Every one of the Delegates below sits on the Health and Human Services Committee in the Virginia House of Delegates—the very body responsible for oversight of our hospitals, nursing homes, and behavioral health systems.
Chair: Delegate Mark Sickles
Vice Chair: Delegate Kathy Tran
These two lead the committee. They set the agenda. They decide what gets a hearing—and what gets buried, like House Bill 1753 https://lis.virginia.gov/bill-details/20251/HB1753 which would have mandated the Virginia Department of Health to establish state regulations aligning with CMS’s federal staffing requirements, potentially leading to improved care standards in long-term care facilities across the state.
And together with their fellow committee members, they’ve taken over $517,000 in campaign contributions from the very healthcare lobby they’re supposed to regulate:
Delegate Patrick Hope
• $140,841 from major healthcare PACs
• $15,500 from HCA Healthcare
Delegate Keith Hodges
• $131,000+ from healthcare PACs
• $9,000 from HCA Healthcare
• $10,750 from Virginia Health Care Association
Delegate Rodney Willett
• $60,000+
• $5,000 from HCA Healthcare
Delegate Charniele Herring
• $60,000+
• $5,000 from HCA Healthcare
Delegate Otto Wachsmann
• $38,000+
• $3,000 from HCA Healthcare
Delegate Kimberly Taylor
• $38,000+
• $3,000 from HCA Healthcare
Delegate Cliff Hayes
• $2,000 from Molina Healthcare—recently fined $40 million for Medicaid fraud
Delegate Marcia Price
• $2,000 from HCA Healthcare
Delegate Kathy Tran (Vice Chair)
• $1,000 from HCA Healthcare
Delegate Bobby Orrock
• $5,000 from healthcare PACs
• Chair of the Health, Welfare & Institutions Committee
Delegate Mark Sickles (Chair)
• Thousands from HCA Healthcare and Acadia Healthcare—both tied to abuse, neglect, and Medicaid fraud
That’s $517,000+ in healthcare industry money.
And these aren’t donations from local clinics or caregivers. These are dollars from:
• HCA Healthcare, fined $2 billion for Medicare and Medicaid fraud—the largest healthcare fraud case in U.S. history
• Acadia Healthcare, accused of detaining patients for profit and running dangerously understaffed facilities
• Health Connect America, an HCA affiliate fined $4.6 million for Medicaid fraud in Virginia
• Molina Healthcare, fined $40 million this year alone for denying services and concealing violations
These companies are not bystanders in Virginia healthcare. They are active players in the systems that abused and neglected patients like Dale—the namesake of Dale’s Law.
And That’s Not the Whole Picture
The $517,000 total does not include the $300,900 donated by American Healthcare LLC, out of Roanoke, to delegates who do not sit on this committee—many of whom still vote on legislation affecting long-term care regulation and oversight.
That’s more than $800,000 in campaign contributions from ONE corner of the healthcare industry alone.
This money isn’t just about access—it’s about influence. And when abuse and neglect go unchecked, it’s not hard to trace the silence back to the money trail.
Taxpayer Dollars at Stake
In 2022, the U.S. spent $415 billion on long-term services and supports (LTSS), with Medicaid covering over half (61%)—amounting to approximately $253 billion.
That’s your money. Taxpayer dollars are funding facilities where abuse, neglect, and fraud have become business as usual. And the lawmakers responsible for oversight are taking checks from the very corporations they’re supposed to be holding accountable.
Dale’s Law demands:
• Minimum safe staffing standards in long-term care facilities—because understaffing is abuse
• Admissions reform to stop the pipeline that floods facilities with patients they cannot safely serve
• Real accountability for facilities that harm residents—and for the lawmakers who’ve enabled them through inaction
How can we expect accountability—when the watchdogs are taking checks from the offenders?
Virginia doesn’t need another task force. It needs a firewall between corporate influence and public health.