Ryan Ray
It’s not exactly the “Eyeball Wars” of yesteryear, but on Wedneday Sen. Jack Latvala waded into the fraught world of vision care.
Latvala’s just-filed SB 340 is a move similar to a bill from the 2015 Legislative Session in that it’s designed to prevent the concentration of too much control by insurers over access to eye and vision care.
The bill would prevent health insurance providers from forcing either ophthalmologists or optometrists – perennial foes in legislative food fights who are both likely to ally with Latvala on this issue – from joining a network solely for the purpose of credentialing the licensee for another vision network.
That would spare vision care providers the expense and limitations that go along with joining a given insurance network. The bill explicitly states that insurers can still contract with other vision care plans, but that they may not collude to restrict vision care providers from accessing specific suppliers or laboratories.
SB 340 also provides that insurers must update their online directory of in-network providers monthly, more often than is currently required by state law.
The new proposal by Latvala – a savvy Clearwater Republican with decades in the Legislature under his belt – contains an enforcement mechanism by which violations of the new law would constitute an “unfair trade practice” under Florida statute.
Any insurer found to engage in unfair trade practices faces possible revocation of their license by state regulators.
The bill is the product of a compromise between Florida optometrists and insurers, Latvala told FloridaPolitics.com Wednesday.
An identical measure passed the Senate easily last spring but was not enacted.
