Overview
Florida is an active state in promoting healthcare price transparency. A key effort is the state’s all-payer claims database, which was mandated by the legislature and implemented in 2016. It also has a consumer-facing website, FloridaHealthFinder, which allows consumers to view performance and outcome data, including average costs, for healthcare facilities in the state. The website also provides consumers with the ability to compare health care costs at the national, state and local levels. Florida is also active in promoting the use of electronic Health Information Exchanges to streamline provider access to patient information and consequently lower costs and improve quality of care.
In 2019, the legislature enacted legislation that authorizes individual and group health insurers and health maintenance organizations to offer shared savings incentive programs. The laws require health insurers that offer the program to publish on an easily accessible webpage a list of shoppable health care services and health care providers and the shared savings incentive amount applicable for each service. Additionally, Florida law protects patients from surprise out-of-network bills by prohibiting balance billing for emergency services and requiring a no liability notice and hold harmless provision for non-emergency situations.
In healthcare market competition, Florida law limits enforceability of non-compete agreements for physicians but provides no statutory authority for oversight or review of mergers, acquisitions, and other transactions involving healthcare entities. In 2019, the legislature repealed certificate of need (CON) requirements, the state’s longstanding approval system for expanding healthcare facilities. The CON program will not be eliminated for nursing homes, hospices and intermediate care facilities for the developmentally disabled.
On the pharmaceutical front, the legislature continues to advance its efforts to rein in prescription drug costs. In recent sessions, the state enacted laws to allow drug importation from Canada and to promote price transparency by requiring pharmacists to inform customers of generic equivalents and whether cost-sharing obligations exceed the retail price of prescription.
In 2024, the state considered legislation that would have made restrictive covenants which prohibit physician from practicing medicine within specified area for certain period of time are void & unenforceable, but the bills ultimately died.
State Action
Latest Legislative Session: 3/7/2023 - 5/5/2023 (2023 term). *Current session bill updates are ongoing. Check back weekly for updates.
SB 646 (see companion bill HB 1199) – Florida
Introduced: 2023 Status: Inactive / Dead
Medicaid Eligibility for Young Adults: Requiring the Agency for Health Care Administration, in consultation with the Commission on Mental Health and Substance Abuse, to conduct a study for a specified purpose; providing requirements for the …
SB 650 – Florida
Introduced: 2019 Status: Inactive / Dead
Redefining the term “health insurer” and defining the term “urgent care situation”; providing that prior authorization forms may not require certain information; requiring health insurers and pharmacy benefits managers on behalf of health insurers to …
SB 660 – Florida
Introduced: 2021 Status: Inactive / Dead
Telehealth; Deleting a prohibition on prescribing controlled substances through telehealth, etc.
SB 678 – Florida
Introduced: 2022 Status: Inactive / Dead
Requiring individual and group health insurance policies, respectively, to cap an insured’s monthly cost-sharing obligation for covered prescription insulin drugs at a specified amount; providing that coverage for prescription insulin drugs may not be subject …
SB 700 – Florida
Introduced: 2019 Status: Inactive / Dead
Insurance Coverage for Mental and Nervous Disorders; Requiring specified entities that transact group health insurance or that provide prepaid health care to make available to policyholders, under specified policies and contracts, certain benefits for the …
Fla. Stat. § 381.83. Trade secrets; confidentiality: Public Health: General Provisions – Florida
Introduced: Status: Enacted
States that information collected by the Department of Public Health must be available to the public unless it contains trade secrets.
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Fla. Stat. § 381.931. Annual report on Medicaid expenditures: Public Health: General Provisions – Florida
Introduced: Status: Enacted
If Medicaid expenditures are projected to exceed the amount appropriated by the Legislature, the Department of Health shall limit the number of screenings to ensure Medicaid expenditures do not exceed the amount appropriated.
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Fla. Stat. § 395.1041. Access to emergency services and care: Hospitals and Other Licensed Facilities – Florida
Introduced: Status: Enacted
he agency shall establish and maintain an inventory of hospitals with emergency services. The inventory shall list all services within the service capability of the hospital, and such services shall appear on the face of …
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Fla. Stat. § 395.107. Facilities; publishing and posting schedule of charges; penalties: Hospitals and Other Licensed Facilities – Florida
Introduced: Status: Enacted
Provides a facility must publish and post a schedule of charges for the medical services offered to patients. The schedule of charges must describe the medical services in language comprehensible to a layperson. The schedule …
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Fla. Stat. § 395.301. Price transparency; itemized patient statement or bill; patient admission status notification:Hospitals and Other Licensed Facilities – Florida
Introduced: Status: Enacted
A facility licensed under this chapter shall provide timely and accurate financial information and quality of service measures to patients and prospective patients of the facility, or to patients’ survivors or legal guardians, as appropriate. …
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Location 24 LLC v. Doctors Same Day Surgery Center & HCA Holdings – Florida
District Court: Middle District of Florida Tampa Division Status: Decided
The lawsuit claims that HCA engaged in a pattern of conduct that formed partnerships with large surgical practices in the Sarasota area, only such “partnerships” …
Omni Healthcare Inc. et al. v. Health First, Inc. et al. – Florida
District Court: Middle District of Florida Status: Decided
A set of physicians, physicians’ groups and physicians’ assistants in Orlando sued Health First, a fully integrated healthcare corporation, for a monopolization scheme through which …
Herrera et al. v. JFK Medical Center et al. – Florida
District Court: M.D. Florida Status: Decided
In August 2014, plaintiffs filed a putative class action against multiple HCA-operated hospitals in Tampa, alleging they were charged unreasonable amounts for emergency radiological services. …
In re: Suboxone Antitrust Litigation (State of Wisconsin, et al. v. Indivior Inc, et al.) – Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin
District Court: E.D. Pennsylvania Status: Pending
In September 2016, 35 state attorneys general and the District of Columbia brought a multi-district case against pharmaceutical manufacturer Indivior, MonoSol RX et al., alleging …
RxStrategies v. CVS Pharmacy – Florida
District Court: M.D. Florida Status: Pending
340B administrator RxStrategies sued CVS pharmacy alleging that since CVS aquired Wellpartner, the company has engaged in unlawful tying, using its status as a “must …
Additional Resources
STATE BUDGET
Florida operates on an annual budget cycle. The state’s fiscal year begins on July 1 with budget hearings beginning October and ending on June 30th of the following year. The legislature adopts a budget in April/May, which is required to pass by a simple majority, and becomes effective for the fiscal year beginning in July.
STATE LEGISLATURE
New Florida Legislative sessions begin each year. Florida has a part-time legislature, meeting in an annual 60 day session each year, beginning on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in March in odd-numbered years and on the second Tuesday after the first Monday in January in even-numbered years. Each year during which the Legislature meets constitutes a new Legislative Session; bills do not carry over from year to year. Special Legislative Sessions may be called by the governor, by a joint proclamation of the Senate president and House speaker, or by a three-fifths vote of all Legislators.
The Florida Senate has 40 members elected to four-year staggered terms. The Florida House of Representatives has 120 members elected to two-year terms. Florida has eight-year term limits, but members can be elected again after a two-year break.