MD Drug Affordability Board Weighing Caps on Eight Drugs Maryland’s Prescription Drug Affordability Board could soon impose price limits on up to eight drugs on state-run health insurance plans, including diabetes and weight loss medication Ozempic, ADHD...
GA Lawmakers Pass Health Care Facility Permitting Bill Georgia lawmakers gave final approval for a bill ( HB 1339 ) aimed at expanding health care coverage for lower-income individuals, sending the measure to Gov. Brian Kemp (R). Among other things, the bill...
IL House Takes Up Gov’s Proposed Health Insurance Reforms The Illinois House Human Services Committee heard testimony last week about changes to the state’s health insurance industry that Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) proposed in his State of the State address...
AL Lawmakers Scramble to Address Supreme Court’s IVF Ruling Alabama’s House and Senate have fast tracked legislation ( HB 237 and SB 159 ) that would grant civil and criminal immunity to providers of in vitro fertilization procedures. Several providers...
AL High Court IVF Ruling Draws Backlash Alabama’s Supreme Court ruled in a wrongful death case that frozen embryos used for in vitro fertilization are people, bringing IVF procedures at several state hospitals to a halt and drawing widespread disapproval...
Just three months after we wrote about states’ slow embrace of psychedelic drugs like psilocybin (the hallucinogen found in magic mushrooms), you’d be forgiven for thinking the issue was petering out. After all, the effort to decriminalize psychedelics...
States Addressing High Drug Costs with Prescription Drug Affordability Review Boards Since 2017 at least 11 states have passed laws creating prescription drug affordability review boards, some of which have the authority to implement cost-cutting measures for...
SCOTUS Sets Date for Abortion Pill Case The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a case that could limit access to the abortion drug mifepristone on March 26. The FDA initially approved the drug for terminating pregnancies through seven weeks gestation...
CA Legislature Passes Bill Requiring Insurers to Cover PrEP California’s Legislature passed a bill ( SB 339 ) that would require health insurance companies to cover the cost of pharmacist-filled orders of PrEP medications, which prevent the transmission...
FL Senate Passes Health Care Workforce Bills Florida’s Senate passed legislation ( SB 7016 and SB 7018 ) that would allocate $800 million for bolstering the state’s health care workforce, including by providing tuition assistance for medical and dental...
Health Care Workforce and Mental Health Services Bills Advance in FL Florida Senate committees advanced a pair of bills ( SB 7016 and SB 7018 ) aimed at bolstering the state’s health care workforce and expanding access to mental health services. The measures...
NY Ends Reporting of Medical Debt New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) signed a bill ( SB 4907 ) prohibiting hospitals and health care providers from reporting medical debt to credit agencies, and barring credit agencies from collecting information about such debt...
FL Senate President Outlines Health Care Priorities for 2024 Florida Senate President Kathleen Passidomo (R) unveiled her health care agenda for next year. It includes addressing workforce shortages, establishing new teaching hospitals for behavioral health and...
Bills to Overhaul Long-Term Care and Control Prescription Drug Costs on Move in MA The Massachusetts House unanimously passed a bill ( HB 4178 ) that would overhaul the long-term care industry, while the Senate unanimously approved a measure ( SB 2492 ) addressing...
MI Lawmakers Pass Bill to Repeal Pharma Immunity Shield The Michigan Legislature passed a bill ( SB 410 ) that would repeal a law passed in 1995 preventing lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies. Bloomberg Law reported that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) was “likely...