republic-os/legislation/us/states/de/153/sb-238.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 24, TITLE 29, AND TITLE 31 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO INSURANCE COVERAGE FOR CHIROPRACTIC THERAPY AND PHYSICAL THERAPY."
description: "In Delaware, all individual health insurance policies, all group and blanket health insurance policies, the State employee health insurance plan, and Medicaid are required to cover chiropractic and physical therapy treatment for chronic back pain without annual or lifetime numerical limits on physical therapy or chiropractic care visits. To evaluate the effectiveness of this coverage requirement, the Patient Centered Care Subcommittee of the Addiction Action Committee, under the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services, sent a survey to chiropractic therapy and physical therapy providers in Delaware. Although the survey showed that the coverage requirement has improved treatment of chronic pain patients, the survey also showed that the coverage requirement provides supportive chronic pain treatment for only the thoracic region of the spine, which is the middle of the spine from the base of the neck to the bottom of the ribs, and the lumbar region of the spine, which is the lower back. The treatment of chronic pain through chiropractic supportive care, physical therapy, or both, can prevent a patient from requiring opioid pain medications or more expensive treatments, but excluding vital areas of the spine and body from coverage may limit the effectiveness of chiropractic therapy and physical therapy treatment and limits a chronic pain patient’s potential for improvement."
jurisdiction: "us/states/de"
legislature: "Delaware General Assembly"
session: "153"
identifier: "SB 238"
citation: "Delaware SB 238 (153)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Brian Pettyjohn", "Bryan Townsend", "Claire Snyder-Hall", "Dave G. Lawson", "David L. Wilson", "David P. Sokola", "Eric Morrison", "Franklin D. Cooke", "John \"Jack\" Walsh", "Laura V. Sturgeon", "Lyndon D. Yearick", "Mara Gorman", "Marie Pinkney", "Melanie Ross Levin", "Ray Seigfried", "Russell Huxtable", "Sarah McBride", "Stell Parker Selby", "William Bush"]
version_count: 2
action_count: 13
vote_count: 3
first_action: "2026-02-19"
last_action: "2026-04-28"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/6fa6a87e-87d1-4992-b8e2-331b38091b42"
source_url: "https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=142863"
source_hash: "6622737bc102302d45373659457be7b881ad28ab05e0c6fe46c16deca4df9b77"
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-de"]
---

# Delaware SB 238 (153) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 24, TITLE 29, AND TITLE 31 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO INSURANCE COVERAGE FOR CHIROPRACTIC THERAPY AND PHYSICAL THERAPY.

In Delaware, all individual health insurance policies, all group and blanket health insurance policies, the State employee health insurance plan, and Medicaid are required to cover chiropractic and physical therapy treatment for chronic back pain without annual or lifetime numerical limits on physical therapy or chiropractic care visits. To evaluate the effectiveness of this coverage requirement, the Patient Centered Care Subcommittee of the Addiction Action Committee, under the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services, sent a survey to chiropractic therapy and physical therapy providers in Delaware. Although the survey showed that the coverage requirement has improved treatment of chronic pain patients, the survey also showed that the coverage requirement provides supportive chronic pain treatment for only the thoracic region of the spine, which is the middle of the spine from the base of the neck to the bottom of the ribs, and the lumbar region of the spine, which is the lower back. The treatment of chronic pain through chiropractic supportive care, physical therapy, or both, can prevent a patient from requiring opioid pain medications or more expensive treatments, but excluding vital areas of the spine and body from coverage may limit the effectiveness of chiropractic therapy and physical therapy treatment and limits a chronic pain patient’s potential for improvement.

## Version chain

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

1. **HA 1 to SB 238** (committee substitute) — [source](http://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GeneratePdfDocument?legislationId=143170&legislationTypeId=5&docTypeId=2)
2. **SA 1 to SB 238** (committee substitute) — [source](http://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GeneratePdfDocument?legislationId=142929&legislationTypeId=5&docTypeId=2)

## Votes

- SM — **16–0** (pass) · upper
- SM — **20–0** (pass) · upper
- SM — **33–3** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Brian Pettyjohn — primary (person)
- Bryan Townsend — primary (person)
- Claire Snyder-Hall — primary (person)
- Dave G. Lawson — primary (person)
- David L. Wilson — primary (person)
- David P. Sokola — primary (person)
- Eric Morrison — primary (person)
- Franklin D. Cooke — primary (person)
- John "Jack" Walsh — primary (person)
- Laura V. Sturgeon — primary (person)
- Lyndon D. Yearick — primary (person)
- Mara Gorman — primary (person)
- Marie Pinkney — primary (person)
- Melanie Ross Levin — primary (person)
- Ray Seigfried — primary (person)
- Russell Huxtable — primary (person)
- Sarah McBride — primary (person)
- Stell Parker Selby — primary (person)
- William Bush — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2026-02-19** Introduced and Assigned to Health & Social Services Committee in Senate `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2026-03-11** Reported Out of Committee (Health & Social Services) in Senate with 7 Favorable, 1 On Its Merits `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2026-03-11** Amendment SA 1 to SB 238 - Introduced and Placed With Bill `amendment-introduction`
- **2026-03-26** Amendment SA 1 to SB 238 - Passed By Senate. Votes: 19 YES 2 ABSENT `amendment-passage`
- **2026-03-26** Passed By Senate. Votes: 20 YES 1 ABSENT `passage`
- **2026-04-09** Assigned to Economic Development/Banking/Insurance & Commerce Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2026-04-21** Reported Out of Committee (Economic Development/Banking/Insurance & Commerce) in House with 12 On Its Merits `committee-passage`
- **2026-04-23** Amendment HA 1 to SB 238 - Introduced and Placed With Bill `amendment-introduction`
- **2026-04-23** Amendment HA 1 to SB 238 - Passed In House by Voice Vote `amendment-passage`
- **2026-04-23** Passed By House. Votes: 33 YES 3 NO 5 ABSENT `passage`
- **2026-04-23** Suspension of Rules in Senate
- **2026-04-23** Passed By Senate. Votes: 16 YES 5 ABSENT `passage`
- **2026-04-28** Signed 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/6fa6a87e-87d1-4992-b8e2-331b38091b42`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).