republic-os/legislation/us/states/va/2019/hb-1915.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Cancer patients; expedited review of adverse coverage determinations."
description: "Provides that a covered person shall not be required to have exhausted his health carrier's internal appeal process before seeking an external review of an adverse determination regarding coverage of treatment if the treatment is to treat his cancer. The measure provides that a covered person may request an expedited external review if the adverse determination relates to the treatment of a cancer of the covered person. The measure requires health carriers' notices of the right to an external review to notify covered persons of this provision. The bill contains an emergency clause and is identical to"
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2019"
identifier: "HB 1915"
citation: "Virginia HB 1915 (2019)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Emergency Legislation", "Health", "Insurance"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["David E. Yancey"]
version_count: 6
action_count: 26
vote_count: 8
first_action: "2019-01-04"
last_action: "2019-04-03"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/51d9f7c9-0c73-4136-9faf-dfd6330b208e"
source_url: "http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+sum+HB1915"
source_hash: "c8ec7f6b4683ee99c52daa283530e1eca050658095feae8534754b9e6aa83e37"
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 1915 (2019) — Cancer patients; expedited review of adverse coverage determinations.

Provides that a covered person shall not be required to have exhausted his health carrier's internal appeal process before seeking an external review of an adverse determination regarding coverage of treatment if the treatment is to treat his cancer. The measure provides that a covered person may request an expedited external review if the adverse determination relates to the treatment of a cancer of the covered person. The measure requires health carriers' notices of the right to an external review to notify covered persons of this provision. The bill contains an emergency clause and 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 (CHAP0826)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+CHAP0826)
2. **House subcommittee amendments and substitutes adopted** (committee substitute) — [source](https://committees.lis.virginia.gov/subcommitteeaction.aspx?ses=191&bil=HB1915)
3. **House: Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB1915ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+HB1915ER)
4. **House: Committee substitute printed 19105930D-H1** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+HB1915H1)
5. **House: Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/09/19 19101240D** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+HB1915)
6. **House: Reenrolled bill text (HB1915ER2)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+HB1915ER2)

## Votes

- Reported from Commerce and Labor with substitute — **19–0** (pass) · lower
- Senate concurred in Governor's recommendation — **38–0** (pass) · upper
- Passed Senate — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- Reported from Commerce and Labor — **13–0** (pass) · upper
- Constitutional reading dispensed — **39–0** (pass) · upper
- Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE — **99–0** (pass) · lower
- House concurred in Governor's recommendation — **98–0** (pass) · lower
- Subcommittee recommends reporting with substitute — **7–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- David E. Yancey — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2019-01-04** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/09/19 19101240D `introduction`
- **2019-01-04** Referred to Committee on Commerce and Labor `referral-committee`
- **2019-01-10** Assigned C & L sub: Subcommittee #1 `referral-committee`
- **2019-02-03** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2019-02-04** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2019-02-04** Committee substitute agreed to 19105930D-H1
- **2019-02-04** Engrossed by House - committee substitute HB1915H1
- **2019-02-05** Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE (99-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2019-02-06** Constitutional reading dispensed
- **2019-02-06** Referred to Committee on Commerce and Labor `referral-committee`
- **2019-02-14** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2019-02-19** Enrolled
- **2019-02-19** Signed by Speaker
- **2019-02-20** Signed by President
- **2019-02-21** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on February 21, 2019
- **2019-02-21** Governor's Action Deadline Midnight, March 26, 2019
- **2019-03-21** Governor's recommendation received by House
- **2019-04-03** Placed on Calendar
- **2019-04-03** House concurred in Governor's recommendation (98-Y 0-N)
- **2019-04-03** Emergency clause added by Governor's recommendation
- **2019-04-03** Governor's recommendation adopted
- **2019-04-03** Reenrolled
- **2019-04-03** Reenrolled bill text (HB1915ER2)
- **2019-04-03** Signed by Speaker as reenrolled
- **2019-04-03** Signed by President as reenrolled
- **2019-04-03** Enacted, Chapter 826 (effective 4/3/19) `became-law`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/51d9f7c9-0c73-4136-9faf-dfd6330b208e`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).