HB 1113 – Relating to Health Insurance Savings Program

On Monday, March 25, HB 1113 by Representative Paul Renner (R-Palm Coast) was heard in the House Health and Human Services Committee and was reported favorably with 14 yeas and 0 nays. AIF’s Senior Vice President of State and Federal Affairs, Brewster Bevis, stood in support of this legislation.

This bill creates the Patient Savings Act, which allows health insurers to create a voluntary shared savings incentive program to encourage insured individuals to shop for high quality, lower cost health care services. The bill directs health insurers who choose to offer the program to develop a website outlining the range of shoppable health care services available to insureds. This website must provide insureds with an inventory of participating health care providers and an accounting of the shared savings incentives available for each shoppable service. When an insured obtains a shoppable health care service for less than the average price for the service, the bill requires the savings to be shared by the health insurer and the insured. An insured is entitled to a financial incentive that is no less than 25 percent of the savings that accrue to the insurer as a result of the insured’s participation.

HB 1113 will now move to the House floor.

AIF supports legislation that provides high quality healthcare at a lower cost for all Floridians.

HB 1363 – Relating to Consumer Protections from Nonmedical Prescription Drug Formularies

On Tuesday, March 26, HB 1363 by Representative Jayer Williamson (R-Pace) was heard in the House Health Market Reform Subcommittee and was reported favorably with 13 yeas and 1 nay.

A major driver of health care costs is the rising cost of medicines. Drug companies raise the prices of both new and old medicines at will. No government body—not the Federal Trade Commission, not the Food and Drug Administration, and not the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services—have rules or laws that dictate or restrict the price a pharmaceutical company can set for a drug - and in most cases, there’s nothing that restricts how much a drug company can raise that price.

This bill would eliminate the only current force to counter the price increases on pharmaceuticals – the threat of losing insurance coverage, which helps push back on arbitrary price hikes. Handcuffing the negotiators who work hard to make sure drugs are affordable is bad public policy and will help make health insurance even more unaffordable.

HB 1363 will now move to the House Insurance and Banking Subcommittee.

AIF supports the amendment that brings the bill closer inline to AIF’s position in reducing health care costs. AIF encourages the committee to continue working on the bill to reach a point where we can support it.

HB 7065 – Relating to Insurance Assignment Agreements

On Thursday, March 28, HB 7065, sponsored by the House Civil Justice Subcommittee, was heard in the House Judiciary Committee and was reported favorably with 14 yeas and 3 nays. AIF’s Senior Vice President of State and Federal Affairs, Brewster Bevis, stood in support of this legislation.

The abuse of the one-way attorney fee statute in relation to “assignment of benefits” (AOB) has created a relatively new form of litigation over auto glass repairs and property damage. These legal abuses are perpetrated by a handful of lawyers and vendors who work together to strip benefits away from policyholders and use these to force higher settlements from insurers, and even go so far as to sue in the name of the policyholder, often without the policyholder’s consent. This bill helps prevent future abuse of AOBs by:

• Limiting an assignee’s ability to recover certain costs from the insured;
• Requiring the assignee to give the insurer notice of the assignee’s intent to file a lawsuit
• Requiring the insurer to respond to the assignee’s notice;
• Setting the formula that will determine which party, if any, receives an award of attorney fees should litigation related to an assignment agreement result in a judgment; and
• Allowing an insurer to offer a policy prohibiting assignment.
  
  

HB 7065 will now move to the House floor.

AIF supports reforms to the AOB process to protect consumers against these abuses that drive up insurance costs.