In Early May, 2026, two bills were heard before the Rhode Island Legislature relating to insurance coverage of Certified Lactation Counselors (CLCs) who are licensed by the state.

House Bill 8175 focused on Medicaid insurance coverage and would mandate Medicaid coverage for services provided by licensed CLCs in Rhode Island. This bill, sponsored by Representative Stewart, would ensure that the reimbursement rate for CLCs would be comparable to other maternal and child health providers, and also would prohibit imposing unique supervision or referral requirements for licensed CLCs.

Meanwhile, Senate Bill 2383 focused on private and public health insurers - requiring both types of policies to cover services provided by licensed CLCs. The Senate bill, introduced by Senator Mack would also prohibit insurers from requiring supervision or referral by another health care provider as a condition of reimbursement for lactation counselor services, unless such requirements apply to other provider categories.

Both of the proposed bills would require health insurers to annually report utilization and cost information for covered lactation counselor services to the office of the health insurance commissioner, which is a beneficial component for collecting public health data in Rhode Island.

These two bills were heard early in May before their respective Committees and have since been held for further study. This does not indicate that the bills will not pass this session, but does delay the process. To the best of our understanding, this vote of the committees means an indefinite postponement at this time. ALPP will continue to monitor the progress and status of these two, important public health bills.