republic-os/legislation/us/states/va/2019/hb-2538.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Health insurance; payment of out-of-network providers, patient access to elective services."
description: "Requires a facility where a covered person receives scheduled elective services to post the required notice or inform the covered person of the required notice at the time of pre-admission or pre-registration. The bill also requires such a facility to inform the covered person or his legal representative of the names of all provider groups providing health care services at the facility, that consultation with the covered person's managed care plan is recommended to determine if the provider groups providing health care services at the facility are in-network providers, and that the covered person may be financially responsible for health care services performed by a provider that is not an in-network provider, in addition to any cost-sharing requirements."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2019"
identifier: "HB 2538"
citation: "Virginia HB 2538 (2019)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Insurance"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["R. Lee Ware"]
version_count: 5
action_count: 19
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2019-01-09"
last_action: "2019-03-18"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/4550c94a-79b5-4778-abfe-3c02ffe5e743"
source_url: "http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+sum+HB2538"
source_hash: "12a99adbaaa302df5952fbf829bfb2b56a79403eb9ee14e09e50bad228b35ba3"
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 2538 (2019) — Health insurance; payment of out-of-network providers, patient access to elective services.

Requires a facility where a covered person receives scheduled elective services to post the required notice or inform the covered person of the required notice at the time of pre-admission or pre-registration. The bill also requires such a facility to inform the covered person or his legal representative of the names of all provider groups providing health care services at the facility, that consultation with the covered person's managed care plan is recommended to determine if the provider groups providing health care services at the facility are in-network providers, and that the covered person may be financially responsible for health care services performed by a provider that is not an in-network provider, in addition to any cost-sharing requirements.

## Version chain

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

1. **Governor: Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0432)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+CHAP0432)
2. **House subcommittee amendments and substitutes adopted** (committee substitute) — [source](https://committees.lis.virginia.gov/subcommitteeaction.aspx?ses=191&bil=HB2538)
3. **House: Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB2538ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+HB2538ER)
4. **House: Committee substitute printed 19105085D-H1** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+HB2538H1)
5. **House: Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/09/19 19103960D** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+HB2538)

## Votes

- Constitutional reading dispensed — **39–0** (pass) · upper
- Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE — **99–0** (pass) · lower
- Reported from Commerce and Labor — **14–0** (pass) · upper
- Passed Senate — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- Reported from Commerce and Labor with substitute — **19–0** (pass) · lower
- Subcommittee recommends reporting with substitute — **7–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- R. Lee Ware — primary (person)
- Betsy B. Carr — cosponsor (person)
- Hyland F. "Buddy" Fowler, Jr. — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2019-01-09** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/09/19 19103960D `introduction`
- **2019-01-09** Referred to Committee on Commerce and Labor `referral-committee`
- **2019-01-15** 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 19105085D-H1
- **2019-02-04** Engrossed by House - committee substitute HB2538H1
- **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** Passed by for the day
- **2019-02-15** Passed by for the day
- **2019-02-18** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2019-02-21** Enrolled
- **2019-02-21** Signed by Speaker
- **2019-02-21** Signed by President
- **2019-02-28** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on February 28, 2019
- **2019-02-28** Governor's Action Deadline Midnight, March 26, 2019
- **2019-03-18** Approved by Governor-Chapter 432 (effective 7/1/19) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/4550c94a-79b5-4778-abfe-3c02ffe5e743`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).