NC Senate Committee Passes ‘Right to Try’ Expansion and Other Health Care Regulations

State lawmakers want to expand North Carolina’s trial drug law, which allows some patients to try experimental drugs or treatments.

The legislature passed the first “Right to Try” law in 2015. It allows doctors to provide certain drugs and treatments not approved by the Federal Medicines Agency. Only patients with terminal or life-threatening conditions are eligible.

The bill, which passed its first vote in a Senate committee on Wednesday, would expand the law to new genomic and genetic treatments.

“These are treatments that are still in the research and experimental stages,” said Sen. Benton Sawrey, R-Johnston, the bill’s sponsor. “So they didn’t get some of the necessary tests. There is an example of a drug used to treat a rare brain disease that has been approved in Europe since 2020. Patients are currently leaving the United States and going to Europe to undergo genetic treatment and then I will come back.”

The bill would not require insurance to cover the cost of experimental treatments, and the manufacturer of a drug or treatment would not be legally liable in the event of a patient’s death. Nobody spoke against the bill.

‘Health Care Flexibility Act’ faces opposition

However, another health care bill caused controversy and a long discussion at Wednesday’s meeting of the Senate Health Committee.

House Bill 681, in its original form that passed the House, would add North Carolina to a multistate compact that allows doctors licensed in other states to practice medicine here. Rep. Tim Reeder, R-Pitt, and a physician himself, said the change would help address health care shortages by bringing more doctors here.

This provision has bipartisan support, but the Senate has now added other health care law changes to the bill, now titled the Health Care Flexibility Act.

One of the new provisions would allow experienced nurses to practice without medical supervision. The proposal is similar to the long-awaited “SAVE Act,” which would expand the eligibility of advanced practice nurses but has been met with opposition from physicians.

“More than half the country regulates nurse employment this way, so we would join the vast majority of states,” said Sen. Gale Adcock, D-Wake, a nurse practitioner.

Other provisions of the bill concern unexpected medical settlements, regulations on fees in health care facilities and rules of work of anesthesiologists.

Representatives from various health care industry groups expressed concern or support for the proposal, and Sen. Mike Woodard, R-Durham, said he believed the legislation needed more work.

“I felt like this cake wasn’t completely baked yet, so we weren’t ready to start cutting and serving it yet,” he said. “But in this format, it’s nothing I can support.”

The bill ultimately passed out of committee, with supporters noting that further amendments are possible before it goes to final passage. Changes to care laws are likely to face hurdles in the House, which has not supported similar legislation in years.