Bill Text: VA HB1285 | 2024 | Regular Session | Prefiled
Bill Title: Virginia Health Workforce Development Authority; adds to powers and duties.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2024-02-13 - Left in Health and Human Services [HB1285 Detail]
Download: Virginia-2024-HB1285-Prefiled.html
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. That §§32.1-122.7, 32.1-122.7:1, and 32.1-122.7:2 of the Code of Virginia are amended and reenacted as follows:
§32.1-122.7. Virginia Health Workforce Development Authority; purpose.
A. There is hereby created as a public body corporate and as a political subdivision of the Commonwealth the Virginia Health Workforce Development Authority (the Authority), with such public and corporate powers as are set forth in §32.1-122.7:2. The Authority is hereby constituted as a public instrumentality, exercising public and essential governmental functions with the power and purpose to provide for the health, welfare, convenience, knowledge, benefit, and prosperity of the residents of the Commonwealth and such other persons who might be served by the Authority. The Authority is established to move the Commonwealth forward in achieving its vision of ensuring a quality health workforce for all Virginians.
B. The mission of the Authority is to facilitate the
development of a statewide health professions pipeline that identifies,
educates, recruits, and retains a diverse, appropriately geographically
distributed, and culturally competent quality workforce. The mission of the
Authority is accomplished by:
(i) providing the statewide infrastructure required for health workforce needs
assessment and planning that maintains engagement by health professions
training programs in decision making and program implementation; (ii) serving
as the advisory board and setting priorities for the Virginia Area Health
Education Centers Program; (iii) coordinating with and serving as a resource to
relevant state, regional, and local entities, including the Department of
Health Professions Workforce Data Center, the Joint Legislative Audit and
Review Commission, the Joint Commission on Health Care,
the Behavioral Health Commission, the Southwest Virginia
Health Authority, or any similar regional health authority that may be
developed; (iv) informing state and local policy development as it pertains to
health care delivery, training, and education; (v) identifying and promoting
evidence-based strategies for health workforce pipeline development and
interdisciplinary health care service models, particularly those affecting rural
and other underserved areas; (vi) supporting communities in their health
workforce recruitment and retention efforts and developing partnerships and
promoting models of participatory engagement with business and community-based
and social organizations to foster integration of health care training and
education; (vii) setting priorities
for and managing primary care graduate medical education programs overseen by
the Commonwealth; (viii) advocating for programs that will
result in reducing the debt load of newly trained health professionals; (viii)
(ix) setting priorities for and managing the Commonwealth's Health Workforce
Innovation Fund; (x) identifying high priority target areas
within each region of the Commonwealth and working toward health workforce
development initiatives that improve health measurably in those areas; (ix)
(xi) fostering or creating innovative health workforce
development models that provide both health and economic benefits to the
regions they serve; (x) (xii) developing strategies to
increase diversity in the health workforce by examining demographic data on
race and ethnicity in training programs and health professional licensure; (xi)
(xiii) identifying ways to leverage technology to increase
access to health workforce training and health care delivery; and (xii)
(xiv) developing a centralized health care careers roadmap
in partnership with the Department of Health Professions that includes
information on both licensed and unlicensed professions and that is
disseminated to the Commonwealth's health care workforce stakeholders to raise
awareness about available career pathways.
C. The Commonwealth will make an effort to match funding from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration's Area Health Education Centers Program grants.
§32.1-122.7:1. Board of Directors of the Virginia Health Workforce Development Authority.
The Virginia Health Workforce Development Authority (the Authority) shall be
governed by a Board of Directors. The Board of Directors shall have a total
membership of 15 19 members that shall consist
of three legislative members, nine nonlegislative citizen members, and three
seven ex officio members. Members shall be appointed as
follows: two members of the House of Delegates, to be appointed by the Speaker
of the House of Delegates in accordance with the principles of proportional
representation contained in the Rules of the House of Delegates; one member of
the Senate, to be appointed by the Senate Committee on Rules; and nine
nonlegislative citizen members, three of whom shall be representatives of
health professional educational or training programs, five of whom shall be
health professionals or employers or representatives of health professionals,
and one of whom shall be a representative of community health, to be appointed
by the Governor. The Commissioner of Health or
his designee, the Chancellor of the Virginia Community
College System or his designee, and the Director of the
Department of Health Professions or his designee, the Chief Workforce Development Officer for the
Commonwealth, the Director of the State Council of Higher
Education for Virginia, the Chairman
of the House Committee on
Appropriations, and the Chairman
of the Senate Committee on
Finance and Appropriations or their
designees shall serve ex officio with
voting privileges. Members appointed by the Governor shall be citizens of the
Commonwealth.
Legislative members and ex officio members shall serve terms coincident with their terms of office. All appointments of nonlegislative citizen members shall be for two-year terms following the initial staggering of terms. Appointments to fill vacancies, other than by expiration of a term, shall be for the unexpired terms. Legislative and citizen members may be reappointed; however, no citizen member shall serve more than four consecutive two-year terms. The remainder of any term to which a member is appointed to fill a vacancy shall not constitute a term in determining the member's term limit. Vacancies shall be filled in the same manner as the original appointments.
The Board of Directors shall elect a chairman and vice-chairman annually from among its members. A majority of the members of the Board of Directors shall constitute a quorum.
The Board of Directors shall report biennially on the
activities and recommendations of the Authority to the Secretary of Health and
Human Resources, the Secretary of Education, the Secretary of Commerce and
Trade, the Chief Workforce
Development Advisor Secretary of Labor,
the State Board of Health, the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia,
the Joint Commission on Health Care, the Chairman of
the House Committee on Appropriations, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on
Finance and Appropriations, the Governor, and the General
Assembly. In any reporting period where state general funds are appropriated to
the Authority, the report shall include a detailed summary of how state general
funds were expended.
The accounts and records of the Authority showing the receipt and disbursement of funds from whatever source derived shall be in a form prescribed by the Auditor of Public Accounts. The Auditor of Public Accounts, or his legally authorized representative, shall examine the accounts of the Authority as determined necessary by the Auditor of Public Accounts. The cost of such audit shall be borne by the Authority.
§32.1-122.7:2. Powers and duties of the Virginia Health Workforce Development Authority; exemptions.
A. The Virginia Health Workforce Development Authority (the Authority) is authorized to serve as the incorporated consortium of allopathic and osteopathic medical schools in Virginia as required by federal statute to qualify for the receipt of Area Health Education Centers programs, legislatively mandated under the Public Health Service Act as amended, Title VII, Section 751, and 42 U.S.C. §294a, and to administer federal, state, and local programs as needed to carry out its public purpose and objectives. The Authority is further authorized to exercise independently the powers conferred by this section in furtherance of its corporate and public purposes to benefit citizens and such other persons who might be served by the Authority.
B. The Authority is authorized to monitor, collect, and track data pertaining to health care delivery, training, and education from Virginia educational institutions and other entities as needed to carry out its public purpose and objectives in areas where such data efforts do not already exist. The Authority is further authorized to request and seek data for program evaluation purposes and shall have the discretion to partner with other agencies and institutions to help manage and analyze health workforce data. The Authority shall assist in the coordination of data from various sources, including the Department of Education, the Department of Health Professions, the Virginia Department of Health, the Office of Economic Education, and the George Mason University Center for Health Workforce.
C. The Authority shall have the authority to assess policies, engage in policy development, and make policy recommendations.
D. The Authority shall have the authority to apply for and accept federal, state, and local public and private grants, loans, appropriations, and donations; hire and compensate staff, including an executive director; rent, lease, buy, own, acquire, and dispose of property, real or personal; participate in joint ventures, including to make contracts and other agreements with public and private entities in order to carry out its public purpose and objectives; and make bylaws for the management and regulation of its affairs.
E. The Authority shall be exempt from the provisions of Chapters 29 the Virginia Personnel Act (§
2.2-2900 et seq.) and 43 the Virginia Public Procurement Act
(§2.2-4300 et seq.) of Title 2.2.
F. The exercise of powers granted by this article and the undertaking of activities in the furtherance of the purpose of the Authority shall constitute the performance of essential governmental functions. Therefore, the Authority shall be exempt from any tax or assessment upon any project or property acquired or used by the Authority under the provisions of this article or upon the income therefrom, including sales and use taxes on tangible personal property used in the operation of the Authority. This exemption shall not extend to persons conducting business for which local or state taxes would otherwise be required.
