06/17/2025
Non-Medical Switching Legislation Receives Testimony in Ohio Senate
The Ohio Senate Financial Institutions, Insurance, and Technology Committee convened Tuesday morning, and Senators (and physicians) Dr. Beth Liston (D-Dublin) and Dr. Terry Johnson (R-McDermott) gave sponsor testimony in support of SB 160, which would prohibit the practice of “non-medical switching” in the middle of a health plan year. OSMA has supported reform legislation to stop the negative impact of non-medical switching for numerous years now.
As a reminder, “non-medical switching” occurs when the insurer requires a patient to switch from their current medication to a different medication for reasons unrelated to the patients’ health, or for “non-medical” reasons.
Even though a patient may select an insurance plan during open enrollment based upon coverage of their medication, health insurance plans are currently able to change the coverage of that medication at any time during a plan year. As Dr. Liston said in sponsor testimony this morning, this results in a “bait and switch” that forces patients onto a cheaper medication to cut costs. Unfortunately, this often risks the patient’s health and is more expensive in the long run due to higher likelihood of complications.
Non-medical switching results in chronic conditions which were previously well controlled suddenly becoming unstable, and this can put patients into the hospital.
“I cannot tell you how many children I have admitted to the hospital unable to breath with their asthma flaring, and they weren’t able to take their controller inhaler because it was no longer on their formulary.” Dr. Liston gave Committee members as an example.
Drs. Liston and Johnson both stressed the importance of these important medication decisions remaining between a patient and their physician. In the long term, it is much more expensive to pay for a patient’s hospitalization or long-term health complications from poorly controlled disease than it is to pay for a medication on which the patient has been stable.
We appreciate Drs. Liston and Johnson for bringing this meaningful legislation back to the Ohio Legislature and the OSMA Advocacy team will continue to support SB 160 as it moves through the legislative process. If you have questions or would like to get involved in advocating for SB 160 or other insurance reforms, email info@osma.org or call our office at 614-527-6762.