2008 Legislative Session
The 2008 Legislative Session ended on Friday, May 2nd with significant victories for organized medicine. The FMA, in conjunction with County Medical Societies and Specialty Societies were successful in stopping a multitude of bills targeting physicians and also passed some key legislation.
Managed Care Legislation
SB 1012 balances the playing field between physicians and managed care organizations by reducing the "look back" period from 30 months to 12 months for MCOs to demand refunds for overpayment. This bill also makes silent PPOs transparent by requiring MCOs to notify network physicians any time the MCO sells or leases their discounted physician fee information to another entity. Lastly, this bill requires MCOs to directly pay in-network physicians for services provided, rather than sending the payment to the patient.
Mandated CME defeated
The FMA deleted a provision in an autism bill that would have mandated a two-hour developmental disability CME course for all physicians.
PRN Sovereign Immunity
PRN Sovereign Immunity bill extends sovereign immunity to the Professionals Resource Network (PRN), which by contract with the Florida Department of Health, provides impairment services when needed to all Florida physicians.
Physician Medicaid Reimbursement
In a year when the Legislature was forced to slash spending on health care due to a $3 billion budget deficit, the FMA was able to avoid cuts to physician Medicaid reimbursement, but was unable to raise Medicaid rates to Medicare levels.
The following legislation was stopped
- Allied health professionals were unable to legislatively expand their scope of practice.
- Legislation that would have severely impacted a physician's ability to self- insure was stopped. The bill would have prohibited defense-only policies and would have almost certainly led hospitals to require insurance as a condition of staff privileges.
- A bill to effectively end the use of binding arbitration agreements as a dispute resolution mechanism between physicians and patients.
- The FMA stopped legislation that would have increased the cost and burden on physicians who treat deaf and hearing-impaired patients.