Sen. Ben Albritton

Medical Billing; Providing additional personal property exemptions from legal process for medical debts resulting from services provided in certain licensed facilities; revising requirements for hospitals and certain other licensed facilities in providing estimates of charges to patients or prospective patients; prohibiting hospitals and certain other licensed facilities from engaging in extraordinary collection actions to obtain payment for services under certain circumstances, etc.

Support for Incapacitated Adult Children; Defining the term “incapacitated adult child”; specifying that parents are responsible for supporting an incapacitated adult child; requiring certain rights of the parents of an incapacitated adult child to be established in a guardianship proceeding; specifying that a child support order need not terminate on the child’s 18th birthday in certain circumstances; providing an additional circumstance under which a guardian advocate must be represented by an attorney in guardianship proceedings, etc.

Deregulation of Professions and Occupations; Citing this act as the “Occupational Freedom and Opportunity Act”; requiring the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles to waive the requirement to pass the Commercial Driver License Skills Tests for certain servicemembers and veterans; deleting the requirement that a yacht broker maintain a separate license for each branch office; specifying that the failure to repay certain student loans is not considered a failure to perform a statutory or legal obligation for which certain disciplinary action can be taken; revising licensure requirements for engineers who hold specified licenses in another state, etc.

Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services; Specifying a methodology for the assessment of certain buildings and structures located on agricultural lands; revising the functions, powers, and duties of the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to authorize the department to purchase private insurance policies for a specified purpose; extending the scheduled expiration for the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ use of funds from the Pest Control Trust Fund for certain duties of the department; directing the Florida Forest Service to develop a training curriculum for wildland firefighters, etc.

Telegraph Companies; Repealing provisions relating to the regulation of telegraph companies and telegrams, etc.

Aquatic Preserves; Creating the Nature Coast Aquatic Preserve; designating the preserve for inclusion in the aquatic preserve system; outlining the authority of the Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund in respect to the preserve; prohibiting the establishment and management of the preserve from infringing upon the riparian rights of upland property owners adjacent to or within the preserve, etc.

Direct Care Workers; Authorizing nursing home facilities to use paid feeding assistants in accordance with specified federal law under certain circumstances; authorizing home health aides to administer certain prescription medications under certain conditions; authorizing certified nursing assistants or home health aides to perform certain tasks delegated by a registered nurse; creating the Excellence in Home Health Program within the Agency for Health Care Administration for a specified purpose; requiring certain licensees to provide specified information about their employees in a survey beginning on a specified date, etc. APPROPRIATION: $1,035,786

Physical Therapy Practice; Revising the powers and duties of the Board of Physical Therapy Practice; requiring the board to establish minimum standards of practice for the performance of dry needling by physical therapists; requiring the Department of Health to submit a report detailing certain information to the Legislature on or before a specified date, etc.

Property Tax Exemption for Disabled Veterans; Providing that certain veterans and their surviving spouses receiving a certain homestead tax exemption may apply for and receive a prorated refund of property taxes paid on new homestead property acquired during a certain timeframe; requiring the property appraiser to immediately make certain entries upon the tax rolls to allow the prorated refund, etc.

Long-term Care; Requiring aging resource center personnel to annually rescreen certain individuals with high priority scores for purposes of the statewide wait list for enrollment for home and community-based services; authorizing such personnel to administer rescreening for certain individuals with low priority scores; authorizing community-care-for-the-elderly services providers to dispute certain referrals; providing that a referral decision by adult protective service prevails, etc.