---
type: "Bill"
title: "Advanced, metastatic cancer; delete repealer on prohibition against health plans requiring step therapy before covering certain drugs to treat."
description: "Advanced, metastatic cancer; delete repealer on prohibition against health plans requiring step therapy before covering certain drugs to treat."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ms"
legislature: "Mississippi Legislature"
session: "2026"
identifier: "HB 856"
citation: "Mississippi HB 856 (2026)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Insurance", "Public Health and Human Services"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Felsher"]
version_count: 3
action_count: 11
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2026-01-16T06:00:00+00:00"
last_action: "2026-03-16T05:00:00+00:00"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/ba390003-50be-4a1a-871b-d684e0ac7638"
source_url: "http://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/2026/pdf/House_authors/Felsher.xml"
source_hash: "ab0bd8d374d97913b0cd330b0fb4dd507d469da8a9104e30c9c62bb043cff24c"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ms"]
---

# Mississippi HB 856 (2026) — Advanced, metastatic cancer; delete repealer on prohibition against health plans requiring step therapy before covering certain drugs to treat.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **As Introduced** (filed) — [source](http://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/documents/2026/html/HB/0800-0899/HB0856IN.htm)
2. **As Passed the lower** (committee substitute) — [source](http://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/documents/2026/html/HB/0800-0899/HB0856PS.htm)
3. **Current version** (committee substitute) — [source](http://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/documents/2026/html/HB/0800-0899/HB0856SG.htm)

## Votes

- Passage — **122–0** (pass) · lower
- Passage — **51–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Felsher — primary (person)
- Scott — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2026-01-16T06:00:00+00:00** Referred To Public Health and Human Services `referral-committee`
- **2026-01-28T06:00:00+00:00** Title Suff Do Pass `committee-passage`
- **2026-02-04T06:00:00+00:00** Passed `passage`
- **2026-02-05T06:00:00+00:00** Transmitted To Senate `introduction`
- **2026-02-13T06:00:00+00:00** Referred To Insurance `referral-committee`
- **2026-02-26T06:00:00+00:00** Title Suff Do Pass `committee-passage`
- **2026-03-04T06:00:00+00:00** Passed `passage`
- **2026-03-05T06:00:00+00:00** Returned For Enrolling
- **2026-03-06T06:00:00+00:00** Enrolled Bill Signed
- **2026-03-09T05:00:00+00:00** Enrolled Bill Signed
- **2026-03-16T05:00:00+00:00** Approved by Governor `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/ba390003-50be-4a1a-871b-d684e0ac7638`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Mississippi legislature records).