Christine Jordan Sexton
The Senate Appropriations Committee quickly moved a health care train Thursday with little-to-no debate.
The underlying nursing bill became a “train” after the committee tagged on two House priorities: direct primary care and site selection for new veteran nursing homes or HBs 7047 and 7045, respectively. Both bills were developed by the House Health Innovation Subcommittee.
The underlying bill, CS/CS/SB 532, was filed by Sen. Denise Grimsley and it allows advanced registered nurse practitioners to order medications for patients in hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers, or mobile surgical facilities.
This is the second nursing bill that became a train in the Senate this week and both were filed by Grimsley.
The first bill, CS/CS SB 614 was amended by the Senate Rules Committee earlier this week. Sen. Don Gaetz used that measure to tag on controversial step therapy language sought by the Florida Medical Association but opposed by the insurance industry. An attempt to tag another amendment onto the bill to add the direct primary care proposal as well as language regarding medical tourism — which is the substance of SB 7084 by the Senate Health Policy Committee and Sen. Aaron Bean — was beaten back.
