Nebraska lawmakers advance bill expanding insurance coverage of colonoscopies

Nebraska lawmakers advanced a bill Tuesday that would require insurance companies to cover the cost of the removal of any tissue growth found during routine colonoscopy screenings.

Sen. Carol Blood of Bellevue introduced the bill (LB829) this year after she underwent a preventative screening for colorectal cancer last year, she said, and learned that insurers in Nebraska are required to pay for such screenings — but not for the removal of any polyps doctors discover in the process.

Instead, she said, health care professionals ask procedure-ready patients if they want doctors to remove any polyps they might find, warning that some insurance companies in Nebraska don't cover that portion of the procedure.

"You're in your gown," Blood said. "You took time off of work. You scheduled this important procedure based on your doctor's recommendation. And they want you to decide if they should keep something that's scary in your body, with unknown costs — which is the exact reason they do that procedure in the first place."

Blood's measure — which she designated as her personal priority this session — would close that loophole, which she said "could be the difference between life and death."

"This is something that we can do to help make sure that Nebraskans are healthier, live longer and don't have to worry in the future about whether they're gonna battle colon cancer or not — one of the most curable cancers caught early," she said.

Still, the bill wasn't without opposition amid first-round flood debate Tuesday, which marked the 23rd day of this year's 60-day legislative session.

Six senators — Joni Albrecht of Thurston, Rob Clements of Elmwood, Steve Erdman of Bayard, Ben Hansen of Blair, Merv Riepe of Ralston and Julie Slama of Dunbar — voted against advancing the bill, which ultimately did move forward on a 36-6 vote, garnering otherwise broad bipartisan support.

"This is one of those really commonsense bills that, frankly, we should all get behind and support," said Sen. Mike Jacobsen of North Platte.

Most of the bill's detractors did not lodge opposition to it amid floor debate Tuesday before casting "no" votes, though both Albrecht and Slama offered a window into their rationale in the minutes before vote.

Slama, who previously voted against the bill's advancement in the Legislature's Health and Human Services Committee, said her opposition boiled down to her principled opposition to "mandates."

"I'm fine either way with however this bill turns out," she said. "I would actually almost encourage a soft green vote on LB829. I will be voting against it, but I am massively grateful for Sen. Blood's work to reach a compromise."

Albrecht, meanwhile, told colleagues that she has a history of colon cancer and has been "going faithfully" to screening appointments for 20 years across the state's northern border in South Dakota, where, she said, she has "always had everything covered" by insurance.

She questioned what prompted Blood to bring the bill and whether passing it would make Nebraska an outlier in its policy.

Blood, in response, told Albrecht that Nebraska would be among the first states to close the loophole, though she said Congress had already done so for Medicare and Medicaid patients.

"In reference to where the bill comes from — it literally came from my colonoscopy," she said, noting that her health care provider intended to charge her $900 to remove any polyps found in the screening.

Moments later, the Legislature advanced the bill from first of three rounds of floor debate.

Other legislative action Tuesday:

Omaha Sen. Mike McDonnell's bid to make the Nebraska Volunteer Service Commission, also known as ServeNebraska, a bonafide state agency fell short of first-round approval by a single vote Tuesday morning.

The commission, created in 1994 by an executive order from then-Gov. Ben Nelson, already receives grants, allotments and other benefits on the state's behalf under the federal National and Community Service Trust Act of 1993.

McDonnell's proposal (LB111) would restructure the commission as a state agency in an effort to allow the commission to "more effectively carry out its many missions," according to the bill's sponsor.

But it faced opposition on the floor Tuesday led by Clements, the chairman of the Legislature's Appropriations Committee, who questioned the potential fiscal impact of creating a new state agency as the governor seeks to eliminate or consolidate various departments, boards and commissions.

Clements did not rally mass opposition to McDonnell's bill, but enough senators sat out of Tuesday's vote to halt the proposal's advancement.

McDonnell needed 25 votes to see the bill advanced to second-round consideration. Twenty-four senators voted "yes," while 12 voted against it and seven were present-not-voting. Six senators were excused.

Lawmakers did give first-round approval to a proposal from Sen. Lynne Walz of Fremont that would require state public schools with a certain percentage of students in poverty to opt in to a federal reimbursement program to serve free breakfast and lunch to all of their students.

The Legislature advanced that bill (LB285) on a 33-10 vote.