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Committee amends and advances bill to bar contractual gag clauses that limit provider cost discussions
Summary
The committee approved an amended version of Senate Bill 43 that narrows the measure and removes a private cause of action; sponsors said the goal is to ensure health-care providers can discuss treatment, availability and cost with patients.
House Health Committee members approved an amended version of Senate Bill 43 on April 23 that the sponsor and committee described as a compromise to prevent contractual provisions from gagging health-care providers who discuss costs, treatment alternatives and drug availability with patients.
Sponsor and intent The bill sponsor told the committee the purpose is to ensure "health care providers are not gagged in any way and can talk freely about the cost and alternatives, with health care choices," and cited concerns about provider employment by private equity, pharmacy-benefit manager (PBM) practices and other contractual constraints.
Amendment and committee action Representative Shireef offered an amendment that made several technical changes to the bill's language (including wording changes and replacing a semicolon with a period) and removed the statutory private cause of action that had been in earlier drafts. The sponsor said removing the cause of action "takes a little bit of the bite out" and described the amendment as a reasonable compromise.
The committee adopted the amendment by voice vote and then approved the bill as amended by voice vote; the transcript records the voice votes as "aye" and shows the bill "passes favorable report." No roll-call tally was recorded in the excerpt.
Why it matters Supporters framed SB 43 as protecting patient access to information about clinical options and costs; opponents did not have extended testimony in the excerpt but committee discussion reflected a desire to balance provider transparency with concerns about enforceability and unintended consequences.
Clarifying details - Amendment specifics: The amendment replaced selected lines of statutory text for clarification, replaced punctuation and removed a cause of action from the bill's enforcement section; the amendment also set an effective date provision to take effect in October (text and exact date referenced in committee amendment discussion). - Enforcement change: With the cause of action removed, the version advanced focuses on prohibitions rather than creating a private civil remedy in the statute.
Ending note The committee approved the amended SB 43 and gave it a favorable report; the bill will proceed to the next stage of the legislative process.
