Senate committee advances a block of health bills; postpartum doula coverage, opioid antagonist expansion and multiple technical changes move forward

The Senate Health and Human Services Committee on a single day reported a large block of health-related bills, referred one bill to the Appropriations Committee, and recorded recorded several individual votes on bills of interest to maternal and behavioral health advocates.

Among the actions: the committee referred SB758 (which would expand Medicaid coverage for remote patient monitoring services for pregnant and postpartum persons) to Appropriations; it approved an opioid-antagonist statute expansion (SB1035) on a 16-1 vote; and it approved a substitute for a bill to add Medicaid payment for postpartum doula care (SB1418), amending allowable visits to a total of up to 10 visits — up to four prenatal and up to six postpartum — and reported that substitute out of committee 16-0.

Committee counsel described a large group of uncontested bills that were identical to companion House measures; the committee moved those as a block and…