2026 Florida Legislative Session

Video Updates

Fraser Cobbe and Joe Daraskevich spend time each week talking about three hot topics during the Legislative Session in Tallahassee.

Tune in each week and share any questions in the comment section of each video.

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House Schedule
The House Schedule is updated regularly with event information and broadcast changes. Please check back frequently and refresh this page for the most current information available regarding House events.

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Full Listing of ALL Health Care Bills before the Legislature 

Quick List

Health Care Highlights provided by Toni Large, Large Strategies | (850) 556-1461 Tallahassee, Florida

Week 3 Legislative Recap

Capitol Update: Quick highlights of health care issues discussed this week and a look ahead to Week 4.

Click HERE for an in-depth analysis of the proposed legislations.

Week 2 Healthcare Highlights

SB 432 - Controlled Substances & HB 309 - Controlled Substances

Add 7-Hydroxymitragynine to Schedule I, regulate xylazine under Schedule I (with certain FDA-approved uses excepted), and impose new criminal penalties and trafficking offenses for xylazine.

SB 162 - Protection From Surgical Smoke

Require hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers to use smoke evacuation systems during surgical procedures that generate surgical smoke.

HB 901 - Diabetes Research

Establishes the University of Florida Diabetes Institute as a centralized resource for diabetes research, screening, prevention, treatment, and education.

SB 382 - Electric Bicycles & HB 243 - Electric Bicycles

Mandate safer operation of electric bicycles, create a task force to recommend improvements, and require law enforcement agencies to track related crashes.

Creates the Electric Bicycle Safety Task Force to examine and recommend improvements to state laws and regulations governing electric bicycles, with monthly meetings and a final report due before October 1, 2026.

SB 408 - Advertisement of a Harmful Vaccine

Define 'advertise' for vaccine promotions and impose liability on manufacturers for harm caused by advertised vaccines.

SB 560 - Child Welfare

Improve child welfare conditions by streamlining psychotropic medication reporting, extending educational support eligibility, revising reporting requirements, and updating child welfare definitions.

Require physicians to provide a copy of documented consent, rather than a signed attestation, to pharmacies when prescribing psychotropic medication for children.

HB 743 - Prohibited Sex-reassignment Prescriptions & Procedures

Prohibit health care practitioners from aiding or abetting in prohibited sex-reassignment prescriptions or procedures for minors and authorize the state to pursue civil actions and penalties.

HB 867 - Dry Needling by Occupational Therapists

Defines dry needling and myofascial trigger points for occupational therapists and establishes new education, supervision, and reporting requirements for performing dry needling.

HB 635 - Cybersecurity Standards and Liability

Prohibits local governments from imposing cybersecurity standards exceeding the state's framework and provides liability protections for compliant entities in the event of cybersecurity incidents.

HB 13 - Social Work Licensure Interstate Compact

Enacts the Social Work Licensure Interstate Compact to streamline multistate social work practice and adjusts licensure, investigative, and disciplinary processes accordingly.

HB 813 - Firefighter Cancer Benefits and Prevention

Changes starting point for when $25,000 cancer-related cash payout for firefighters is available after their employment and eliminates the State Fire Marshal’s rulemaking requirement for cancer prevention measures.      

HB 375 - Autonomous Practice by a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist

Allow certified registered nurse anesthetists to practice autonomously without requiring onsite physician supervision in certain circumstances.

HB 301 - Advanced Practice Registered Nurse Autonomous Practice

Authorizes certain advanced practice registered nurses to engage in autonomous mental health practice.

HB 697 - Drug Prices and Coverage

Establish new prescription drug reference pricing standards to lower costs and restrict insurance formulary changes.

Week 1: Healthcare Highlights

Capitol Update: Quick highlights of health care issues discussed during the first week of the 2026 Florida Legislative Session.

Note: Tuesday marked opening day, with the State of the State address by the Governor and opening remarks by the Speaker and Senate President, setting the tone of each Chamber's priorities.

The following bills received successful passage in one Chamber: HOUSE
Note bills would still need successful passage in Senate.

HB 355 - Health Care Patient Protection
Mandate new pediatric emergency care protocols in hospital emergency departments and require public disclosure of readiness assessments.

HB 121 - Nursing Education Programs
Strengthen nursing education program accountability by revising application and reporting requirements, imposing stricter standards for approval and compliance, and removing certain accreditation extensions.

HB 6003 - Recovery of Damages for Medical Negligence Resulting in Death
Removes the statutory bar preventing adult children and parents of an adult child from recovering damages in medical negligence wrongful death cases (pain & suffering/non-economic damages).

See how the House voted- Did your legislature oppose? CLICK here for VOTE COUNT

HB 289 - Civil Liability for the Wrongful Death of an Unborn Child
Expand wrongful death actions to include unborn children while limiting liability for mothers and healthcare providers and specifying recoverable damages for parents.
Adding parents of an unborn child as survivors and defining 'unborn child.'
Prohibits wrongful death actions against the mother or health care providers for lawful care provided in compliance with the applicable standard of care.

HB 145 - Suits Against the Government
Raises sovereign immunity caps in multiple phases, reaching as high as $600,000 per individual claim and $1.2 million per incident after October 1, 2031.
Shortens from 3 years to 18 months the timeframe for presenting tort claims to an agency and reduces the statute of limitations for negligence suits from 4 years to 2 years.

The following bills received successful passage in one Chamber: SENATE
Note bills would still need successful passage in House

SB 250 - Rural Communities
The bill addresses rural Florida and specific to health care it expands Florida Reimbursement Assistance for Medical Education Program (FRAME). The FRAME program offers student loan reimbursement to various health care practitioners to offset their loans and educational expenses to entice them to practice in underserved locations where there are practitioner shortages.

SB 250 allows doctors who are board certified in emergency medicine and employed or under contract with a rural hospital or a rural emergency hospital to participate in the FRAME program.

The following bills received successful passage in COMMITTEE this week

HB 237 - Use of Professional Nursing Titles
Requires a nurse with a doctoral degree who uses the title “doctor” in a clinical setting to clearly specify that they are a nurse.

HB 375 - Autonomous Practice by a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist
Allow certified registered nurse anesthetists to practice autonomously without requiring onsite physician supervision in certain circumstances.

HB 301 - Advanced Practice Registered Nurse Autonomous Practice
Authorizes certain advanced practice registered nurses to engage in autonomous mental health practice.

Bills on Agenda Week 2

HB 697 - Drug Prices and Coverage
Establish new prescription drug reference pricing standards to lower costs and restrict insurance formulary changes.

Creates the Prescription Reduction Incentives and Competition Enhancement Act, requiring the Agency for Health Care Administration to contract with an entity to designate source countries and set reference prices for prescribed drugs based on international data.

Requires pharmacies to charge cash-paying customers no more than the established reference price for prescribed medications and compels drug manufacturers to report their international pricing data or face fines and potential permit suspension.

Prohibits pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) from favoring affiliated manufacturers’ drugs when interchangeable generics or biosimilars are available, and disallows reimbursement practices that pay certain pharmacies less than affiliated ones.

Caps health insurer reimbursements at the reference price and directs any resulting savings to reduce premiums and cost sharing for consumers, with required annual reporting of compliance and financial impact.

Limits mid-year removal or reclassification of drugs in insurance and HMO formularies, ensuring stable coverage for enrollees except in narrow circumstances such as recalls or over-the-counter transitions.

SB 408 - Advertisement of a Harmful Vaccine
Define 'advertise' for vaccine promotions and impose liability on manufacturers for harm caused by advertised vaccines.

SB 162 - Protection From Surgical Smoke
Require hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers to use smoke evacuation systems during surgical procedures that generate surgical smoke.

SB 560 - Child Welfare
Streamline requirements for prescribing psychotropic medication to children in state custody and revise related child welfare procedures.

HB 743 - Prohibited Sex-reassignment Prescriptions and Procedures
Expand criminal penalties and authorize civil actions against health care practitioners who provide or support prohibited sex-reassignment prescriptions or procedures for minors.

SB 382 - Electric Bicycles, Scooters, And Motorcycles
Establishes electric bicycle safety requirements, creates a safety task force, and mandates statewide crash data collection.
Requires yielding to pedestrians and audible signals on shared pathways.
Limits e-bike speed to 10 mph near pedestrians.
Creates a task force to recommend statewide safety improvements.
Requires law enforcement agencies to track and report e-bike crashes until October 2026.