An Act relative to out-of-pocket expenses for covid-19 therapeutics

This bill requires health insurance plans in Massachusetts to cover the full cost of FDA-approved or authorized COVID-19 treatments without charging patients any copayments or deductibles. It mandates that these plans pay providers directly for the medications without requiring prior approval or imposing usage limits, regardless of whether the provider is in-network or out-of-network. The legislation also extends these protections to disability insurance policies and includes specific rules ensuring out-of-network providers accept the plan's payment as full settlement, preventing them from billing patients or reporting them to credit agencies. Coverage for out-of-network providers is set to end six months after the federal public health emergency expires, unless other laws require it to continue.