republic-os/legislation/us/states/va/2018/hb-778.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Health benefit plan networks; informed decision."
description: "Requires each hospital to establish a protocol requiring that, before a health care provider arranges for air medical transportation services for a patient who does not have an emergency medical condition, the hospital provide the patient or his authorized representative with written or electronic notice that the patient (i) may have a choice of transportation by an air medical transportation provider or medically appropriate ground transportation by an emergency medical services provider and (ii) will be responsible for charges incurred for such transportation in the event that the provider is not a contracted network provider of the patient's health insurance carrier or such charges are not otherwise covered in full or in part by the patient's health insurance plan. The provisions of such requirement become effective on March 1, 2019. The bill directs the Office of Emergency Medical Services to develop a mechanism no later than January 1, 2019, to disclose to a patient, prior to services provided by an out-of-network air transport provider, a good faith estimate of the range of typical charges for out-of-network air transport services provided in that geographic area."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2018"
identifier: "HB 778"
citation: "Virginia HB 778 (2018)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Aviation", "Health"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Margaret B. Ransone"]
version_count: 3
action_count: 22
vote_count: 7
first_action: "2018-01-09"
last_action: "2018-03-09"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/0bb6ecf9-bed5-4278-b2be-e9f068fd88e9"
source_url: "http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?181+sum+HB778"
source_hash: "2e83e6931837ee234bad2fb44c37ddd32d165967b54fe2fde8f629de5a43dec1"
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 778 (2018) — Health benefit plan networks; informed decision.

Requires each hospital to establish a protocol requiring that, before a health care provider arranges for air medical transportation services for a patient who does not have an emergency medical condition, the hospital provide the patient or his authorized representative with written or electronic notice that the patient (i) may have a choice of transportation by an air medical transportation provider or medically appropriate ground transportation by an emergency medical services provider and (ii) will be responsible for charges incurred for such transportation in the event that the provider is not a contracted network provider of the patient's health insurance carrier or such charges are not otherwise covered in full or in part by the patient's health insurance plan. The provisions of such requirement become effective on March 1, 2019. The bill directs the Office of Emergency Medical Services to develop a mechanism no later than January 1, 2019, to disclose to a patient, prior to services provided by an out-of-network air transport provider, a good faith estimate of the range of typical charges for out-of-network air transport services provided in that geographic area.

## Version chain

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

1. **House: Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB778ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?181+ful+HB778ER)
2. **House: Committee substitute printed 18105449D-H1** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?181+ful+HB778H1)
3. **House: Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/10/18 18103240D** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?181+ful+HB778)

## Votes

- Subcommittee recommends reporting with substitute — **6–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from Health, Welfare and Institutions with substitute — **22–0** (pass) · legislature
- Senate amendments agreed to by House — **99–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from Education and Health with amendments — **15–0** (pass) · legislature
- Passed Senate with amendments — **40–0** (pass) · legislature
- Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE — **99–0** (pass) · legislature
- Constitutional reading dispensed — **38–0** (pass) · legislature

## Sponsors

- Margaret B. Ransone — primary (person)
- Robert D. Orrock, Sr. — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2018-01-09** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/10/18 18103240D `introduction`
- **2018-01-09** Referred to Committee on Health, Welfare and Institutions `referral-committee`
- **2018-01-17** Assigned HWI sub: Subcommittee #3 `referral-committee`
- **2018-01-25** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2018-01-26** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2018-01-26** Committee substitute agreed to 18105449D-H1
- **2018-01-26** Engrossed by House - committee substitute HB778H1
- **2018-01-29** Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE (99-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2018-01-30** Constitutional reading dispensed
- **2018-01-30** Referred to Committee on Education and Health `referral-committee`
- **2018-02-19** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2018-02-19** Reading of amendments waived
- **2018-02-19** Committee amendments agreed to
- **2018-02-19** Engrossed by Senate as amended
- **2018-02-21** Placed on Calendar
- **2018-02-21** Senate amendments agreed to by House (99-Y 0-N)
- **2018-02-26** Enrolled
- **2018-02-26** Signed by Speaker
- **2018-02-28** Signed by President
- **2018-03-02** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on March 2, 2018
- **2018-03-02** Governor's Action Deadline Midnight, March 9, 2018
- **2018-03-09** Approved by Governor-Chapter 271 (effective - see bill) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/0bb6ecf9-bed5-4278-b2be-e9f068fd88e9`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).