Lifetime Citizen Portal Access — AI Briefings, Alerts & Unlimited Follows
House Health Committee accepts substitute for House Bill 12
Loading...
Summary
The Ohio House Health Committee accepted a substitute to HB 12 that clarifies who counts as a health care provider, adjusts objection notification requirements, and adds liability protections for pharmacists and facilities required to fill drugs they object to.
The Ohio House Health Committee on Tuesday accepted a substitute amendment to House Bill 12 during the committee's fifth hearing. Representative Gross moved the adoption of amendment L136‑2394, describing language changes the sponsor said remove a potential compelled‑speech problem and instead require physicians to be informed of patient objections.
Representative Gross told the committee the substitute clarifies that an in‑house provider who is part of the patient’s care team qualifies as a health care provider and replaces prior wording that could have raised constitutional concerns about compelled speech. The substitute also adds criminal liability protections for pharmacists, hospitals and inpatient and outpatient facilities that are required to fill a drug to which they object, and removes the terms “reckless” and “gross negligence” from a specified section, replacing them with a licensing‑protection standard tied to a minimal standard of care. Representative Gross said the Ohio Board of Medicine is neutral on the revised language.
The motion to accept the substitute was offered by Representative Gross and, with no objections from committee members, was agreed to. Chair Schmidt declared the substitute accepted and closed the fifth hearing on HB 12.
The committee record shows the substitute was explained on the committee iPads and accepted without recorded roll‑call opposition during the hearing. No further action on HB 12 was taken in the committee during this meeting.
