S.B. 50 Anesthesia Dosage Amendments

What this bill does

S.B. 50 would require health benefit plans to pay for medically necessary anesthesia services. It would bar insurers from denying payment, or setting payment, based only on a preset time limit for the procedure.

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Every vote

• 4 yes, 0 no, 3 absentSenate Health and Human Services Committee: vote to approve it · Jan 21, 2026Who voted how
• 28 yes, 0 no, 1 absentFirst of two Senate votes · Feb 2, 2026Who voted how
• 27 yes, 0 no, 2 absentFinal Senate vote · Feb 3, 2026Who voted how
• 9 yes, 0 no, 5 absentHouse Health and Human Services Committee: vote to approve it · Feb 12, 2026Who voted how
• 66 yes, 1 no, 8 absentFinal House vote · Feb 18, 2026

Hearings and debates

• Jan 21, 2026 Senate Health and Human Services Committee▶ Watch
  Transcript (14 turns)

  1. Committee chair (presiding)36:08

     SB 50, anesthesia Dosage Amendments. Senator Plumb.

  2. Sen. Jen Plumb36:14

     Okay. I am looking for the green to come on. You're lit up. Is it looking on your side? Oh, that sounds it. It's on. Okay, perfect. Okay. Thank you. Early Bird gets the Worm Committee. Much appreciation you all, and to all of you who have joined us as well to weigh in. Uh, Senate Bill 50 is a bill that I was approached about running by some people who work in the space, uh, around anesthesiology. And it came out of something that had happened about a year or so ago where there was a proposal by an insurance carrier that they were only going to cover the amount of anesthesia time. So that's the amount of time someone is essentially often asleep with a tube in their mouth breathing for them down in, into their lungs. And they're kept that way while a surgical procedure happens. And the, the proposal had been that there would only be a certain amount of time that would be predetermined for each type of procedure, and that's all that insurance would cover. And the concerns about something like that are that there's so much variability between patients, between their conditions, between things that may happen during the procedure, even sometimes between facilities. And so the goal should always be patient safety and should be obviously getting them out of anesthesia as quickly as possible. That's always been my understanding of the goal for surgeons as well as for anesthesiologists. But that you have to do that in a safe way. And, and the last thing you would ever want would be someone watching a time going, you only got one minute left, you only got one minute left. That would definitely introduce unsafe situations for patients. So this bill is really pretty basic and, and it just says that health benefits plans must pay for medically necessary anesthesia services, and it prohibits a health benefit plan from denying payment for anesthesia ser services space solely on the time limits. So it's very clear and it just says that this is Utah is going to expect that this will be a standard for us. There are a couple of other states that have passed, uh, similar statements and, um, I think it's pretty straightforward. Most of the folks I've talked to, it's providers and even insurance folks that I've talked to said, okay, we get it. And with that, I'm open to any questions.

  3. Committee chair (presiding)38:26

     Okay. Any questions from committee member? None. I don't see any. Do you have some? Go ahead. Let me get your light on here. Senator Bus.

  4. Sen. Emily Buss38:36

     Okay. So does, is this just the medically necessary anesthesia for the procedure, or is it al does it also include, um, like the out of network anesthesia?

  5. Sen. Jen Plumb38:47

     So this is essentially real simple. It's, we can't put a time limit on what anesthesia will be covered. So in terms of, you know, if you're a University of Utah network and you're in an Intermountain facility, you would still have those, um, different rates.

  6. Sen. Emily Buss39:02

     Okay. Uh, in terms of what your copay would be, that sort of thing.

  7. Sen. Jen Plumb39:05

     But that there can be nothing related to the time that that took, uh, as, as how your insurance coverage would be.

  8. Sen. Emily Buss39:11

     Okay. That makes sense. Thank you. Yeah,

  9. Sen. Jen Plumb39:13

     You're welcome. Thank you. Any other

  10. Committee chair (presiding)39:14

      questions? See none. We'll go to the public for any questions or comments. See none. We'll come back to, uh, the committee for further action. We'll go to Senator bust for motion.

  11. Sen. Emily Buss39:27

      I make a motion that this bill passes.

  12. Committee chair (presiding)39:30

      Okay. The motion is in order. The motion before us is to pass out SB 50. Uh, back to the, um, any comments, questions from committee members on that motion back to the sponsor of the bill

  13. Sen. Jen Plumb39:42

      I waive. Okay.

  14. Committee chair (presiding)39:43

      So the motion before us is to pass out favorably SB 50 Anesthesia Dosage amendments. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay. Senator Escamilla is online, so that passes out forward to nothing. Congratulations. Thank you. Committee. Okay. Now we're welcome to the ST oh Senator

• Feb 2, 2026 Senate floor debate▶ Watch
  Transcript (7 turns)

  1. Sen. Jen Plumb35:19

     Uh, this bill is very simple in its construct as well as in what it does. Uh, I was approached by, uh, some folks in the anesthesia world, uh, expressing concerns after there had been a change in coverage proposed by one insurer last year, maybe 14 months or so ago that would limit the amount of coverage for an anesthesia service to time. And as you can imagine, this introduces a whole lot of potential concerns for safety. There's no way to predict exactly how any one patient is going to respond to medications or to any surgical procedure. And to have surgeons and anesthesiologists rushing through a procedure because they were trying to hit a timestamp just is really the wrong concept. So this bill essentially says it does require health benefit plans to pay for medically necessary anesthesia services and prohibits health benefit plans from denying payment for anesthesia services based solely on a preset time limitation. Simple as that.

  2. President Adams (presiding)36:25

     Thank you. Senator Plumb, again, looking for a discussion seen. I'm going back to you for summation.

  3. Sen. Jen Plumb36:33

     Uh, I would waive summation and call the question.

  4. Senate clerk (roll call)36:36

     The question is, shall shall Senate bill 50 be read a third time. Roll call vote. Senator Vickers Baldy Blue in aye. Brammer Aye. Bus Comore Escamilla Fillmore Grover Harper Kins Aye. Ipson Johnson Quan McKay. Mikel Milner Musselman Owens Aye. Pitcher Plum Aye. Rebe Aye. Sandal Aye. Stevenson. Aye. Stratton Bickers Aye. Weiler Aye. Wilson. Aye. Winterton Aye.

  5. President Adams (presiding)37:25

     President Adams Aye. Senate bill 50 having received 28 a votes, zero nay votes, one being absent shall be read a third time. First substitute Senate bill 87. Senator Oh, go ahead. Go ahead. First substitute Senate bill 87 Naloxone Amendments. Senator Plumb. Senator Plumb, I was trying to get to you quickly

  6. Unknown speaker37:46speaker not certain

     because you only have about four or five in a row here. Keep Going. I, like I said, that's why I was so angsty.

  7. Sen. Jen Plumb37:51

     I, there, there was this run coming. Go ahead. Um, there's actually a substitute number two. I'd like to move that we can get forward If we can. The, the motion to substitutes

• Feb 3, 2026 Senate floor debate▶ Watch
  Transcript (20 turns)

  1. Senate President (presiding)46:06

     Senator Plumb.

  2. Sen. Jen Plumb46:07

     Thank you Mr. President. This bill has a very simple purpose and that is to make it clear that Utah will not allow insurers to decide the amount of anesthesia coverage that a patient can receive during a procedure based only on the time. Very simple. Uh, pretext, Thank you again. We heard this bill yesterday. I don't see questions today, so I'm going to you for action. Uh, thank you Mr. President. I would waive any summation and call the question.

  3. Senate President (presiding)46:35

     Thank you. And the question is, shall Senate Bill 50 pass Roll call vote. Senator Vickers Bouldery Aye. Lein Brammer Bus Comore Escamia Fillmore Grover Harper Kins Ipson Johnson. Quan McKay. Mikel Milner Musselman Owens Pitcher Plum Rebi Sandal Stevenson Stratton Vickers. Weiler Aye. Wilson Winterton Aye. President Adams Aye. Senate bill 50 Having received 2070 a votes, zero nay votes, two being absent. Pass this, this body will be sent to the house for their consideration. That concludes our work for today. I'm gonna go to Senator Fillmore for a motion or for announcement.

  4. Sen. Lincoln Fillmore47:49

     Yeah, there will be a rules committee meeting immediately after we recess. We have a rules committee meeting immediately after floor time.

  5. Senate President (presiding)47:55

     Senator Blouin, do you want to, uh, make a motion? I heard you might go ahead. Thank

  6. Sen. Nate Blouin48:01

     You, president. I'd like to make a motion to lift SB 1 36 from rules committee to the floor.

  7. Senate President (presiding)48:07

     Okay. We need the short title on it if you could. I don't have that in front of me, if you could help me out with it.

  8. Sen. Nate Blouin48:18

     Yeah. Need to make sure everyone's aware of the short Title Enforcement activities amendments. Uh, so gimme the motion one more time. Senator, Uh, motion to lift SB 1 36 Enforcement Activities amendments to the floor.

  9. Senate President (presiding)48:30

     Thank you. And that's a motion to lift a bill that's been tabled. I think that bill was tabled in committee maybe to give. And Senator Weiler can help me to give the the body a little bit of an explanation once a bill is tabled in committee.

  10. Sen. Todd Weiler48:43

      The next committee meeting after it's tabled, if it's not lifted from the the table, it actually comes back to this, uh, body. I reread it in I think last week and actually sent it back to rules in order to lift a bill that's been tabled in committee from rules. It takes a two thirds majority of this body that motion's in order.

  11. Senate President (presiding)49:02

      Senator Weiler any further explanation?

  12. Sen. Todd Weiler49:04

      Yeah, I, I, I would speak against the bill. I I understand the good senator's passion for this issue, but, um, the committee didn't just vote against the bill. They, they chose the, the stronger option of, of tabling it. And, um, uh, so this is a bill that had a negative action and committee. If we did lift it and it passed the Senate by some miracle, I don't know that the house, uh, would consider it under these circumstances, but this motion is, is an order, but it, it would violate all of our procedures, especially for week three in the session. So I would speak against the motion.

  13. Senate President (presiding)49:35

      Thank you. Further discussion on the motion. Senator Fillmore, you have no Senator Blue. And let me give you a little help too. My asum assumption is you'll probably want division on this after we make, after I call the motion. If so, five or more standing will be in division after. So Senator Blue and any summation before I call the motion?

  14. Sen. Nate Blouin49:54

      Yeah. Can I speak to the motion? Oh yeah,

  15. Senate President (presiding)49:56

      Go ahead. I thought you had,

  16. Sen. Nate Blouin49:57

      Yeah. This was a bill that we heard a couple of weeks ago. Uh, it was doing three things. It was preventing, uh, to the best of our ability federal law enforcement agent agents from, uh, wearing face coverings as they were pursuing folks, uh, we just saw the other day, uh, a business in West Valley City was essentially broken into by CBP and pursuit, uh, of a man who was worried that he was getting chased by, uh, anonymous folks. Uh, I don't think this is appropriate and we see these overreaches happening all across the country. Uh, this sort of coordination is something we need to prevent. We need to protect our communities. And I think given the, the murder of Alex Preti in Minneapolis in the subsequent days since this bill was heard, there's new act, there's new evidence out there of a discussion that we had on this bill about warrantless searches being performed. And so we should all be concerned about what we're seeing here. We should be concerned, uh, about the loss of our sovereignty as a state and the law enforcement actions of a federal government that is out of control. And so I think this bill is worth reconsidering.

  17. Senate President (presiding)50:56

      Thank you. And I'm gonna go ahead and place the motion now. Having, uh, that I'll take that as summation. All in favor of lifting Senate bill 1 36 from rules and placing it back on the second reading count the bottom of the second reading calendar. Say aye. Aye. Those opposed, opposed. Roll. That motion fails. Now I assume you want division if you'd like it.

  18. Unknown speaker51:25speaker not certain

      Sure. Let's call division. Okay.

  19. Senate President (presiding)51:26

      Five or more Standing one, two are the, is the back row standing? Okay. I want to make sure sometimes you are something. We have five or more are standing. So, uh, we're in division. All those in favor? Please stand of the motion please. Stand. Looks like we have five. Those opposed please stand. We have the rest of the body. I don't need to count 'em. I'll rule the motion fails. Thank you. That again concludes our work. Senator Cullimore.

  20. Sen. Kirk A. Cullimore52:01

      Thank you President. As we know today is Weber State Day on the Hill. Uh, Senator Millner is already off enjoying

• Feb 12, 2026 House Health and Human Services Committee▶ Watch
  Transcript (28 turns)

  1. Committee chair2:11:47

     dosage amendments. Senator Plumb, thank you for joining us today.

  2. Sen. Jen Plumb2:12:00

     Thank you for having me. I came from Senate judiciary and I anticipated this room to be more intimidating. This is a nice little kind Of calm No, we're like just calm. End of the week. We're nice and chill over here. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, come on y'all. I love it. Flipping The scripts. We're just excited about anesthesia over here. Yeah. Awesome. Let me just quick get this, you know, I didn't realize when I navigated today as Princess Leia that it would be quite as hard to carry things. So gimme one second to pull this one up. So first we're gonna talk about Senate Bill 50. Correct. Okay. So Senate Bill 50, um, came out of some contact that I had from some colleagues that are in the surgical and anesthesia space. And they were concerned about a bill, or it wasn't really a bill, I'm sorry, a policy that had been put through by, um, blue Cross Blue Shield, um, about a year, a little over a year ago. That limited the amount of payments on anesthesia services two times per procedure. So if you can imagine if things were really predictable in life and you could say, well, this always takes 15 to 18 minutes and this always takes 25 to 28 minutes, and this always takes 35 to 38 minutes. That there might be some wisdom in that. Right. Trying to standardize, trying to keep the costs in a, in a knowledgeable space or a known space, I should say. But when it comes to providing anesthesia services for someone who's undergoing a surgical procedure, things just aren't that simple. And even in a common procedure, um, that say an appendectomy or a tonsillectomy, not specifically targeting Dr. Barlow there, Senator Bar or Representative Barlow there, but depending on the patient, depending on their medical history, depending even on the color of their hair, there can be differences in the way that anesthesia reacts with their body and how long the procedure takes. And sometimes there's complications during a procedure. You know, unfortunately, if a bleed happens and there needs to be extra time spent in there, you want your surgeon and your anesthesiologist to be focusing on your safety, not on a clock. And keep in mind that they are already watching the clock because they don't wanna keep people down any longer than is necessary. But that should be up to the clinicians in keeping the patient safe. And I don't, the worst case scenario I can picture in my mind is a scenario where, um, an anesthesiologist were saying, you about got this, you about got this, you gotta be wrapping it up. We can only go for two more minutes and that just wouldn't be right for patient safety. So this bill is really pretty simple. All that it basically says is that you cannot, uh, base your payment for an anesthesia service or deny payment for that service based solely on a time limitation. And that's the gist of the bill. Alright. Does that conclude your presentation? It does.

  3. Committee chair2:14:58

     Thank you. Awesome. Thank you. We'll go to the committee for, um, clarifying questions.

  4. Unknown speaker2:15:05speaker not certain

     I'm, I'm not seeing any, I don't have a question more of a, a statement. I've, I've worked in surgery as a, as a, as a nurse for several years, not currently. But, um, I'm glad that you mentioned the safety piece to this. 'cause I think sometimes you can look at this and say, yeah, the faster the surgery is, the better things will go. But sometimes it's not the safest option to just speed through something. There's lots of things that happen Yeah. Within a surgery. And, and so I can appreciate that. I think that, um, this is a good, um, direction of, of just ensuring that patients are safe and covered by their insurances. So, so thank you. Yeah. Thank you.

  5. Committee chair2:15:39

     I, I do have a couple questions or comments here with Representative Acton.

  6. Rep. Cheryl K. Acton2:15:45

     This is, um, so you're saying they could keep the, the dosages on hand not to be thrown away?

  7. Unknown speaker2:15:53speaker not certain

     Not this bill. I'm sorry. Okay. That's why I'm so confused. Okay. So this is not the right bill. I'm looking at the next bill. Teamwork dream work. I love It. Oh, okay. So

  8. Rep. Cheryl K. Acton2:16:01

     this bill, can you explain the last sentence that you said?

  9. Sen. Jen Plumb2:16:05

     I sure. Kind of missed the end of it. Okay. So this, essentially what the bill does is it prohibits a health plan from denying payment for anesthesia services based only on a preset time limitation.

  10. Rep. Cheryl K. Acton2:16:18speaker not certain

      Oh, okay. Yes, I remember that.

  11. Sen. Jen Plumb2:16:19

      So it essentially says, yes, we cannot make it so that everyone has to do an appendectomy in 20 minutes or a tonsillectomy in seven minutes, or it, it has to be based on what's best and what the outcome is for the patient, not just on time.

  12. Rep. Cheryl K. Acton2:16:32speaker not certain

      Okay. Thank you. You're welcome.

  13. Committee chair2:16:34

      And then Representative Barlow.

  14. Rep. Stewart E. Barlow2:16:36

      Thank you Mr. Chairman. Yeah. I think this is, uh, still an issue with managed care in particular, that, uh, there, you know, doctors and teams who are put on the time.

  15. Sen. Jen Plumb2:16:50

      It's true. So I applaud you for bringing this forward.

  16. Rep. Stewart E. Barlow2:16:52

      Thank you. And one last question. Is it true that, uh, redheads bleed easier?

  17. Sen. Jen Plumb2:16:57

      I'm telling you, I don't know about the bleed easier, but they, an they, uh, metabolize some drugs like nobody else. You might be able to speak into it from both surgeon and patient perspective, but red heads will go through medications like nobody understands why, but they cut through medications quicker. They need more pain meds, they need bigger anesthesia doses. It's a, it's a thing.

  18. Rep. Stewart E. Barlow2:17:17

      Yeah. Yeah. Well, the, the doctors and certainly the staffs are aware of this and Yeah. And, uh, you know, need to, you know, guidance and direction Yeah. In performing these operations and, and procedures. So, absolutely. Good Bill.

  19. Committee chair2:17:35

      Absolutely. All right. I'm not seeing anything else from the committee.

  20. Committee chair2:17:37

      We'll go to the public. Is there anyone in the room that wants to speak to this? Looks like we have Juab. Anybody online. Okay. Just, you know, the routine. Yeah, I know the drill.

  21. Maryann Martindale, Utah Academy of Family Physicians2:17:48

      Thank you. Maryanne Martindale, Utah Academy of Family Physicians. Um, we support this as an organization. This is a really good move. Um, it is an unfortunate situation if a patient or a physician finds themselves in a position where they have to speed up something that's, um, due to this, uh, unit calculation that they have. That's, that's, you know, generic. Um, but from a personal perspective, I just wanna share an experience I had. I, I'm not a redhead, as you can see. Um, maybe it's the Irish, but I'm metabolize, um, anesthetic very quickly. I'm the one that as I'm driving out of the dentist's office, I feel have complete feeling in my mouth. Um, I felt halfway through my cesarean section with my first daughter and they had to really, you know, like nail me all the way down. And, um, it was not pleasant. It was, it was a really unfortunate situation. It was the first time I'd had major surgery, so I didn't understand that that was gonna be the same impact. And I had the insurance bill me for additional anesthetic and had to have the, I had to go jump through hoops and have the anesthesiologist contact them and explain the situation and why they had had to dose me. Now, my second child, when I had also a c-section, I had different insurance and didn't have that issue. So this is one of those things that's not consistent and that's a real problem. So I just encourage you to support this. This is a good bill. Thank you.

  22. Committee chair2:19:10

      Thank you. Appreciate it. Alright, we will close public comment and return to the committee for discussion or action on the bill. Representative gracious.

  23. Rep. Stephanie Gricius2:19:19

      Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd move that we favorably recommend Senate Bill 50.

  24. Committee chair2:19:24

      All right. That motion is in order. Um, the, the motion by representative gracious is to favor favorably recommend Senate Bill 87 or nope, 50. We're all just getting excited about 87 here. Apparently. We might have been talking About, lemme start over. So the motion is that we favorably recommend Senate Bill 50, um, to the bill sponsor on the motion.

  25. Rep. Stephanie Gricius2:19:47

      Uh, i, I waive summation and appreciate your time.

  26. Committee chair2:19:49

      Okay. To the committee, not seeing any back to the maker of the motion.

  27. Rep. Stephanie Gricius2:19:53

      Um, thank you. I do just wanna say for a minute, this is actually, um, something that could have been an issue in my life just in the last couple of weeks. Um, a relative, near and dear to me ended up undergoing a seven and a half hour procedure that was scheduled to last about four. He had to have three different surgeons come in to get what they were trying to do, all finished up, um, and ended up with four surgeons total. And it was an ordeal. We weren't sure based on age and medical condition, if he'd even survive. He did. He's thriving colors back in his cheeks and he's eating all of the cheesecake available in the rehab center. Um, but with the amount of time that that was scheduled to be versus what ended up happening with those doctors ending at one 30 in the morning, um, I absolutely see the need for this and I would really urge the committee's support.

  28. Committee chair2:20:46

      Awesome. Thank you. See no further discussion. We'll now vote on the motion to favorably recommend Senate Bill 50. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Say No, that is unanimous. Congratulations. Thanks.

• Feb 18, 2026 House floor debate▶ Watch
  Transcript (3 turns)

  1. Reading clerk21:53

     Senate Bill 50 Anesthesia Dosage Amendments by Senator Plumb. This bill was heard in Health and Human Services with the vote. 9 0 5. The House sponsors Representative Hall. Representative Hall.

  2. Rep. Katy Hall22:05

     Thank you Mr. Speaker. This bill would require health insurance plans in Utah to cover medically necessary anesthesia services for, for procedures they already cover without denying payments solely based on preset time limits. What this does is it protects patients from being rushed through procedures and allows physicians and an anesthesiologists to make decisions based on medical need and based on what they know is the best care. Um, this has a zero fiscal note and, uh, unanimous support. And that's the bill. Thanks.

  3. Speaker (presiding)22:40

     Thank you. Representative Hall. Discussion to the bill. See none back to your Representative Hall for summation. I'll waive summation has been waived. We now be open on SB 50. Representative Snider, would you like to vote? Seen all present having voted voting is now closed. SB 50 passes this body with 66 Yes votes one no vote and will be sent to the Senate. Signed by the speaker and sent to the Senate for the signature of the President. Okay. Representatives, this will be the last bill on the Senate Third reading calendar, and then we'll be moving to the House Third Reading calendar. So let's go to Madam Reading Clerk for items on the house, or sorry, on the Senate Third Reading calendar.