Arkansas committee adopts amendment and passes bill to remove cost‑sharing ban for certain genetic cancer tests

Representative Mark Allen presented an amendment and then House Bill 1079 to the House Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee, which the panel adopted and later passed as amended.

The amendment removed a prohibition affecting the Employee Benefits Division (EBD) that had barred certain cost‑sharing mechanisms for clinically appropriate genetic testing. "We are only getting removed from the prohibition on cost sharing," Grant Wallace, director of the Employee Benefits Division, told the committee. "It would still allow EBD to have co pays; it count towards deductibles, coinsurance, all of those normal things… Since this amendment is then... I would assume... there would be no impact to the plan with that."

The change was approved on a voice vote after Representative Allen moved adoption of the amendment. The committee then heard testimony on the bill as amended and voted to pass the bill.

Why it matters: Supporters said the bill will expand access to clinically indicated genetic testing for people at high risk of hereditary cancers, help tailor screening and treatment, and avoid preventable advanced diagnoses. Sam McCool, a hematologist‑oncologist who testified as a patient representative and director of…