---
type: "Bill"
title: "Hospitals providing psychiatric services; denials of admission."
description: "Requires the Board of Health to promulgate regulations that require each hospital that provides inpatient psychiatric services to establish a protocol that (i) requires, for any refusal to admit a medically stable patient referred to its psychiatric unit, direct verbal communication between the on-call physician in the psychiatric unit and the referring physician, if requested by the referring physician, and (ii) prohibits on-call physicians or other hospital staff from refusing a request for such direct verbal communication by a referring physician."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2017"
identifier: "HB 1777"
citation: "Virginia HB 1777 (2017)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Behavioral Health and Developmental Services", "Commissions", "Boards and Institutions Generally", "Health"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Christopher P. Stolle"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 19
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2017-01-09"
last_action: "2017-02-23"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/a098da33-501b-40f4-a09b-7707f6af6a3e"
source_url: "http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+sum+HB1777"
source_hash: "d216473ff9e83b2948bc3bb3ee049123046885d8a2f01530f38dff62dbd73e5d"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-va"]
---

# Virginia HB 1777 (2017) — Hospitals providing psychiatric services; denials of admission.

Requires the Board of Health to promulgate regulations that require each hospital that provides inpatient psychiatric services to establish a protocol that (i) requires, for any refusal to admit a medically stable patient referred to its psychiatric unit, direct verbal communication between the on-call physician in the psychiatric unit and the referring physician, if requested by the referring physician, and (ii) prohibits on-call physicians or other hospital staff from refusing a request for such direct verbal communication by a referring physician.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Governor: Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0175)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+CHAP0175)
2. **House: Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB1777ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+HB1777ER)
3. **House: Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/11/17 17102042D** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+HB1777)
4. **House: Printed as engrossed 17102042D-E** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+HB1777E)

## Votes

- Passed Senate — **40–0** (pass) · legislature
- Constitutional reading dispensed — **39–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from Education and Health — **15–0** (pass) · legislature
- Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE — **97–0** (pass) · legislature
- Subcommittee recommends reporting with amendments — **11–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from Health, Welfare and Institutions with amendments — **22–0** (pass) · legislature

## Sponsors

- Christopher P. Stolle — primary (person)
- Gordon C. Helsel, Jr. — cosponsor (person)
- Janet D. Howell — cosponsor (person)
- Mark H. Levine — cosponsor (person)
- Patrick A. Hope — cosponsor (person)
- Richard P. Bell — cosponsor (person)
- Sam Rasoul — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2017-01-09** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/11/17 17102042D `introduction`
- **2017-01-09** Referred to Committee on Health, Welfare and Institutions `referral-committee`
- **2017-01-12** Assigned HWI sub: Subcommittee #1 `referral-committee`
- **2017-01-20** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2017-01-23** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2017-01-23** Committee amendments agreed to
- **2017-01-23** Engrossed by House as amended HB1777E
- **2017-01-23** Printed as engrossed 17102042D-E
- **2017-01-24** Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE (97-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2017-01-25** Constitutional reading dispensed
- **2017-01-25** Referred to Committee on Education and Health `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-06** Assigned Education sub: Health Professions `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-13** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2017-02-15** Enrolled
- **2017-02-15** Signed by Speaker
- **2017-02-17** Signed by President
- **2017-02-17** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on 2/17/17
- **2017-02-17** Governor's Action Deadline Midnight, February 24, 2017
- **2017-02-23** Approved by Governor-Chapter 175 (effective 7/1/17) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/a098da33-501b-40f4-a09b-7707f6af6a3e`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).