Lawmakers send to Gov. Scott bill to curb insurance companies' influence on health care

Burlington Free Press

Vermont legislators passed a bill to streamline insurance requirements for health care and are urging Gov. Phil Scott to sign the bill into law.

The bill, H.766, will reduce administrative delays and remove barriers to care for Vermont patients, according to proponents. The University of Vermont Health Care Network, the state's largest health care provider, has been pushing for the bill's passage.

"We have reached a point where insurance companies can tell us what we can and can't do, even in life-threatening emergencies, and the victims are always patients," Dr. Katie Marvin, a family physician at Lamoille Health Partners, said in a statement. Marvin took particular aim at the insurance company practice of requiring prior authorization for drugs and procedures, putting clinicians in the position of having to ask permission from insurance companies before a patient can receive services.

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Two major health care access bills meet different fates in Vermont Statehouse