. Thanks for being with us this morning. We've got a couple of bills for the full committee and then some very significant reports from our chairs of the subcommittees. And we'll start by taking the roll. Get two more coming right now. So. Hold this one second. Just start. Yeah. Oh, I'm gonna do it again. Yeah, actually, we're gonna do that. Okay. Well, it's already up. We'll do it again. Sorry. Double count. Double count. Okay. Okay. Got a quorum. Twice. We're good. We're going to do a couple bills before the full committee. And we're going to start with HB 1478 from Delegate Davis, who has asked us to strike that bill. And I would welcome a motion to that. We have a motion that's been properly seconded to strike HB 1478. Go on the board. Thank you. And by a vote of 17 to nothing, we voted to strike HP 1478. Next up, we have House Bill 1115 from Delegate Navarre. Yeah. Nope, she's doing. I was like, what? False alert. False alert. It's really earthy. It's good. You're good. Oh, I…
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