FloridaSB 25142025SenateWALLET

Health and Human Services

How does this bill affect your finances?

Personalize government policy and PRIA will tell you what this bill means for your household, plus every other piece of legislation we track. PRIA reads each provision against your financial profile to show you exactly what matters to your wallet.

Free to download

Bill Overview

Analyzed Economic Effects

14 provisions identified: 9 benefits, 3 costs, 2 mixed.

Medicaid care continues during eligibility reviews

Medicaid eligibility and payments continue during reviews for qualifying people receiving institutional care, hospice, or covered home and community services. A major disability or financial change that ends eligibility also ends this protection and must be reported. The Department of Children and Families must give notice before a review and share its results afterward. Florida must seek federal approval by October 1, 2025, to exempt a specified group of disabled recipients from yearly reviews. The law does not itself grant that exemption.

Medicaid covers colorectal screening blood tests

Beginning July 1, 2025, Medicaid managed care plans must cover federally approved blood-based biomarker tests for colorectal cancer screening. Coverage must follow the scope and testing frequency in the federal National Coverage Determination. Separately, Florida’s Medicaid agency may pay for these screenings at in-network or out-of-network labs. That separate payment authority is optional, not a coverage guarantee.

Medical marijuana registration faces offense restrictions

Florida must revoke a patient’s or caregiver’s medical marijuana registration after a final disposition for specified controlled-substance offenses. This includes convictions and guilty or no-contest pleas, regardless of whether guilt is formally adjudicated. A person may apply for reinstatement after completing all related incarceration, probation, community control, or supervision. The new application must include a notarized statement confirming completion. Knowingly making a false notarized statement in that application is a second-degree misdemeanor.

Extra Medicaid help with employer coverage

Beginning July 1, 2025, Florida may give high-cost Medicaid recipients extra financial help with employer health coverage. The usual assistance limit equals the Medicaid premium otherwise paid to a managed care plan for that person. The agency may exceed that limit when it finds the extra assistance cost effective. The law allows this extra help but does not require it.

Families get clearer home care information

The Nursing Home Guide must prominently explain alternatives to nursing home care and list home and community-based programs. It must encourage people to contact the CARES Program to ask whether they qualify. Each program listing must explain its services, including whether nursing home care is covered when needed. This information requirement does not itself expand benefits or eligibility.

Dental students can seek loan help earlier

Dental and dental hygiene students can apply for the Dental Student Loan Repayment Program before starting work. They must show a job offer from a qualifying public health program or private practice. They cannot receive money until they meet the program’s eligibility requirements. The law changes application timing, not the payment requirements.

Protected feedback helps compare nursing homes

Florida must annually survey random samples of each nursing home’s long-stay and short-stay residents and their families. The surveys must use validated measures, protect identities, and produce combined online results that let people compare homes. Employees and volunteers of nursing homes and their ownership businesses cannot try to influence residents’ answers. Once Florida finds the results statistically and scientifically reliable, it must include them in quality incentive payment calculations. No facility is guaranteed a payment increase.

Nursing homes face stronger care oversight

By January 1, 2026, nursing home medical directors must hold an approved credential or be pursuing one under agency rules. Florida must list each director’s name on the facility’s online profile. Homes must conduct anonymous patient safety culture surveys at least every two years and report results and participation rates. They may use outside survey administrators and submit action plans. Homes with certified electronic health records must share admission, transfer, and discharge data with Florida’s Health Information Exchange.

More providers qualify for training reimbursements

Publicly funded nonprofits serving Medicaid or other low-income patients in designated health professional shortage areas can qualify for TEACH reimbursements. Florida’s health agency must approve the organization. Reimbursement helps offset administrative costs or lost revenue from training students or residents in accredited Florida-based programs. Qualified facilities can receive $22 per reported clinical training hour for each nursing student in an accredited Florida-based program. Payments depend on legislative funding and reported eligible hours.

Florida providers gain research funding opportunities

Providers and facilities physically located in Florida and serving patients there count as Florida-based for the relevant cancer research program. This broadens which providers can meet that requirement. The law also creates the Bascom Palmer VisionGen Initiative for genetic and epigenetic research on inherited eye diseases and eye cancer. Grants use the existing competitive, peer-reviewed process and depend on annual legislative funding.

Fewer existing doctor residencies qualify for funding

Florida reduces the maximum number of qualifying existing physician residency positions eligible for support from 200 to 100. The agency may allocate $100,000 per year for each position. Positions must have existed before July 1, 2023, in a specialty or subspecialty with a statewide shortage. They must have been vacant for at least three years, then filled on or after June 1, 2024, and remain filled. Positions must also belong to an accredited initial or established training program.

Cancer research groups face tighter eligibility

Florida-based research consortia must have centralized leadership and National Cancer Institute designation to qualify as cancer centers. The law removes the former alternative for consortia prepared to achieve designation by June 30, 2024. Planning to obtain designation no longer satisfies that alternative.

Nursing homes face repeated late-report fines

Except for state-operated facilities, nursing homes and their home offices must file annual audited financial statements within 120 days after fiscal year-end. Beginning January 1, 2026, Florida must impose a $10,000 fine for each failure to file a required financial report on time. Every additional 10 days without filing counts as another violation. Agency rules must allow mitigating factors, and Florida may reduce inappropriate fines or grant a one-time extension for cause. The same violation cannot also receive a fine under the general penalty rule.

Senior care providers face service-area limits

Beginning July 1, 2025, Florida removes prior single-provider limits for the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly. Multiple providers still need justification, and Florida may exclude already-served areas to prevent unnecessary duplication or financial harm. Where an existing provider has operated under contract for at least 10 years, Florida must check for unmet need. A new applicant must justify serving that area. All applicants must offer comprehensive services that meet state and federal requirements.

Sponsors & Cosponsors

Sponsor

Appropriations
Affiliation unavailable

Cosponsors

There are no cosponsors for this bill.

Roll Call Votes

All Roll Calls

Yes: 305 • No: 0

Senate vote • 6/16/2025

Senate Floor Vote

Yes: 34 • No: 0

House vote • 6/16/2025

House Floor Vote

Yes: 105 • No: 0

House vote • 4/9/2025

House Floor Vote

Yes: 111 • No: 0

Senate vote • 4/9/2025