Sen. Melissa Murray

Maddy summarySB 2097 requires state agencies managing special accounts (like Medicaid funds, environmental programs, and veterans' benefits) to submit quarterly financial reports to the Executive Office of Health and Human Services starting October 1, 2026. It applies to most restricted receipt accounts but excludes specific funds such as the Rhode Island Statewide Opioid Abatement Account, HIV Care Grant Drug Rebates, and Veterans’ Home accounts. The bill aims to improve centralized oversight of state finances by standardizing reporting for these accounts. Agencies must comply unless federal law, court orders, or existing restrictions prevent it.

Provides that services provided by graduate student interns who work under a supervisory protocol would be eligible to be paid from Medicaid reimbursement.

Enacts the RI individual market affordability act of 2026 to establish a program to help reduce out-of-pocket costs for low- and moderate-income consumers enrolled in individual health insurance coverage through the RI health benefits exchange.

Requires health insurance plans to cover services provided by licensed certified professional midwives. Insurers would be required to report utilization and cost data annually and certain limited benefit policies would be exempt.

Requires health insurance policies to cover licensed certified lactation counselor services for childbearing families. It would also prohibit requiring supervision or duplicate payments for services and mandates annual reporting.

Includes routine, scheduled or recommended immunizations to individuals between the ages of three (3) and eighteen (18) years, under the consent and reporting provisions required for pharmacy administered immunizations.

Maddy summaryThis bill allows pharmacists to prescribe medications that help people quit smoking, provided they have completed specific state-approved education on tobacco cessation therapies. It directly affects pharmacists and their employers by establishing new prescribing authority within their professional scope. The legislation requires pharmacists to complete education approved by the state board of pharmacy before they can use this new prescribing power. This change aims to expand access to smoking cessation treatments through pharmacies.

Requires renovation projects of pre-1978 buildings to comply with provisions of chapter 24.6 of title 23 and chapter 21 of title 28, and require presence of lead inspector and supervisor and require lead training. DLT would ensure compliance.

Requires landlords to register certain information for residential properties constructed prior to 1978 with the department of health on a statewide registry and defines which information may be viewed on a public database.

Authorizes pharmacists to order, perform and interpret CLIA-waived tests authorized by statewide protocol and prescribe medications, and permits coverage by all health insurance carriers.