Florida Insurance Council - Covering Florida Since 1962
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel On March 9, 2020, the House passed their PBM regulation bill (HB 7045) with a vote of 118-0. The bill now goes to the Senate for approval. The Senate PBM bill, SB 1338 did not clear all its assigned committees, so to pass, it will have to be…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The House organ transplant bill, HB 1187, passed the full House on March 9, 2020 by a vote of 117-0. The House bill will now be sent to the Senate for approval. The Senate bill is on Special Order, so the bill is in position for passage. However,…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The Agency for Healthcare Administration (AHCA) agency bill contains two insurance related provisions – one revising medical clinic licensing law and one revising the shared savings law. The full House approved their bill, HB 731 on March 9, 2020 and sent the bill to the Senate for approval. The…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel On March 6, 2020, with a vote of 88-18, the House passed HB 389 which greatly expands the scope of practice for pharmacists. The bill now goes to the Senate for approval. SB 714, the Senate companion bill, has cleared all its committees, but is very different from…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel On March 3, 2020, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved SB 1676, an amended bill related to a direct care workers that includes language prohibiting health plans and HMOs from requiring insureds to receive medical care from a APRN – Independent Practitioner (IP), from using an insured’s cost sharing responsibility…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel During its meeting on March 3, 2020, the Senate Appropriations Committee expanded the Senate consultant pharmacist bill, SB 1094, over objections from the physician community. However, there are still differences with the House expanded scope of pharmacy practice bills which have to be worked out. The Committee adopted a…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel SB 1726 tweaks the health insurance shared savings program and is contained in the Agency for Healthcare Administration agency package which contains other non-insurance related provisions related to the agency. It passed its last committee on March 3, 2020 without amendment. It will now be heard on the Senate floor…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The air ambulance balance billing prohibition is poised to pass the Legislature this Session. On February 20, 2020, the House passed its air ambulance bill (HB 747) with a vote of 117-0. The Senate passed their bill (SB 736) out of its last committee on March 2, 2020 with…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel After lengthy testimony and debate, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved the Senate pharmacist test and treat bill on February 27, 2020. This was the last committee stop for the bill. Some Senators expressed concern for patient safety and misdiagnosis by pharmacists and wondered if the bill would lead…