Legislation was considered during the 2023 General Assembly session that would have required a deduction from BPOL taxes for anti-cancer drugs that were purchased by a medical practice and administered within a physician-patient relationship to patients whose costs for treatment are paid for by Medicare, Medicaid, or TRICARE. VACo opposed this legislation, pointing out that local governments have existing authority under state regulations to provide tax relief to subclassifications of businesses via ordinance. This authority is set out in 23VAC10-500-20 and allows localities to establish subclassifications within the existing BPOL business categories and provide for different rates or exemptions for businesses within such subclassifications. The regulations allow these differentiations to be made based on “reasonable distinctions in municipal policy,” recognizing that localities may use these classifications as a tool to incentivize certain industries or to achieve other policy goals.
The 2023 legislation was ultimately revised into a study of current reimbursement and operational challenges for medical practices administering anti-cancer drugs in office settings to patients covered by Medicare, Medicaid, and TRICARE, which will be led by the Secretary of Health and Human Resources.
Representatives of the oncology practices that requested the 2023 legislation are interested in further discussions with localities about possible tax relief under the existing regulatory authority. If your county is interested in additional discussions, please contact Katie Boyle (kboyle@vaco.org).
VACo Contact: Katie Boyle