Staff Reports
The Florida Senate on Thursday tacked a strike-all amendment onto the House’s measure aimed at protecting patients from “balance billing.”
The bill was special order in the Senate, meaning members could ask questions and offer amendments. The House bill was passed Wednesday by 116-1. Only orthopedic surgeon Rep. Julio Gonzalez opposed.
Among other changes, the latest amendment adds “developmental disabilities” to the list of covered treatments.
The legislation is a priority of CFO Jeff Atwater, who opposes balance billing.
“To be balanced billed is to receive a request for payment from an out-of-network provider to cover the cost that your insurance company did not pay because the provider was not within their outlined network,” Atwater said in a statement.
“This situation happens most frequently during times of emergency (and) can result in high-dollar costs to the consumer.”
The House bill, sponsored by Miami Republican Rep. Carlos Trujillo, “will hold the consumer harmless in emergency situations, paying no more than what you would pay if the provider had been in your insurance network.”
The chamber could vote on the bill Friday, sending it back to the House.
