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FRANKFORT, Ky. (March 26, 2026) — During Thursday’s meeting of the Senate Veterans, Military Affairs and Public Protection Committee, legislators advanced a bill to further assist military veterans who are struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder.
House Bill 369 would create provisions in state law for veterans to receive hyperbaric oxygen therapy, said Rep. Scott Sharp, R-Ashland. “We’re trying to help veterans with the post-traumatic stress disorder using these chambers.”
The bill defines post-traumatic stress disorder and makes a veteran eligible for hyperbaric oxygen therapy if he or she has a diagnosis of PTSD that is attested to by the patient’s health care provider.
Sharp, a U.S. Army veteran, said the measure would not cost the state anything, but would provide a new option for veterans.
With Sharp was Eric Koleda, a U.S. Air Force veteran and president and cofounder of Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment for Kentucky Veterans.
Koleda testified that in 2018, the legislature passed a bill giving veterans with traumatic brain injuries access to the therapy. But at the time, there wasn’t enough research on hyperbaric oxygen treatment for PTSD.
“Since that passage, there have been over 28 clinical trials completed. There’s been a meta- analysis on eight of those 28, definitively defining medical evidence showing that hyperbaric oxygen therapy is healing up PTSD vets,” he said.
Sen. Aaron Reed, R-Shelbyville, said he’s a retired Navy SEAL, and he has several friends who have, “done this type of therapy and swear by it.”
Committee Chair Sen. Matthew Deneen, R-Elizabethtown, thanked Koleda for traveling to Frankfort to testify. He said that hyperbaric oxygen therapy chambers are being used at Baptist Health Hardin in Elizabethtown and they are doing a “wonderful job.”
HB 369 now heads to the full Senate.
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