Health and Government Operations Committee advances package of health, insurance and tech bills; prior-authorization proposal held

The House Health and Government Operations Committee, chaired by Jocelyn Pena Melnick, advanced a series of bills during a midday voting session and held one measure for further review.

The most substantive actions included approval of a hospital staffing bill requiring facility-level clinical staffing committees (House Bill 905), passage of a bill permitting hospitals to sell certain patient medical debt to government units or nonprofit organizations for the sole purpose of cancelling that debt (House Bill 765), and approval of a data-governance measure to codify the State Chief Data Officer and an Office of Enterprise Data within the Department of Information Technology (House Bill 807). The committee also approved measures on anesthesia coverage, specialty‑drug reimbursement arrangements, and a buprenorphine training grant program; members postponed a vote on a bill that would bar providers from charging patients fees for prior authorization requests and had removed proposed AI provisions (House Bill 1314).

Why it matters: Several bills affect hospital operations and patient financial protections. HB 905 would require hospitals to create clinical staffing committees with balanced management and employee membership and to develop, implement and annually review staffing plans; the law includes a phased start (development in 2026, implementation on or before Jan. 1, 2027 for some provisions) and a reporting obligation by the Maryland Hospital Association beginning July 1, 2029. HB 765 creates a pathway for hospitals to sell patient balances to entities that will cancel debt, and the provision is slated to sunset Dec. 31, 2027.

Details from the session

House Bill 905 (clinical staffing committees): The bill, as amended, requires each hospital to establish a clinical staffing committee with equal membership for management and employees, to develop an annual clinical staffing plan…