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Senate committee advances several health-law bills to the floor; HB 2942, HB 2948A and HB 3761A receive due-pass recommendations
Summary
During work sessions May 6 the Senate Committee on Healthcare moved multiple bills to the Senate floor with due-pass recommendations, including measures on pharmacist reimbursement for PrEP/PEP, school-nurse coordination and art‑therapist licensure and reimbursement.
The Senate Committee on Healthcare conducted a series of brief work sessions May 6 and voted to move several bills to the Senate floor with a due‑pass recommendation.
Vice Chair Hayden moved House Bill 2942 to the floor with a due‑pass recommendation. Committee staff summarized HB 2942 as requiring the Oregon Health Authority and coordinated care organizations (CCOs) to reimburse pharmacists and pharmacies in the same manner as other health‑care providers for prescribing, dispensing and administering pre‑exposure and post‑exposure prophylactic antiretroviral therapies; staff reported minimal fiscal impact. The clerk called the roll and the motion passed.
The committee next moved House Bill 2948A, which specifies that a school nurse or registered nurse with school nursing coordination responsibilities must coordinate school‑nursing activities to the extent they are within the nurse’s scope of practice. Vice Chair Hayden moved the bill to the floor with a due‑pass recommendation; the motion passed on a roll call.
Finally the committee moved House Bill 3761A, which requires art therapists licensed through the Health Licensing Office to complete two years of supervised mental‑health practice and allows provisional licenses; the measure also requires Oregon Health Authority and CCOs to reimburse those art therapists for services provided through the medical assistance program. The motion to move HB 3761A to the floor with a due‑pass recommendation passed; the committee designated carriers for the bills as appropriate.
Why it matters: These measures would change reimbursement rules (HB 2942 and HB 3761A) and clarify school‑nursing responsibilities (HB 2948A). The reimbursement changes could increase access to preventive and behavioral‑health services by expanding who can be paid by Medicaid/CCOs for specific services.
What happens next: Each bill was assigned a carrier and will appear on the Senate floor calendar for further consideration by the full Senate.
