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Bill to create non-opioid directive and insurer coverage for alternatives moves through committee hearing
Summary
Senate Bill 337 would require certain health care facilities to provide a non-opioid directive form and offer non-opioid treatments under specified circumstances; sponsors proposed using Fund for Resilient Nevada (opioid settlement funds) for implementation and boards requested technical amendments.
Senate Bill 337, presented by Senator Roberta Lang, would require certain health care facilities and providers to offer patients a form to record a non-opioid directive, to offer non-opioid treatment options under specified circumstances, and to create an advisory board to monitor compliance. The bill also would require certain insurers to cover at least one drug alternative to opioids and to provide the non-opioid directive form to newly insured persons. The sponsor said the bill was amended conceptually to identify funding for implementation from the Fund for Resilient Nevada (the state's opioid settlement account) to cover associated costs.
"This bill is requiring certain health care facilities and certain providers of health care to provide patients with a form for a non opioid directive and offer patients treatments that do not utilize an opioid under certain circumstances," the sponsor told the committee.
Supporters emphasized the value of having a hospitalization plan for people at risk of substance-use disorder. Sabrina Schnur of the Nevada Psychiatric Association said, "This is a great way to help folks who live with substance use disorder or who may be at risk of substance use disorder to have a plan in place for hospitalization."
Boards representing licensed professions (nursing, optometry and others) testified in neutral and thanked the sponsor for working with them on technical language related to license renewal and reporting. The Division of Insurance submitted neutral written testimony and raised a federal defrayal concern: because pharmaceutical benefits are treated differently for federal defrayal calculations, mandatory coverage of a non-opioid when an opioid is available could trigger federal defrayal depending on formulary categories; the division said it lacked sufficient data to determine the magnitude of any such impact.
The sponsor said an amendment addressing boards' authority and reporting had been circulated and that opioid settlement funds would be used to cover implementation costs; the committee closed the hearing without taking a vote.
