South Florida Hospital & Healthcare Association: 2011 Legislative Positions & Priorities

 

• Work with the Legislature in crafting cost effective changes to the current Medicaid system that will ensure equity for Medicaid patients and the healthcare facilities, providers and professionals providing care for those patients.

• Support efforts by Florida to prepare for implementation of federal healthcare reform.

 

• Support the extending of sovereign immunity limits or other types of tort reforms to hospitals, physicians and other providers when treating Medicaid and RPIC patients.

• Support legislative efforts to provide sovereign immunity for emergency health care providers acting pursuant to obligations imposed by s. 394.1041 and s. 401.45.

• Supports University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine or other private medical schools that face similar constraints as they seek sovereign immunity for their physicians who treat patients at Jackson Memorial Hospital or other public institutions.

• Support legislative efforts to secure the availability of property, windstorm, and business interruption insurance at reasonable prices for hospitals and healthcare facilities.

• Oppose efforts to change personal injury protection (PIP) laws that would seek to limit fees charged by attorneys and paid for by insurance companies for the recovery of legitimate PIP reimbursement to hospitals and other healthcare providers.

 

• Maintain historic opposition to further efforts to eliminate the Certificate of Need program and any other deregulation proposals that would impair quality and/or raise the cost of medical care in South Florida (e.g. specific exemptions for services, districts, satellites, single specialty institutions, and/or specially designated emergency rooms).

• Oppose legislation that regulates/interferes with plan-provider business relationships, including those that would evade existing laws or set artificial/standardized limits on reimbursement to non-contracted providers.

• Support efforts to increase efficiency and effectiveness of state government agencies through the reduction of redundant regulation and improved coordination of similar government programs; while maintaining the integrity of essential public health and medical care infrastructure.

• Oppose additional regulation of community blood banks that unduly interfere in their day-to-day operation.

 

• Support legislation that would prohibit drivers of motor vehicles from text messaging while driving.

• Add “licensed hospitals and nursing homes” to the Safety Zone provisions of the Concealed Weapons Law.

• Support the amendment of Chapter 784, Assault; Battery; Culpable Negligence, to make it uniform that the battery of an emergency medical care provider in a hospital or on the hospital grounds a third degree felony.

• Support the Florida Medical Association and county medical associations and societies in the opposition to legislation that would seek to regulate the relationship and communications between patients and physicians.

 

• Oppose legislation that establishes directly or indirectly any staffing ratios for the state’s hospitals, nursing homes or other healthcare providers.

• Support initiatives to fund both the training and placement of needed healthcare professionals.

• Support and strengthen role of the Florida Center for Nursing [funding for $5.00 additional fee mandatory]

 

• Support State and federal funding for development and implementation of “regional health information organizations” and statewide health information exchange.