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Bill would bar preferential treatment for opioids over non‑opioid pain drugs; industry and PBM groups warn of interference with utilization management
Summary
House Bill 1013 would require insurers and Medicaid to provide coverage for non‑opioid drugs for pain treatment to the same extent opioids are covered, aiming to reduce opioid exposure. Supporters said the bill would expand access to safer options; PBM and employer groups warned against statutory limits on utilization management.
House Bill 1013 would require the Maryland Medical Assistance Program and private health insurers to cover non‑opioid drugs for pain to the same extent as opioid medicines, removing a structural preference for opioids when clinically appropriate non‑opioid options exist.
Sponsor Delegate Ken Kerr told the committee that recent drug-development advances — including a newly approved class of peripheral sodium channel blockers — create viable non‑opioid alternatives for acute and chronic pain. “This bill allows access to a variety of non opioid options already available,” Kerr said, adding that the bill would not prohibit utilization-management tools such as prior authorization and step therapy where clinically appropriate but would…
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