Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia
1. That §§ 32.1122.7 and 32.1122.21 of the Code of Virginia are amended and reenacted and that the Code of Virginia
§ 32.1122.7. Virginia Health Workforce Development Authority. purpose; Board of Directors.
A. There is hereby created as a public body corporate and as a political subdivision of theCommonwealth the Virginia Health Workforce Development Authority, with such public and corporate powers as are set forth in § 32.1122.7: 1. The Authority is hereby constituted 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 being established to move the Commonwealth forward in achieving its vision of ensuring a quality health workforce for all Virginians.
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 Center (AHEC) 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, JLARC, and the Joint Commission on Health Care, the Southwest Virginia Graduate Medical Education Consortium, the Southwest Virginia Health Authority or any similar regional Health Authority that may in the future be developed and legislatively authorized; (iv) informing state and local policy development impacting 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 businesses and community-based and social organizations to foster the integration of health care training and education; (vii) advocating for programs that will result in reducing the debt-load of health professionals;(viii) 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; and (ix) fostering or creating innovative health workforce development models that provide both health and economic benefits to the regions they serve.
B. The Authority shall be governed by a Board of Directors. The Commissioner of Health, with the assistance of recommendations from the Health Workforce Advisory Committee, shall appoint the Inaugural Board of Directors within six months of the enactment of this legislation. The composition of the Inaugural Board should accurately reflect the geographic and racial/ethnic diversity found within the Commonwealth, with an emphasis on those areas that are underserved. Members of the Inaugural Board of Directors will serve as the chair of a subcommittee that is comprised of stakeholders of their respective sectors and will be responsible for obtaining input and representing their sector during their term in Office. Members of the Inaugural Board will be responsible for establishing by-laws within six months to ensure the continuity of representation as reflected by this stakeholder input process.
The Inaugural Board will be comprised of sixteen (16) members and two ad hoc members, each representing a particular sector of the workforce pipeline. These include:
Health Professions Education/Training Sector
o Dean from a dental school located in Virginia, or executive level designee – representing oral health
o Dean from a medical school located in Virginia, or executive level designee – representing physicians
o Dean from a mid-level school/program located in Virginia, or executive designee – representing mid-level health professionals
o Department Chair or designee in an educational institution located in Virginia
o Dean from a school of pharmacy located in Virginia, or executive level designee – representing pharmacy
o Chancellor of the Virginia Community College System, or executive level designee – representing all other allied health professions to include, but not be limited to laboratory techs, HIT, RNs, OT, PT, EMS and office/admin support.
Health Facilities and Business/Employer Sector
o A representative from a mental health agency/facility in an underserved area – representing community mental health
o A hospital industry representative in an underserved area – representing health facilities
o A representative from the Virginia Community Healthcare Association, or designee – representing the healthcare safety net
o A representative from a professional association (e.g., AAFP, AAP, VDA, VPHA) – representing the health professions industry
Community and Community Health Sector
o A representative from the Older Dominion Partnership Healthcare and Long-term Care Work Group or designee - representing the needs of the aging population and Virginia philanthropies
o AHEC director or designee – representing the AHECs
o Executive Director of the Virginia Rural Health Association or designee – representing rural health
o Director of VDH's Office of Minority Health and Public Health Policy, or designee – representing public health and State agencies
o Director, Department of Health Professions – representing the regulatory Boards and the Healthcare Workforce Data Center
o One citizen/stakeholder rep from an underserved area
Ad Hoc Members
o One advisory member of the Senate to be appointed by the Senate Committee on Rules;
o One advisory member of the House of Delegates to be appointed by the Speaker of the House of Delegates
§ 32.1122.7:1. Powers and duties of the Virginia Health Workforce Development Authority.
A. 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 Center funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration 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
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 Board of Directors shall report biennially the activities and recommendations of the Authority to the Secretary of Health and Human Resources, Secretary of Education, Secretary of Commerce and Trade, the State Board of Health, the Commissioner of Health, the Governor, the Joint Commission on Health Care and the General Assembly. In any reporting period where state general funds are appropriated to the Authority, the
Exemption of Authority from Personnel Act, Workforce Transition Act, Administrative Process Act, and Public Procurement Act.
The provisions of Chapter 29 (§ 2.2-2900 et seq.) of Title 2.2, Chapter 32 (§ 2.2-3200 et seq.) of Title 2.2, Chapter 40 (§ 2.2-4000 et seq.) of Title 2.2, and Chapter 43 (§ 2.2-4300 et seq.) of Title 2.2 shall not apply to the Authority in the exercise of any power conferred under this chapter.
Exemption from taxes or assessments.
The exercise of the powers granted by this article shall be in all respects for the benefit of the people of the Commonwealth, for the increase of their commerce and prosperity, and for the improvement of their health and living conditions, and as the operation and maintenance of projects by the Authority and the undertaking of activities in furtherance of the purpose of the Authority constitute the performance of essential governmental functions, the Authority shall not be required to pay any taxes or assessments upon any project or any 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 operations of the Authority. The exemption granted in this section shall not be construed to extend to persons conducting, on the premises of the facility, businesses for which local or state taxes would otherwise be required.
Exemption from VITA.
(Specific language is unknown)
Here is the first attempt at a VERY rough content draft of all the recommended language combined based on input obtained to date. Please keep in mind that legislative services will take this and morph it so wordsmithing isn’t necessary. If anything here gives you severe heartburn and you absolutely cannot live with it, please let me know ASAP, but definitely by Thursday nite. Thanks for your engagement in this process!
After reviewing the proposed language, the Virginia Nurses Association would like to offer the following comment:
ReplyDeleteUnder section B of the proposed language, which deals with the composition of the board, under "Health Professions Education/Training Sector" the last bullet states:
Chancellor of the Virginia Community College System, or executive level designee – representing all other allied health professions to include, but not be limited to laboratory techs, HIT, RNs, OT, PT, EMS and office/admin support.
The Virginia Nurses Association strongly disagrees that the Chancellor of the Virginia Community College System, or executive level designee can adequately represent nursing, the needs of nursing, or the need for nurses within the greater health care workforce picture. We would suggest instead that "RNs" be removed from the language and instead that a dean of a school of nursing be placed on the board. As you know, we are facing a critical shortage of nurses in the Commonwealth. This shortage will not just exist in rural and traditionally underserved areas but will be state-wide in nature. As a key health care profession, and one that will shortly be critically absent in many areas of the Commonwealth, we feel that the direct inclusion and representation of the nursing profession on the board is in the best interest of the Commonwealth.
If the Inaugural Board is appointed within 6 months of enactment does this mean by December 31, 2009 if enactment is July 1, 2010? If so, this does not leave much time for the Board to direct the competitive grant submission process for the Virginia Statewide AHEC Program as the 3-year competitive grant application will likely be due to HRSA in January 2011.
ReplyDeleteThe medical school representative on the Board is not designated allopathic or osteopathic, is that the way the language is intended?
Item vii under the Mission of the Authority concerns “advocating for programs that will result in reducing student debt-load”. This item seems to be something of an anomaly compared to the other items but if it is to stay in then it should be amended to include medical resident debt-load as well.
For the ODP, work groups may come and go. If tp be included, how about something like a rep appointed by the board of the ODP with emphasis on an ODP member with health or health care expertise.
ReplyDeleteThis looks good and creates the foundation for the future. My only question/suggestion is: do you think it would be reasonable to add another seat for a representative from a major provider organization like the Medical Society of Virginia? It would be good to have that representation at the table.
ReplyDeleteOsteopathic and Allopathic schools have such different missions when it comes to primary care and rural, that we need a representative from both.
ReplyDeleteIt should be left up to the Health Commissioner to choose someone from VDH to adequately represent health care workforce needs. Leaving it up to the Commish is an issue of protocol.
ReplyDelete1) Under Representation - Health Professions Education/Training Sector, OT and PT are listed under the VCCS representation. While I do think VCCS should be represented as proposed, I don’t think OT/PT training programs fall under VCCS. What about including a Dean/designee from a School of Allied Health? This would then health administration/HIT, speech and other ancillary services programs. Also, many RNs are educated in 4-year colleges/universities, not VCCS programs.
ReplyDelete2) Point of clarification – does the Health Workforce Advisory Committee dissolve after the Authority exists for 6 months?
3) Under Representation – Health Facilities and Business/Employer Sector – does representative from a mental health agency mean a CSB?
4) Under Representation – Department of Health Professions, do you also want to say “designee” to be consistent with other representatives?
o A representative from the Older Dominion Partnership Healthcare and Long-term Care Work Group or designee - representing the needs of the aging population and Virginia philanthropies
Not sure it makes sense to lump philanthropy and aging together? ODP rep appointed by their Board? AARP rep? Virginia Consortium on Health Philanthropy separate rep?
I am naive here…does reporting to the Secretary of Ed cover reporting to SCHEV? If not, I’d encourage you to add SCHEV to the list of report recipients.
I think you have done a very nice job of capturing the key elements that need to be addressed. The nine part plan by which the authority’s mission will be accomplished touches on the essential points that I hope all can agree with.
ReplyDelete