Christine Jordan Sexton
Gov. Rick Scott vetoed a health care bill on Wednesday, though he signed many others into law. Below is a list of the bills and a brief description of what they do from the legislative bill analyses.
- HB 79 Creates the Crisis Stabilization Services Utilization Data Base and requires the Department of Children and Families to develop standards for the collection, storage, transmittal and analysis of data that the managing entities and public receiving facilities must adhere to. Managing entities must comply with these requirements by August 1, 2015. Public receiving facilities will be required to submit specified utilization data to managing entities in real time or at least daily.
- HB 243 Accommodates 20 funeral homes in Florida that don’t have electronic access to EDRS system. The bill removes the requirement on local registrars to keep a burial transmit permit on file for three years and, instead, puts the onus on the funeral director who buries a body in a cemetery where no one is in charge. Most death certificates are registered using the EDRS. In 2014, death certificates filed through the EDRS accounted for 99.6 percent of the total 187,856 certificates filed.
- HB 279 Authorizes pharmacists to administer the influenza, pneumococcal, meningococcal, and shingles vaccines to adults within an established protocol with a supervising physician. Before administering a vaccine, a pharmacist must apply to the Board of Pharmacy (Board) for immunization certification and pay a $55 fee. To obtain certification, a pharmacist must demonstrate successful completion of a Board-approved 20-hour program on the safe and effective administration of vaccines.
- HB 309 Mandates hospitals document on patient’s discharge papers “observation status” if the patients were admitted to the hospital on an “observation” basis. Patients can be admitted on an observation basis if they require certain tests and doctor supervision. Though admitted to the hospital “observation” status is considered outpatient and covered under Medicare Part B which requires the patient to pay a copayment for each service.
