Bill
SB 1720
Arizona SB 1720 expands clozapine access by requiring insurers and correctional facilities to cover monitoring, support services, and treatment protocols for patients, including in
Note: The provided document appears to include text from two distinct bills that share the identifier SB 1720 in different states. One is an Arizona bill that creates insurer and corrections-system requirements for access to the antipsychotic drug clozapine. The other is an Illinois technical amendment to the Public Building Commission Act. This summary treats them separately.
Status: Introduced February 27, 2025; referred to Assignments (Arizona Senate, 57th Legislature, 1st Reg. Sess.). Sponsors: Sen. Lauren Kuby (primary) and Sen. Catherine Miranda (cosponsor).
Purpose
- To improve access to clozapine (an antipsychotic used for treatment‑resistant schizophrenia) and to require insurers, jails, and prison providers to cover supports and protocols associated with safe clozapine use.
Key provisions
- Adds a new chapter to Title 20 (Health Insurer Treatment for Psychiatric Disorders) with definitions for “health insurer,” “participating provider,” “provider,” and “subscriber.”
- Reimbursement and service requirements for health insurers (20-2002):
- Psych visits for patients on clozapine may be billed at the highest complexity level; insurers may not cap visit frequency.
- For the first 12 months of clozapine treatment, psychiatric examinations receive an enhanced case rate — 30% above the highest complexity visit — to cover administrative and care‑management tasks.
- Coverage required for medical weight management to address clozapine‑induced weight/metabolic effects.
- Coverage for specialty interventions (e.g., botulinum toxin injections) for refractory sialorrhea.
- Access to less‑invasive hematologic monitoring (e.g., finger‑stick ANC devices), including individual devices on request as a reasonable disability accommodation; coverage of associated clinical assistance and supplies.
- Mobile phlebotomy services available on request for required hematologic testing.
- Genetic testing as needed to identify benign ethnic neutropenia or genetic risk factors that affect monitoring frequency and ANC parameters.
- Emergency out‑of‑cycle clozapine dispensing allowed upon request.
- Insurers must identify participating providers underutilizing clozapine (e.g., prescribers treating schizophrenia who are not prescribing clozapine) and notify them at least quarterly.
- Insurers must offer clozapine‑specific training covering barriers, management, adherence, and side effects.
- Additional supports for members with serious mental illness (SMI) or serious emotional disturbance (SED): in‑home hematologic monitoring, medication delivery/mail order when appropriate, and medication assistance supports (prompting, observation, administration, oversight), including on discharge from inpatient/residential settings.
- Inpatient behavioral health facilities with a pharmacy that serve psychiatric patients must keep clozapine in stock.
Who is affected
- Health insurers and their participating providers in Arizona.
- Patients/subscribers prescribed clozapine, particularly those with treatment‑resistant schizophrenia and SMI/SED designations.
- County jails, the Department of Corrections, and contracted private prison providers and incarcerated individuals receiving clozapine.
- Inpatient behavioral health facilities (stocking requirement).
Implementation & fiscal considerations
- The bill mandates enhanced reimbursement rates (explicitly +30% for 12 months) and new covered services (mobile phlebotomy, home monitoring, genetic testing, device supplies, specialty interventions). These provisions would affect insurer costs and potentially provider workflows. No specific state budget appropriation is set out in the text provided.
Status: Filed February 5, 2025; referred to Assignments (Illinois). Sponsor: Sen. Li Arellano, Jr.
Purpose & change
- Very limited, technical amendment to Section 1 of the Public Building Commission Act: corrects a redundancy in the short‑title sentence ("shall be known and and may be cited" changed to correct wording). No substantive policy change.
Who is affected
- No programmatic or fiscal effect; purely editorial/technical correction to statute language.
Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.
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