Sponsors: Louis P. Hill CoSponsors: Patrick Simeon-Sprauve Subject: An Act amending title 27 Virgin Islands Code, chapter 1, subchapter 11, section 34, to require doctors and physicians to disclose any financial ownership or interest in any medical laboratory within or outside the Virgin Islands and from referring patients to a laboratory in which they have financail interest

1. COMMITTEE ON HEALTH
BILL NO. 28-0005
Twenty-Eighth Legislature of the Virgin Islands
March 2, 2009
An Act amending title 27 Virgin Islands Code, chapter 1, subchapter 11, section 34, to
require doctors and physicians to disclose any financial ownership or interest in any
medical laboratory within or outside the Virgin Islands and from referring patients to a
laboratory in which they have a financial interest
PROPOSED BY: Senator Louis Patrick Hill
Co-Sponsor: Craig Barshinger and Patrick Simeon Sprauve
1 Be it enacted by the Legislature of the Virgin Islands:
2 SECTION 1. Title 27 Virgin Islands Code, chapter 1, subchapter 11, section 39,
3 is amended in the following instances:
4 (a) Subsection (a) is amended by designating the existing language as
5 paragraph (1) and adding paragraph (2) to read
6 “(2) Persons who obtain licenses under this subchapter shall file with their
7 license registration pursuant to paragraph (1) a report fully disclosing any financial
8 interests, as defined in 3 V.I.C., §1101 (1), in any medical laboratory within or outside
9 the Virgin Islands.
10 (b) Subsection (b) and (c) are re-designated as subsections (c) and (d)
11 respectively and a new subsection (b) is inserted to read as follows:

2. 2
1 “(b) (1) A person licensed under this subchapter may not make a
2 referral of any patient to any medical laboratory in which the licensee has a
3 financial interest, unless the Board of Medical Examiners determines that the
4 referral for such laboratory services does not present a risk of patient abuse and
5 that the financial interest in the medical laboratory meets such requirements as the
6 Board may impose by regulation as needed to protect against program or patient
7 abuse.
8 (2) Violation of this paragraph subjects the licensee to disciplinary
9 actions under subsection (c) of this section and penalties under subsection 41.
10 (3) As used in this subsection “financial interest in a medical
11 laboratory” means any medical laboratory in which the licensee or a member of
12 the licensee’s immediate family has a direct or indirect interest or a direct or
13 indirect investment worth $2,000 or more or in which the licensee is a director,
14 officer, partner, trustee, employee or holds any position of management.
15 BILL SUMMARY
16 This Bill seeks to curtail the practice of some doctors and medical practitioners
17 from referring their patients to a laboratory in which they have a financial interest.
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19 BR09-0053T/January 30, 2009/AA
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