The civic record
Read. Follow. Verify.House Bill 944 Extends Bans on Insurance Step-Therapy Protocols for Advanced Cancer Drugs
Last action · February 3, 2026: 02/03 (H) Died In CommitteeSponsor: Fred Shanks
Track this bill to get notified when it advances a stage. One tap to stop, anytime.
What This Bill Proposed
House Bill 944 reenacts and extends restrictions preventing health benefit plans from requiring step-therapy or s before covering certain drugs, setting a new repeal date of July 1, 2029.
Extends insurance regulations governing whether cancer patients must try alternative medications before receiving prescribed treatments, affecting coverage timelines and clinical override processes.
Who It Would Have Affected
Groups the bill's text would have affected, as described in the record. Being affected is not a position for or against it.
Patients with advanced, metastatic cancer
Enrollees receive continued protection from being required to try and fail alternative drugs before health plans cover prescribed treatments for advanced cancer.
Insurers
Health benefit plan providers must continue to comply with restrictions on step-therapy protocols and maintain override processes through July 1, 2029.
Prescribing practitioners
Doctors and health care providers retain access to established override processes to request exceptions to insurer medication restrictions.
Key Facts
You don't have to trust us. Each fact below is taken straight from the official document - click any one to see the exact passage, highlighted in the original.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does this bill apply to all prescription drugs?
What is the new expiration date for these insurance restrictions?
Can a doctor override an insurer's step-therapy requirement?
What else do you want to know?
News Coverage
Follow the record
Votes, people, money & the original sourceWhere This Stands
This bill did not become law - Died in committee.
Procedural history
2 actions- Feb 3, 2026House02/03 (H) Died In Committee
- Jan 16, 2026HouseCommittee01/16 (H) Referred To Public Health and Human Services
Version history
Only one version on file - nothing to compare yet. As later stages (committee substitute, engrossed, enrolled) are captured, the redline appears here.
View official text →Lobbying Activity
No state lobbying filings in our records match this bill. Federal lobbying reports (LDA) cover Congress, so they are not listed on state bills.
Full breakdown
Who this bill affects and the strongest case for and against it, written only from the bill’s own text.
Sponsors
Connected Entities
Sources
billstatus.ls.state.ms.us
Analysis Score
0–100- Significance20Lowered because this bill did not pass (its text scored 60)
- Controversy30Intensity of disagreement among stakeholders
- Entertainment5Compellingness for a non-policy-wonk reader
- Buzz20Current news / social attention level
Publisher tools