House Bill 662's original text applies to judicial officials and their immediate family, allowing them to make written requests to not have information such as addresses, phone numbers, and email publicly posted. Under the bill, the request must be honored within 72 hours.
But a new version presented in committee adds language surrounding medical procedures and those who sign off on them.
"In terms of the signator on these denial letters, I think it's important to protect the identity publicly, for the reasons that (sponsor Rep. John Blanton) stated, with the United CEO being murdered, and and that public kind of doxxing," Rep. Kim Moser said, during discussion of the updated version.
But Moser went on to say the bill needs clearer language to ensure hospitals know who they're dealing with.
Lexington Democrat Lindsey Burke questioned how parties involved might monitor and expose those abusing the system behind the scenes.
"Will there be some person within that provider community who would be... taking an investigative role or a journalistic role and looking at patterns of denials, so that we don't find that there's one bad actor who's consistently denying things that otherwise would be approved?" she asked.
The director of advocacy for the Kentucky Medical Association said physicians act as strong advocates for their patients.
The bill advanced out of committee, but several lawmakers and the bill's sponsor said that more work is needed before the measure should pass.
The latest version of the legislation, including the new language, is part of what's called a "committee substitute" — often introduced at hearings but not immediately published. WUKY requested the text of the committee substitute to clarify who is covered under the changes, but was told to wait for the text to appear online.
This story will be updated.