republic-os/legislation/us/states/va/2020/sb-120.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Health care providers, certain; program to address career fatigue and wellness, civil immunity."
description: "Programs to address career fatigue and wellness in certain health care providers; civil immunity. Expands civil immunity for health care professionals serving as members of or consultants to entities that function primarily to review, evaluate, or make recommendations related to health care services to include health care professionals serving as members of or consultants to entities that function primarily to address issues related to career fatigue and wellness in health care professionals licensed to practice medicine or osteopathic medicine or licensed as a physician assistant. The bill also clarifies that, absent evidence indicating a reasonable probability that a health care professional who is a participant in a professional program to address issues related to career fatigue or wellness is not competent to continue in practice or is a danger to himself, his patients, or the public, participation in such a professional program does not trigger the requirement that the health care professional be reported to the Department of Health Professions. The bill contains an emergency clause."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2020"
identifier: "SB 120"
citation: "Virginia SB 120 (2020)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["George L. Barker"]
version_count: 3
action_count: 29
vote_count: 7
first_action: "2019-12-16"
last_action: "2020-04-10"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/739cc24d-dd48-4a6d-8c03-904502fb7b96"
source_url: "https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+sum+SB120"
source_hash: "c3a253e05ef52d99e3d959cb989354dc80b24fb371ba88f2b0e09c77cf15a758"
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 SB 120 (2020) — Health care providers, certain; program to address career fatigue and wellness, civil immunity.

Programs to address career fatigue and wellness in certain health care providers; civil immunity. Expands civil immunity for health care professionals serving as members of or consultants to entities that function primarily to review, evaluate, or make recommendations related to health care services to include health care professionals serving as members of or consultants to entities that function primarily to address issues related to career fatigue and wellness in health care professionals licensed to practice medicine or osteopathic medicine or licensed as a physician assistant. The bill also clarifies that, absent evidence indicating a reasonable probability that a health care professional who is a participant in a professional program to address issues related to career fatigue or wellness is not competent to continue in practice or is a danger to himself, his patients, or the public, participation in such a professional program does not trigger the requirement that the health care professional be reported to the Department of Health Professions. The bill contains an emergency clause.

## Version chain

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

1. **Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP1093)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+ful+CHAP1093)
2. **Bill text as passed Senate and House (SB120ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+ful+SB120ER)
3. **Impact statement from DPB (SB120)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+ful+SB120)

## Votes

- Read third time and passed Senate (40-Y 0-N) — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- Reported from Health, Welfare and Institutions (22-Y 0-N) — **22–0** (pass) · lower
- Constitutional reading dispensed (39-Y 0-N) — **39–0** (pass) · upper
- Reported from Education and Health (15-Y 0-N) — **15–0** (pass) · upper
- Referred from Courts of Justice — **0–0** (fail) · lower
- VOTE: Passage (95-Y 0-N) — **94–0** (pass) · lower
- House amendments agreed to by Senate (40-Y 0-N) — **40–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- George L. Barker — primary (person)
- Siobhan S. Dunnavant — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2019-12-16** Prefiled and ordered printed with emergency clause; offered 01/08/20 20104348D `introduction`
- **2019-12-16** Referred to Committee on Education and Health `referral-committee`
- **2020-01-15** Impact statement from DPB (SB120)
- **2020-01-16** Assigned Education sub: Health Professions `referral-committee`
- **2020-01-23** Reported from Education and Health (15-Y 0-N) `committee-passage`
- **2020-01-24** Constitutional reading dispensed (39-Y 0-N)
- **2020-01-27** Read second time and engrossed `reading-2`
- **2020-01-28** Read third time and passed Senate (40-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2020-02-03** Placed on Calendar
- **2020-02-03** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2020-02-03** Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice `referral-committee`
- **2020-02-14** Referred from Courts of Justice
- **2020-02-14** Referred to Committee on Health, Welfare and Institutions `referral-committee`
- **2020-02-18** Reported from Health, Welfare and Institutions (22-Y 0-N) `committee-passage`
- **2020-02-20** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2020-02-21** House committee, floor amendments and substitutes offered
- **2020-02-21** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2020-02-21** Amendment by Delegate Hope agreed to `amendment-passage`
- **2020-02-21** Engrossed by House as amended
- **2020-02-21** Passed House with amendments (95-Y 0-N) `passage`
- **2020-02-21** VOTE: Passage (95-Y 0-N)
- **2020-02-25** House amendments agreed to by Senate (40-Y 0-N)
- **2020-03-02** Enrolled
- **2020-03-02** Impact statement from DPB (SB120ER)
- **2020-03-02** Signed by Speaker
- **2020-03-03** Signed by President
- **2020-03-12** Enrolled Bill Communicated to Governor on March 12, 2020
- **2020-03-12** Governor's Action Deadline 11:59 p.m., April 11, 2020
- **2020-04-10** Approved by Governor-Chapter 1093 (effective 4/10/20) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/739cc24d-dd48-4a6d-8c03-904502fb7b96`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).