Kansas may join 48 other states in allowing expedited partner therapy for STD treatment

Sen. Bill Clifford, a Republican ophthalmologist from Garden City, introduced legislation that would allow physicians to prescribe treatment for STDs to an infected patient's partner. Clifford is seen here during a Feb. 2, 2026, legislative hearing. (Photo by Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

TOPEKA — Kansas is one of two states that doesn’t allow expedited partner therapy for sexually transmitted disease, a practice that allows medical providers to prescribe treatment to an infected patient’s partner without requiring them to come in for an exam.

Patrick Allen, a doctor and medical school professor in Wichita, said expedited partner therapy would prevent reinfection, which can be a painful — and even life-threatening — experience. An STD, and especially reinfection, carries particularly serious risks for pregnant people.

Allen said within the past month he saw a patient who had a sexually transmitted infection while pregnant. An STI is the infection, and an STD refers to the disease the infection causes. Allen advised her and her partner to take antibiotics as treatment, but that didn’t happen. A week later, she returned to the hospital — her baby had not survived.

“Expedited partner therapy will not be a silver bullet, it will not solve all these problems, but it is a tool that we physicians need in order to prevent these devastating outcomes,” Allen testified Thursday before the House Health and Human Services Committee. “EPT works. It’s safe. We have 48 case studies ahead of us to reassure against any unintended consequences.”

Senate Bill 448 would allow medical providers to prescribe treatment to a patient’s partner without seeing the partner if they are “unlikely or unable to present for examination, testing and treatment.” The patient would receive counseling from the provider, and give their partner information about the treatment and possible side effects.

If the partner experiences an adverse side effect, the provider wouldn’t be liable.

Garden City Republican Sen. Bill Clifford, an ophthalmologist, and Coffeyville Republican Rep. Ron Bryce, a physician, both admitted they prescribe expedited partner therapy without the law in place.

“I’ll share a prison cell with Sen. Clifford. I’ve also done this,” Bryce said. “But one of the things I‘ve always worried about whenever I surreptitiously did expedited therapy was I don’t meet the patient I’m treating, I don’t know their medical record, I don’t know their allergies.”

Bryce was relieved when Ashley Goss, the deputy secretary for the Division of Public Health at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said if there have been adverse effects in the other 48 states, they have been “very few, very minor.”

The most common STIs are chlamydia and gonorrhea. Goss said there were 2,430 cases of gonorrhea in Kansas in 2025. Providers typically prescribe antibiotics as treatment, one of the most common medications worldwide.

A few legislators poked fun at Kansas for being nearly the last state to implement expedited partner therapy, along with South Dakota.

“It does not surprise me that we are the last two states in the union to do something smart like this,” said Lansing Republican Rep. David Buehler.

Rep. Emil Bergquist, a Park City Republican, said it’s probably because legislators have questions. He worried that an abuser, predator or incestuous  partner could use expedited partner therapy to hide the relationship and avoid detection.

Clifford, who introduced the bill, said all health care providers are mandated reporters.

“So if we suspect trafficking, or we suspect abuse, we’re going to report that,” Clifford said. “If somebody comes in and needs 10 prescriptions, we’re all going to ask a few more questions.”

“That’s a good answer,” Bergquist said.

There were no opponents to the bill at the hearing or in the Senate, where it cleared 40-0. Clifford said it has been “languishing in either chamber for probably a decade.”

Rep. Nikki McDonald, an Olathe Democrat, said she felt like she was in the movie “Groundhog Day,” where the protagonist relives the same day over and over again until he makes the right decision.

“Because surely we already did this,” McDonald said. “So I went and looked and it’s unanimously passed out of the Senate, so I would really hope we can rally our compatriots in the House to get this done. It’s really important.”