HB 274 | Signed | K. Williams | Early, sustained exposure to peanut and egg proteins in the infant diet significantly reduces the risk that an infant will develop a peanut or egg allergy, saving lives and future health care costs. Following multiple clinical studies, the current guidance of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology and the American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology, which is followed by pediatricians, recommends that by age 6 months, all infants should be introduced to both peanut and egg protein and that unless contraindicated, all infants should regularly consume peanut and well-cooked egg protein until they reach the age of 1 year, to reduce the risk of developing peanut or egg allergies.
This Act requires that all health insurance plans subject to requirements under Delaware law, including Medicaid, provide coverage, at no cost when prescribed to infants, of at least 1 early peanut allergen introduction dietary supplement and at least 1 early egg allergen introduction dietary supplement.
This Act applies to all policies, contracts, or certificates issued, renewed, modified, altered, amended, or reissued after December 31, 2025. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 18, TITLE 29, AND TITLE 31 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO INSURANCE COVERAGE OF ALLERGEN INTRODUCTION DIETARY SUPPLEMENTS FOR INFANTS. |
HB 313 | Signed | Neal | This Act ensures that all female inmates in DDOC custody, at level IV or V, receive annual or biennial screening mammograms as recommended by the United States Preventive Services Task Force. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 11 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO MAMMOGRAMS. |
HB 18 | Signed | Osienski | This bill amends the Merit System of Personnel Administration by allowing for preference in hiring for casual seasonal employees who are performing the same job duties of a posted merit position. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 29 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE MERIT SYSTEM OF PERSONNEL ADMINISTRATION. |
HB 314 | Signed | Matthews | This Act does all of the following: (1) Allows for all licensed practitioners that are treating a driver for a medical condition to report findings which allows for Nurse Practitioner, Physician Assistant, or Physician to sign Division paperwork and mirrors verbiage found in Title 24; (2) Updates the name of Medical Council to Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline which ensures compliance with code in handling of individual cases; and (3) Changes the Secretary of Health and Social Services to Secretary of Transportation for determining the status of driver’s license for individuals with a potential medical condition which allows for quicker response and ensures the confidentiality of a driver. Lastly it removes a section from the Medical Licensure Act consistent with the other provisions of the bill. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLES 21 AND 24 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO DRIVER’S LICENSES. |
HB 324 | Signed | Baumbach | This Act makes several changes to the Code relating to the Department of Finance.
Section 1 removes a bond requirement for Division of Revenue officers, agents, or employees for faithful performance of their duties. Sections 2 and 3 enable the Department of Finance and the Division of Revenue to fully administer and enforce taxes where jurisdiction is assigned by the Delaware Code without reference to any specific Title. This avoids the need to revise applicable provisions of Title 30 (by enumerating each applicable title) when changes to the law make the Department responsible for the administration and enforcement of tax and tax-related laws established outside of Title 30. Section 4 provides the Division of Revenue the ability to collect the lodging tax imposed under § 8112 of Title 9 on behalf of a county in the State of Delaware and enter into an agreement with a county in the State of Delaware to coordinate the collection process. Sections 5 and 6 transfer and reorganize the personal income tax aspects of the Organ and Bone Marrow Transplantation Tax Credit statute to appear within the appropriate personal income tax subchapter in Chapter 11 of Title 30. Section 7 replaces the term “trailer park” with “recreational vehicle park” to clarify license procedures.
This Act makes technical changes to existing Code to conform with the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
| AN ACT TO AMEND TITLES 29 AND 30 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE ADMINISTRATIVE RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE. |
HB 345 | Signed | Minor-Brown | This Act requires Medicaid coverage for additional postpartum visits with a doula upon recommendation of a licensed practitioner or clinician. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 31 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO COVERAGE FOR DOULA SERVICES. |
HS 2 for HB 273 w/ SA 1 | Signed | Dorsey Walker | This Substitute bill adds 5 additional speech-language diagnosis to the 2 diagnoses listed in H.B. 273 and references that all 7 speech-language diagnoses are classified in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) for billing purposes. This Substitute bill broadens the definition of “child” from 1 year to first grade to include all children from birth to age 18. This Substitute bill deletes the definition of carrier since the term is not referred to in these new sections and clarifies that Section 2 refers to group and blanket health insurance policies not individual health policies. This Substitute bill also clarifies that the Act applies to all health insurance contracts delivered, issued for delivery, or renewed after December 31, 2024. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 18 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO HEALTH COVERAGE FOR SPEECH THERAPY. |
HB 349 | Signed | Bush | This bill codifies that the Superior Court Veterans’ Treatment Court is a qualified rehabilitation program under § 4177D of Title 21 of the Delaware Code for persons seeking to have their driver's licenses reinstated after a DUI. This Act makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 21 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE VETERANS' TREATMENT COURT. |
HS 1 for HB 19 | Signed | Morrison | This Act creates a background special license plate for the United Way of Delaware Pride Council.
A background special license plate supports a cause and is available for purchase by the public at large, including members of the organization. The numbers, letters, or both, assigned will be the same as the license plate assigned to the owner’s vehicle at the time of the application for the plate.
This Act requires a greater-than-majority vote for passage because Article VIII, § 11 of the Delaware Constitution requires the affirmative vote of 3/5 of the members elected to each house of the General Assembly when a new tax or license fee is imposed. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 21 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO SPECIAL LICENSE PLATES. |
SB 270 | Signed | Paradee | This Act is the statutory recognition of the recommendations set forth in the June 2, 2023, report of the DEFAC Benchmark Evaluation and Review Panel.
This Act builds on the State’s existing appropriation limit methodology by formalizing and maintaining the flexibility inherent in the Budget Stabilization Fund process currently enabled by Executive Order No. 21, approved on June 30, 2018, and the last 6 operating budget acts, including § 65 of the fiscal year 2024 Operating Budget Act.
Acknowledging this process in statute includes defining rules for deposits to and withdrawals from the Budget Stabilization Fund and adding an objective and stable measure of sustainable budget growth through an advisory index comprised of certain State economic indicators.
This Act requires that only the Governor’s recommended Budget Appropriation Bill consider this methodology and detail proposed plans, if any, deemed necessary or desirable in relation to state revenues or reserve funding. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 29 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO BUDGET AND FISCAL REGULATIONS, ESTABLISHING A BUDGET STABILIZATION FUND, DEFINING DEPOSIT AND WITHDRAWAL STANDARDS FOR THE FUND, AND IMPOSING DEPOSIT AND WITHDRAWAL NORMS THROUGHOUT THE ANNUAL GOVERNOR’S RECOMMENDED BUDGET PROCESS. |
HB 374 | Signed | K. Johnson | This Act updates House Bill 455 from the 151st General Assembly by providing the same legal protections afforded providers of contraceptive and abortion services to providers of fertility treatment. In summary, this Act does the following:
(1) Clarifies that medical professionals who provide fertility treatment care cannot be disciplined for such services even if such services are illegal or considered to be unprofessional conduct or the unauthorized practice of medicine in another state, so long as such services are lawful in this State;
(2) Prohibits health care providers from disclosing communications and records concerning fertility treatment without the patient’s authorization in any civil action or proceeding, with some exceptions;
(3) Protects health care providers from out-of-state civil actions relating to fertility treatment that is legal in Delaware, including the issuance of a summons or the enforcement of subpoenas relating to such cases;
(4) Creates a cause of action for recouperation of out-of-state judgments relating to fertility treatment that is lawful in Delaware; and
(5) Prohibits insurance companies from taking any adverse action against health care professionals who provide fertility treatment and services. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLES 10 AND 24 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO FERTILITY TREATMENT. |
HS 1 for HB 326 | Signed | Baumbach | This is a substitute for House Bill No. 326.
Non-profit hospitals are granted tax-exempt status on the premise that they serve a vital role in promoting the health and well-being of the communities they serve. Community benefit spending is a means by which hospitals fulfill this obligation. Such spending includes activities like providing uncompensated care, supporting medical research, offering health education and prevention programs, subsidizing community clinics, and addressing social determinants of health.
Like House Bill No. 326, this substitute bill requires Delaware’s non-profit hospitals to provide the state and public with an annual report outlining their community benefits spending, bringing Delaware in line with 31 other states, including all of Delaware’s neighboring states, that require reporting.
Like House Bill No. 326, this substitute bill defines “community benefits program,” outlines the minimum contents that must be included in a community benefits activity report, and requires that the report be made available to the public. This substitute contains provisions allowing the report to be submitted electronically to State officials on an annual basis. It differs from the original bill in that the deadline for submitting the report is changed from January 31 of each year to 30 days after a hospital files a federal Form 990.
This substitute also contains technical changes to reference and accord with appropriate law and regulations, and broadens the list of information that must be included in the community benefits report.
| AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 16 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATED TO THE DELAWARE HEALTH CARE COMMISSION. |
SB 274 | Signed | Pettyjohn | Affordable housing is key to building strong communities and neighborhoods. This act provides that the developer of a residential subdivision is provided a percentage credit towards the expense of offsite improvements to state-maintained highways consistent with the percentage of units set aside for affordable housing in a residential subdivision project. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 17 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO ACCESS TO STATE-MAINTAINED HIGHWAYS. |
SA 1 to HS 2 for HB 273 | Passed | Lockman | This amendment clarifies that the coverages mandated by this bill may be subject to standard policy provisions such as deductibles, coinsurance, allowable charge limitations, coordination of benefits, or provisions restricting coverage to services by a licensed, certified, or carrier-approved provider or facility. | |
SB 309 w/ SA 1 | Signed | Gay | This Act adopts the Uniform Health-Care Decisions Act of 2023 (UHCDA 2023) to supersede the Uniform Health-Care Decisions Act of 1993, which Delaware enacted in 1996. The UHCDA 2023 was authored by the Uniform Law Commission (ULC) and was developed in a multiyear collaborative and non-partisan process to modernize and expand on the 1993 version of the act.
The UHCDA 2023 maintains processes to address how health-care decisions can be made by or on behalf of individuals who lack capacity, including:
(1) Allowing individuals to appoint agents to make health-care decisions for them should they become unable to make those decisions for themselves.
(2) Allowing individuals to provide their health-care professionals and agents with instructions about their values and priorities regarding their health care and to indicate medical treatment they do or do not wish to receive.
(3) Authorizing certain people to make health-care decisions for individuals incapable of making their own decisions, but who have not appointed agents.
(4) Setting forth agent, default surrogate, and health-care professional rights and duties.
The UHCDA 2023 reflects substantial changes in how health care is delivered, increases in non-traditional familial relationships and living arrangements, the proliferation of the use of electronic documents, the growing use of separate advance directives exclusively for mental health care, and other recent developments. Some updates to the Act include:
(1) Removal of administrative barriers that make the creation of an advance health-care directive more difficult.
(2) Addition of provisions to guide determinations of incapacity, which is important because an agent’s or default surrogate’s (surrogate’s) authority to make health-care decisions for a patient typically commences when the patient lacks capacity to make decisions. The Act modernizes the definition of capacity so that it accounts for the functional abilities of an individual and clarifies that the individual may lack capacity to make one decision but retains capacity to make other decisions.
(3) Authorizing the use of advance directives exclusively for mental health care.
(4) Modernizing default surrogate provisions that allow family members and certain other people close to a patient to make decisions in the event the patient lacks capacity and has not appointed a health-care agent. The new default surrogate provisions update the priority list in the 1993 Act to reflect a broader array of relationships and family structures. They also provide additional options to address disagreements among default surrogates who have equal priority.
(5) Clarifying the duties and powers of surrogates. For example, to reduce the likelihood that an individual’s health-care needs will go unmet due to financial barriers, the Act authorizes a surrogate to apply for health insurance for a patient who does not have another fiduciary authorized to do so.
(6) Modernizing the optional model form to be readily understandable and accessible to diverse populations. The form gives individuals the opportunity to readily share information about their values and goals for medical care. Thus, it addresses a common concern raised by health-care professionals in the context of advance planning: that instructions included in advance directives often focus exclusively on preferences for particular treatments, and do not provide health-care professionals or surrogates with the type of information about patients’ goals and values that could be used to make value-congruent decisions when novel or unexpected situations arise. The form addresses these concerns by providing options for individuals to indicate goals and values, in addition to specific treatment preferences.
This Act also adopts some of the optional provisions suggested by the ULC, including that an agent or surrogate has limited ability to consent to the long-term placement of an individual in a nursing home without express authorization. Specifically, without express authorization, the agent or surrogate may not consent to the placement for more than 100 days over the individual’s contemporaneous objection unless (1) no alternative living arrangement is reasonably feasible or (2) the individual is terminally ill. The ULC suggested 100 days in recognition that the federal Medicare program covers up to 100 days of nursing home care for qualified beneficiaries.
This Act does not authorize mercy killing, assisted suicide, or euthanasia.
In addition to style changes throughout, this Act makes some modifications to the UHCDA 2023 that are consistent with Act and should not disrupt uniform interpretation. These modifications include:
(1) Revising language to conform to Delaware court practices.
(2) Providing surrogates with the authority to file insurance or benefit claims on behalf of the individual and to appeal such outcomes, in addition to the UHCDA 2023 allowance for a surrogate to apply for insurance or benefits on behalf of the individual. As under the UHCDA 2023, a surrogate does not have the duty to perform these actions and may only do so if no other fiduciary is authorized to do so.
(3) Creating an additional disqualification that disallows a potential surrogate from serving if the individual has a pending Protection From Abuse petition against the potential surrogate, the individual has a Protection From Abuse order against the potential surrogate, or the potential surrogate is the subject of a civil or criminal order prohibiting or limiting contact with the individual.
Section 2 of this Act adds a new Chapter 25B to the Delaware Code. Chapter 25B will contain Delaware-specific supplements to the UHCDA 2023. These Delaware-specific additions are being placed within their own chapter to promote uniform interpretation of the UHCDA 2023. Chapter 25B includes § 2502B, which relates to health-care institution authorization to petition for guardianship for an individual to whom the institution is providing care. Section 2502B reinforces the work of the Non-Acute Medical Guardianship Task Force, created by Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 30 by the 150th General Assembly. That task force’s work resulted in the current § 2519 of Title 16, which offers a process and timeline whereby health-care institutions can take steps to help obtain a guardianship for patients who no longer require acute care and can be transferred to another type of health-care setting. While § 2502B retains the ability for a health-care institution to address the discharge of long-term stay patients without an authorized decisionmaker, it modifies the powers in the current § 2519 by doing all of the following:
(1) Allowing health-care institutions to petition of the appointment of a guardian in instances beyond where an individual no longer needs acute care.
(2) Reiterating that the health-care institution may only petition if they believe there is no less restrictive alternative that will meet the individual’s needs.
(3) Streamlining notice requirements and changing who must receive these notices so that a health-care institution does not send a notice if there is a reasonably available surrogate. If there is a reasonably available surrogate and there is a dispute between the surrogate and the health-care institution about the treatment or level of care needed by an individual, then the parties should seek judicial relief under § 2526 of the UHCDA 2023 as opposed to using the guardianship process.
The new Chapter 25B also contains a provision to encourage public awareness and use of advance mental health-care directives.
Sections 3 through 11 of this Act update the Delaware Code in light of the adoption of the UHCDA 2023 by updating internal citations, updating terms to match the terms used in the UHCDA 2023, and ensuring a consistent list of default surrogate decisionmakers.
This Act is effective immediately and is to be implemented 1 year from the date of enactment.
| AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 12 AND TITLE 16 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO HEALTH-CARE DECISIONS. |
HCR 155 | Passed | Morrison | This concurrent resolution recognizes the month of June 2024 as Pride Month in the state of Delaware. | RECOGNIZING THE MONTH OF JUNE 2024 AS PRIDE MONTH IN THE STATE OF DELAWARE. |
SA 1 to SB 309 | Passed | Gay | This Amendment does all of the following:
1. Combines the list of health-care professionals who may make capacity determinations and the requirements for making those determinations into a single list, and makes corresponding internal citation changes.
2. Corrects a typographical error.
3. Since 50% of all holders of Delaware driver's licenses and identification cards have already indicated their preferences about organ donation via their driver’s license or identification card, the Optional Form is amended to remind individuals that they may have already indicated their preference and to reinforce that no decision needs to be inserted in this part of the form.
4. Clarifies that § 2523 of Title 16 must not be construed to provide immunity for health care that does not meet the generally accepted health-care standards applicable to the health-care professional or institution. This clarification is made because § 2523 covers process decisions, such as whether a professional complies or doesn't comply with a directive or instruction, not the underlying health care or the quality of that health care.
5. Makes this Act effective 1 year from the Act's enactment and corresponding changes. | |
HCR 152 | Passed | Longhurst | This concurrent resolution recognizes and honors the young women of Delaware participating in the 2024 session of Delaware Girls State. | HONORING THE YOUNG WOMEN FROM ACROSS THE STATE OF DELAWARE PARTICIPATING IN THE 2024 SESSION OF DELAWARE GIRLS STATE. |
SS 1 for SB 247 | Signed | Huxtable | This Act creates a clearer and workable system for ensuring that manufactured home communities with health and safety violations and conditions that threaten the health and safety of people in the community cannot continue to raise rents on residents without fixing the conditions and providing a safe community for its residents.
This substitute differs from the original bill in that it does the following:
(1) Adds definitions to § 7003 for the whole chapter.
(2) Creates a section that provides requirements for what a community owner must do when it receives a citation or experiences a failure of services related to water, sewer, or utilities distributed by the community owner, including having to fix the problem within 10 days or give detailed reasons why it cannot be completed in that timeframe as well as provide a surety bond for 150% of the estimated cost if it cannot be done in that timeframe.
(3) Specifies that a community owner cannot impose a rent increase if it does not comply with the requirements of new section governing such repairs.
(4) Changes the court in which community owners may dispute a citation for purposes of receiving a rent increase from Superior Court to the Justice of the Peace Court.
This Substitute also makes the new version of § 7051A sunset on July 1, 2026. It reinserts the current version of § 7051A into the code on July 1, 2026, when the new version sunsets.
| AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 25 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO MANUFACTURED HOUSING. |