S. 464 117th Congress Senate

Safe Step Act

Official title: A bill to amend the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 to require a group health plan or health insurance coverage offered in connection with such… Show full official titleShow less

Official title: A bill to amend the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 to require a group health plan or health insurance coverage offered in connection with such a plan to provide an exceptions process for any medication step therapy protocol, and for other purposes.

Introduced: February 25, 2021 Introduced by: Lisa Murkowski Republican · Alaska See on congress.gov

Health Drug therapyEmployee benefits and pensionsHealth care costs and insuranceHealth care coverage and accessPrescription drugs

Everywhere this bill has been 2 steps

Introduced

In committee

Reported out

Passed House

Passed Senate

To President

Became law

Feb 25, 2021

Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

Feb 25, 2021

Introduced in Senate

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Latest action February 25, 2021

Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

Plain-English summary Congressional Research Service

Safe Step Act

This bill requires a group health plan to establish an exception to medication step-therapy protocol in specified cases. A medication step-therapy protocol establishes a specific sequence in which prescription drugs are covered by a group health plan or a health insurance issuer.

A request for such an exception to the protocol must be granted if (1) an otherwise required treatment has been ineffective, (2) such treatment is expected to be ineffective and delaying effective treatment would lead to irreversible consequences, (3) such treatment will cause or is likely to cause an adverse reaction to the individual, (4) such treatment is expected to prevent the individual from performing daily activities or occupational responsibilities, (5) the individual is stable based on the prescription drugs already selected, or (6) there are other circumstances as determined by the Employee Benefits Security Administration.

The bill requires a group health plan to implement and make readily available a clear process for an individual to request an exception to the protocol, including required information and criteria for granting an exception. The bill further specifies timelines under which plans must respond to such requests.

Related & companion bills 1

Bill text 1 version

Introduced in Senate Formatted Text PDF Formatted XML

Source documents hosted by congress.gov.

Committees of jurisdiction 1

Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee
Senate

Lobbying activity 4

Registered lobbyists who named this bill in their disclosure filings. Source: federal Lobbying Disclosure Act filings.

ALKERMES, INC.
for ALKERMES, INC. · Massachusetts · 4th Quarter 2025 (Oct 1 - Dec 31)
ALKERMES, INC.
for ALKERMES, INC. · Massachusetts · 3rd Quarter 2025 (July 1 - Sep 30)
ALKERMES, INC.
for ALKERMES, INC. · Massachusetts · 2nd Quarter 2025 (Apr 1 - June 30)
ALKERMES, INC.
for ALKERMES, INC. · Massachusetts · 1st Quarter 2025 (Jan 1 - Mar 31)

Bodies those filers lobbied

Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)
4 filings
Executive Office of the President (EOP)
4 filings
Health & Human Services, Dept of (HHS)
4 filings
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
4 filings
Justice, Dept of (DOJ)
4 filings
Natl Institutes of Health (NIH)
4 filings
Office of Natl Drug Control Policy (NDCP)
4 filings
SENATE
4 filings

A filing lists the bills it worked on and the parts of government it contacted in separate sections, so these are the bodies those filers named anywhere in the filing, not a per-bill breakdown.

Cosponsors 30