Summary: Virginia Retirement System; enhanced retirementbenefits for 911 dispatchers. Allows local governments to provideenhanced retirement benefits for hazardous duty service to full-time salaried 911 dispatchers. The bill provides that such enhanced retirementbenefits apply only to service earned as a full-time salaried 911dispatcher on or after July 1, 2025, but allows an employer, as thatterm is defined in relevant law, to provide such enhanced retirement benefits for service earned as a full-time salaried 911 dispatcherbefore July 1, 2025, in addition to service earned on or after thatdate. The bill has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2025.

Summary: Health insurance; cost sharing for breast examinations.Prohibits health insurance carriers from imposing cost sharing fordiagnostic breast examinations and supplemental breast examinations,as those terms are defined in the bill, under certain insurance policies, subscription contracts, and health care plans delivered, issued fordelivery, or renewed in the Commonwealth on and after January 1,2025. The bill provides that such examinations include examinationsusing diagnostic mammography, breast magnetic resonance imaging,or breast ultrasound.

Summary: Virginia Retirement System; enhanced retirementbenefits for animal control officers. Adds animal control officersto the list of local employees eligible to receive enhanced retirementbenefits for hazardous duty service. Under current law, localitiesmay provide such benefits to first responders, including firefightersand emergency medical technicians, and certain other hazardous dutypositions.The bill has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2025, andprovides that such membership would apply only to service earned onor after July 1, 2025.

Summary: Workers' compensation; presumption of compensabilityof infertility for firefighters. Provides that firefighters whosuffer from infertility are presumed to have developed infertilityduring the course and scope of employment as a firefighter in certaininstances. The bill provides that such infertility is compensableunder the Virginia Workers' Compensation Act if diagnosed by a medicalprofessional and that such compensation may include medical treatment,temporary total incapacity benefits, and temporary partial incapacitybenefits for a maximum period of 52 weeks from the date of diagnosis.The bill also requires each employer of firefighters to refer a firefighterseeking infertility health care services to a licensed medical professionalafter January 1, 2025.

Summary: Virginia Retirement System; enhanced retirementbenefits for 911 dispatchers. Allows local governments to provideenhanced retirement benefits for hazardous duty service to full-time salaried 911 dispatchers. The bill provides that such enhanced retirementbenefits apply only to service earned as a full-time salaried 911dispatcher on or after July 1, 2025, but allows an employer, as thatterm is defined in relevant law, to provide such enhanced retirement benefits for service earned as a full-time salaried 911 dispatcherbefore July 1, 2025, in addition to service earned on or after thatdate. The bill has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2025.

Summary: Line of Duty Act; payment of benefits. Increases from $25,000 to $75,000 the death benefit payout under the Virginia Line of Duty Act for a death caused by occupational cancer, respiratory disease, or hypertension or heart disease for those deaths that will occur on or after January 1, 2025. This bill is identical to SB 649.

Summary: Workers' compensation; injuries caused by repetitiveand sustained physical stressors. Provides that, for the purposesof the Virginia Workers' Compensation Act, "occupational disease"includes injuries or diseases from conditions resulting from repetitiveand sustained physical stressors, including repetitive and sustainedmotions, exertions, posture stresses, contact stresses, vibrations,or noises. The bill provides that such injuries or diseases are coveredunder the Act and that such coverage does not require that such repetitiveor sustained physical stress occurred over a particular time period,provided that the time period over which such physical stress occurredcan be reasonably identified.

Summary: Virginia Retirement System; enhanced retirementbenefits for 911 dispatchers. Allows local governments to provideenhanced retirement benefits for hazardous duty service to full-timesalaried 911 dispatchers. The bill provides that such enhanced retirementbenefits apply only to service earned as a full-time salaried 911 dispatcher on or after July 1, 2025, but allows an employer, as thatterm is defined in relevant law, to provide such enhanced retirementbenefits for service earned as a full-time salaried 911 dispatcherbefore July 1, 2025, in addition to service earned on or after thatdate. The bill has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2025.

Summary: Virginia Law Officers' Retirement System; emergency dispatchers. Extends membership in the Virginia Law Officers'Retirement System (VaLORS) to emergency dispatchers who are employedby the Department of State Police and agencies whose law-enforcementofficers are eligible for membership in VaLORS. The bill has a delayedeffective date of July 1, 2025, and provides that such membershipwould apply only to service earned on or after July 1, 2025.

Summary: Board of Visitors of the Virginia School forthe Deaf and the Blind; authority to establish campus police department.Permits the Board of Visitors of the Virginia School for the Deafand the Blind to establish a campus police department, in compliancewith the provisions of law relating to campus police departmentsestablished by institutions of higher education, and to employ campuspolice officers therein.

Summary: Department of Human Resource Management; employee designation and payment policies; nursing staff at state psychiatric hospitals. Directs the Department of Human Resource Management to amend its policies to authorize the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services and state psychiatric hospitals to designate as full-time employees nursing staff and psychiatric technicians who work at least 36 hours per week to permit state hospitals to use 12-hour shifts for such staff. The bill prohibits the Department from requiring reductions in pay or other benefits for such employees based solely on the fact that the employee works 36 hours per week. The bill also directs the Department to examine whether the policy change should be extended to comparable direct care positions in other executive branch agencies to improve recruitment and retention. As introduced, this bill is a recommendation of the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission and the Behavioral Health Commission and is identical to SB 177.

Summary: Health insurance; coverage for contraceptive drugs and devices. Requires health insurance carriers to provide coverage, under any health insurance contract, policy, or plan that includes coverage for prescription drugs on an outpatient basis, for contraceptive drugs and contraceptive devices, as defined in the bill, including those available over-the-counter. The bill prohibits a health insurance carrier from imposing upon any person receiving contraceptive benefits pursuant to the provisions of the bill any copayment, coinsurance payment, or fee, except in certain circumstances. This bill is identical to SB 238.

Summary: Line of Duty Act; eligible dependent. Provides that for purposes of continued health insurance pursuant to the Line of Duty Act, an eligible dependent means the natural or adopted child or children of a deceased person or disabled person or of a deceased or disabled person's eligible spouse, provided that any such natural child is born as the result of a pregnancy that occurred prior to, or no later than six months after, the time of the employee's death or disability and that any such adopted child is (i) adopted prior to, or no later than six months after, the time of the employee's death or disability or (ii) adopted more than six months after the employee's death or disability if the adoption is pursuant to a preadoptive agreement entered into prior to, or no later than six months after, the death or disability. Under current law, an eligible dependent includes a child born or adopted prior to the time of the employee's death or disability. The bill's provisions only apply to an eligible dependent of a deceased person or disabled person when such death or disability occurred on or after July 1, 2017, and the bill specifies that any new health insurance coverage for those qualifying as an eligible dependent is only prospective from July 1, 2024.

Summary: Pensions; enhanced retirement benefits for juvenile detention specialists. Requires each political subdivision participatingin the Virginia Retirement System and each county or city participatingin the Virginia Retirement System to provide retirement benefitscomparable to the benefits provided to state police officers to juveniledetention specialists.