Bills Dealing with Psychedelics, Nurses and Breast Exam Insurance Coverage Near Enactment in AK Alaska’s Senate passed a pair of health care bills that originated in the House ( HB 228 and HB 237 ), sending them to Gov. Mike Dunleavy (R). A third health...
CA to Cap Health Care Providers’ Annual Price Increases at 3% California’s Health Care Affordability Board voted to limit annual price increases from doctors, hospitals and health insurers to 3%, about 2.4% below the annual rate of those increases...
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...
The number of states with prescription drug affordability boards could more than double this year if pending legislation is approved. Maryland became the first state to authorize a prescription drug affordability board, or PDAB, in 2019. Since then, 10 other...
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...
We told you at the end of December that the nationwide healthcare workforce crisis would remain a top issue for state lawmakers in 2024 . And indeed it is, as evidenced by a spate of new bills addressing the issue pending in state capitols across the country...
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...
Medical debt is crushing Americans across the nation. Recent surveys have found that roughly a third of working-age Americans are struggling with medical debt , while more than half of Americans have been unable to pay medical bills on time or in full . Indeed...
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...