Florida Insurance Council - Covering Florida Since 1962
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel On April 3, 2019, the House moved their bill creating a voluntary health shared savings incentive program to the floor when it cleared its last committee. The Senate bill is also moving this year and is in its last committee. Thus, the shared savings bills are getting into position…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel A bill dealing with referrals from health care providers to hospitals and out of network providers passed its last committee on April 3, 2019. The only amendment to the bill changed the effective date of it. HB 863 prohibits health care providers from referring patients to any hospital in…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel On April 2, 2019, the Senate passed their bill to expand the current state group health insurance mandate for enteral formulas out of its second committee. The bill was not amended and has one committee left. The House and Senate are taking different approaches this year on…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel SB 1520 expands direct primary care The bill changes all statutory references of “direct primary care” to “direct health care” which authorizes direct care to be for medical services, including dental services, that are not only primary care. It maintains current law that direct health care agreements are not…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel SB 418, the Senate essential health benefits bill, is now in its last committee after passing the Senate Health Policy Committee on April 1, 2019. It was not amended by the Committee. The essential health benefits part of the bill provides more health insurance options for Floridians by permitting…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The Senate will mandate health insurance coverage for children’s hearing aids under a bill approved on April 1, 2019 by the Senate Health Policy Committee. The bill has one committee left. Currently, there is no mandated health insurance coverage for hearing aids for children. SB 572 would change that…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel HB 23 is described by the bill sponsor as a way to solve the health care provider workforce shortage in Florida. It allows over 35 types of Florida licensed health care providers to use telehealth within their scope of practice. It also allows out-of-state providers to use telehealth if…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel HB 111, expands the scope of practice for pharmacists in two different ways. One, it allows pharmacists to test for, screen for, and treat the flu, strep, and other non-chronic health conditions such as lice, skin conditions, and minor uncomplicated infections. The protocols for pharmacists testing and treating these…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel HB 7 expands direct primary care and is a priority bill of the House. By expanding direct primary care to more specialized medical services, the bill meets Speaker Oliva’s goal of increasing health care options to Floridians in order to reduce health care costs. The bill changes all statutory references…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel HB 1363, the House frozen formulary bill, was amended in committee on March 26, 2019 to lock in the pricing of drugs on the formulary for the plan year to prevent drug companies from taking advantage of the frozen formulary by increasing drug prices during the plan year when…