Senate panel adopts SB 43 to bar gag clauses in health-care employment contracts

The Senate committee adopted a substitute for SB 43, sponsored by Sen. Melson, that bars health-care employers from including contract provisions that would prevent a provider from discussing treatment options, medications or other clinical recommendations with patients.

Senator Melson, the sponsor, said the substitute “simply says that if you're a health care provider and you work for somebody like a hospital or like a nursing home or other health care provider, then you cannot be a gag order in that contract that keeps you from discussing and having a transparent relationship with the patients.” He said the substitute is intended to preserve a clinician’s ability to make recommendations to patients without contractual repercussions.

The substitute also includes an amendment to explicitly add optometrists to the list of professionals covered. Senator Melson said the optometry change was requested by “one of the professional organizations” so that optometrists “wanna be treated like everybody else.”

Senator Smitherman asked whether the bill compels insurers or other payers to cover whatever a clinician recommends. Senator Melson replied, “No. It does not force the insurance company or anybody to provide the medication they recommended.” He said the bill only protects the provider’s ability to tell the patient what the provider believes is clinically appropriate; it does not change payer coverage rules.

After discussion, the committee voted to adopt the substitute on a roll call and then gave the substitute a favorable committee report using a previous roll of no objection. The committee had established a quorum earlier in the session and recorded 16 members present before the SB 43 discussion.

The measure advanced out of committee; no further committee-level amendments or implementation instructions were recorded in the transcript.