Brain cancer treatment exemption passed by committee

February 9th, 2022- On January 26, AIM president and CEO Ray McCarty testified in favor of

HB 1864.This bill provides a sales tax exemption for sales of class III medical devices that use

electric fields for the purposes of treating cancer, including components and repair parts and

disposable or single patient use supplies required for the use of such supplies. Today the House

Ways and Means Committee voted do pass on the bill with a vote of 9-0 to move the bill

forward.

“Although most other medical devices, prescription drugs and similar items are exempt from

sales and use taxes, the Missouri Department of Revenue issued opinions that they do not believe

the current statute exempts the devices that we’re talking about,” Thomas said during a hearing

on the bill in the Ways and Means Committee. The measure is estimated to cost the state $70,000

in sales tax revenue in the coming fiscal year, according to an analysis by the Committee on

Legislative Research.

This is not the first time legislators are attempting to fix this Missouri law. Last year, it was an

amendment to Senate Bill 226, which Republican Gov. Mike Parson vetoed.

Ray McCarty, president and chief executive officer of Associated Industries of Missouri stated,

“This device has been certified as durable medical equipment,” McCarty continued, “However,

the way the language was added, if you read all to all the way to the end of the sentence, it refers

to 1980. The Missouri Department of Revenue decided that they needed to read that as if there

were no commas in the sentence and that meant the law we passed in 2016 exempting durable

medical equipment only applied to durable medical equipment that existed in 1980.”

The bill will now be considered by another committee before moving to the full Missouri House

for further debate.