What Is Required in the Florida Employee Health Care Access Act?

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Health insurance is expensive, but the cost of medical treatment without health insurance is even more expensive.

For this reason, there is Florida legislation in place to help ensure that everyone who is employed has access to health insurance coverage, no matter what their pre-existing conditions, past health insurance claims, or current health issues might be.

Specifically, the Florida Health Care Access Act is the current law governing this process. It comes with a number of essential requirements that must be followed by the business and by the employee.

What Is Required in the Florida Health Care Access Act?

Small businesses are allowed to provide group health insurance to employees. While this right to health insurance is protected under Florida law, it comes with a laundry list of requirements that may not be simple to follow.

For example, the Florida Health Care Access Act requires that any employee signing up for insurance provide a full and accurate disclosure statement. If this statement is found to be lacking in any information that the insuring party requires to make decisions regarding the details of the health insurance policy, the insured may not be able to get the coverage they want for the medical care they need.

Do I Need Help Fulfilling Requirements for the Florida Health Care Access Act?

Small businesses ready to begin offering group health insurance may benefit from getting assistance on how to install the new program.

Effective personnel training will help to ensure that employees who sign up will have access to all benefits and won’t be denied coverage when they need it most.

To get assistance with any aspect of the Florida Health Care Access Act and to make sure that you are in compliance with state law, contact Florida Healthcare Law Firm now to set up a consultation and get started.

Florida Medical Device Company Settles $16 Million Case

Enforcement against medical device companies is not new and yet, these companies continue to engage in schemes that land them in hot water.  Frequently the same schemes are repeated over and over- some form of payment by the device company to a physician who selects/recommends the device to patients.  In some cases, the payment is in the form of an honorarium for speaking engagements.  In others, the payment is an all-expense paid travel to attend device company-sponsored “CME” in exotic locations or consulting fees for assisting in the evaluation and design of the device.

Announced yesterday by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), is the settlement of allegations against Florida-based Arthrex Inc., a medical device company that specializes in orthopedic products.  Under the settlement agreement, Arthrex will pay $16 million for allegedly paying kickbacks to an orthopedic surgeon (Dr. Peter Millett) in Colorado.  The “payment” in this case was structured as royalty payments purportedly to compensate the orthopedic surgeon for his “contributions” to the development of two of Arthrex’s products when in fact the “payment” was intended to induce the surgeon’s recommendation/selection of the Arthrex products.  By offering the payments to the surgeon with the intent to induce purchase of Arthrex’ products which were then billed to Medicare, Arthrex violated the Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS) as well as the False Claims Act.Continue reading