Terms Used In Virginia Code > Title 38.2 > Chapter 50 - Virginia Birth-Related Neurological Injury Compensation Act

• Acceptable securities: means securities that (i) are legal investments under the laws of the Commonwealth for public sinking funds or for other public funds, (ii) are not in default as to principal or interest, (iii) have a current market value of not less than $50,000 nor more than $500,000, and (iv) are issued pursuant to a system of book-entry evidencing ownership interests of the securities with transfers of ownership effected on the records of the depository and its participants pursuant to rules and procedures established by the depository. See Virginia Code 38.2-4300
• Accident and sickness insurance: means insurance against loss resulting from sickness, or from bodily injury or death by accident or accidental means, or from a combination of any or all of these perils. See Virginia Code 38.2-109
• Adult: means a person 18 years of age or more. See Virginia Code 1-203
• Adverse determination: means a determination by a health carrier or its designee utilization review entity that an admission, availability of care, continued stay, or other health care service that is a covered benefit has been reviewed and, based upon the information provided, does not meet the health carrier's requirements for medical necessity, appropriateness, health care setting, level of care, or effectiveness, and the requested service or payment for the service is therefore denied, reduced, or terminated. See Virginia Code 38.2-3556
• Advisory committee: means the agricultural and forestal districts advisory committee. See Virginia Code 15.2-4302
• Advisory committee: means the agricultural and forestal advisory committee. See Virginia Code 15.2-4402
• Affidavit: A written statement of facts confirmed by the oath of the party making it, before a notary or officer having authority to administer oaths.
• Affirmed: In the practice of the appellate courts, the decree or order is declared valid and will stand as rendered in the lower court.
• Agriculturally and forestally significant land: means land that has recently or historically produced agricultural and forestal products, is suitable for agricultural or forestal production or is considered appropriate to be retained for agricultural and forestal production as determined by such factors as soil quality, topography, climate, markets, farm structures, and other relevant factors. See Virginia Code 15.2-4302
• Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
• Annuities: means all agreements to make periodic payments in specified or calculable sums pursuant to the terms of a contract for a stated period of time or for the life of the person or persons specified in the contract. See Virginia Code 38.2-106
• Annuity: A periodic (usually annual) payment of a fixed sum of money for either the life of the recipient or for a fixed number of years. A series of payments under a contract from an insurance company, a trust company, or an individual. Annuity payments are made at regular intervals over a period of more than one full year.
• annuity: shall be deemed to include "variable annuity" and "modified guaranteed annuity" and shall be deemed to include a contract under which a lump sum cash settlement is an alternative to the option of periodic payments. See Virginia Code 38.2-106
• Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
• Application: means the set of items a landowner or landowners must submit to the local governing body when applying for the creation of a district or an addition to an existing district. See Virginia Code 15.2-4302
• Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
• Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Associate-degree-granting: means that an associate degree is the most advanced degree that is granted. See Virginia Code 23.1-100
• Associate-degree-granting public institution of higher education: includes Richard Bland College and each comprehensive community college. See Virginia Code 23.1-100
• Association: means the joint underwriting association established pursuant to the provisions of this chapter. See Virginia Code 38.2-2800
• Association: means the joint underwriting association established pursuant to the provisions of this chapter. See Virginia Code 38.2-2900
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• Attorney: means the person designated and authorized by subscribers as the attorney-in-fact having authority to obligate them on reciprocal insurance contracts. See Virginia Code 38.2-1201
• Authority: means the Virginia College Building Authority. See Virginia Code 23.1-1200
• Authority: means the Virginia College Building Authority established in § 23. See Virginia Code 23.1-1220
• Authority: means any political subdivision, a body politic and corporate, created, organized and operated pursuant to the provisions of this chapter, or if the authority is abolished, the board, body, commission, department or officer succeeding to the principal functions thereof or to whom the powers given by this chapter are given by law. See Virginia Code 15.2-4902
• Authorized representative: means (i) a person to whom a covered person has given express written consent to represent the covered person in an external review, (ii) a person authorized by law to provide substituted consent for a covered person, or (iii) a family member of the covered person or the covered person's treating health care professional only when the covered person is unable to provide consent. See Virginia Code 38.2-3556
• Baccalaureate: means that bachelor's degrees or more advanced degrees, or both, are granted. See Virginia Code 23.1-100
• Basic health care services: means in and out-of-area emergency services, inpatient hospital and physician care, outpatient medical services, laboratory and radiologic services, mental health and substance use disorder benefits, and preventive health services. See Virginia Code 38.2-4300
• Basic property insurance: means insurance against direct loss to any property caused by perils defined and limited in the standard fire policy prescribed in §§ 38. See Virginia Code 38.2-2701
• Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. ^{Source: OCC}
• benefits: means those health care services to which a covered person is entitled under the terms of a health benefit plan. See Virginia Code 38.2-3556
• Bequeath: To gift property by will.
• Bequest: Property gifted by will.
• Birth-related neurological injury: means injury to the brain or spinal cord of an infant caused by the deprivation of oxygen or mechanical injury occurring in the course of labor, delivery or resuscitation necessitated by a deprivation of oxygen or mechanical injury that occurred in the course of labor or delivery, in a hospital which renders the infant permanently motorically disabled and (i) developmentally disabled or (ii) for infants sufficiently developed to be cognitively evaluated, cognitively disabled. See Virginia Code 38.2-5001
• Board of supervisors: means the governing body of a county. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• Bond: means any bond, note, or other evidences of indebtedness or obligation of the Authority pursuant to this article. See Virginia Code 23.1-1200 v2
• Bureau of Insurance: means the division of the Commission established to administer the insurance laws of the Commonwealth. See Virginia Code 38.2-100
• business of insurance: include solicitation, negotiations preliminary to execution, execution of an insurance contract, and the transaction of matters subsequent to execution of the contract and arising out of it. See Virginia Code 38.2-100
• capital and surplus: means the excess of total admitted assets over the total liabilities of the health maintenance organization, provided that surplus notes shall be reported and accounted for in accordance with guidance set forth in the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) accounting practice and procedures manuals. See Virginia Code 38.2-4300
• Capital project: means the acquisition of any interest in land, including (i) capital leases and (ii) improvements on the acquired land consisting of (a) new construction of at least 5,000 square feet, (b) new construction costing at least $2 million, or (c) improvements or renovations costing at least $2 million. See Virginia Code 23.1-1000
• Certification: means a determination by a health carrier or its designee utilization review entity that an admission, availability of care, continued stay, or other health care service has been reviewed and, based on the information provided, satisfies the health carrier's requirements for medical necessity, appropriateness, health care setting, level of care, and effectiveness. See Virginia Code 38.2-3556
• Chief executive officer: includes the Chancellor of the Virginia Community College System, the Chancellor of the University of Virginia's College at Wise, the Superintendent of Virginia Military Institute, and the president of each other public institution of higher education. See Virginia Code 23.1-100
• Chief judge: The judge who has primary responsibility for the administration of a court but also decides cases; chief judges are determined by seniority.
• City: means an independent incorporated community which became a city as provided by law before noon on July 1, 1971, or which has within defined boundaries a population of 5,000 or more and which has become a city as provided by law. See Virginia Code 1-208
• Claimant: means any person who files a claim pursuant to § 38. See Virginia Code 38.2-5001
• Clerk: means the clerk of the local circuit court or the clerk of the local governing body. See Virginia Code 15.2-4402
• Clinical review criteria: means the written screening procedures, decision abstracts, clinical protocols, and practice guidelines used by a health carrier to determine the necessity and appropriateness of health care services. See Virginia Code 38.2-3556
• Commercial liability insurance: means the commercial classes of insurance defined in §§ 38. See Virginia Code 38.2-2900
• Commission: means the Virginia Workers' Compensation Commission. See Virginia Code 38.2-5001
• Commission: means the State Corporation Commission. See Virginia Code 38.2-100
• Commission: means the Marine Resources Commission. See Virginia Code 28.2-100
• Commissioner: means the Commissioner of Marine Resources. See Virginia Code 28.2-100
• Common law: The legal system that originated in England and is now in use in the United States. It is based on judicial decisions rather than legislative action.
• Company: means any association, aggregate of individuals, business, corporation, individual, joint-stock company, Lloyds type of organization, organization, partnership, receiver, reciprocal or interinsurance exchange, trustee or society. See Virginia Code 38.2-100
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Comprehensive community college: means an associate-degree-granting public institution of higher education governed by the State Board that offers instruction in one or more of the following fields:

  1. See Virginia Code 23.1-100

• Constitutional officer: means an officer provided for pursuant to Article VII, § 4 of the Constitution. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• contract: means any insurance contract or agreement whereby a person undertakes for a specified period of time and for a predetermined fee to furnish, arrange for or indemnify for service, repair, or replacement of any and all of the structural components, parts, appliances, or systems of any covered residential dwelling necessitated by wear and tear, deterioration, inherent defect, or by the failure of an inspection to detect the likelihood of failure. See Virginia Code 38.2-2600
• Copayment: means an amount an enrollee is required to pay in order to receive a specific health care service. See Virginia Code 38.2-4300
• Cost: means , as applied to authority facilities, the cost of construction; the cost of acquisition of all lands, structures, rights-of-way, franchises, easements and other property rights and interests; the cost of demolishing, removing or relocating any buildings or structures on lands acquired, including the cost of acquiring any lands to which such buildings or structures may be moved or relocated; the cost of all labor, materials, machinery and equipment; financing charges and interest on all bonds prior to and during construction and, if deemed advisable by the authority, for a period not exceeding one year after completion of such construction; cost of engineering, financial and legal services, plans, specifications, studies, surveys, estimates of cost and of revenues, and other expenses necessary or incident to determining the feasibility or practicability of constructing the authority facilities; administrative expenses, provisions for working capital, reserves for interest and for extensions, enlargements, additions and improvements; and such other expenses as may be necessary or incident to the construction of the authority facilities, the financing of such construction and the placing of the authority facilities in operation. See Virginia Code 15.2-4902
• Costs: means (i) all or any part of the cost of construction, acquisition, alteration, enlargement, reconstruction, and remodeling of a project, including all lands, structures, real or personal property, rights, rights-of-way, air rights, franchises, easements, and interests acquired or used in connection with a project; (ii) the cost of demolishing or removing any building or structure on land acquired in connection with a project, including the cost of acquiring any lands to which such building or structure may be moved, the cost of all machinery and equipment, financing charges, interest prior to, during, and for a period after completion of such construction and acquisition, provisions for reserves for principal and interest, and provisions for extensions, enlargements, additions, replacements, renovations, and improvements; (iii) the cost of architectural, engineering, financial, and legal services, plans, specifications, studies, surveys, and estimates of cost and revenues; (iv) administrative expenses; (v) expenses necessary or incident to determining the feasibility or practicability of constructing the project; and (vi) such other expenses as may be necessary or incident to constructing and acquiring the project, financing such construction, acquiring the project, and placing the project in operation. See Virginia Code 23.1-1220
• Council: means the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. See Virginia Code 23.1-100
• Council: means the governing body of a city or town. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• County: means any existing county or such unit hereafter created. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• Covered employee: means any individual who is employed by a covered institution on either a salaried or wage basis. See Virginia Code 23.1-1000
• Covered institution: means a public institution of higher education that has entered into a management agreement with the Commonwealth to be governed by the provisions of Article 4 (§ 23. See Virginia Code 23.1-1000
• Covered person: means a policyholder, subscriber, enrollee, or other individual participating in a health benefit plan. See Virginia Code 38.2-3556
• Credit report: A detailed report of an individual's credit history prepared by a credit bureau and used by a lender in determining a loan applicant's creditworthiness. ^{Source: OCC}
• Credit Score: A number, roughly between 300 and 800, that measures an individual's credit worthiness. The most well-known type of credit score is the FICO score. This score represents the answer from a mathematical formula that assigns numerical values to various pieces of information in your credit report. ^{Source: OCC}
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Deductible: means an amount an enrollee is required to pay out-of-pocket before the health care plan begins to pay the costs associated with health care services. See Virginia Code 38.2-4300
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Devise: To gift property by will.
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Dismissal: The dropping of a case by the judge without further consideration or hearing. ^Source:
• District: means an agricultural, forestal, or agricultural and forestal district. See Virginia Code 15.2-4302
• Docket: A log containing brief entries of court proceedings.
• Donor: The person who makes a gift.
• Eligible institution: means public institutions of higher education, as that term is defined in § 23. See Virginia Code 23.1-1200
• Emergency services: means health care items and services furnished or required to evaluate and treat an emergency medical condition. See Virginia Code 38.2-3556
• Emergency services: means those health care services that are rendered by affiliated or nonaffiliated providers after the sudden onset of a medical condition that manifests itself by symptoms of sufficient severity, including severe pain, that the absence of immediate medical attention could reasonably be expected by a prudent layperson who possesses an average knowledge of health and medicine to result in (i) serious jeopardy to the mental or physical health of the individual, (ii) danger of serious impairment of the individual's bodily functions, (iii) serious dysfunction of any of the individual's bodily organs, or (iv) in the case of a pregnant woman, serious jeopardy to the health of the fetus. See Virginia Code 38.2-4300
• Enabling statutes: means each chapter in Subtitle IV (§ 23. See Virginia Code 23.1-1000
• Enterprise: means any industry for manufacturing, processing, assembling, storing, warehousing, distributing, or selling any products of agriculture, mining, or industry and for research and development or scientific laboratories, including, but not limited to, the practice of medicine and all other activities related thereto or for such other businesses or activities as will be in the furtherance of the public purposes of this chapter. See Virginia Code 15.2-4902
• Equipment: means any personal property, including computer hardware and software, and any other improvements, including infrastructure improvements relating to equipment, used to support academic instruction and research at eligible institutions. See Virginia Code 23.1-1200 v2
• Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. ^{Source: U.S. Courts}
• Escrow: Money given to a third party to be held for payment until certain conditions are met.
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Evidence of coverage: means any certificate or individual or group agreement or contract issued in conjunction with the certificate, agreement or contract, issued to a subscriber setting out the coverage and other rights to which an enrollee is entitled. See Virginia Code 38.2-4300
• Evidence-based standard: means the conscientious, explicit, and judicious use of the current best evidence based on the overall systematic review of the research in making decisions about the care of individual patients. See Virginia Code 38.2-3556
• Ex officio: Literally, by virtue of one's office.
• Ex officio: means service by virtue of one's office and includes voting privileges for ex officio members unless otherwise provided. See Virginia Code 1-215
• Executive session: A portion of the Senate's daily session in which it considers executive business.
• Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
• Facilities: means all (i) real, personal, tangible, and intangible property, including all (a) infrastructure suitable for supporting a covered institution's mission and ancillary activities and (b) structures, buildings, improvements, additions, extensions, replacements, appurtenances, lands, rights in land, furnishings, landscaping, approaches, roadways, and other related and supporting facilities held, possessed, owned, leased, operated, or used, in whole or in part, by a covered institution and (ii) rights in such property. See Virginia Code 23.1-1000
• facilities: means any or all (i) medical (including, but not limited to, office and treatment facilities), pollution control or industrial facilities; (ii) facilities for the residence or care of the aged; (iii) multi-state regional or national headquarters offices or operations centers; (iv) facilities for private, accredited and nonprofit institutions of collegiate, elementary, or secondary education in the Commonwealth whose primary purpose is to provide collegiate, elementary, secondary, or graduate education and not to provide religious training or theological education, such facilities being for use as academic or administration buildings or any other structure or application usual and customary to a college, elementary or secondary school campus other than chapels and their like; (v) parking facilities, including parking structures; (vi) facilities for use as office space by nonprofit, nonreligious organizations; (vii) facilities for museums and historical education, demonstration and interpretation, together with buildings, structures or other facilities necessary or desirable in connection with the foregoing, for use by nonprofit organizations; (viii) facilities for use by an organization (other than an organization organized and operated exclusively for religious purposes) which is described in § 501(c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, and which is exempt from federal income taxation pursuant to § 501 (a) of such Internal Revenue Code; (ix) facilities for use by a locality, the Commonwealth and its agencies, or other governmental organizations, provided that any such facilities owned by a locality, the Commonwealth or its agencies or other public bodies subject to the Virginia Public Procurement Act (§ 2. See Virginia Code 15.2-4902
• Facility: means an institution providing health care services or a health care setting, including hospitals and other licensed inpatient centers; ambulatory surgical or treatment centers; skilled nursing centers; residential treatment centers; diagnostic, laboratory, and imaging centers; and rehabilitation and other therapeutic health settings. See Virginia Code 38.2-3556
• farm: means any person that obtains at least 51 percent of its annual gross income from agricultural operations and produces the agricultural waste used as feedstock for the waste-to-energy technology, (ii) "agricultural waste" means biomass waste materials capable of decomposition that are produced from the raising of plants and animals during agricultural operations, including animal manures, bedding, plant stalks, hulls, and vegetable matter, and (iii) "waste-to-energy technology" means any technology, including but not limited to a methane digester, that converts agricultural waste into gas, steam, or heat that is used to generate electricity on-site. See Virginia Code 1-222.1
• Fee simple: Absolute title to property with no limitations or restrictions regarding the person who may inherit it.
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Final adverse determination: means an adverse determination involving a covered benefit that has been upheld by a health carrier, or its designee utilization review entity, at the completion of the health carrier's internal appeal process. See Virginia Code 38.2-3556
• Finance charge: The total cost of credit a customer must pay on a consumer loan, including interest. The Truth in Lending Act requires disclosure of the finance charge. ^{Source: OCC}
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• Foreclosure: A legal process in which property that is collateral or security for a loan may be sold to help repay the loan when the loan is in default. ^{Source: OCC}
• Forestal production: means the production for commercial purposes of forestal products and includes the processing or retail sales, by the producer, of forestal products which are produced on the parcel or in the district. See Virginia Code 15.2-4302
• Forestal products: includes , but is not limited to, saw timber, pulpwood, posts, firewood, Christmas trees and other tree and wood products for sale or for farm use. See Virginia Code 15.2-4302
• Forestal products: includes , but is not limited to, lumber, pulpwood, posts, firewood, Christmas trees and other wood products for sale or for farm use. See Virginia Code 15.2-4402
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Freedom of Information Act: A federal law that mandates that all the records created and kept by federal agencies in the executive branch of government must be open for public inspection and copying. The only exceptions are those records that fall into one of nine exempted categories listed in the statute. ^{Source: OCC}
• Fronting company: means a licensed insurer or licensed home protection company which generally transfers to one or more unlicensed insurers or unlicensed home protection companies by reinsurance or otherwise all or substantially all of the risk of loss under all of the home protection contracts written by it in this Commonwealth. See Virginia Code 38.2-2600
• Garnishment: Generally, garnishment is a court proceeding in which a creditor asks a court to order a third party who owes money to the debtor or otherwise holds assets belonging to the debtor to turn over to the creditor any of the debtor
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Governing board: includes the State Board and the board of visitors of each baccalaureate public institution of higher education. See Virginia Code 23.1-100
• Governing body: means the board of supervisors of a county, council of a city, or council of a town, as the context may require. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• Grace period: The number of days you'll have to pay your bill for purchases in full without triggering a finance charge. ^{Source: Federal Reserve}
• Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
• Habeas corpus: A writ that is usually used to bring a prisoner before the court to determine the legality of his imprisonment. It may also be used to bring a person in custody before the court to give testimony, or to be prosecuted.
• Haul seine: means a net made of mesh webbing which may include a pocket and a wing net, set vertically in water and pulled by hand or power to capture and confine fish by encirclement. See Virginia Code 28.2-200
• Health benefit plan: means a policy, contract, certificate, or agreement offered or issued by a health carrier to provide, deliver, arrange for, pay for, or reimburse any of the costs of health care services. See Virginia Code 38.2-3556
• Health care plan: means any arrangement in which any person undertakes to provide, arrange for, pay for, or reimburse any part of the cost of any health care services. See Virginia Code 38.2-4300
• Health care professional: means a physician or other health care practitioner licensed, accredited, or certified to perform specified health care services consistent with the laws of the Commonwealth. See Virginia Code 38.2-3556
• health care provider: means any physician, hospital, or other person that is licensed or otherwise authorized in the Commonwealth to furnish health care services. See Virginia Code 38.2-4300
• Health care services: means services for the diagnosis, prevention, treatment, cure, or relief of a health condition, illness, injury, or disease. See Virginia Code 38.2-3556
• Health care services: means the furnishing of services to any individual for the purpose of preventing, alleviating, curing, or healing human illness, injury, or physical disability. See Virginia Code 38.2-4300
• Health carrier: means an entity, subject to the insurance laws and regulations of the Commonwealth or subject to the jurisdiction of the Commission, that contracts or offers to contract to provide, deliver, arrange for, pay for, or reimburse any of the costs of health care services, including an accident and sickness insurance company, a health maintenance organization, a nonprofit hospital and health service corporation, or a nonstock corporation offering or administering a health services plan, a hospital services plan, or a medical or surgical services plan, or any other entity providing a plan of health insurance, health benefits, or health care services except as excluded under § 38. See Virginia Code 38.2-3556
• Health maintenance organization: means any person who undertakes to provide or arrange for one or more health care plans. See Virginia Code 38.2-4300
• Health services plan: means any arrangement for offering or administering health services or similar or related services by a corporation licensed under Chapter 42 of Title 59. See Virginia Code 38.2-100
• Home protection company: means any person who performs, or arranges to perform, services pursuant to a home protection insurance contract. See Virginia Code 38.2-2600
• in writing: include any representation of words, letters, symbols, numbers, or figures, whether (i) printed or inscribed on a tangible medium or (ii) stored in an electronic or other medium and retrievable in a perceivable form and whether an electronic signature authorized by Chapter 42. See Virginia Code 1-257
• Incidental coverage: means any other type of liability insurance covering activities directly related to the continued and efficient delivery of health care that: (i) cannot be obtained in the voluntary market because medical malpractice insurance is being provided pursuant to this chapter; and (ii) cannot be obtained through other involuntary market mechanisms. See Virginia Code 38.2-2800
• Incidental coverage: means any other type of liability insurance covering activities directly related to the continued and efficient delivery of business and professional services that: (i) cannot be separately obtained in the voluntary market because commercial liability insurance is being provided pursuant this chapter; and (ii) cannot be separately obtained through other involuntary market mechanisms. See Virginia Code 38.2-2900
• Includes: means includes, but not limited to. See Virginia Code 1-218
• Indemnification: In general, a collateral contract or assurance under which one person agrees to secure another person against either anticipated financial losses or potential adverse legal consequences. ^{Source: FDIC}
• Independent review organization: means an entity that conducts independent external reviews of adverse determinations and final adverse determinations. See Virginia Code 38.2-3556
• Indictment: The formal charge issued by a grand jury stating that there is enough evidence that the defendant committed the crime to justify having a trial; it is used primarily for felonies.
• inhabitants: means with reference to any county, city, town, political subdivision of the Commonwealth or any combination thereof, the natural persons in such county, city, town, political subdivision or combination as shown by the unadjusted United States decennial census last preceding the time at which any provision dependent upon population is being applied or the time as of which it is being construed. See Virginia Code 1-235
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Inspection service: means any organization designated or approved by the Commission to determine the insurability and conditions of the properties for which basic property insurance is sought. See Virginia Code 38.2-2701
• Insurance company: means any company engaged in the business of making contracts of insurance. See Virginia Code 38.2-100
• insurance policies: shall include contracts of fidelity, indemnity, guaranty and suretyship. See Virginia Code 38.2-100
• Insurer: means an insurance company. See Virginia Code 38.2-100
• Intangible property: Property that has no intrinsic value, but is merely the evidence of value such as stock certificates, bonds, and promissory notes.
• Interest rate: The amount paid by a borrower to a lender in exchange for the use of the lender's money for a certain period of time. Interest is paid on loans or on debt instruments, such as notes or bonds, either at regular intervals or as part of a lump sum payment when the issue matures. ^{Source: OCC}
• Interrogatories: Written questions asked by one party of an opposing party, who must answer them in writing under oath; a discovery device in a lawsuit.
• Issuing authority: means any political subdivision, governmental unit, authority, or other entity of the Commonwealth which is empowered to issue private activity bonds. See Virginia Code 15.2-5000
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). ^{Source: OCC}
• Legislative session: That part of a chamber's daily session in which it considers legislative business (bills, resolutions, and actions related thereto).
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• Liability insurance: includes the classes of insurance defined in §§ 38. See Virginia Code 38.2-2800
• liability insurance: means the classes of insurance defined in §§ 38. See Virginia Code 38.2-2900
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Life insurance: includes policies that also provide (i) endowment benefits; (ii) additional benefits incidental to a loss in the event of death, dismemberment, or loss by accident or accidental means; (iii) additional benefits to safeguard the contract from lapse or to provide a special surrender value, a special benefit or an annuity, in the event of total and permanent disability of the insured; and (iv) optional modes of settlement of proceeds. See Virginia Code 38.2-102
• Limited health care services: means dental care services, vision care services, and such other services as may be determined by the Commission to be limited health care services. See Virginia Code 38.2-4300
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Loans: means any loans made by the authority in furtherance of the purposes of this chapter from the proceeds of the issuance and sale of the authority's bonds and from any of its revenues or other moneys available to it as provided herein. See Virginia Code 15.2-4902
• local government: shall be construed to mean a county, city, or town as the context may require. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• Locality: means a county, city, or town as the context may require. See Virginia Code 1-221
• Management agreement: means an agreement between the Commonwealth and a public institution of higher education that enables such institution to be governed by Article 4 (§ 23. See Virginia Code 23.1-1000
• Manufacturing facility: means (i) any facility which is used in the manufacturing or production of tangible personal property, including the processing resulting in a change of condition of such property, (ii) any facility which is used in the creation or production of intangible property as described in § 197(d)(1)(C)(iii) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, to be any patent, copyright, formula, process, design, pattern, knowhow, format, or other similar item, or (iii) any facility which is functionally related and subordinate to a manufacturing facility if such facility is located on the same site as the manufacturing facility. See Virginia Code 15.2-5000
• Market assistance plan: means a voluntary association of insurers and insurance agents licensed to do business in the Commonwealth that is formed, pursuant to a plan of operation filed with and approved by the Commission, to assist with the individual placement of commercial liability insurance coverage that is not reasonably available on the voluntary market. See Virginia Code 38.2-2900
• Medical malpractice insurance: means insurance coverage against the legal liability of the insured and against loss, damage, or expense incident to a claim arising out of the death or injury of any person as the result of negligence in rendering or failing to render professional service by any provider of health care. See Virginia Code 38.2-2800
• Medical or scientific evidence: means evidence found in (i) peer-reviewed scientific studies published in or accepted for publication by medical journals that meet nationally recognized requirements for scientific manuscripts and that submit most of their published articles for review by experts who are not part of the editorial staff; (ii) peer-reviewed medical literature, including literature relating to therapies reviewed and approved by a qualified institutional review board, biomedical compendia, and other medical literature that meet the criteria of the National Institutes of Health's Library of Medicine for indexing in Index Medicus (Medline) and Elsevier Science Ltd. See Virginia Code 38.2-3556
• Medicare: means the "Health Insurance for the Aged Act" Title XVIII of the Social Security Amendment of 1965, as amended. See Virginia Code 38.2-100
• member: means an individual who is enrolled in a health care plan. See Virginia Code 38.2-4300
• Month: means a calendar month and "year" means a calendar year. See Virginia Code 1-223
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• NAIC: means the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. See Virginia Code 38.2-3556
• Net direct premiums written: means gross direct premiums written in this Commonwealth on all policies of basic property insurance and the basic property insurance component of multi-peril policies less (i) all return premiums on those policies, (ii) dividends paid or credited to policyholders, and (iii) the unused or unabsorbed portions of premium deposits. See Virginia Code 38.2-2701
• Net direct premiums written: means gross direct premiums written in this Commonwealth on all policies of liability insurance less, (i) all return premiums on the policy, (ii) dividends paid or credited to policyholders, and (iii) the unused or unabsorbed portions of premium deposits on liability insurance. See Virginia Code 38.2-2800
• Net direct premiums written: means gross direct premiums written in this Commonwealth on all policies of liability insurance less (i) all return premiums on the policy, (ii) dividends paid or credited to policyholders, and (iii) the unused or unabsorbed portions of premium deposits on liability insurance. See Virginia Code 38.2-2900
• Nonlegislative citizen member: means any natural person who is not a member of the General Assembly of Virginia. See Virginia Code 1-225
• Nonprofit private institution of higher education: means any postsecondary school, as that term is defined in § 23. See Virginia Code 23.1-100
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• Officer: means a member of the Virginia Marine Police. See Virginia Code 28.2-100
• Open-end credit: A credit agreement (typically a credit card) that allows a customer to borrow against a preapproved credit line when purchasing goods and services. The borrower is only billed for the amount that is actually borrowed plus any interest due. (Also called a charge account or revolving credit.) ^{Source: OCC}
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• owner of land: means any person holding a fee simple interest in property but does not mean the holder of an easement. See Virginia Code 15.2-4302
• owner of land: means any person holding a fee simple interest in property but does not mean the holder of an easement. See Virginia Code 15.2-4402
• Participating covered employee: includes (i) all salaried nonfaculty covered employees who were employed by the covered institution on the day prior to the effective date of the initial management agreement and elect pursuant to § 23. See Virginia Code 23.1-1000
• Participating hospital: means a general hospital licensed in Virginia which at the time of the injury (i) had in force an agreement with the Commissioner of Health or his designee, in a form prescribed by the Commissioner, whereby the hospital agreed to participate in the development of a program to provide obstetrical care to patients eligible for Medical Assistance Services and to patients who are indigent, and upon approval of such program by the Commissioner of Health, to participate in its implementation, (ii) had in force an agreement with the State Department of Health whereby the hospital agreed to submit to review of its obstetrical service, as required by subsection C of § 38. See Virginia Code 38.2-5001
• Participating institution: means any (i) organization that is exempt from federal income taxation pursuant to § 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and that is owned or controlled by a public institution of higher education or whose purpose is to support or otherwise benefit a public institution of higher education or (ii) nonprofit private institution of higher education in the Commonwealth whose primary purpose is to provide collegiate or graduate education and not to provide religious training or theological education that (a)(1) finances and constructs or (2) acquires a project or (b) refunds or refinances obligations, a mortgage, or advances as provided in this article. See Virginia Code 23.1-1220
• Participating locality: means the Counties of Albemarle, Augusta, Fairfax, Hanover, James City, Loudoun, Prince William, Roanoke, and Rockingham. See Virginia Code 15.2-4402
• participating physician: includes a partnership, corporation, professional corporation, professional limited liability company or other entity through which the participating physician practices. See Virginia Code 38.2-5001
• Participating provider: means a provider who has agreed to provide health care services to enrollees and to hold those enrollees harmless from payment with an expectation of receiving payment, other than copayments or deductibles, directly or indirectly from the health maintenance organization. See Virginia Code 38.2-4300
• Person: means any association, aggregate of individuals, business, company, corporation, individual, joint-stock company, Lloyds type of organization, organization, partnership, receiver, reciprocal or interinsurance exchange, trustee or society. See Virginia Code 38.2-100
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Personal representative: includes the executor of a will or the administrator of the estate of a decedent, the administrator of such estate with the will annexed, the administrator of such estate unadministered by a former representative, whether there is a will or not, any person who is under the order of a circuit court to take into his possession the estate of a decedent for administration, and every other curator of a decedent's estate, for or against whom suits may be brought for causes of action that accrued to or against the decedent. See Virginia Code 1-234
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Pleadings: Written statements of the parties in a civil case of their positions. In the federal courts, the principal pleadings are the complaint and the answer.
• Pound net: means any net having a funnel mouth, round mouth or square mouth with the head exposed above the water. See Virginia Code 28.2-200
• Power of attorney: A written instrument which authorizes one person to act as another's agent or attorney. The power of attorney may be for a definite, specific act, or it may be general in nature. The terms of the written power of attorney may specify when it will expire. If not, the power of attorney usually expires when the person granting it dies. ^{Source: OCC}
• President pro tempore: A constitutionally recognized officer of the Senate who presides over the chamber in the absence of the Vice President. The President Pro Tempore (or, "president for a time") is elected by the Senate and is, by custom, the Senator of the majority party with the longest record of continuous service.
• Presiding officer: A majority-party Senator who presides over the Senate and is charged with maintaining order and decorum, recognizing Members to speak, and interpreting the Senate's rules, practices and precedents.
• Private activity bond: means a part or all of any bond (or other instrument) required to obtain an allocation from the state's volume cap pursuant to § 146 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, in order to be tax exempt, including but not limited to the following:

  1. See Virginia Code 15.2-5000

• Private institution of higher education: includes each nonprofit private institution of higher education and proprietary private institution of higher education in the Commonwealth. See Virginia Code 23.1-100
• Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
• Process: includes subpoenas, the summons and complaint in a civil action, and process in statutory actions. See Virginia Code 1-237
• Program: means the Virginia Birth-Related Neurological Injury Compensation Program established by this chapter. See Virginia Code 38.2-5001
• Program administrator: means the local governing body or local official appointed by the local governing body to administer the agricultural and forestal districts program. See Virginia Code 15.2-4302
• Project: means (i) any research program, research facility, or educational facility of a covered institution or equipment necessary or convenient to or consistent with the purposes of such institution, whether or not owned by the institution, including (a) research, training, teaching, dormitory, and classroom facilities and all related and supporting facilities and equipment necessary or desirable in connection with such facilities or incidental to such facilities; (b) office, parking, kitchen, laundry, laboratory, wellness, pharmaceutical, administrative, communications, computer, and recreational and athletics facilities; (c) hotels and related facilities; (d) power plants and equipment; (e) storage space; (f) hospitals; (g) nursing homes; (h) continuing care facilities; (i) self-care facilities; (j) health maintenance centers; (k) medical office facilities; (l) clinics; (m) outpatient clinics; (n) surgical centers; (o) alcohol, substance abuse, and drug treatment centers; (p) sanitariums; (q) hospices; (r) facilities for the residence or care of elderly or chronically ill individuals or individuals with disabilities; (s) residential facilities for nurses, interns, and physicians; (t) other facilities for the treatment of sick, disturbed, or infirm individuals, the prevention of disease, or the maintenance of health; (u) colleges, schools, or divisions offering undergraduate, graduate, professional, or extension programs, or any combination of such programs, for such courses of study as may be appropriate; (v) vehicles, mobile medical facilities, and other transportation equipment; and (w) air transport equipment, including equipment necessary or desirable for the transportation of medical equipment, medical personnel, or patients; and (ii) all lands, buildings, improvements, approaches, and appurtenances necessary or desirable in connection with or incidental to any such program, facility, or equipment. See Virginia Code 23.1-1000
• Project: includes landscaping, site preparation, furniture, equipment and machinery, and other similar items necessary or convenient for the intended use of a particular facility or structure. See Virginia Code 23.1-1220
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• provider: means a health care professional or a facility. See Virginia Code 38.2-3556
• Provider of health care: means any of the following deemed by the Commission to be necessary for the delivery of health care: (i) a physician and any other individual licensed or certified pursuant to Chapter 29 of Title 54. See Virginia Code 38.2-2800
• Public institution of higher education: includes the System as a whole and each associate-degree-granting and baccalaureate public institution of higher education in the Commonwealth. See Virginia Code 23.1-100
• Public law: A public bill or joint resolution that has passed both chambers and been enacted into law. Public laws have general applicability nationwide.
• Qualified property: means all real property and all tangible personal property at a fixed location in this Commonwealth, whether or not the property is subject to exposure from an external hazard located on property that is neither owned nor controlled by the prospective insured, and whether or not the property is subject to exposure from riot hazard, where the property:

  1. See Virginia Code 38.2-2701

• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• Rate service organization: means any organization or person, other than a joint underwriting association under § 38. See Virginia Code 38.2-100
• rates: means any rate of premium, policy fee, membership fee or any other charge made by an insurer for or in connection with a contract or policy of insurance. See Virginia Code 38.2-100
• real estate: includes lands, tenements and hereditaments, and all rights and appurtenances thereto and interests therein, other than a chattel interest. See Virginia Code 1-219
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Recess: A temporary interruption of the legislative business.
• Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.
• Rescission: The cancellation of budget authority previously provided by Congress. The Impoundment Control Act of 1974 specifies that the President may propose to Congress that funds be rescinded. If both Houses have not approved a rescission proposal (by passing legislation) within 45 days of continuous session, any funds being withheld must be made available for obligation.
• Resident: means any person who maintains his principal place of abode in Virginia with the intent to make Virginia his domicile. See Virginia Code 28.2-200
• Residual market facility: means any organization approved by the Commission to equitably distribute the responsibility to provide basic property insurance on qualified property among insurers licensed to write basic property insurance or other insurance containing a basic property insurance component. See Virginia Code 38.2-2701
• Retrospective review: means a review of medical necessity conducted after services have been provided to a patient, but does not include the review of a claim that is limited to an evaluation of reimbursement levels, veracity of documentation, accuracy of coding, or adjudication for payment. See Virginia Code 38.2-3556
• revenue bonds: means revenue bonds of the Authority issued under the provisions of this article, including revenue refunding bonds, notes, and other obligations that may be secured by a mortgage, the full faith and credit, or any other lawfully pledged security of a participating institution. See Virginia Code 23.1-1220
• Revenues: means any or all fees, rates, rentals and receipts collected by, payable to or otherwise derived by the authority from, and all other moneys and income of whatsoever kind or character collected by, payable to or otherwise derived by the authority in connection with the ownership, leasing or sale of the authority facilities or in connection with any loans made by the authority under this chapter. See Virginia Code 15.2-4902
• Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
• Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
• shellfish: means such species of mollusca as oysters and clams, and such species of crustacea as crabs. See Virginia Code 28.2-100
• Single family housing bonds: means any obligation described as a qualified mortgage bond under § 143 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended. See Virginia Code 15.2-5000
• State: when applied to a part of the United States, includes any of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the United States Virgin Islands. See Virginia Code 1-245
• State: means any commonwealth, state, territory, district or insular possession of the United States. See Virginia Code 38.2-100
• state agency: means the same as that term is defined in § 2. See Virginia Code 1-206
• State ceiling: means the maximum amount of private activity bonds that the Commonwealth of Virginia may issue in a calendar year as limited by federal law under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended. See Virginia Code 15.2-5000
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Statute of limitations: A law that sets the time within which parties must take action to enforce their rights.
• stop loss insurance: means insurance issued to a health maintenance organization by an insurer licensed in the Commonwealth, on a form approved by the Commission, or a risk assumption transaction acceptable to the Commission, providing indemnity or reimbursement against the cost of health care services provided by the health maintenance organization. See Virginia Code 38.2-4300
• Structural component: means the roof, foundation, basement, walls, ceilings, or floors of a home. See Virginia Code 38.2-2600
• Subscriber: means a contract holder, an individual enrollee, or the enrollee in an enrolled family who is responsible for payment to the health maintenance organization or on whose behalf such payment is made. See Virginia Code 38.2-4300
• Supreme Court: means the Supreme Court of Virginia. See Virginia Code 1-249
• System: means the Virginia Community College System. See Virginia Code 23.1-100
• Taxable authority facilities: means any private or commercial golf course, country club, massage parlor, tennis club, skating facility (including roller skating, skateboard and ice skating), racquet sports facility, suntan facility, race track, or facility the primary purpose of which is one of the following: (i) retail food and beverage services (excluding grocery stores), (ii) automobile sales and service, (iii) recreation or entertainment, or (iv) banks, savings and loan institutions or mortgage loan companies. See Virginia Code 15.2-4902
• Testator: A male person who leaves a will at death.
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• Tier-city: means an incorporated community within a consolidated county that (i) has within defined boundaries a population of 5,000 or more, (ii) has been designated as a tier-city by the General Assembly, and (iii) has both the powers of a town and such additional powers as may be granted tier-cities by the General Assembly. See Virginia Code 1-252
• to fish: means all operations involved in (i) taking or catching, (ii) using, setting or operating apparatus employed in killing, taking or catching, or (iii) transporting or preparing for market marine fish, shellfish, and marine organisms. See Virginia Code 28.2-100
• Tort: A civil wrong or breach of a duty to another person, as outlined by law. A very common tort is negligent operation of a motor vehicle that results in property damage and personal injury in an automobile accident.
• Town: means any existing town or an incorporated community within one or more counties which became a town before noon, July one, nineteen hundred seventy-one, as provided by law or which has within defined boundaries a population of 1,000 or more and which has become a town as provided by law. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• Transcript: A written, word-for-word record of what was said, either in a proceeding such as a trial or during some other conversation, as in a transcript of a hearing or oral deposition.
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• Trust indenture: means any trust agreement or mortgage under which bonds authorized pursuant to this chapter may be secured. See Virginia Code 15.2-4902
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• United States: includes the 50 states, the District of Columbia the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the United States Virgin Islands. See Virginia Code 1-255
• Uphold: The decision of an appellate court not to reverse a lower court decision.
• Utilization review: means a set of formal techniques designed to monitor the use of, or evaluate the clinical necessity, appropriateness, efficacy, or efficiency of, health care services, procedures, or settings. See Virginia Code 38.2-3556
• Utilization review entity: means an individual or entity that conducts utilization review. See Virginia Code 38.2-3556
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• Virginia Retirement System: includes any retirement system established or authorized by Title 51. See Virginia Code 23.1-1000
• Virginia student: means any student who has established domicile in the Commonwealth pursuant to § 23. See Virginia Code 23.1-100
• Voter: means a qualified voter as defined in § 24. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.