Government Healthcare Policy, Business and Technology

New Mexico Outlaws Insurance Practice Called Step Therapy

Governing: A bill designed to rein in "step therapy," the insurance company practice of requiring patients to try a less expensive medication before using a costlier option, will become law in New Mexico.

Gov. Susana Martinez on Wednesday signed Senate Bill 11, sponsored by Sens. Liz Stefanics, D-Cerrillos, and Gay Kernan, R-Hobbs, one of about two dozen bills passed during the 2018 legislative session to which she added her signature.

In addition to the legislation she signed, Martinez also made good on her promise to veto a bill that would have given pay raises to a number of elected state officials. Senate Bill 176, sponsored by Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, would have increased by 10 percent the pay of the next governor, attorney general, secretary of state, state treasurer, state auditor, land commissioner, public regulation commissioners and lieutenant governor.

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