republic-os/legislation/us/states/va/2017/hb-1548.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Advance directives; admission of person for mental health treatment, capacity determinations."
description: "Provides that in cases in which a person has executed an advance directive granting an agent the authority to consent to the person's admission to a facility for mental health treatment and the advance directive so authorizes, the person's agent may exercise such authority after a determination that the person is incapable of making an informed decision regarding such admission has been made by (i) the attending physician, (ii) a psychiatrist or licensed clinical psychologist, (iii) a licensed psychiatric nurse practitioner, (iv) a licensed clinical social worker, or (v) a designee of the local community services board as defined in § 37.2-809. The bill also provides that a person's agent may make a health care decision over the protest of the person if, in addition to other factors, at the time the advance directive was made, a licensed physician, licensed clinical psychologist, licensed physician assistant, licensed nurse practitioner, licensed professional counselor, or licensed clinical social worker who is familiar with the person attested in writing that the person was capable of making an informed decision and understood the consequences of the provision. This bill is identical to"
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2017"
identifier: "HB 1548"
citation: "Virginia HB 1548 (2017)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Behavioral Health and Developmental Services", "Professions and Occupations"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Peter F. Farrell"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 22
vote_count: 7
first_action: "2016-12-29"
last_action: "2017-03-13"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/1706270d-7bd6-4fe3-a3e5-7a2091983e04"
source_url: "http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+sum+HB1548"
source_hash: "029d77d1b4821eb0afb74fce5000d72db6084eabc2ed4e05a545c0f38cd0f462"
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 1548 (2017) — Advance directives; admission of person for mental health treatment, capacity determinations.

Provides that in cases in which a person has executed an advance directive granting an agent the authority to consent to the person's admission to a facility for mental health treatment and the advance directive so authorizes, the person's agent may exercise such authority after a determination that the person is incapable of making an informed decision regarding such admission has been made by (i) the attending physician, (ii) a psychiatrist or licensed clinical psychologist, (iii) a licensed psychiatric nurse practitioner, (iv) a licensed clinical social worker, or (v) a designee of the local community services board as defined in § 37.2-809. The bill also provides that a person's agent may make a health care decision over the protest of the person if, in addition to other factors, at the time the advance directive was made, a licensed physician, licensed clinical psychologist, licensed physician assistant, licensed nurse practitioner, licensed professional counselor, or licensed clinical social worker who is familiar with the person attested in writing that the person was capable of making an informed decision and understood the consequences of the provision. 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 (CHAP0456)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+CHAP0456)
2. **House: Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB1548ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+HB1548ER)
3. **House: Committee substitute printed 17103796D-H1** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+HB1548H1)
4. **House: Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/11/17 17103471D** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+HB1548)

## Votes

- Senate amendments agreed to by House — **100–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from Education and Health with amendments — **15–0** (pass) · legislature
- Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE — **95–0** (pass) · legislature
- Constitutional reading dispensed — **39–0** (pass) · legislature
- Passed Senate with amendments — **40–0** (pass) · legislature
- Subcommittee recommends reporting with substitute — **10–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from Health, Welfare and Institutions with substitute — **22–0** (pass) · legislature

## Sponsors

- Peter F. Farrell — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2016-12-29** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/11/17 17103471D `introduction`
- **2016-12-29** Referred to Committee on Health, Welfare and Institutions `referral-committee`
- **2017-01-12** Assigned HWI sub: Subcommittee #2 `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-01** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2017-02-02** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2017-02-02** Committee substitute agreed to 17103796D-H1
- **2017-02-02** Engrossed by House - committee substitute HB1548H1
- **2017-02-03** Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE (95-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2017-02-06** Constitutional reading dispensed
- **2017-02-06** Referred to Committee on Education and Health `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-13** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2017-02-13** Reading of amendments waived
- **2017-02-13** Committee amendments agreed to
- **2017-02-13** Engrossed by Senate as amended
- **2017-02-15** Placed on Calendar
- **2017-02-15** Senate amendments agreed to by House (100-Y 0-N)
- **2017-02-17** Enrolled
- **2017-02-17** Signed by Speaker
- **2017-02-20** Signed by President
- **2017-02-21** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on 2/21/17
- **2017-02-21** Governor's Action Deadline Midnight, March 27, 2017
- **2017-03-13** Approved by Governor-Chapter 456 (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/1706270d-7bd6-4fe3-a3e5-7a2091983e04`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).