A Roundup of Florida’s “Health Care Session”: The Live Healthy Act and Other Notable Health Care Legislation

INSIGHTS

• Health care regulation was a major focus Florida’s 60-day Legislative Session, which ended on March 8.

• Major changes include the establishment of a behavioral health teaching hospital designation, the establishment of price transparency requirements for health care facilities, appropriations to increase the state’s healthcare workforce, and the creation of a new licensing scheme for advance birthing centers, among other things.

• While these changes provide health care providers and educators with new business and patient care opportunities, they also impose new regulatory burdens.

• Provided below is a summary of the notable health care-related legislation that passed out of both chambers and some notable failures.

In January, ahead of the 2024 Regular Legislative Session, we wrote about the Live Healthy Act and other proposed health care legislation. On March 21, just two weeks after the session ended, Governor DeSantis signed the Live Healthy Act into law.

As we wrote in January, the Live Healthy Act is a sweeping proposal spearheaded by Senate President Kathleen Passidomo and Senators Colleen Burton and Gayle Harrell, aimed at strengthening Florida’s healthcare workforce and innovation through the revamping of existing laws, creation of new laws, and appropriation of hundreds of millions of dollars to various state agencies to carry out these objectives. Though the Act was passed with near unanimous support by legislators, it was not immune from the amendment process.

In this article, we provide an overview of notable changes to the Live Healthy Act from the original filed version to the enacted version. We also provide an overview of other notable health care legislation that passed and proposals that failed.

The Live Healthy Act

Following are notable amendments to the original proposed version of the Live Healthy Act:

• The initially proposed appropriation of $70 million in recurring funds for the Slots for Doctors Program was reduced to $50 million in recurring funds.

• The Training, Education, and Clinicals in Health (TEACH) Funding Program was revised to include funding for qualified facilities to offset administrative costs and loss of revenue associated with establishing, maintaining, or expanding clinical training programs to include dental residents and dental hygiene students. Additionally, the initially proposed appropriation of $40 million in recurring funds to support this program was reduced to $25 million in recurring funds.

• The initially proposed appropriation of $13.2 million in recurring funds for the Dental Student Loan Repayment program was reduced to $8 million in recurring funds.

• The initially proposed additional path to Florida licensure for foreign-trained allopathic physicians who have graduated from a foreign medical school that provides an educational program reasonably comparable to that of similarly accredited U.S. institutions was expanded to allow award of an unrestricted medical license to a physician that is licensed out-of-state or by a foreign country who has held an active medical faculty certificate and has taught at a Florida medical school for at least three years.

• The initially proposed appropriation of $152 million in recurring funds to the Agency for Health Care Administration (“AHCA”) to establish a Pediatric, Normal Newborn, Pediatric Obstetrics, and Adult Obstetrics Diagnosis Related Grouping (DRG) reimbursement methodology for Medicaid recipients and increase the existing marginal cost percentages for transplant pediatrics, pediatrics, and neonates was reduced to $134 million in recurring funds.

• The initially proposed appropriation of $21 million in recurring funds to provide a Medicaid reimbursement rate increase for CPT codes 97153 and 97155 related to behavioral analysis services was reduced to $12.9 million in recurring funds.

• The initially proposed designation relating to Advanced Birth Centers (“ABCs”) was revised to provide AHCA with more expansive rulemaking authority to develop safety requirements and standards for facilities with the new designation.

• The initial proposal relating to Mobile Response Teams was revised to provide more specific minimum standards highlighting that crisis diversion is the overarching focus of the program.

• The initially proposed appropriation of $2.4 million in recurring funds to AHCA to provide behavioral health family navigators in licensed specialty hospitals providing acute care services to children to help facilitate early access to mental health treatment was eliminated.

• The enacted version of the law adds 20 full-time equivalent employees to the Department of Health and 25 full-time equivalent employees to AHCA to facilitate its implementation.

Other Health Care-Related Legislation

In addition to the Live Healthy Act, we also wrote about several other health care-related proposals. Following are updates to those proposals:

• Invalid Restrictive Covenants 
  • House Bill 11 and Senate Bill 458, which would have curtailed the use of restrictive covenants for physicians, both failed.

• Payment Disputes Between Health Care Providers and Plans
  • House Bill 659 and Senate Bill 584, which would have amended the existing Statewide Provider and Health Plan Claims Dispute Resolution Program, including making plan participation in the process mandatory, both failed.

• Medicaid Managed Care Plan Performance Metrics
  • Senate Bill 794 and House Bill 783, which would have required managed care plans to submit certain performance metrics monthly, both failed.
    

• Autonomous Practice for Certified Psychiatric Nurses
  • Senate Bill 936 and House Bill 771, which would have authorized certain advanced practice registered nurses who are psychiatric nurses to engage in autonomous mental health practice, both failed.
    

• Naturopathic Medicine
  • Senate Bill 898 and House Bill 843, which would have established a regulatory scheme to license and regulate naturopathic physicians, both failed. 

• Continued Expansion of Telemedicine
  • House Bill 855 and Senate Bill 302 included proposals to expand telehealth for dental services. The House version passed and will be sent to the Governor for signature.
  • House Bill 849 and Senate Bill 261 included proposals to allow telehealth for veterinarian services. The House version passed and will be sent to the Governor for signature.

Finally, following are additional, notable health care bills that passed through both legislative chambers and await the Governor’s signature:

• Health Care Expenses
  • House Bill 7089 requires licensed health care facilities (which include hospitals and ASCs) to post on their websites a consumer-friendly list of standard charges for certain health care services, to provide an estimate to a patient or a prospective patient and the patient’s health insurer within specified timeframes, and to establish an internal grievance process for patients to dispute charges. The bill also establishes a 3-year statute of limitations for health care providers and facilities to collect on medical debt. This bill follows a series of federal efforts over the last few years to increase price transparency and crack down on surprise billing.
    

• Behavioral Health Teaching Hospitals
  • Senate Bill 330 establishes a new category of teaching hospitals focused on behavioral health. This designation will be for licensed teaching hospitals that partner with a state university school of medicine and offer specific behavioral health education programs.
    

• Interstate Mobility
  • Senate Bill 1600 allows for licensure by endorsement for certain out-of-state providers moving to Florida.