Bill Summary: SB 976 - Health Coverage Mandates

• Requires individual and group health insurance policies to cover postpartum depression treatment, physical therapy services, and severe obesity treatments (including bariatric surgeries and FDA-approved weight loss drugs).

• Mandates coverage for contraceptive drugs and devices (including emergency contraception), sterilization methods, and related counseling; allows 12-month supply dispensing with provider approval.

• Expands coverage for cancer treatment benefits including reconstructive surgery, chemotherapy, prosthetics, wigs, and requires oral anticancer medications be covered at same level as intravenous treatments.

• Requires coverage for fertility diagnostic care, fertility treatment, and fertility preservation services for qualifying patients, with limits of 4 oocyte retrievals and 6 intrauterine insemination cycles; includes religious employer exemptions.

• Adds coverage mandates for opioid antagonists (naloxone), trained service animals, colorectal cancer screening, cochlear implants, medical foods for phenylketonuria, epinephrine injectors, biomarker testing, prenatal/postpartum care, gambling disorder treatment, and rapid whole genome sequencing for critically ill children, effective January 1, 2024.