O F F I C E O F L E G I S L A T I V E R E S E A R C H
P U B L I C A C T S U M M A R Y
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PA 21-57—SB 1008
Insurance and Real Estate Committee
AN ACT CONCERNING HE ALTH EQUITY, THE COR ONAVIRUS
PANDEMIC AND PULSE O XIMETERS
SUMMARY: This act requires the Department of Public Health (DPH), by
January 1, 2022, and in consultation with the Insurance Department, to develop
educational materials on pulse oximeters. (Pulse oximeters are electronic devices
that estimate the percentage of oxygen in a person’s blood and are typically
placed on a finger. There are both prescription and over-the-counter versions.)
Under the act, the educational materials must ensure that health care
providers, insurers, other health carriers, pharmacists, pharmacies, and pharmacy
benefits managers doing business in the state are informed that a pulse oximeter is
more likely to produce an inaccurate blood oxygen level reading for individuals of
color as compared to individuals who are white.
The act requires DPH and the Insurance Department, by July 1, 2022, to each
post these educational materials on its website. By this same date, they also must
distribute these materials, as follows:
1. DPH must distribute them to health care providers and pharmacies and to
in-state medical schools for dissemination to their students and
2. the Insurance Department must distribute them to health carriers and
pharmacy benefits managers.
The act prohibits certain insurers and others providing health insurance from
denying coverage for an otherwise covered benefit if the denial is exclusively
based on the insured’s blood oxygen level as measured by a pulse oximeter.
EFFECTIVE DATE: July 1, 2021, except the insurance coverage provision is
effective January 1, 2022.
APPLICABILITY OF INSURANCE COVERAGE PROVISION
The act’s insurance coverage provision applies to individual or group health
insurance policies delivered, issued, renewed, amended, or continued in
Connecticut on or after January 1, 2022, that cover (1) basic hospital expenses;
(2) basic medical-surgical expenses; (3) major medical expenses; or (4) hospital
or medical services, including those provided under an HMO plan. The act applies
to insurers, HMOs, hospital or medical service corporations, fraternal benefit
societies, or other entities providing this coverage. Because of the federal
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), state insurance benefit
mandates do not apply to self-insured benefit plans.