Health care providers; caller identification information, civil penalty.

Plain English Breakdown

The bill does not specify the exact process or authority to enforce the rules, leaving some uncertainty about enforcement mechanisms.

Health Care Providers Must Use Correct Caller ID

This law requires health care providers to use correct caller identification information when making calls and sets a penalty for those who misuse it.

What This Bill Does

• Requires health care providers to ensure their caller ID shows the right name of their practice.
• Makes it against the rules to cause a phone to ring with false or misleading caller ID that pretends to be from a health care provider.
• Says anyone who breaks this rule can get fined up to $500 and have to pay for legal costs.

Who It Names or Affects

• Health care providers
• People receiving calls from health care providers

Terms To Know

Caller ID

The information that appears on a phone screen showing who is calling.

Civil penalty

A fine or other punishment for breaking a law, usually paid to the government instead of going to jail.

Limits and Unknowns

• The bill does not specify what happens if someone accidentally uses incorrect caller ID.
• It is unclear how this will be enforced and who exactly can report violations.
• The effective date for when this law starts has not been set yet.

Official Summary Text

Health care providers; caller identification information; civil penalty.
Requires a health care provider to ensure that the caller identification information associated with his practice readily identifies such practice to the recipient of his practice's telephone call. The bill further provides that any person who knowingly causes a telephone to ring and engages in conduct that results in the display of false caller identification information, as defined in the bill, on the called party's telephone shall be subject to a civil penalty in an amount not to exceed $500 plus reasonable attorney fees, expenses, and court costs, as determined by the court.

Current Bill Text

A BILL to amend the Code of Virginia by adding a section numbered
54.1-2404.3
, relating to health care providers; caller identification information; civil penalty.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That the Code of Virginia is amended by adding a section numbered
54.1-2404.3
as follows:

§
54.1-2404.3
. Health care provider; caller identification information;
civil
penalty.

A. A health care provider shall ensure that the caller identification information
, as defined in §
18.2-429.1
,
associated with his practice readily identifies such practice to
the recipient of his
practice's

telephone
call
.

B
. Any person who knowingly causes a telephone to ring and engages in conduct that results in the display of false caller identification information on the called party's telephone shall be subject to a civil penalty in an amount not to exceed $500 plus reasonable attorney fees, expenses, and court costs, as determined by the court.
For the purposes of this subsection, "false caller
identification
information" m
eans data that misrepresents the identity of the caller as a health care provider to the recipient of a telephone call or to the recipient's telephone network.

C
. The Attorney General may initiate an action in the name of the Commonwealth and may seek an injunction to restrain any violations of this section and seek such civil penalties for each violation under this section. Such civil penalties shall be paid into the Literary Fund.