House Behavioral Health and Health Care Committee advances broad package of pharmacy, workforce and residential treatment bills; several sent to Ways and Means

The Oregon House Committee on Behavioral Health and Health Care on April 2025 advanced a wide-ranging set of bills addressing pharmacy benefit management, prior authorization, behavioral health workforce and residential treatment capacity, sending many to the Joint Committee on Ways and Means and moving others to the Rules Committee for further negotiation.

Committee Chair Nuss opened the session by saying the panel planned to move several bills to Rules and to work through a large number of measures. Several pharmacy-related bills — House Bills 3,134, 3,212 and 2,149 — were placed on the Rules calendar to allow insurers, providers and other stakeholders more time to resolve drafting issues.

Courtney Dresser of the Oregon Medical Association told the committee about House Bill 3,134, the bill that would align state law with federal CMS electronic prior authorization standards, and described ongoing negotiations with carriers. "We are very close to getting there. We just need a little more time, and that's why we're asking to go to rules," Dresser said. Mary Ann Cooper of Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield of Oregon told lawmakers the challenge is accurately importing CMS rules without creating unintended carve-outs or overbroad cross-references: "The biggest challenge for us is making sure that the import of the federal rules is correct," she said.

On pharmacy benefit managers and related regulation, Chair Nuss said the committee had taken up the matter repeatedly over the last decade and planned to give parties more time to negotiate. Vice Chair Gevany moved House Bill 3,212 "without recommendation" and the committee sent it to Rules by unanimous consent.

Several measures tied to behavioral health capacity, workforce and payment policy were sent to Ways and Means for further analysis or with fiscal notes attached. Key appropriations and program bills include:

- House Bill 20 24 (dash 3): a grant program to support recruitment and retention of behavioral health workers and an incentive payment program, with an appropriation of $45,000,000 from the General Fund for 2025–27. The committee adopted the dash 3 amendment and referred the bill to Ways and Means.

- House Bill 2,059 (dash 2): establishes a residential behavioral health capacity program within the Oregon Health Authority (OHA), directs OHA to develop guidelines for distributing funds regionally, and appropriates $90,000,000 from the General Fund for the…