| HB 24 w/ HA 1 | Signed | Bennett | This Act would prohibit insurers and pharmacy benefit managers from engaging in the practice of "clawbacks". When the total cost of a prescription drug to an insurer or pharmacy benefits manager is less than a patient's co-pay, the insurer or pharmacy benefits manager keeps the difference in a practice known as a "clawback".
According to a March 2018 report issued by the University of Southern California's Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics based on the Center’s analysis of 2013 data from a large commercial insurer combined with data on national average drug reimbursements, almost 25% of filled pharmacy prescriptions involved a patient co-payment that exceeded the average reimbursement paid by the insurer by more than $2.00. The report further noted that overpayments were more likely to occur on claims for generic drugs than brand drugs and that the total overpayments in the Center’s sample amounted to $135 million. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 18 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO COPAYMENT OR COINSURANCE FOR PRESCRIPTION DRUGS. |
| HB 81 | Signed | Bentz | This Bill clarifies language allowing for the direct deposit of child support owed and collected by employers from individuals under a support order from the Family Court. In addition, this Bill requires employers who have 50 or more employees to send payments to the Division of Child Support Services by electronic funds transfer and allows employers with less than 50 employees to do the same. Finally, the bill requires payments made via electronic transfer to be made before or at the time the employee is paid. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 13 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO CHILD SUPPORT. |
| SB 61 w/ HA 1 | Signed | Hansen | State economic development officials pursue economic development opportunities that, if realized, would have significant impact on Delaware's future economic health and competitiveness. Such situations frequently require expeditious action and the need to enhance Delaware's transportation infrastructure on a timeline and schedule that is outside the 6 year Capital Transportation Program.
To meet these challenges, this Act establishes the Transportation Infrastructure Investment Fund to provide economic assistance for renovation, construction, or any other type of improvements to roads and related transportation infrastructure in order to attract new businesses to Delaware, or for the expansion of existing Delaware businesses, when such an economic development opportunity would create a significant number of direct, permanent, quality, full-time jobs. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 29 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION. |
| SB 73 w/ SA 1 | Signed | McBride | Daylight saving time has existed in one form or another for over 100 years. In that time, Delawareans have become accustomed to the 8 months of daylight saving time each year. This Act provides for Delaware to permanently remain on daylight saving time.
This Act achieves this by doing the following:
(1) Requiring, in Section 4 of this Act, that the Governor request that the United States Secretary of Transportation place Delaware in the Atlantic standard time zone if Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland each enact a law requesting the Secretary to place their respective state in the Atlantic standard time zone. The Secretary is authorized under 15 U.S.C. § 261 to define the limits of each time zone and thus may place Delaware in the Atlantic standard time zone.
(2) Exercising, in Section 2 of this Act, the discretion granted to Delaware under 15 U.S.C. § 260a to exclude itself from daylight saving time. Section 5 of this Act makes clear that this exclusion takes effect on the first Sunday in November once the United States Secretary of Transportation places Delaware in the Atlantic standard time zone. This results in Delaware permanently remaining 1 hour ahead of eastern standard time. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 1 AND TITLE 4 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE STANDARD TIME FOR THIS STATE. |
| SB 78 | Signed | Poore | This Act requires that the health education programs presented by the Department of Education include instruction on what it means to "consent" in the context of a sexual encounter. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 14 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO CONSENT EDUCATION. |
| SB 97 | Signed | Ennis | This Act ratifies the National Crime Prevention and Privacy Compact, 34 U.S.C. §40316 (formerly cited as 42 U.S.C. § 14616), a requirement that allows Delaware to join the Compact as a Party State. The Compact serves as the infrastructure by which states can exchange criminal records for noncriminal justice purposes according to the laws of the requesting state and provide reciprocity among the states to share records without charging each other for the information. | AN ACT TO AMEND CHAPTER 85, TITLE 11 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE NATIONAL CRIME PREVENTION AND PRIVACY COMPACT. |
| SB 123 w/ SA 2 | Committee | McBride | It is an unfortunate reality that many offenders have difficulty re-entering society. Without the ability to provide for themselves and their families through gainful employment, 67.8% of released prisoners are rearrested within three years of release nationally. One of the reasons that offenders have difficulty is because they often face the unrealistic requirement to pay off large fees and fines, which grow with interest if not paid, at the same time as they have to pay for housing, food, care for children, or other necessities of life. Failure to pay can result in the offender found to be in violation while on probation or being denied a pardon.
Furthermore, most offenders tend to be non-affluent, and the state spends resources chasing fines and fees it will not recover. Unlike motor vehicle fines under Title 21, which generate large sums of revenue, fees and fines under Title 11 and 16 are modest and collection costs are high. The social costs in terms of impacting rehabilitation and successful re-entry are even higher.
To address this problem and to give the Department of Correction a positive incentive to reward participation in work programs in its facilities or in the community, this Act authorizes the Department of Correction to give minimum wage to inmates to pay off fees or fines by participating in an earned credit program established by the Department of Correction. The court would establish how many hours need to be worked in order to discharge this financial obligation by computing the hours based on the then prevailing state minimum wage hourly rate. The Department of Correction will establish an earned credit program and certify to the court when the individual has completed the required number of hours. The earned credit program cannot be used to discharge other financial obligations owed, such as restitution, child support obligations, or bail. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 11 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO FINES, COSTS, PENALTIES, AND FORFEITURES. |
| SB 142 | Signed | McBride | This Act prohibits a new adult entertainment establishment or adult-oriented retail establishment from operating in a building in which an adult entertainment establishment or adult-oriented retail establishment previously operated.
This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 24 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO ADULT ESTABLISHMENTS. |
| HCR 48 | Passed | Longhurst | This House Concurrent Resolution recognizes June 15, 2019, as “Delaware Elder Abuse Awareness Day” and encourages all of Delaware’s citizens to learn about how to protect and nurture our elderly citizens. | RECOGNIZING JUNE 15, 2019, AS “DELAWARE ELDER ABUSE AWARENESS DAY”. |
| SA 1 to SB 73 | Passed | McBride | This Amendment adds New York to the list of states required to enact a law similar to this Act before this Act takes effect. | |
| SA 2 to SB 123 | Passed | Brown | When defendants are late paying their fines, the courts’ clerks must forward the defendant’s name to the Department of Transportation’s Division of Motor Vehicles for license suspension. This Amendment prohibits a court or the Department of Transportation from suspending a driver’s license for nonpayment of a fine, fee, cost, or assessment and from charging a penalty, assessment, or fee to a defendant for the cancellation of a warrant issued due to the defendant’s nonpayment of a fine, fee, cost, or assessment. | |
