A bill making it easier for people seeking treatment for a substance abuse problem unanimously cleared the New Hampshire Senate Wednesday.
Currently people seeking therapy for substance abuse need to get insurance approval to receive medication like methadone or suboxone.
In some cases that approval would need to be monthly.
But under this measure, patients would only be required to get approval from insurers once a year.
Senator Dan Feltes of Concord, who’s the bill’s prime sponsor, says it’s important for patients who need medication assisted therapy to get it quickly.
“Making people who need this treatment, which is often living saving, wait two weeks, three weeks as you go through the bureaucratic forms and approvals within a health insurance company is not good for patients, not good for providers and not productive to combating the heroin and opioid public health crisis,” Feltes said after Wednesday's passage.
The proposal now heads to the House.
