All Roll Calls
Yes: 127 • No: 2
ArkansasSB832025 Regular SessionSenateWALLET
TO MANDATE COVERAGE FOR BREAST RECONSTRUCTION SURGERIES; TO REQUIRE PRIOR AUTHORIZATION FOR BREAST RECONSTRUCTION SURGERIES; AND TO ESTABLISH A MINIMUM REIMBURSEMENT RATE FOR BREAST RECONSTRUCTION SURGERIES.
Sponsored By: Joshua Bryant (Republican), Kendra Moore (Republican)
Enacted
Personalized for You
How does this bill affect your finances?
Personalize government policy and PRIA will tell you what this bill means for your household, plus every other piece of legislation we track. PRIA reads each provision against your financial profile to show you exactly what matters to your wallet.
Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
2 provisions identified: 1 benefits, 0 costs, 1 mixed.
Broader reconstruction coverage with required insurer approval
Beginning January 1, 2026, covered Arkansas health plans must provide breast reconstruction coverage when offered, issued, or renewed. This includes Medicaid, the Arkansas Health and Opportunity for Me Program, and state and public school employee plans. State-regulated indemnity, managed care, governmental self-insured, and church plans are also included; dental-only, vision-only, disability-income, and certain limited policies are excluded. Coverage includes all stages of reconstruction after breast removal, preventive removal, disease treatment, trauma, or congenital conditions. Covered services include implants, tissue reconstruction, breast symmetry procedures, chest wall repair, cosmetic flat closure, custom breast prostheses and replacements, and complication treatment. Plans must cover the best treatment chosen by the treating professional with the patient, following current medical standards. Your deductibles, copayments, and coinsurance cannot exceed in-network amounts, including when an inadequate network forces you to seek outside care. Insurers must require prior approval, but must automatically approve a single-case agreement when no network provider can perform that treatment. Plans cannot reduce other benefits, deny eligibility, enrollment, or renewal solely to avoid these rules, or waive the rules by contract. The Insurance Commissioner and State Board of Finance must issue implementing rules, including appropriate recognition of future reconstruction methods through medical billing codes.
New payment protections for breast reconstruction providers
When no network provider can deliver the chosen best reconstruction treatment, insurers must pay the out-of-network professional. Payment is the lower of billed charges or the 80th percentile of comparable charges in the same or similar specialty and area. The benchmark must come from an independent nonprofit database unaffiliated with, and unsupported by, healthcare insurers. Insurers must also pay a fair and reasonable facility rate for care in hospitals and surgery centers. If an insurer fails to pay as required, it owes the required payment plus three times the gap between its initial payment and the required rate, minus the patient's required cost sharing. A denied payment counts as $0, and the extra payment earns interest at a rate set by the Insurance Commissioner. These payments go to the provider or facility, not the patient. Insurers cannot use this law to lower network providers' payment rates for other breast reconstruction services.
Sponsors & Cosponsors
Sponsors
Joshua Bryant
Republican • Senate
Kendra Moore
Republican • House
Cosponsors
There are no cosponsors for this bill.
Roll Call Votes
House vote • 4/1/2025
House Vote - Tuesday, April 1, 2025 4:22:23 PM
Yes: 94 • No: 2
Senate vote • 3/20/2025
Senate Vote - Thursday, March 20, 2025 2:08:00 PM
Yes: 33 • No: 0
Actions Timeline
Notification that SB83 is now Act 424
4/7/2025SenateDELIVERED TO GOVERNOR.
4/2/2025SenateReported correctly enrolled and ordered delivered to the Governor.
4/2/2025SenateORDERED ENROLLED
4/1/2025SenateReturned from the House as passed.
4/1/2025SenateReturned to the Senate as passed.
4/1/2025HouseRead the third time and passed and ordered transmitted to the Senate.
4/1/2025HouseReturned by the Committee Do Pass
3/31/2025HouseRead the first time, rules suspended, read the second time and referred to the Committee on INSURANCE & COMMERCE- HOUSE
3/20/2025HouseRECEIVED FROM THE SENATE
3/20/2025HouseOrdered immediately transmitted to the House.
3/20/2025SenateRead the third time and passed.
3/20/2025SenateREPORTED CORRECTLY ENGROSSED
3/19/2025SenateAmendment # 2 read the first time, rules suspended, read the second time and adopted, ordered engrossed.
3/19/2025SenatePlaced on second reading for purpose of amendment.
3/19/2025SenateReturned by the Committee with the recommendation that it Do Pass as amended, Amendment # 2
3/18/2025SenateRe-referred to INSURANCE & COMMERCE - SENATE
3/4/2025SenateREPORTED CORRECTLY ENGROSSED
3/4/2025SenateAmendment # 1 read the first time, rules suspended, read the second time and adopted, ordered engrossed.
3/4/2025SenateWithdrawn from Committee and placed on 2nd reading for purpose of amendment # 1
3/4/2025SenateRead first time, rules suspended, read second time, referred to INSURANCE & COMMERCE - SENATE
1/21/2025SenateFiled
1/21/2025Senate
Bill Text
SB83 - Introduced
1/21/2025
Act Version
Related Bills
HB1265, AN ACT FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS AT LITTLE ROCK APPROPRIATION FOR THE 2025-2026 FISCAL YEAR.
HB1686, TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING LICENSES TO CARRY CONCEALED HANDGUNS.
HB1237, TO PROHIBIT MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS FROM SOLICITING INJURED INDIVIDUALS; AND TO SET PENALTIES FOR A VIOLATION OF THE PROHIBITION OF SOLICITATION OF INJURED INDIVIDUALS.
SB440, TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING EMBALMERS AND FUNERAL DIRECTORS; TO REGULATE THE USE OF ALKALINE HYDROLYSIS; AND TO REGULATE ALKALINE HYDROLYSIS FACILITIES.
HB1695, TO CLARIFY THE FORECLOSURE PROCESS FOR PROPERTY SUBJECT TO A MUNICIPAL LIEN; TO ALLOW A MUNICIPALITY TO PETITION TO SET ASIDE THE SALE OF PROPERTY TO CERTAIN PERSONS; AND TO PROVIDE FOR THE PRIORITY OF UNRECORDED MUNICIPAL LIENS.
HR1012, TO AMEND THE RULES OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-FIFTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY; TO REQUIRE THAT A MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES BE SELECTED AS A DESIGNATED SURVIVOR.