republic-os/legislation/us/states/va/2026/hb-1318.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Hospitals; emergency department physicians."
description: "Hospitals; psychiatric emergency departments. Allows hospitals with psychiatric emergency departments located in the City of Hampton to operate without a physician on duty when certain conditions are met, including having written agreements in place with emergency medical service providers and being immediately adjacent to a non-psychiatric emergency department. The bill requires such psychiatric emergency departments to submit treatment data to the General Assembly on an annual basis by November 1. This bill is identical to SB 738."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2026"
identifier: "HB 1318"
citation: "Virginia HB 1318 (2026)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Rodney T. Willett"]
version_count: 5
action_count: 31
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2026-01-16"
last_action: "2026-04-06"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/992db074-c644-4c1f-a4b0-0db451ad556a"
source_url: "https://lis.virginia.gov/bill-details/20261/HB1318"
source_hash: "15a5195da7db46f69a282c0d879db2c47db322b82f5087749015eb8e781fe6bd"
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 1318 (2026) — Hospitals; emergency department physicians.

Hospitals; psychiatric emergency departments. Allows hospitals with psychiatric emergency departments located in the City of Hampton to operate without a physician on duty when certain conditions are met, including having written agreements in place with emergency medical service providers and being immediately adjacent to a non-psychiatric emergency department. The bill requires such psychiatric emergency departments to submit treatment data to the General Assembly on an annual basis by November 1. This bill is identical to SB 738.

## Version chain

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

1. **Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://lis.blob.core.windows.net/files/1089498.PDF)
2. **Behavioral Health Subcommittee Substitute** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.blob.core.windows.net/files/1143267.PDF)
3. **Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.blob.core.windows.net/files/1217378.PDF)
4. **Health and Human Services Substitute** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.blob.core.windows.net/files/1143271.PDF)
5. **Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://lis.blob.core.windows.net/files/1194247.PDF)

## Votes

- Subcommittee recommends reporting with substitute — **4–1** (pass) · lower
- Reported from Health and Human Services with substitute — **14–6** (pass) · lower
- Constitutional reading dispensed (on 2nd reading) — **37–0** (pass) · upper
- H VOTE: — **89–7** (pass) · lower
- Reported from Education and Health — **14–0** (pass) · upper
- Passage R — **40–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Rodney T. Willett — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2026-01-16** Presented and ordered printed 26104588D `introduction`
- **2026-01-16** Referred to Committee on Health and Human Services `referral-committee`
- **2026-01-20** Fiscal Impact Statement from Department of Planning and Budget (HB1318)
- **2026-01-23** Assigned sub: Behavioral Health `referral-committee`
- **2026-02-12** House subcommittee offered
- **2026-02-12** Subcommittee recommends reporting with substitute (4-Y 1-N 1-A) `substitution`
- **2026-02-12** Reported from Health and Human Services with substitute (14-Y 6-N 1-A) `committee-passage`
- **2026-02-12** Committee substitute printed 26106234D-H1 `substitution`
- **2026-02-15** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2026-02-16** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2026-02-16** committee substitute agreed to `substitution`
- **2026-02-16** Engrossed by House - committee substitute `substitution`
- **2026-02-17** Read third time and passed House (90-Y 7-N 0-A) `passage, reading-3`
- **2026-02-18** Constitutional reading dispensed (on 1st reading)
- **2026-02-18** Referred to Committee on Education and Health `referral-committee`
- **2026-02-23** Fiscal Impact Statement from Department of Planning and Budget (HB1318)
- **2026-02-26** Reported from Education and Health (14-Y 0-N) `committee-passage`
- **2026-02-27** Rules suspended
- **2026-02-27** Constitutional reading dispensed Block Vote (on 2nd reading) (37-Y 0-N 0-A)
- **2026-02-27** Passed by for the day Block Vote (Voice Vote)
- **2026-03-02** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2026-03-02** Passed Senate (40-Y 0-N 0-A) `passage`
- **2026-03-09** Enrolled `enrolled`
- **2026-03-09** Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB1318ER) `passage`
- **2026-03-09** Fiscal Impact Statement from Department of Planning and Budget (HB1318)
- **2026-03-09** Signed by Speaker `passage`
- **2026-03-09** Signed by President `passage`
- **2026-03-10** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on March 10, 2026 `enrolled, executive-receipt`
- **2026-03-10** Governor's Action Deadline 11:59 p.m., April 13, 2026 `executive-receipt`
- **2026-04-06** Approved by Governor-Chapter 296 (effective 7/1/2026) `executive-signature`
- **2026-04-06** Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0296)

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/992db074-c644-4c1f-a4b0-0db451ad556a`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).