Back in Session on Orlando Medical News

Back in Session

By: LYNNE JETER

FMA Preps for 2010 Legislative Agenda

TALLAHASSEE—Fresh from significant legislative victories in the Florida Legislature’s 2009 session—most notably the controversial Assignment of Benefits bill approved by the governor last June—the Florida Medical Association (FMA) is preparing for challenges in the 2010 session.

“When the regular session begins on March 2, the FMA will monitor a wide range of issues, including graduate medical education, health insurance transparency and defining scope of practice,” said FMA spokesperson Erin VanSickle. “There’s no denying that Florida is facing serious budgetary difficulties. However, the FMA believes that it’s critical for the state to ensure access to care by improving Medicaid reimbursement rates for physicians and investing in graduate medical education. It’s also vital that the responsibility for prescribing controlled substances remain with physicians—despite ongoing attempts by individuals who lack proper training to gain this right. As always, the FMA will be vigilant this session in fighting these attempts to inappropriately expand non-physicians’ scope of practice.”

Even though new priorities may emerge, the FMA plans to support the following legislative efforts during the 2010 session:

Increasing the Medicaid physician reimbursement rate to that of Medicare; “Florida physicians can’t afford to stay in business, and refusing to reimburse them for their services ultimately forces them to close their practices and move to states like Georgia or Alabama, where they get properly compensated for seeing Medicaid patients,” said VanSickle. “Moreover, the federal healthcare legislation will expand the eligibility of the Medicaid program, but not the funding for compensation—meaning more patients in the system, but no way to pay for their care. Florida must find private and/or state funding to make up for these costs, or it will mean more costs down the road.
Establishing a pilot program on the patient-centered medical home concept in the Medicaid program;
Increasing Graduate Medical Education (Residency Slots) Funding; ‘Currently, Florida taxpayer dollars go towards training medical students at our medical schools, yet many of these students are forced to leave the state to complete their residency training because there are no slots for them in Florida,” said VanSickle. “There’s little incentive for them to return to the state, because Florida physicians pay the highest insurance premiums in the nation. Meanwhile, most physicians practice within 50 miles of where they completed their residency training, resulting in even fewer physicians in Florida, if they’re forced out of state to complete that residency training. As a result, Florida suffers from the third-highest doctor-shortage in the nation. While funding is determined by the federal government, Florida could create an innovative public/private program to increase funding for residency slots, encouraging more medical students to open their practices here and serve Florida’s patients … which is especially important, given our large population of seniors.”
Giving sovereign immunity to physicians who provide mandated treatment to emergency room patients;
Requiring expert witnesses to become licensed in Florida, and clarifying the fact that giving expert testimony is the practice of medicine;
Giving the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) the power to investigate a hospital’s decision to close a department, and allowing AHCA to take action ensuring that patients are not left without necessary medical care;
Adjusting state statutes to reflect the anatomical training and expertise of podiatrists, thereby limiting their treatments to the foot and ankle;
Imposing a moratorium on the construction of any additional off-site emergency departments in Florida;
Requiring all health insurance companies licensed in Florida to give physicians access, via the companies’ Web sites, to the participating physician’s current, complete fee schedule;
Prohibiting Florida insurance companies from forcing contract provisions on healthcare providers for services the plan does not cover;
Allowing qualified, out-of-state physicians to obtain a certificate to practice as a medical examiner in Florida;
Making it unlawful for an insurance company or other third-party payer to interfere with a valid order for a medical test or procedure from a licensed MD or DO;
Requiring managed care organizations to provide real-time eligibility for their subscribers;
Requiring managed care organizations to reimburse physicians for any patient services rendered, whereby subscriber eligibility has been confirmed prior to delivery of care;
Supporting the Florida Pediatric Society’s efforts to legislatively fix the Florida Kidcare statute;
Requiring healthcare insurers to cover an annual prostate cancer screening for men over the age of 40;
Requiring health insurance for each student enrolled in a state university in Florida;
Requiring health insurance companies to provide the same coverage for mental illness that they provide for other healthcare problems;
Prohibiting the use of the term “physician” by any person other than an MD or a DO;
Providing for voluntary admission of expectant mothers for alcohol abuse treatment services, and requiring warning signs about fetal risk from the ingestion of alcohol by pregnant women to be posted wherever alcoholic beverages are sold;
Expanding Florida Birth-Related Neurological Injury Compensation Association (NICA) coverage to brachial plexus injuries, as long as there’s no increase in the nonparticipating physician assessment; and
Streamlining the process for obtaining a limited practice license.

For more information on the FMA’s 2010 legislative agenda, contact the state association’s Department of Governmental Affairs at (800) 762-0233 or visit govaffairs@medone.org.