By David Velazquez
Casper Star-Tribune
Via- Wyoming News Exchange

CASPER — Gov. Mark Gordon signed 18 bills into law on Monday. Among them was one that will make changes to a process health insurance companies use to approve or deny medications for patients and one that will allow for vehicle registrations to be carried electronically. 

House Bill 14 regulates prior authorization — a process health insurance companies use to determine which treatments and medications they will cover and pay for under a patient’s plan — no longer making Wyoming the only state in the country without regulations that govern the process. 

Prior authorization has been criticized by doctors and health providers as time and resource consuming while patients wait for care. Labor, Health and Social Services worked with medical groups and insurance companies for months to create the bill. 

The bill eliminates the need for prior authorization for medication to treat opioid use disorder, guarantees access to previously approved medication and treatment for at least 90 days after patients switch health insurance plans and patients can access rehabilitative services — such as physical or occupational therapy — without needing prior authorization. 

The bill also requires health insurance companies to respond to urgent care requests within 72 hours and five calendar days for all other services. 

Urgent care is different from emergency care, which does not require prior authorization. 

An amendment made to the bill during the session prohibits health insurance companies from requiring a patient to repeat step therapy if they have previously failed it. Step therapy is a process where health insurance companies require patients to take one or more, usually less expensive, medications before “stepping” up to another medication. 

Another amendment to the bill now requires health insurance companies to explain why an “adverse determination” was given to a request if a health care provider requests a consultation over the decision. 

Health insurance companies will have five business days to schedule the consultation with providers and the consultation must be with a health insurance employee with decision making authority. 

The first draft of the bill would have required health insurance companies to give doctors an explanation of their treatment plans prior to their requests being denied. 

A provision in the bill also creates a “gold card” system, which allows doctors to skip prior authorization for certain procedures and treatments. Pharmaceuticals were removed from eligibility from the “gold card” through an amendment to the bill. 

The “gold card” is available to doctors who have requests approved 80% of the time. Wording in the bill has the threshold at 90%, but doctors with an 80% approval rate would still qualify for a “gold card” due to how eligibility is calculated. 

The bill will partially go into effect July 1 and all parts of the bill will be in effect Jan. 1, 2026. 

Vehicle registrations 

House Bill 23, sponsored by Rep. J.T. Larson, R-Rock Springs, will give Wyoming drivers more flexibility over vehicle registrations and license plate validation stickers. 

The bill allows for vehicle registrations to be carried electronically. Vehicle registrations could previously only be held physically. 

The bill states that “a certificate of registration issued by a county treasurer may be provided in electronic form.” 

The bill also adds that license plate validation stickers are to be placed within 30 days of issuance of the sticker. The law previously did not specify how soon the sticker needed to be placed on a vehicle. 

The changes will go into effect July 1.