Florida Insurance Council - Covering Florida Since 1962
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…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The House passed their organ transplant discrimination bill this week and sent the bill to the Senate for approval. On February 27, 2020, the Senate organ transplant discrimination bill cleared its last committee and the bill will next be heard on the Senate floor. Thus, the bill is…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel HB 1205 deals with disclosures from health care providers to patients when the cash price for a covered medical service is cheaper than the patient’s cost sharing obligation under health insurance. After hearing the bill on Special Order and rolling it to third reading and a vote, the full…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel After hearing the bill on Special Order and rolling it to third reading and a vote, the full House approved HB 1179, their organ transplant discrimination bill, on February 26, 2020 with a vote of 111-0. The bill now goes to the Senate for approval. The Senate organ transplant…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel Committees in the House and Senate both approved the Agency for Healthcare Administration (AHCA) agency bill during meetings this week after approving amendments to conform the bills and to add the shared savings bill to them. The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Health and Human Services approved the AHCA package,…