Senate Bill 42, which would require insurers to cover voluntary inpatient perinatal behavioral health treatment when recommended by a treating physician, was reported with amendments by the Senate Insurance Committee on April 23.

Senator Sellers, the bill sponsor, introduced the measure and called forward clinicians from Woman’s Hospital to explain a new perinatal mental health unit the hospital opened last September. “This is an inpatient 10 bed unit that cost us about $8,000,000 to build,” said Sheree Johnson, executive vice president and chief nursing officer at Woman’s Hospital. Johnson said the unit treats women at any gestational age and up to a year postpartum for perinatal mood and anxiety disorders and provides a multidisciplinary program including psychiatry, maternal-fetal medicine and social work.

Johnson and Kevin Guidry, senior vice president at Woman’s Hospital, told the committee that roughly 24% of requests for formal voluntary admission are initially denied by payers. “The first patient we had was denied for medical necessity,” Guidry said, describing denials tied to the patient not meeting the statutory criteria for a physician emergency certificate. Johnson said many women present with intrusive thoughts or impairment that do not meet the threshold for involuntary commitment but nevertheless prevent them from functioning or safely caring for their child.

Senators asked clarifying questions about typical length of stay, payer practices and the bill’s scope. Johnson said the unit’s average length of stay is 4.72 days and that comparable units in other parts of the country report longer stays (about 15 days). Senator Foyle asked whether the need is primarily postpartum; Johnson said patients can be admitted at eight weeks’ gestation through one year postpartum.

Committee members adopted technical amendments (including capitalization of Office of Group Benefits) and an amendment requested by the Department of Insurance that removed specified lines of text from page 3. After questions and amendment adoption, the chair recognized a motion to report the bill favorably; the transcript records the chair announced no opposition and SB 42 was reported with amendments.

Why it matters: Witnesses said perinatal mood and anxiety disorders affect about 20% of pregnant and postpartum women and that inpatient care can be clinically necessary before patients meet involuntary-commitment criteria. The bill seeks to ensure insurer coverage for voluntary inpatient admissions when a treating physician and patient agree that inpatient care is needed.

What remains: The bill was reported with amendments; further legislative steps will follow the Senate calendar. Committee discussion noted this is currently the only specialized perinatal inpatient unit in the state.