Florida Legislative Wrap-Up
 
August 1, 2000
 

The Florida Legislature passed several bills affecting health care. Below is a brief overview of some of them:

• Medicaid Prescription Drugs. The legislature imposed several restrictions on Medicaid prescription drugs, designed to achieve an estimated cost savings of $240 million.
• Seniors Drug Benefit Program. A new bill provides pharmaceutical expense assistance to seniors who have incomes between 90 and 120 percent of the federal poverty level, and who are not enrolled in a Medicare Health Maintenance Organization that provides a pharmacy benefit.
• Patient Protections. The legislature passed a managed care “patient protection” bill that, among other things, guarantees citizens with chronic illnesses standing referrals to specialists. The bill also prohibits an HMO from restricting patients’ access to inpatient services in a contracted hospital from a contracted primary care or admitting physician. Other recently passed legislation provides that only licensed physicians may render adverse determinations regarding services provided by a Florida-licensed physician.
• Biomedical Research. The legislature adopted a process to allocate proceeds to biomedical research from the Lawton Chiles Endowment Fund, which provides a perpetual funding source for biomedical research and various health and human services initiatives benefiting children and elders.
• Certificate of Need. A Certificate of Need (CON) bill passed this session identifies additional types of projects subject to expedited, rather than competitive, CON review. The bill eliminates CON oversight for the provision of respite care, expenditure for outpatient services, Medicare certified home health agencies, acquisitions, and cost overruns.