Bill Summary

by Joseph Co Sponsors: Eskamani, Robinson, F.

Medical Debt Protection and Comprehensive Health Care for Residents: Requires large health care facilities to develop written financial assistance policies; provides financial assistance eligibility criteria; provides billing & collections rules & prohibitions; prohibits information relating to medical debt from being included in consumer reports, communicated with & reported to consumer reporting agencies, & used for certain decisions; prohibits medical creditors & medical debt collectors from engaging in certain acts during health insurance appeals; limits interest on medical debt under certain circumstances; creates Florida Health Plan; provides eligibility for & coverage of plan; authorizes Florida Health Board to establish financial arrangements with other states & foreign countries; authorizes plan enrollees to choose certain health care providers to have primary care providers & access to care coordination; authorizes enrollees to see health care specialists without referral; requires board to secure repeals & waivers of certain provisions of federal law; provides that plan's responsibility for providing health care is secondary to existing federal programs; requires plan to collect health care costs from collateral sources; prohibits patient care from being affected by fee schedules & financial incentives; prohibits noninstitutional & institutional providers that accept payments from plan from billing patients; provides requirements for capital expenditures by noninstitutional & institutional providers which exceed specified amount; requires Secretary of Health Care Administration to designate health planning regions; provides considerations for such designations; provides requirements for regional planning boards; prohibits certain health insurance policies & contracts from being sold in this state on & after specified date. Effective Date: July 1, 2026, but only if HB 1491 or similar legislation is adopted

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