H-0528.1
HOUSE BILL 1425
State of Washington
69th Legislature
2025 Regular Session
By Representatives Davis, Obras, Rule, Stonier, Parshley, Macri, Tharinger, Simmons, Berry, Gregerson, Doglio, and Ormsby
Read first time 01/20/25. Referred to Committee on Health Care & Wellness.
AN ACT Relating to requiring coverage of pharmacogenomic testing for psychotropic medications; reenacting and amending RCW 41.05.017 ; adding a new section to chapter 48.43 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 74.09 RCW; and creating a new section.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. (1) The legislature finds that mental health disorders are treatable conditions. When a patient has rapid access to the right medication, recovery is not only possible, it is probable. The vast majority of psychotropic medications are prescribed in primary care settings. Prescribers have little direction regarding which medication might be best for a particular patient. Due to this lack of precision, two-thirds of patients seeking treatment for depression do not improve with the first medication they try. Patients with mental health challenges are already at elevated risk for suicide, and many begin to feel increasingly hopeless as this haphazard process of medication trial and error continues with no symptom relief. Pharmacogenomic testing brings the best available science to bear in assisting health care providers in prescribing medications that are most likely to result in symptom remission for a given patient, while minimizing side effects. Such testing has been demonstrated to reduce psychiatric hospitalizations by nearly 40 percent. Many patients who have benefited from pharmacogenomic testing describe it as "life-changing" and indicate that they finally feel better after years of struggling on the wrong medications. Individuals who are courageously battling mental health challenges deserve the best possible chance at recovery via fast, effective treatment.
(2) Therefore, it is the intent of the legislature to require insurance coverage for pharmacogenetic testing for psychotropic medications without prior authorization and without requiring patients to first experience a treatment medication "failure."