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Committee adopts narrow amendment to House Bill 1255 to avoid DME pharmacy delays
Summary
The Senate Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee adopted an amendment to House Bill 1255 that removes the phrase "processes and paperwork" to avoid applying pharmacy prior-authorization language to durable medical equipment (DME) suppliers and to speed patient access to supplies.
Senator Brianne Davis presented an amendment to House Bill 1255 and the committee approved the change by voice vote.
The amendment strikes the words “processes and paperwork” from language in the bill. Senator Brianne Davis said the change is intended to avoid creating delays for patients who obtain supplies through durable medical equipment (DME) suppliers because DME suppliers use a different prior-authorization process than pharmacies. “We just want to make sure that people are getting their supplies quickly, efficiently,” she said. “The process and the paperwork is a little bit different between the two. So we’re striking that language just to ensure that we don’t hold anybody up.”
Committee members asked no follow-up questions and no members of the public spoke for or against the amendment. The committee expunged an earlier procedural vote to adopt the amendment and then took the motion again; the amendment was adopted on a subsequent voice vote. Following adoption of the amendment, the bill (as amended) proceeded through the committee’s business as scheduled.
The action was handled by voice vote; senators present signaled assent with “aye” and the chair announced the amendment passed. No roll-call tally was recorded in the transcript.
