---
type: "Bill"
title: "Medical Assistance Services, Department of; payment for certain services to hospice patients."
description: "Directs the Department of Medical Assistance Services to implement a process for direct payment of nursing facility or ICF/MR services for hospice patients receiving services in a nursing facility or ICF/MR, if such patient would be eligible for medical assistance for nursing facility or ICF/MR services had he not elected to receive hospice care. The bill provides that payments made to a nursing facility or ICF/MR shall be the full amount that would be paid to the nursing facility or ICF/MR, if the individual was not receiving hospice services, and shall not reflect any discount to such rates."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2019"
identifier: "HB 1639"
citation: "Virginia HB 1639 (2019)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Health"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Christopher T. Head"]
version_count: 3
action_count: 15
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2018-11-21"
last_action: "2019-03-05"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/086b4bfb-1755-4197-aa8c-44029357f895"
source_url: "http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+sum+HB1639"
source_hash: "c2dd8f13bc7cbedf4815f0115afc6cc10bed1b389d20d182099c767db118c9b6"
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 1639 (2019) — Medical Assistance Services, Department of; payment for certain services to hospice patients.

Directs the Department of Medical Assistance Services to implement a process for direct payment of nursing facility or ICF/MR services for hospice patients receiving services in a nursing facility or ICF/MR, if such patient would be eligible for medical assistance for nursing facility or ICF/MR services had he not elected to receive hospice care. The bill provides that payments made to a nursing facility or ICF/MR shall be the full amount that would be paid to the nursing facility or ICF/MR, if the individual was not receiving hospice services, and shall not reflect any discount to such rates.

## Version chain

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

1. **Governor: Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0209)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+CHAP0209)
2. **House: Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB1639ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+HB1639ER)
3. **House: Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/09/19 19100544D** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+HB1639)

## Votes

- Subcommittee recommends reporting — **7–0** (pass) · lower
- Constitutional reading dispensed — **39–0** (pass) · upper
- Passed Senate — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE — **99–0** (pass) · lower
- Reported from Appropriations — **22–0** (pass) · lower
- Reported from Finance — **16–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Christopher T. Head — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2018-11-21** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/09/19 19100544D `introduction`
- **2018-11-21** Referred to Committee on Appropriations `referral-committee`
- **2019-01-11** Assigned App. sub: Health & Human Resources `referral-committee`
- **2019-02-01** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2019-02-04** Read second time and engrossed `reading-2`
- **2019-02-05** Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE (99-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2019-02-06** Constitutional reading dispensed
- **2019-02-06** Referred to Committee on Finance `referral-committee`
- **2019-02-14** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2019-02-19** Enrolled
- **2019-02-19** Signed by Speaker
- **2019-02-20** Signed by President
- **2019-02-21** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on February 21, 2019
- **2019-02-21** Governor's Action Deadline Midnight, March 26, 2019
- **2019-03-05** Approved by Governor-Chapter 209 (effective 7/1/19) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/086b4bfb-1755-4197-aa8c-44029357f895`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).