Sen. Somers Backs Bill to Streamline Medical Coverage

A bill to limit health insurers from requiring “step therapy” is waiting for a vote in the House.

Step therapy is a protocol establishing the order in which doctors can prescribe drugs for specific medical conditions, generally requiring patients try cheaper options before “stepping up” to more expensive treatments.

“Clinicians do not have extra hours of time on their hands to be on hold waiting for an insurance company middle management bureaucrat to argue with them over what the right therapy is,” said State Sen. Heather Somers, R-Groton. 

Somers shared one example of a patient with chronic back pain who was required by their insurance company to try physical therapy and other treatments, enduring “months and months of agony” before finally being able to have the surgery their doctor wanted them to have six months earlier.

She is also not persuaded by the argument from insurers that the bill will be uniquely costly.

“Insurance companies say it’s going to increase rates, but when have they ever reduced rates?” Somers said. “Everything for them increases cost. But there is also a cost associated with the patient’s quality of life.” 

https://ctexaminer.com/2021/05/21/bill-to-streamline-medical-coverage-waits-for-vote-in-the-house/