House committee advances bill limiting nonlicensed ownership of medical practices

The House Committee on Behavioral Health and Health Care voted May 20 to send Senate Bill 951A to the House floor with a "do pass" recommendation.

Committee staff told members the bill “would restrict individuals who are not licensed medical providers from owning or controlling medical practices and prohibits non competition and non disparagement agreements between practices and licensees.” The measure was presented to the committee as coming from Representative Bowman.

The bill’s sponsor and proponents have framed the measure as a regulatory change to limit nonclinician control of clinical practices. Representative Diaz said she started the discussion opposed and remained concerned about the bill’s effects, saying she feared it could drive capital out of the state. “I am definitely gonna be a no today,” Diaz said. Representative McIntyre said she would vote yes but emphasized similar concerns and urged follow-up work on appeals and implementation processes. “I’m actually gonna be a yes today, but I have a lot of the same concerns,” McIntyre said.

Members referenced several amendment packets (dash 11, dash 12, dash 13) that had been posted in OLIS shortly before the session; staff asked members who drafted those changes to summarize them because committee staff had limited time to brief the panel. After debate, the motion to move SB 951A to the House floor with a due-pass recommendation passed on a roll call. The chair announced the bill is on its way to the floor and noted Representative Bowman will carry it.

A member gave notice of a minority report following the vote; the committee said it will process that notice in committee records. The committee did not adopt any implementation language during the work session and did not finalize amendments on the record; members said further corrections could be considered in subsequent steps.

The vote record on the motion, as recorded in the session, included Representative Diaz voting no and Representative McIntyre and Chair Nils among those recorded voting yes. The committee did not state a final tally in the transcript excerpt.