Florida Insurance Council - Covering Florida Since 1962
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel On March 23, 2017, the House passed the bill to overhaul the state group health insurance program primarily along party lines, with the Democrats voting against the bill. Overhaul of the state group health insurance program in this manner has been a priority of Speaker Corcoran’s for the past…
By: Sam Miller, FIC Consultant (HB 1397, SB 406, SB 614, SB 1388, SB 1666, SB 1758) It is bound to come up at some point, but a 90-minute workshop by the Senate Health Policy Committee March 22 on implementation of Amendment #2 on medical marijuana focused on the number of producers, access by minors…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel A bill designed to update regulation of discount medical plan organizations (DMPOs) was approved by the House Health and Human Services Committee on March 23, 2017 without amendment. HB 577 will now be heard on the House floor when set by the Rules Committee. The Senate companion, SB 430,…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel For the third week in a row, the Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee postponed a vote on his own bill during his committee meeting because he doesn’t have the votes to pass it. The postponed bill, SB 262, is a bill heavily supported by doctors and the trial…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The state group health insurance program would be substantially changed under a bill set for a vote by the full House next week. The House heard the bill, HB 7007, on the floor on March 22, 2017. It will vote on the bill the next time it is in…
By: Sam Miller, FIC Consultant Sen. Aaron Bean’s bill (CS/SB 430) promoting discount medical plans and “saving money and doing other great things” was advanced March 21 by the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Health & Human Services. It now goes to the full Appropriations Committee, its last stop before the Senate floor. A similar House…
By: Sam Miller, FIC Consultant Former Senate President Tom Lee’s bill (CS/CS/SB 240) to promote direct primary care and specify it is not regulated insurance passed the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Health & Human Services March 21, moving it to the full Appropriations Committee and probably the full Senate after that. A similar bill (CS/HB…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The House health insurance right to shop bill, HB 449, passed a House appropriations subcommittee on March 21, 2017. The only change made by the committee to the bill was to appropriate $75,000 from the Insurance Regulatory Trust Fund to OIR to help defray their costs to implement the…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel HB 723 by Dr. Gonzalez received approval from its first House committee, Health Quality, on March 15, 2017. The bill would prohibit insurers from requiring physicians maintain board certification as a condition of payment. It also prohibits health care facilities and others from requiring maintenance of certification as a…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel For the second week in a row, the Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee postponed a vote on his own bill during his committee meeting because he doesn’t have the votes to pass it. The postponed bill, SB 262, is a bill heavily supported by doctors and the trial…