Bill > HB888

This bill revises the powers of local boards of health in Montana, primarily focusing on limitations related to isolation, quarantine, and medical interventions. The bill explicitly prohibits local boards of health from requiring vaccinations, medications, supplements, or drug treatments as a condition of release from an isolation or quarantine order. It maintains the existing provisions that prevent local health boards from compelling private businesses to deny customer access or imposing penalties on businesses for non-compliance with health directives. The bill preserves the local boards' ability to identify public health concerns, conduct investigations, and implement health measures, while adding specific restrictions on their authority to mandate medical treatments. An appropriation of $300 is included to notify local boards of health about these statutory changes, with the bill set to take effect on July 1, 2025. The key goal appears to be limiting the potential mandatory medical interventions that local health boards can impose during public health emergencies, particularly in response to communicable diseases, while still maintaining their broader public health oversight responsibilities.

Government Affairs

https://bills.legmt.gov/#/laws/bill/2/LC2683