I respectfully urge you to SUPPORT HB 915. This bill is essential to prevent unelected bureaucrats from establishing the school mandated immunizations in Virginia. This establishes an additional safeguard from regulatory capture/corruption. Thank you.

Comments Document

See my column published this afternoon. Linked below.

Comments Document

I oppose this bill. Virginia Telehealth Network is a tiny one-trick pony. It has neither the size, the technology, the breadth of expertise nor the experience to offer any meaningful assistance to the Department of Health on this matter. I have not ever worked for McKinsey and have no financial interest in that company. I attach a McKinsey report on telehealth. If members read or even scan the report, they will see that this subject far exceeds the scope of anything Virginia Telehealth Network can usefully advise on. Spend the money. Hire McKinsey. Get it right.

Comments Document

I oppose this bill. Virginia Telehealth Network is a very small organization with severely limited resources (see attachment). Why tie the Virginia Board of Health to such an organization? There are national consulting firms that have infinitely more expertise in telehealth than does VTN. HIPPA compliance is but one of the technical factors involved. Spend the money to get it done right.

Requesting information

Please consider protecting our vulnerable seniors and pass this bill.

Radford University has a rich heritage of educating health care professionals in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The University is committed to providing an exceptional professional education and building a robust health professions talent pipeline with health science programs offered both on main campus in Radford and Radford University Carilion (RUC), which is the University’s health sciences campus facility in Roanoke. Radford University is an active participant in the Blue Ridge Partnership for Health Science Careers, which is a regional initiative to establish a K-12 to higher education to workforce health professions pipeline for Southwest Virginia, and the entire Commonwealth of Virginia. Radford University supports HB 191 and increased investment by the Commonwealth to expand the health professions pipeline.

Please support HB191. With mental healthcare facilities understaffed, this is a step in the right direction to provide a direct line to the governor of effective changes that need to be made. Please support HB98. Obtaining guardianship is a difficult process. The more open and easier to navigate will help families in crisis.

Healthcare employees support this bill for the following reasons: 1. Coordination across the Commonwealth will create the best use of workforce resources while preventing duplication. 2. All healthcare entities in Virginia need an education and training roadmap and funding to close our workforce gap now and in the future. 3. An identified leader for healthcare workforce training builds in focus and accountability.

The Roanoke Regional Chamber strongly supports HB 191. Thank you for your consideration.

Dear Delegate, Protect religious freedom, vote YES for HB 306! Our religious freedoms do not end just because government bureaucrats declare a public health emergency. Our First Amendment rights apply at all times. Thank you, Kellie M. Good

Correction: Please vote YES for house bill 306! No one should be punished for exercising their right to religious freedom!!!!!

Please vote YES for house bill 106! No one should be punished for exercising their right to religious freedom!!!!!

I write on behalf of Virginia Health Catalyst board, staff, and partners - Virginia Health Catalyst is a statewide public health nonprofit committed to ensuring all Virginians have equitable access to comprehensive health care that is inclusive of oral health. We think it is important to codify the VDH role in health assessments and we support the amendment to include demographic information. Thank you!

The American Heart Association supports HB229. As part of our ongoing work to support and invest in health equity, it is important that we have accurate and consistent data to make well-informed decisions. For that reason we support HB229

Thank you for the opportunity to write in support of HB 229. This bill codifies work currently being done by the VDH to collect and publish information on social determinants of health. This data can help reveal underlying drivers of health and inform decision makers as interventions are being developed.

Comments Document

Our names are Erin Camia and Antonella Nicholas, and we are law students with the University of Virginia School of Law’s State and Local Government Policy Clinic, under the supervision of Professor Andy Block, and have been working with Delegate Coyner on House Bill 229. The views we express in this letter are our own, and not those of the law school or UVA. This bill will Provide valuable information and collection for communities to help with comprehensive health planning, especially in struggling communities where social determinants of health, like proximity to hospitals, and lack of access to transportation and broadband have such a negative impact on health outcomes. Give citizens the information and tools necessary to better understand the external factors impacting the health of their communities. Enshrine an important practice in law and ensure Virginians will be able to access this vital information in years to come - a move that the Virginia Department of Health supports. Social determinants of health are the conditions in the places people live and work that, beyond their own personal health situation, affect their health risks and outcomes. Put another way, social determinants track factors such as if someone lives in a food desert, or if their community is polluted, or if they have access to broadband services or not. HB 229 will ensure that healthcare providers and local leaders in all parts of the state continue to have access to information about which social determinants are impacting their particular communities - which will, in turn, help them craft local responses to these issues. By revealing and addressing the issues a doctor might not be able to fix or even see, social determinants of health reporting will act as a crucial first step in improving the health and wellness of all Virginians. And while this data will continue to be of value in all parts of the state, it will be of particular value to those communities whose disparately worse health outcomes are so closely connected to these social determinants. According to researchers from Texas Tech’s Institute for Rural and Community Health, the rural mortality rate in Virginia is 30% percent higher than in urban communities. And the COVID-19 pandemic revealed how at-risk poorer populations are – VDH reported that Virginians in the census tracts with the highest percentage of people living in poverty were 2.3 times more likely to die from the virus than those living in the richest census tracts. With the publication of social determinants of health data, citizens will be empowered to take control of their own health. Instead of being at the mercy of unknown external factors adversely affecting their health outcomes, they can explore and understand what social determinants are impacting their communities. And in being able to name the weaknesses in their communities, they will be empowered to advocate for improvements. While this collection and reporting by region and locality is an existing practice of the Department of Health, it is vitally important that this practice is enshrined in law and that it become a fixture of VDH’s work. This work is necessary to reveal what factors, beyond those that a doctor can discover, are making Virginians unhealthy and how we can address them. We have attached a PDF of this letter with additional explanation. In closing, we urge you to pass HB 229. Thank you for your consideration.

I am really wanting you all not to pass this bill because Oxford House gives me a place to live at a price I can afford on disability it gives me stability Oxford House I would be homeless and if the bill does pass that means I rent would go up and I would be homeless again and I am doing very well I enjoy living in the Oxford House we have meetings once a week for our house and we have committee meetings and everything So please do not pass this bill I in begging you

Dear Delegate, Protect religious freedom, vote YES for HB 306! Our religious freedoms do not end just because government bureaucrats declare a public health emergency. Our First Amendment rights apply at all times. Thank you, Kellie M. Good

Correction: Please vote YES for house bill 306! No one should be punished for exercising their right to religious freedom!!!!!

Please vote YES for house bill 106! No one should be punished for exercising their right to religious freedom!!!!!

Vote YES on HB 306

I am really wanting you all not to pass this bill because Oxford House gives me a place to live at a price I can afford on disability it gives me stability Oxford House I would be homeless and if the bill does pass that means I rent would go up and I would be homeless again and I am doing very well I enjoy living in the Oxford House we have meetings once a week for our house and we have committee meetings and everything So please do not pass this bill I in begging you