PROVIDENCE – Sen. Melissa Murray, a Democrat representing District 24 in Woonsocket and North Smithfield, and chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services, announced a nine-bill package of legislation this week focused on addressing health care accessibility and affordability.
Announced with Senate leadership, the legislation aims to remove burdensome administrative requirements that present barriers to patient care, protect patients from crushing medical debt, and otherwise improve access and lower costs, according to sponsors.
Murray is sponsoring legislation to end prior authorization requirements imposed by insurance companies on primary care providers. The bill, 2025-S 168, would prohibit insurers from requiring prior authorization for medically necessary health care services and prescriptions as determined by a primary care provider, with the exception of some brand name medications and controlled substances.
“It is the doctors, not insurers, who know best what care is needed for their patients. And we need our primary care doctors focused on providing care, not haggling with insurance companies,” she said.
Eight additional bills will look to tackle issues including prescription pricing and creation of a cap on the interest rate for new medical debt
“The bills we are highlighting with this announcement are key parts of the Senate’s action on health care, but there is a great deal of other extremely important work being done by many of our colleagues,” said Murray. “Solving this crisis cannot be done through a single piece of legislation, or by one collection of bills. The Senate Health and Human Services Committee will be focused on these bills and many others, and we will rely on the energy, expertise, and leadership of every member of our chamber as we work collaboratively to take on our health care challenges.”
Other bills in the package include:
Graduate medical education (Sponsored by Sen. Brian J. Thompson, 2025-S 171): To increase availability of training programs, this legislation would allow for the use of Medicaid funding to support graduate medical education programs and research in areas including, but not limited to, trauma care, primary care, maternal health, mental health, and substance abuse treatment.
Issuance of medical licenses (Sponsored by Sen. Peter A. Appollonio Jr., 2025-S 170): To address licensing backlogs, this bill would allow the Rhode Island Department of Health to review and act upon any medical licensing applications that have not been considered by the relevant licensing board within 60 days of submission.
Spread pricing limits (Sponsored by Sen. Lori Urso, 2025-S 165): This bill would prohibit pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, from utilizing “spread pricing” in their cost structures related to health care plans. Spread pricing is a practice wherein PBMs charge health plans and payers more for a prescription drug than what they reimburse to the pharmacy, and then keep the difference or “spread.”
Medicaid spread pricing prohibition (Sponsored by Sen. Linda L. Ujifusa, 2025-S 173): This bill would prohibit spread pricing by health insurance corporations that manage Medicaid plans for approximately 90 percent of Medicaid enrollees.
Administration of vaccines (Sponsored by Sen. Robert Britto, 2025-S 166): This bill would clarify state law to enable pharmacists to administer vaccines to all eligible patients, regardless of age. Pharmacists already administer these vaccines to adults, and were temporarily permitted to administer vaccines to all age groups during the COVID pandemic.
Medical debt interest rate cap (Sponsored by Sen. John P. Burke, 2025-S 172): This bill would cap the interest rate on new medical debt at the interest rate equal to the weekly average 1-week constant maturity Treasury yield, but not less than 1.5 percent annum nor more than 4 percent annum, as published by the Board of Governors for the Federal Reserve System. The interest rate would also be extended to judgments on medical debt.
Prohibition on medical debt attachments (Sponsored by Sen. Jacob E. Bissaillon, 2025-S 169): This bill would prohibit the attachment of a lien to an individual’s home because of medical debt.
Medigap (Sponsored by Majority Leader Valarie J. Lawson, 2025-S 167): This legislation would clarify existing law to ensure the eligibility of certain Medicare patients for supplemental coverage programs, regardless of age or pre-existing conditions.
Most of this is already covered by the federal government a copycat plan let’s some more money
Perhaps you have not noticed that the federal government is being decimated, and most of its functions will most likely soon be funded by the state. Maybe Murray is trying to get out ahead of this.
The state has zero funds to support these efforts.
All that these bills will do is increase healthcare cost premiums and reduce the quality of care which is at an all time low in RI.