---
type: "Bill"
title: "Certificate of public need; nursing homes and hospitals, establishing a disaster exemption."
description: "Provides for a 30-day exemption from the requirement to obtain a certificate of public need for an increase in the total number of beds in existing hospitals or nursing homes if the State Health Commissioner has determined that a natural or man-made disaster has caused the evacuation of a hospital or nursing home and that a public health emergency exists due to a shortage of hospital or nursing home beds. The Board of Health shall adopt regulations for this exemption. This bill is identical to"
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2019"
identifier: "HB 1870"
citation: "Virginia HB 1870 (2019)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Health"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Mark D. Sickles"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 18
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2019-01-03"
last_action: "2019-02-22"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/e081a22a-1e66-46fc-a5b0-c114acf10132"
source_url: "http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+sum+HB1870"
source_hash: "3d4434cfbac848610678d500b2850798df987e8da58dc6c9ca59bcdb9af98317"
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 1870 (2019) — Certificate of public need; nursing homes and hospitals, establishing a disaster exemption.

Provides for a 30-day exemption from the requirement to obtain a certificate of public need for an increase in the total number of beds in existing hospitals or nursing homes if the State Health Commissioner has determined that a natural or man-made disaster has caused the evacuation of a hospital or nursing home and that a public health emergency exists due to a shortage of hospital or nursing home beds. The Board of Health shall adopt regulations for this exemption. This bill is identical to

## Version chain

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

1. **Governor: Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0136)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+CHAP0136)
2. **House: Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB1870ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+HB1870ER)
3. **House: Committee substitute printed 19104504D-H1** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+HB1870H1)
4. **House: Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/09/19 19101516D** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+HB1870)

## Votes

- Reported from Health, Welfare and Institutions with substitute — **22–0** (pass) · lower
- Passed House BLOCK VOTE — **99–0** (pass) · lower
- Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE — **98–0** (pass) · lower
- Constitutional reading dispensed — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- Passed Senate — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- Reported from Education and Health — **15–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Mark D. Sickles — primary (person)
- Richard P. Bell — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2019-01-03** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/09/19 19101516D `introduction`
- **2019-01-03** Referred to Committee on Health, Welfare and Institutions `referral-committee`
- **2019-01-28** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2019-01-29** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2019-01-29** Committee substitute agreed to 19104504D-H1
- **2019-01-29** Engrossed by House - committee substitute HB1870H1
- **2019-01-30** Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE (98-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2019-01-30** Reconsideration of passage agreed to by House
- **2019-01-30** Passed House BLOCK VOTE (99-Y 0-N) `passage`
- **2019-01-31** Constitutional reading dispensed
- **2019-01-31** Referred to Committee on Education and Health `referral-committee`
- **2019-02-11** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2019-02-13** Enrolled
- **2019-02-13** Signed by Speaker
- **2019-02-14** Signed by President
- **2019-02-15** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on February 15, 2019
- **2019-02-15** Governor's Action Deadline Midnight, February 22, 2019
- **2019-02-22** Approved by Governor-Chapter 136 (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/e081a22a-1e66-46fc-a5b0-c114acf10132`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).