Page 25 - Delaware Medical Journal - May 2016

HOUSE BILLS
BILL NUMBER
SUMMARY
STATUS
HB 90 w/HA 1 (Longhurst)
This bill requires all public school employees to receive 90 minutes of training each year on suicide prevention. The bill also requires all public schools to establish a suicide prevention committee. Furthermore, the bill requires local education agencies to create a suicide prevention policy.
June 08, 2015 – Signed by Governor
HB 91 (Matthews)
This bill involves the public school immunization program. Currently, the Affidavit of Religious Belief does not expressly alert parents or guardians who file for the religious exemption from the program that the child will be temporarily excluded from school in the event of an epidemic of a vaccine preventable disease. This bill amends the required affidavit so parents or guardians are directly made aware of the possibility of the child’s temporary exclusion from school. The bill also adds that the asserted cause of a medical exemption may be subject to review and approval by the Division of Public Health. Additionally, the bill would require the Division of Public Health to declare an outbreak, rather than the current language of an epidemic throughout the State or a particular region.
July 15, 2015 – Signed by Governor
HB 111, w/HA 1, HA 2 + SA 1 (Barbieri)
As more healthcare services continue to move into the community, it is necessary to clearly define the scope of services offered in community settings. This legislation will update the Delaware Code to clearly define the level of medication administration permitted by unlicensed personnel and the settings in which they can administer medications
July 10, 2015 – Signed by Governor
HB 130 (Williams)
This bill creates a felony level offense for a person that is a health professional and in the course of providing professional health services to the victim, intentionally has sexual contact with the victim. This bill adds to the existing crime of unlawful sexual contact in the second degree and makes the conduct described therein as a felony offense, rather than a misdemeanor, due to the vulnerability of the victim as a patient seeking services from a health professional.
Aug 17, 2015 – Vetoed
HB 136 w/HA 1 (Smith)
The Delaware Child Death, Near Death and Stillbirth Commission (“CDNDSC”) is charged with the responsibility to review all cases in which a child dies in Delaware, as part of Delaware’s ongoing effort to reduce child mortality. CDNDSC is engaged in this effort through a number of review panels that examine health related issues, medical and legal issues, accidental deaths, and incidents arising from child abuse and neglect. The latter category of cases is assigned to CDNDSC’s Child Abuse and Neglect (“CAN”) Panel. The Child Protection Accountability Commission (“CPAC”) has statutory responsibility to monitor Delaware’s child protection system to best ensure the health, safety, and welfare of Delaware’s abused and neglected children. CPAC has been designated as Delaware’s “citizen review panel” under the federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, 42 U.S.C. § 5106a(c) (“CAPTA”). As Delaware’s “citizen review panel” CPAC is required to provide for
the investigation and review of child death and near death incidents due to child abuse and neglect, for the purpose of developing recommendations for system improvement. This Act provides for the transfer of the “CAN” Panel from CDNDSC to CPAC. The transfer will ensure that Delaware remains
in compliance with the requirements of federal law, providing greater assurance of continued federal funding under CAPTA. Further, CPAC is staffed by the Office of Child Advocate (“OCA”). Many, if not most, of the cases that fall within the jurisdiction of the CAN panel also already fall under the purview of the OCA, thus ensuring greater efficiency in the investigation of these cases. Finally, OCA has experienced attorneys on staff, and as volunteers, who are better equipped to ensure compliance with subpoenas and other investigative requests than the non-legal staff assigned to CDNDSC.
This Act also changes the name of CDNDSC to the Child Death Review Commission, addresses the subpoena process for both CDNDSC and CPAC, creates a mechanism for CDNDSC to hire and supervise employees, and makes various technical corrections intended to conform existing law to the guidelines of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
June 30, 2015 – Passed House and Senate
HB 139 w/HA 1 (Barbieri)
This Act provides for prudent flexibility in the ownership of professional corporations, in particular as it relates to certain medical professionals, and is intended to promote synergies in the delivery of healthcare statewide as professional corporations expand their existing ownership to collaborate with those complementary professions permitted by the Act, and specifically defined therein as “qualified related professional services.” In addition, this bill addresses long overdue technical corrections to The Professional Service Corporation Act in Delaware, which has not been substantively updated since shortly after its enactment in 1969.
September 03, 2015 – Signed by Governor
HB 150 (Baumbach)
This act will allow a competent terminally ill patient the ability to request medication to end the patient’s life. The bill clarifies the procedures necessary for making the request, such as but not limited to: the receipt of counseling, a physician’s evaluation, the passage of a waiting period, and the completion of a formally witnessed request for such medication. The bill further provides the right to rescind any request for such medication; as well as immunity for persons participating in good faith compliance with the procedures.
May 28, 2015 – Laid on the Table in Committee
Del Med J | May 2016 | Vol. 88 | No. 5 153