Virginia Senate health subcommittee advances series of bills on psychology prescribing, EMS pharmacy rules, licensing and workforce reporting

The Senate Education and Health subcommittee voted to recommend several health-related bills to the full Senate or to the Appropriations Committee after a morning of brief presentations and limited public testimony.

The measures moved forward would direct a work group to study expanded prescriptive authority for psychologists, make hospitals report counts of voluntarily reported workplace-violence incidents, create licensing pathways for dental hygienists, clarify pharmacy rules for 24-hour fire and EMS stations and require annual reporting on community health workers employed by the Virginia Department of Health and local health districts.

The matters matter to access and operations: the psychologist work group could influence how certain medications are made available during behavioral health care; the EMS and pharmacy change responds to new Drug Enforcement Administration requirements that affected how rescue squads and fire stations store controlled substances; and the community-health-worker report is intended to document workforce numbers and roles to support future budget decisions.

Senator Favola described one bill as "a section 1 bill" that would "direct the Board of Psychology and the Board of Medicine to convene a work group" to explore expanding prescriptive authority for psychologists and require the work group to report to the House and Senate health committee chairs by Nov. 1, 2025. Mariah Merage, representing the Virginia Academy of Clinical Psychologists, told the panel the study "will allow a work group to study appropriate resources and take information from experts." Trevor Moncure of the Psychiatric Society of Virginia said the society had "some pretty serious concerns" but supported advancing the bill to the work group process.

The subcommittee heard from a range of stakeholders in favor of several bills, including Andrew Ward of the Institute for Justice, who urged support for a bill aimed at easing occupational-licensing barriers for people with criminal records, and Ed Rhodes of the Virginia Association of Rescue Squads, who called the EMS/pharmacy bill "a good step forward" after two years of stakeholder meetings on DEA-driven changes.

Votes at a glance: Senate subcommittee recommendations

- Senate Bill 7 52 — Recommended to be reported (work group on psychologists' prescriptive authority). Vote: recommended to be reported, 6–0. Sponsor: Senator Favola. Key detail: directs Board of Psychology and Board of Medicine to convene a work group and report findings to the chairs of the House Committee on Health and Human Services and the Senate Committee on Education and Health by Nov. 1, 2025.

- Senate Bill 12 60 (substitute) — Recommended to be reported with substitute. Vote: recommended with substitute, 7–0. Sponsor: Senator Aird. Key detail: substitute changes hospital reporting so the report to VDH must include the number of workplace-violence incidents voluntarily reported by employees (minimum baseline); does not change reporting requirements for chief medical or nursing officers.

- Senate Bill 13 63 — Recommended to be reported. Vote: recommended to be reported, 7–0. Sponsor: Senator Pilling. Key detail: abolishes the Health Board Professions policy-only board (a nonlicensing board) and redistributes its policy assignments to licensing boards within the Department of Health Professions; agency staff positions remain unchanged.

- Senate Bill 14 75 — Recommended to be reported. Vote: recommended to be reported, 7–0. Sponsor: Senator Pilling. Key detail: convenes a work group to study licensing pathways to increase the dental hygienist workforce in rural and small-town areas (concern cited: shortage of hygienists and dentists retiring faster than graduating).

- Senate Bill 8 26 — Recommended to be reported. Vote: recommended to be reported, 7–0. Sponsor: Senator Locke. Key detail: amends §54.1-204 to limit use of vague terms such as "good moral character" or "moral turpitude" by occupational regulatory boards within the Department of Health Professions; requires boards, when denying an application, to notify applicants in writing of specific offenses contributing to denial and how the criminal history relates to the occupation; creates a predetermination process for eligibility prior to education or training.

- Senate Bill 9 81 — Recommended to be reported and referred to Appropriations. Vote: recommended to be reported and referred, 7–0. Sponsor: Senator Hashmi. Key detail: directs the Virginia Department of Health to provide an annual report on the number of community health workers employed by VDH and local health departments; described as a response to JCHC recommendations and intended to document workforce contributions for budgeting.

- Senate Bill 13 18 (substitute) — Recommended to be reported. Vote: recommended to be reported, 7–0. Sponsor: Senator McPike. Key detail: updates pharmacy regulation to recognize fully staffed 24-hour fire/EMS stations may store controlled substances with DEA-compliant lockboxes and cameras without some third-party security requirements; restores Board of Pharmacy membership to 10 with at least one member who is a licensed pharmacist, medical director or active paramedic representing a locality or EMS agency.

- Senate Bill 12 53 — Recommended to be reported. Vote: recommended to be reported, 7–0. Sponsor: Senator Bagby. Key detail: modernizes title-protection language to add the title "Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT)" to the list of unlawful uses without proper licensure and removes references to PTT/physical therapy technician in that statutory section.

What happened in committee

Most items received limited debate and a mix of short public testimony from professional associations, county staff and affected individuals. Several presenters thanked sponsors for stakeholder engagement and for using a work-group approach to study complex professional or operational issues rather than adopting immediate statutory changes.

On the psychologist prescriptive-authority measure (SB 7 52), supporters said the work group would examine access to medications used in therapeutic settings; medical societies and psychiatric groups noted concerns but joined the collaborative work-group approach. On the EMS/pharmacy matter (SB 13 18), testimony described a recent federal regulatory shift that effectively required agencies to obtain pharmacy licenses and prompted stakeholder efforts to create appropriate rules for 24-hour staffed stations.

Next steps

Bills recommended to be reported move to the full Senate docket; SB 9 81 was reported and referred to the Appropriations Committee for consideration of any fiscal implications. Several measures were advanced with substitutes that reflect negotiated language among sponsors, agency counsel and stakeholders.

(Transparency note: all direct quotes and vote tallies are drawn from the subcommittee transcript.)