Florida Lawmakers, Policymakers Tackle State’s High-Risk Pool, Children’s Health, Generic Drugs and Nursing Home Reform

The following is a compilation of recent health news in Florida:

• Florida lawmakers might reopen the state's insurance pool for the "medically uninsurable, the AP/Florida Times-Union reports. The Florida Comprehensive Health Association was established in 1983, but was closed in 1991 because of rising costs. A bill (SB 1208) recently passed by the state Senate Banking and Insurance committee would provide coverage to people who have been rejected by two insurers or have had prior coverage but now are rejected because of a medical condition. Enrollment would be capped at 2,000 participants. The bill also calls for insurers to pay a 25-cents-per-policy monthly assessment, a provision that has "killed" past bills. Insurers say they would pass the assessments on to customers, a move that might make some employers drop coverage, the Times-Union reports. Lawmakers still have to determine where to find $10 million in funds for the pool; state senators defeated an amendment that would have had the state "simply" cover the cost. However, lawmakers are considering a "return to the way the program used to be paid for -- insurers still would pay assessments, but those would be tax-deductible (Royse, AP/Florida Times-Union, 3/20).
• The Child Health Assistance Project, a 12-year-old program that has matched more than 700 Deland, Fla., children covered by Medicaid with physicians, has run out of money and will close its doors next month, the Orlando Sentinel reports. Last month, the West Volusia Hospital Authority Board rejected a proposal that would have given the program $96,000 to "squeak through the current fiscal year." Dr. Neal Wiggins, who established CHAP, said, "We feel really bad for the Medicaid children who won't have a source of (private) medical care. These are good kids whose families don't have a lot of money. They don't have access to care that the more affluent have" (Bryant, Orlando Sentinel, 3/20).
• The Broward County Commissioners are debating whether the county should continue to allocate $14 million per year for children's services "given that the newly created Children's Services Council will have taxing powers to raise its own funds," the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel reports. The county now spends that amount on not-for-profit agencies that provide day care, mental health care and other services for low-income families. Last September, county voters approved the creation of the Children's Services Council, awarding that body the power to levy a property tax, which if voters approve, could generate up to $37 million per year (O'Matz, Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, 3/20).
• State lawmakers are considering lifting market protections for several brand-name prescription drugs, the AP/Florida Times-Union reports. By law, pharmacists now can substitute the least expensive version of a prescription unless the customer or physician requests the brand-name drug, with the exception of 11 generic drugs that are currently barred from substitution. The Senate Appropriations subcommittee on health and human services and the House Fiscal Policy & Resources Committee approved versions of a bill (SB 342 and HB 69) that would lift the ban on the generic versions. The FDA has said that the 11 generic drugs are "therapeutically equivalent" to their brand-name counterparts, the AP/Times-Union reports (AP/Florida Times-Union, 3/20).
• State Sen. Ginny Brown-Waite (R) is pushing a bill (SB 1202) that would set a $350,000 cap on damages sought in nursing home abuse and neglect cases, the Daytona Beach News-Journal reports. Under Brown-Waite's bill, legal disputes would be settled through arbitration rather than lawsuits. Through arbitration, the cap on non-economic damages would be $250,000, and if the case does end up in court, the cap would be $350,000. The $350,000 cap is "far less" than the $1.5 million cap that state House proposed, but Brown-Waite said her bill's cap is a "starting point for discussions over how to reform the state's nursing home industry." She added, "There's got to be a middle ground." The Senate Health, Aging and Long Term Care Committee recently "tweaked" the bill, considering 11 amendments, including one on how many hours nurses and nursing assistants should spend with residents each day. The committee agreed to 2.9 hours per day (Grimison, Daytona Beach News-Journal, 3/9).