Summary:

The bill establishes the Office of Veteran Licensure Services within the Florida Department of Health, Division of Medical Quality Assurance to provide information, guidance, direction, and assistance with health care licensure processes for all veterans and their spouses. Additionally, the bill requires Veterans Florida to assist veterans and their spouses with access, training, education, and employment in Florida’s health care professions.

Summary:

The bill amends certain electronic health record statutes to ensure that such records are physically stored in the continental United States, United States territories, or Canada.

Summary:

The bill revises the definition of telehealth to include audio-only telephone call in the telehealth technology authorization statute.

Summary:

The bill expands caregiver authority to possess and administer emergency opioid antagonists by removing the criterion that a caregiver have recurring, rather than any, contact with a person at risk of overdose. The bill creates the Statewide Council on Opioid Abatement within the Department of Children and Families (DCF) to enhance the development and coordination of state and local efforts to abate the opioid epidemic and to support the victims of the opioid crisis. The bill requires each Florida College System institution and state university to have a supply of emergency opioid antagonists in clearly marked locations within residence halls and dormitory residences. The bill establishes guidance for such supplies, and provides civil and criminal immunity to campus law enforcement officers who administer or attempt to administer an emergency opioid antagonist.

Summary:

The bill addresses the transparency of a manufacturer’s prescription drug price increases above certain thresholds and the relationships between pharmacy benefit managers, pharmacy benefits plans and programs, and pharmacy providers for delivering pharmacy services to covered persons.

The bill requires prescription drug manufacturers and nonresident prescription drug manufacturers to disclose reportable prescription drug price increases. This information will be published on the Florida Health Finder website. A reportable prescription drug price increase refers to a prescription drug with a wholesale acquisition cost of at least $100 for a course of therapy before the effective date of the increase, and the bill requires the following to be reported:

• Any increase of 15 percent or more of the wholesale acquisition cost during the preceding 12-month period; or
• Any increase of 30 percent or more of the wholesale acquisition cost during the preceding three calendar years.

The bill requires pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) to obtain a certificate of authority for an administrator under the Florida Insurance Code (FIC) and makes them subject to existing and enhanced requirements as set forth in the bill under the FIC. The bill proscribes and prescribes certain disclosures and actions governing contractual relationships between PBMs and pharmacy benefits plans and programs and also between PBMs and pharmacy providers.

Summary:

The bill establishes rights of conscience for health care providers and payors. The bill provides legislative intent and provides that a health care provider or payor has the right to optout of participation in or payment for a health care service on the basis of a conscience-based objection (CBO). The bill establishes notification requirements for opting-out and prohibits a payor from opting-out of paying for a service it is contractually obligated to cover during a plan year. The bill also specifies that CBOs are limited to specific health care services, that the bill may not be construed to waive or modify any duty a provider or payor may have for other health care services that do not violate a provider’s or payor’s conscience, and that nothing in the bill allows a health care provider or payor to opt-out of providing health care services to any patient or potential patient because of that patient’s or potential patient’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

The bill prohibits health care providers from being discriminated against or suffering adverse action for declining to participate in a health care service based on a CBO. The bill also provides whistle-blower protections for providers or payors in specific situations and specifies that the bill may not be construed to override any requirement to provide emergency medical treatment in accordance with federal or state law.

The bill allows health care providers or payors to file complaints of violations to the Attorney General (AG) and authorizes the AG to bring a civil action for appropriate relief. The bill also provides civil immunity for health care providers and payors solely for declining to participate in a health care service on the basis of a conscience-based objection, with some exceptions.

Additionally, the bill prohibits a board, or the Florida Department of Health (DOH) if there is no board, from taking disciplinary action against a health care practitioner solely because he or she has spoken or written publicly about a health care service or public policy, including on a social media platform, as long as the speech or written communication does not provide advice or treatment to a specific patient or patients and does not separately violate any other applicable law or rule. The bill also authorizes a board within the DOH to revoke approval of any specialty board for revoking the certification of an individual for the same reason.