Nicole Riley, state director of NFIB/Virginia, the commonwealth’s leading small-business association, released the following statement today on the passage of HB 685:

“This is a big deal to small businesses. Year after year, when we’ve asked our members what issue concerns them most, they’ve said access to affordable health care. HB 685 will go a long way to addressing those concerns.

“This legislation is going to help small-business owners, their employees and their families by taking an innovative approach to primary care. What it does is define direct primary care agreements as medical service agreements outside the scope of state insurance regulation.  Direct primary care offers consumers an affordable membership based payment model for primary care services. 

“On behalf of our members, I want to thank Delegate Steve Landes and Senator Bill Stanley for their leadership as sponsors of this legislation.  This bi-partisan supported legislation is going to help improve access to quality care while controlling costs, and we’re urging Governor McAuliffe to sign it into law.”

NFIB/Virginia is the commonwealth’s leading small-business association with over 6,000 dues-paying members representing a cross section of Virginia’s economy. Learn more at www.NFIB.com/VA or follow @NFIB_VA on Twitter.