Utah House approves data-portability, ambulance-pricing and wage-timing bills; honors nine fallen first responders

SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah House of Representatives on Feb. 20, 2025, passed several bills affecting digital privacy, emergency medical billing, employee wage timing and other areas, and approved a legislative citation recognizing nine first responders who died in the past year.

The most consequential bills for statewide policy that day included first-substitute House Bill 418 on data portability and platform interoperability, third-substitute House Bill 301 setting ambulance pricing rules, and second-substitute House Bill 186 revising the time frame for employers to pay terminated employees. Lawmakers also approved measures on massage-therapy oversight, vehicle sales-tax treatment in private sales, franchise-disclosure rules and several other items, then sent the measures to the Senate or to be signed as appropriate.

Supporters said the new data-sharing measure aims to give Utah residents control over their digital information and to foster competition among platforms. Representative Fia Fia, sponsor of HB 418, said the bill “gives Utahns the ability to take your messages, contacts, posts with you if you choose a platform to leave a platform.” The House approved the first substitute of HB 418 by a recorded vote of 64–1.

On health-care billing, Representative Tim Malloy, sponsor of HB 301, described the legislation as an attempt to reduce surprise ambulance bills and stabilize provider revenue. “HB 301 ensures fair and transparent ambulance pricing in Utah by setting sustainable base rates,” Malloy…