Includes New Insurer & Life Insurer Provisions Regarding Reversal Drugs
The House and Senate in less than an hour approved a bill that took months to work out and features a slate of new policies to help address the opioid crisis.
The conference committee accord that was filed Tuesday was approved by voice votes in both branches, and final enactment votes sent it to Gov. Maura Healey’s desk by early afternoon.
The compromise bill includes strategies to boost access to overdose reversal drugs, and requires insurers to cover emergency opioid antagonists used to reverse overdoses, such as naloxone or name-brand Narcan, without cost-sharing or prior authorization.
It also prohibits life insurance companies from limiting or refusing coverage to a person just because they obtained an opioid antagonist for themself or others.
The bill does not include a Senate-approved measure authorizing overdose prevention centers, where people could use illegal drugs under the supervision of health care workers.
Opioid-related overdose deaths dropped 10 percent in 2023 compared to 2022, the largest year-over-year decline in two decades. But the crisis still killed more than 2,000 Bay Staters for the eighth straight year.
The bill marks another major piece of unfinished business from the summertime that is being wrapped up by the Legislature after the traditional even-year July 31 deadline to complete major legislation.
