Photo Caption: Dr. Karen Rheuban, VTN Board Chair, testifies during the 2025 Virginia General Assembly.
The Virginia General Assembly adjourned its 45-day legislative session on the evening of February 22, 2025. Over the course of the session, the House of Delegates and Senate introduced a total of 1,994 bills – 1,236 in the House and 758 in the Senate. Of these, 917 bills passed both chambers and will be sent to the Governor for action. The Governor has until March 24 to sign, amend, or veto these bills.
Although the 2025 session officially ended on February 22, the General Assembly immediately reconvened for the 2024 Special Session I, passing HJ 6003, a resolution allowing for consideration of bills addressing the impact of federal budget changes on Virginia. As a result, the Special Session remains active, and the Speaker of the House may call the legislature back into session as needed.
Throughout 2024, the General Assembly completed numerous studies, held committee and commission meetings and hosted policy summits and meetings including the Joint Commission on Health Care, the House Select Committee on Rural and Small-Town Healthcare, and the Black Maternal Health Summit. From these meetings, many policy recommendations were related to telehealth (coverage of e-consultants, audio-only reimbursements, and remote patient monitoring). While these policy proposals were passed out of the Health Committees, the large fiscal impacts stopped them from moving past the money committees. Legislators have already expressed interest in bringing back these proposals in the 2026 session (at the start of the budget cycle).
While VTN was actively monitoring many telehealth-related bills during the 2025 GA session, below is a final list of telehealth and health care-related bills and budget items that passed this year. Unless amended or vetoed by the Governor, all legislation that passed should be effective on July 1, 2025.
Legislative Updates
HB1596. Department of Medical Assistance Services; state plan for medical assistance services; telemedicine services. Changes the definition of “telemedicine services” as it is used in the state plan for medical assistance services to include two-way, real-time, audio-only communication technology for any telehealth service furnished to a patient in his home.
- Left in Appropriations (too high of cost)
HB 1649: Board Of Medicine; Continuing Education; Unconscious Bias and Cultural. Directs the Board of Medicine to require unconscious bias and cultural competency training as part of the continuing education requirements for renewal of licensure. The bill specifies requirements for the training and requires the Board of Medicine to report on the training to the Department of Health and the Virginia Neonatal Perinatal Collaborative.
- Passed the General Assembly and the Governor has until March 24 to act.
HB 1861. Department Of Health Professions; Health Regulatory Boards; Regulations; Licensure by Endorsement. Directs each health regulatory board regulated by the Department of Health Professions to enact regulations to provide a licensure by endorsement pathway for qualified applicants as practitioners of the particular profession or professions regulated by such board. The bill specifies that the Board of Medicine shall be the first health regulatory board to enact regulations to provide a licensure by endorsement.
- Passed the General Assembly and the Governor has until March 24 to act.
HB 1927. Department Of Medical Assistance Services; Remote Monitoring Services for Pregnant and Postpartum Patients; Reimbursement. Expands provision for payment of medical assistance for remote patient monitoring services provided via telemedicine to include all pregnant and postpartum persons. Under current law, only high-risk pregnancies are covered.
- Left in Appropriations (too high of cost)
HB 1929 Pregnancy Mobile Application; Department of Health to Contract with A Mobile Developer to Create. The bill requires the Department to submit a request for proposal within 180 days of the bill’s effective date and requires such request for proposal to include provisions on deliverables for development of the mobile application.
- Passed the General Assembly and the Governor has until March 24 to act.
HB 1945. School Boards; School-based Telehealth and Mental Health Teletherapy Services, Accessibility. School boards; student access to telehealth services; policies. Directs each school board to consider, for the purpose of increasing access to health care services for students, developing and implementing policies for permitting any public-school student in the school division to schedule and participate in telehealth services, including mental health teletherapy services pursuant to a memorandum of understanding with a nationally recognized school-based telehealth provider.
- Passed the General Assembly and the Governor has until March 24 to act.
HB 1975: Patient-initiated Consultation; State Plan for Medical Assistance. Directs the Department of Medical Assistance Services to modify state plan provisions covering provider-to-provider consultations to also include patient-generated consultations. The bill specifies that consultations provided through telemedicine services, including audio-only telemedicine services where applicable, shall be included in such provision.
- Left in Appropriations (too high of cost)
HB 1976 High-risk Pregnant Patients; Remote Patient Monitoring Services Available to Patients. Directs the Department of Medical Assistance Services to amend its regulations, guidance, and provider manuals to clarify that remote patient monitoring services for high-risk pregnant patients include pregnant patients with maternal diabetes and maternal hypertension.
- Passed the General Assembly and the Governor has until March 24 to act.
HB 2543. Model Memorandum of Understanding; Counseling from School Counselors by Way of Telehealth. Provides that the model memorandum of understanding developed by the Department of Education for partnerships with community mental health services providers or school-based telehealth providers shall include procedures allowing students to receive counseling from school counselors by way of telehealth.
- Passed the General Assembly and the Governor has until March 24 to act.
SB 843. Remote Patient Monitoring Patients with Chronic Condition. Directs the Department of Medical Assistance Services to develop a plan and estimate costs for expanding eligibility criteria under Medicaid for remote patient monitoring for individuals with chronic conditions and to report such plan and cost estimate to the Joint Commission on Health Care by October 1, 2025. This bill is a recommendation of the Joint Commission on Health Care.
- Passed the General Assembly and the Governor has until March 24 to act.
SB 1038. Telehealth Visits for Patients with Disabilities; Best Practice Educational Training. Directs the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services to develop and disseminate best practice educational training for health care providers on how to conduct telehealth visits for patients with disabilities. This bill is a recommendation of the Joint Commission on Health Care.
- Passed the General Assembly and the Governor has until March 24 to act.
SB 1039. Doc And State Board of Local and Regional Jails; Policies on Inmate Participation in Telehealth. Department of Corrections; State Board of Local and Regional Jails; policies on inmate participation in telehealth. Requires the Department of Corrections and the State Board of Local and Regional Jails to develop and implement policies for the accommodation in local, regional, state, and community correctional facilities of inmate participation in telehealth appointments, which shall include designating a private space for such telehealth appointments to occur.
- Passed the General Assembly and the Governor has until March 24 to act.
Budget Overview:
The budget package, now headed to the Governor, includes one-time funding such as large investments in K-12 education, filling the gap for Medicaid funding and bonuses for state employees and targeted tax cuts for working families.
Below are budget items related to telehealth included in the final conference report. The Governor has until March 24 to propose amendments to the budget.
- The amendment adds language to enable the use of mobile clinics in providing school-based care and allows school divisions to contract with a mental telehealth provider to provide mental health services to students. This amendment also ensures that funding appropriated for the school-based clinic grant program is used for such purpose.
- The amendment provides $450,000 from the general fund the first year to contract with the Free Clinic of Central Virginia to allow them to restore operations and continue providing dental care to the community following a fire at their existing location. The one-time funding will be allocated to staff the dental clinic for 12 months, equipment and supplies, Virginia Commonwealth University dental students’ housing, and the E.C. Glass High School externship program. The funding may only be used for costs that are not covered by the Clinic’s insurance
- The amendment provides $500,000 from the general fund in fiscal year 2026 to support operating costs of free clinics that are members of the Virginia Association of Free and Charitable Clinics. Funding will be used to provide medical, dental, vision, speech, hearing, and behavioral health care, as well as prescription medications and substance use disorder services to uninsured and underinsured patients.
- The amendment provides $300,000 from the general fund the second year for the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) to implement recommendations from the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC). Language would require VDH to report on its progress implementing recommendations made by the Department of Planning and Budget, the causes of issues with VDH-administered nursing incentive programs, and its progress on implementing recommendations made by JLARC. Funding is provided for VDH to hire 2.0 positions to support internal audit and information security audit functions.
- The amendment provides $1.1 million the second year from the general fund for the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services to contract with the Virginia Health Care Foundation to expand the Boost! program, formerly known as Boost 200. Boost! pays for supervisory hours and licensure exam preparation for individuals obtaining their Master of Social Work and Master of Counseling. This funding will add 60 more slots to the program, bringing the total to 383 slots.
General Issues of Session
Health care bills passed by the House and Senate would centralize Virginia’s Medicaid pharmacy benefits under a single state-contracted pharmacy benefit manager. Only Medicaid would be affected because it’s a state-run program, giving Virginia the authority to implement changes. A sweeping set of proposals, dubbed the “Virginia Momnibus,” aimed at improving maternal health care are headed to the Governor’s desk. Measures include support for midwives and doulas, who have been critical players in maternal health care deserts. Following a state report last year that revealed long wait times for Medicaid enrollment of qualified parents-to-be, a bill would create a special enrollment period.
Last year, Governor Youngkin vetoed a record 201 pieces of legislation, and he appears likely to veto some of them again. The Governor must act on bills by March 24. The legislators will return on April 2 for a “veto session”. Democrats, holding slim margins of 21-19 in the Senate and 51-49 in the House, likely have little chance to garner the two-thirds vote to override any Youngkin vetoes on April 2. As a reminder, this is an election year for all 100 members of the House of Delegates, as well as Governor, Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General.