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The FOMA joins others in mourning the loss of former Senator and Representative Nancy Detert, and we offer our sincere condolences to the Family for their loss.  Senator Detert, a Republican from Sarasota, was a staunch advocate for foster children, sponsoring and passing the Road to Independence Act.  This program ensures foster children and young adults the ability to access independent living transition services.  Throughout her sixteen-year legislative career, beginning in 1998 and ending in 2016, Senator Detert played a significant role in assisting the FOMA with its legislative priorities on behalf of the osteopathic medical profession.  

Senator Nancy C. Detert

Oct. 22, 1944 – Apr. 5, 2023

Over the span of her thirty years of public service, Senator Detert served as a member of the Sarasota County School Board (1988-1992), State Representative (1998-2006), State Senator (2008-2016), and Sarasota County Commissioner from 2016 until her death on Wednesday, April 5, 2023.   

As the legislature prepares for the budget conference, the FOMA continues to work with the FMA and other partners to increase funding for the Florida Reimbursement Assistance for Medical Education (FRAME) Program.  FRAME provides medical loan repayment opportunities for qualifying healthcare practitioners in Florida.  Presently, the House and Senate plans are $12 million apart in funding for the program.  Under the Senate plan, the program is funded at $18 million, $12 million above the current year.  The House proposal maintains funding at $6 million.

The House Healthcare Regulation Subcommittee unanimously passed HB 183, step therapy protocols. HB 183 defines the term “serious mental illness” to include certain conditions in the DSM-V. It requires the Agency for Health Care Administration to approve drug products for Medicaid recipients to treat serious mental illness without step-therapy prior authorization under certain circumstances.

HB 0183 Medicaid Step-therapy Protocols for Drugs for Serious Mental Illness Treatments by Gonzalez Pittman

The House Healthcare Regulation Subcommittee amended and unanimously passed HB 583, healthcare practitioner titles and abbreviations.  HB 583 specifies the titles and abbreviations that healthcare practitioners may use in advertisements, communications, and personal identification.  Any unauthorized use of a title or abbreviation constitutes a misleading, deceptive, or fraudulent representation by the health care practitioner.

HB 583 requires any advertisement for health care services naming a practitioner to identify the profession under which the practitioner is practicing and the practitioner’s educational degree.  The bill also requires health care practitioners to wear name badges and establishes requirements for name badges, and provides exemptions.  Further, the bill directs each board to develop rules determining how practitioners must comply with this requirement.

Under the plan, the Department of Health, or the boards, are authorized to discipline any healthcare practitioner who violates the preceding requirements.

HB 0583 Health Care Practitioner Title and Abbreviations 

by Massullo, MD

The Senate Banking and Insurance Committee unanimously passed SB 46, health insurance cost sharing.  SB 46 requires health insurers and their pharmacy benefit managers to apply payments by or on behalf of insureds toward the total contributions of the insureds’ cost-sharing requirements. 

The House companion, HB 1063, has yet to be heard by its three committees of reference.  

SB 0046 Health Insurance Cost Sharing by Wright

The House Healthcare Regulation Subcommittee amended and unanimously passed HB 1387, Department of Health.  HB 1387 makes numerous changes to programs under the Department of Health (DOH) and healthcare professions regulated by the Division of Medical Quality Assurance within the DOH.  Presently, the FOMA is working with legislators and our legislative partners to resolve concerns relating to brain death certifications.  The bill:

• Authorizes autonomous advanced practice registered nurse practitioners to certify brain death if they are the patient’s treating health care practitioner.  In such cases, brain death must also be certified by two physicians.
• Gain-of-function research involves experimentation that may produce an enhanced potential pandemic pathogen (PPP).  An enhanced PPP is a potential pandemic pathogen modified to increase transmissibility or virulence.  The bill prohibits any such research from being conducted in the state. The bill also requires researchers applying for state or local funding must disclose in the application for funding whether the research involves enhanced PPPs.
• Prohibits Medical Marijuana Treatment Centers (MMTC) from advertising or producing products that are attractive to children or promote recreational use.  The bill also revises background screening requirements for MMTCs and certified medical marijuana testing laboratories.
•  Specifies that vital records may be filed electronically with DOH’s electronic registration system.  The bill specifies when the courts must electronically transmit certain records to DOH.  The bill also raises the age at which birth certificates become public records from 100 to 125 years.
• In 2022, the US Food & Drug Administration finalized a rule establishing a new category for over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aids, specifying what constitutes an OTC hearing aid.  The rule prohibits state and local governments from interfering with the servicing, marketing, sale, dispensing, use, customer support, or distribution of OTC hearing aids.  The bill amends the statute to align with the requirements of this rule.

HB 1387 Department of Health by Porras

Bill Tracking Report

Bill approved by Florida House panel targets mental health 'step therapy'



A Florida House panel on Monday unanimously approved a proposal that would allow Medicaid beneficiaries with "serious" mental illness to avoid a drug practice known as step therapy. The House Health Regulation Subcommittee voted 17-0 to approve the bill (HB 183), sponsored by Rep. Karen Gonzalez Pittman, R-Tampa.

Florida bill would require legislative approval to extend public health emergencies

Pointing to COVID-19 restrictions imposed in other states, Florida lawmakers Monday began moving forward with a proposal that would require legislative approval of extended public-health emergencies. The Republican-controlled House Healthcare Regulation Subcommittee voted 13-4 along almost straight party lines to back the bill (HB 1487), filed by Rep.

Florida Senate passes a bill to ban abortion after six weeks of pregnancy

The Florida Senate on Monday approved a bill to ban abortions after six weeks. The proposal, backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, must still be approved by the House before it reaches the governor's desk. The vote prompted demonstrations at the state's Capitol that resulted in the arrest of the leader of the Florida Democratic Party, Nikki Fried, and state Senate minority leader Lauren Book, D-Plantation.

Florida bill would require legislative approval to extend public health emergencies

Pointing to COVID-19 restrictions imposed in other states, Florida lawmakers Monday began moving forward with a proposal that would require legislative approval of extended public-health emergencies. The Republican-controlled House Healthcare Regulation Subcommittee voted 13-4 along almost straight party lines to back the bill (HB 1487), filed by Rep.