Senate Health & Welfare leans toward time-limited repeal of white-bagging ban, seeks impact report

MONTPELIER — The Vermont Senate Committee on Health & Welfare on May 6 signaled it will include a time-limited repeal of a 2022 prohibition on insurer-directed “white bagging” in draft S.266 and asked the Green Mountain Care Board to report on the repeal’s effect on hospital budgets and health insurance rates.

The committee’s discussion focused on who would capture roughly $40,000,000 in savings that witnesses said could shift under the bill: insurers and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) argue savings would lower prices, while hospitals and patient advocates warned of safety and reimbursement problems. The committee indicated agreement to repeal the ban with a sunset and to ask the Green Mountain Care Board to report back on the financial effects before the repeal becomes permanent.

The draft under consideration, described in the meeting as draft 1.2 of S.266, would remove statutory language that barred a health insurer or PBM from requiring that a designated pharmacy deliver a medication directly to a health-care setting for a clinician to administer. Jan Carter, legislative counsel, presented draft 1.2 for committee review.

The comm…