Insurance coverage of oral cancer drugs amended, advanced

Senators gave second-round approval March 27 to a bill that would require insurance coverage of oral cancer medications.

LB882, sponsored by Omaha Sen. Jeremy Nordquist, would require that a health policy, certificate, contract or plan provide coverage for a prescribed, orally administered anticancer medication that is used to kill or slow the growth of cancerous cells on a basis no less favorable than intravenously administered or injected cancer medications that are covered as medical benefits.

The bill also would prohibit an insurance provider from reclassifying an anticancer medication or increasing a coinsurance, copayment, deductible or other out-of-pocket expense to offset the cost of complying with the bill.

Sen. Abbie Cornett of Bellevue offered and later withdrew an amendment that would have required an insurance policy with an out-of-pocket expense limit that includes prescription drug coverage either to include prescription drug expenses in the existing out-of-pocket limit or provide a separate out-of-pocket limit for prescription drugs.

Nordquist offered an amendment that changed the bill’s effective date to Oct. 1, 2012, and would sunset the measure Dec. 31, 2015.

Nordquist said insurance companies need more time to prepare to comply with the bill and that uncertainty over the future of federal health care reform should be resolved by 2015. At that time, he said, the state could reconsider how best to address the issue of oral anticancer medications.

The amendment was adopted on a 34-0 vote and senators advanced the bill from select file by voice vote.