Appropriations committee advances H.611 altering Medicaid reporting, raising funeral‑account limit and delaying doula coverage

At a meeting of the House Appropriations Committee on Feb. 3, members voted to report H.611, a miscellaneous bill affecting the Department of Vermont Health Access (DVHA) that lawmakers described as largely housekeeping.

“For the record, Jen Kirby from the Office of Legislative Counsel,” said the bill’s introducer, and added, “This is H.611 as recommended by the House Healthcare Committee.” Kirby told the committee the measure contains several discrete changes, including striking Medicaid from a state prescription‑drug transparency reporting requirement and adjusting rules tied to the 340B/covered‑entity protections that have generated litigation in other states.

Kirby said including Medicaid in the prescription‑pricing reports had not produced useful information for the attorney general’s investigations and had been difficult to implement. She explained that Section 2 would remove the contested 340B‑related provision from state law…