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efficacy of the oil was compelling, everyone on the House Courts of
Justice Committee wanted to help these families. But at the same time,
most still refused to legalize medical marijuana. (Note: Marijuana is
still a Schedule I drug. This schedule is a federal designation that says
there is no medical use.)
Thus, I was faced with a dilemma. How do I draft a bill to allow
the CBD and THC-A Oil, while at the same time acknowledging
it is illegal? How could we make something legal at the same time
declaring it illegal? It seemed impossible, until Courts Legal Counsel
Dave Caddell, Legislative Services attorney Dave Cotter, and I took
a break from a long Courts meeting to brainstorm. It occurred to us
that this is exactly what theVirginia Code does for concealed weapons.
The statute first says that guns and other weapons are illegal to be
concealed, but if a person has a court approved form showing that the
person has completed gun training, has no dangerous mental health
condition, has not been convicted of certain crimes, etc., a person can
possess a concealed weapon. So we took the structure of the concealed
weapon statute, VA Code §18.2-308.1 (A), (“The prohibition against
carrying a concealed handgun…shall not apply to a person who has
a valid concealed handgun permit issued pursuant to this article…”)
and applied it to CBD and THC-A Oil. So concealed weapons are still
illegal, but you can have one if you have a permit. In short, HB 1445
does the same thing for CBD/THC-A Oil. The oil is still illegal, but the
bill bars prosecution for the possession of CBD/THC-A Oil for people
who have a doctor’s certification.
C. In any prosecution under this section involving marijuana in the
form of cannabidiol oil or THC-A…it shall be an affirmative defense
that the individual possessed such oil pursuant to a valid written
certification issued by a [doctor… for treatment or to alleviate the
symptoms of (i) the individual’s intractable epilepsy…
Again, this bill does NOT legalize marijuana. Rather, it says that
Virginia will not make a criminal out of a parent who is trying to find a
way to help their ailing child.
Member of the House of Delegates: 1994– District 42 includes part
of Failfax.
How We Wrote HB 1445
from page 13
RICHMOND– The business community
must be fully involved in improvingour health
care delivery system. That’s the message
health futurist and medical economist Dr.
Jeff Bauer delivered to a packed room of
more than 500 health care professionals and
business leaders from around Virginia at the
Greater Richmond Convention Center June
4th. They were gathered for the Virginia
Chamber of Commerce’s 5th Annual
Virginia Health Care Conference.
“Although most of my presentations
are to groups of hospital leaders, medical groups or pharmaceutical
industry representatives, I really think the secret sauce is the business
community,” said Dr. Bauer in his morning keynote address. As
a consultant, Dr. Jeff Bauer assists provider, purchaser, and payer
organizations with strategic planning and performance improvement.
Barry DuVal, President and CEO of the Virginia Chamber of
Commerce said that health care plays a critical role in Virginia’s
economy, representing 18 percent of our state GDP. The Carilion Clinic,
represented at the conference by CEO Nancy Agee, for example, is the
largest Virginia employer west of Richmond.
Panel discussions throughout the day included some of the
top employers and thought leaders in the health care and business
community.
“What people fail to understand is there are really two types
of health care reform going on in this country right now,” said Bob
Kiskaddon, Chief Medical Officer for Dixon Hughes Goodman
Healthcare. “One is payment reform, which is the Affordable Care Act,
Obamacare. And the other is provider reform, and that’s how we’re
actually delivering health care to patients.”
“What we do in health care advising with Dixon Hughes Goodman
is we try to find that sweet spot. We try to help organizations move
from a fee for service system into a value-based system. Because that
is going to be a very precipitous change at some point.”
Dr. Bauer forecasted that by 2019, 30% of health enterprises will
cease to exist as organized. While he argued that many politically
driven reforms have been counterproductive, Bauer said, “We have
got to find another way…what can you do collectively between the
business community, the provider community to become efficient, get
the waste out of the system, and to be effective.”
John Fitzgerald, CEO of Inova Fair Oaks Hospital said that change
is taking place right now. “We are reorganizing the hospital around the
patient. This is a real breakthrough idea, starting with the patient and
organizing the hospital in to the patient to the outcome the patient wants.”
Sally Hartman, Senior Vice President of Riverside Health System,
said, “We have embraced that philosophy of ‘just try it,’ so we are
piloting things all the time.” She discussed a recent program that
eliminated the copay for diabetes treatments for Riverside employees,
which resulted in an 11.5 decrease in blood sugar levels over just one
year, a 4% decline in BMI, and saw the percentage of employees with
high blood pressure decrease from 22% to 14%.
Karen Babos, Vice President of Clinical Programs and Quality
for Walgreen Co., discussed opportunities for reaching more patients
with telemedicine, particularly for those with behavioral health needs
who often face waiting lists at providers. “I see a huge expansion of
telemedicine. The states that were against it are now coming along and
changing their minds.”
Bill Ermatinger, Corporate Vice President & Chief Human
Resources Officer with Huntington Ingalls Industries, said that he
recognized early on that they had to align their health care strategy
with their human capital strategy. “It had to have accountability on both
sides, both us as employer and as employees. It had to offer employee
choice. I learned early on from the HMO days that one-size-fits all
doesn’t work.”
Ermatinger said he had an “aha moment” as a human resources
officer when he recognized that, “health care is no longer a benefit. It’s
an investment.”
“I’ll use the analogy of cars,” he continued. “You blow your
engine, we’re fixated on which one is the best mechanic to fix it, who
has the highest quality, are they convenient.You know what? If you just
change your oil every 6,000 miles, you wouldn’t have a blown engine.”
“The big trump card was incentive,” said Peter Bernard, CEO of
Bon Secours Virginia about their pilot wellness program. “We gave
our employees $900 the first year if they got a personal physical
assessment. The second year it was three, three and three: You had to
get a primary care doctor, a physical assessment, and then you had to
have another analysis done online.”
The lunch panel featured leaders in research and development and
a discussion of impediments to investment in bioscience.
Dr. John Herr with the University of Virginia said more funding
was needed to get researchers from the basic science discovery phase
to proof of concept.
Robert Gourdie, Director of the Center for Heart and
Regenerative Medicine with Virginia Tech’s Carilion Research
Institute agreed, saying it was a matter of remaining globally
competitive. “The People’s Republic of China is set to become
the world’s largest spender on research and development by 2021,
and I think if we’re going to compete for the industries of the 21st
Virginia Health Care Conference
By Paul Logan
Continued on next page
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