Legislation


SB 523 – California

Status: Enacted
Year Introduced: 2021
Link: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB523

Health care coverage: contraceptives.
Existing law, the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975, provides for the licensure and regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care and makes a willful violation of the act a crime. Existing law provides for the regulation of health insurers by the Department of Insurance. Existing law establishes health care coverage requirements for contraceptives, including, but not limited to, requiring a health care service plan, including a Medi-Cal managed care plan, or a health insurance policy issued, amended, renewed, or delivered on or after January 1, 2017, to cover up to a 12-month supply of federal Food and Drug Administration approved, self-administered hormonal contraceptives when dispensed at one time for an enrollee or insured by a provider or pharmacist, or at a location licensed or authorized to dispense drugs or supplies.
This bill, the Contraceptive Equity Act of 2021, would make various changes to expand coverage of contraceptives by a health care service plan contract or health insurance policy issued, amended, renewed, or delivered on and after January 1, 2022, including requiring a health care service plan or health insurer to provide point-of-sale coverage for over-the-counter FDA-approved contraceptive drugs, devices, and products at in-network pharmacies without cost-sharing or medical management restrictions and to reimburse enrollees and insureds for out-of-pocket costs for over-the-counter birth control methods purchased at any out-of-network pharmacy in California, without medical management restrictions. The bill would also require coverage for clinical services related to the provision or use of contraception, as specified. The bill would revise provisions applicable when a covered, therapeutic equivalent of a drug, device, or product is deemed medically inadvisable by deferring to the attending provider, as specified.
With respect to religious employers, this bill would authorize an enrollee or insured to submit a request to the health care service plan or health insurer if the employer elects not to purchase coverage for contraceptive methods, as required by existing law. The bill would require the applicable department to reimburse a religious employer for the contraceptive care and related products provided to the employee, as specified. The bill would prohibit the employer from discriminating or retaliating against the employee for independently obtaining contraceptives outside of the employer’s plan under this authorization.
This bill would prohibit the Board of Public Relations of the Public Employees’ Retirement System and the University of California from approving or renewing a health benefit plan that does not comply with the contraceptive coverage requirements of the bill and existing law described above, on and after January 1, 2022.
Because a willful violation of the bill’s requirements by a health care service plan would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.


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