Subcommittee recommends several health-related bills for reporting; technical and compact measures advance
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Summary
The Senate Health Professions Subcommittee voted to recommend multiple bills for report to the full committee, including technical cleanups, Board of Medicine appointment changes, alignment of EMS council references, and interstate licensure compacts.
The Senate Health Professions Subcommittee met in Richmond and recommended a set of health-related measures for reporting to the full committee. The panel took up a mix of technical cleanups, governance changes and interstate compact language during the docket.
House Bill 232: Delegate Waxman described HB 232 as a cleanup measure to remove an erroneous reference to "registered nurse" from collaborative practice language allowing pharmacists to obtain DEA credentials for controlled substance prescribing at substance-abuse clinics. The subcommittee moved and seconded a motion to report the bill; the clerk recorded ayes and noes (ayes reported as 3, noes 0) and the bill was recommended for reporting without a full committee hearing.
House Bill 1139: Mark Downey presented HB 1139, which would remove the congressional-district appointment requirement for physician members of the Virginia Board of Medicine to improve recruitment across specialties; supporters including the Virginia College of Emergency Physicians and the Medical Society of Virginia backed the change. The subcommittee voted to report the bill for further consideration.
House Bill 1285: Delegate Wright said HB 1285 aligns statutory references to the number of designated regional EMS councils with findings in the 2025 Appropriations Act and leadership consensus in March 2025. The subcommittee voted to recommend the bill for reporting.
Other measures: Delegate Cohen presented HB 465, a technical change to the advisory board on behavior analysis to allow more flexibility in filling three seats with licensed behavior analysts or licensed assistant behavior analysts. The subcommittee also considered a request affecting DMAS regulations on the autism competencies checklist (noted as "469" in the docket) to allow positive behavior support facilitators to train staff; committee sponsors said the change came from the disability commission. The subcommittee reported those items as recommended for the full committee.
Compacts and docket items: The committee took the "delegate Glass" docket in numerical order and recommended reporting of model compact language for athletic trainers and respiratory care (bills numbered in the 570s) and approved a work group request on breast and printer safety. One massage-related bill was stricken from the docket to allow stakeholders to resolve outstanding issues.
Vote at a glance: multiple bills were voted out of subcommittee by voice or roll call and recommended for report; roll-call tallies were recorded in the hearing. Patrons for several bills were told they do not need to appear before the full committee.
Next steps: The bills recommended for report will be scheduled by the full committee for further consideration; patrons of stricken bills may re-file or reintroduce stakeholder-aligned language later in the session.