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Balance billing measure moves ahead despite reservations

in Statewide/Top Headlines by

A House panel on financial issues got deep in the weeds of health care policy Tuesday as lawmakers took up a controversial proposal to change the way insurers are reimbursed by hospitals and other providers when patients receive care beyond their insurance network. The deceptively simple 11-page bill was the subject of over an hour of testimony and debate.  Insurance and business groups generally supported it while many physicians and providers’ groups, with some exceptions, opposed it. The proposal –…

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Bill to move 2nd District Court to Tampa riles Polk legislators

in The Bay and the 'Burg/Top Headlines by

When the Florida Legislature convenes Tuesday to begin the second week of the nine-week Legislative Session, the House Justice Appropriations Subcommittee will consider a proposal that divides the Tampa and Polk County legislative delegations. House Bill 815, sponsored by Tampa Republican Shawn Harrison, would move the 2nd District Court of Appeal from Lakeland to the Tampa area. “It’s becoming a public safety issue,” Harrison said. About 50 employees and judges work in the courthouse. A recent air quality report shows the roof…

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Florida activist group blasts term-limit proposal for judges

in Statewide/Top Headlines by

When Pasco County Representative Richard Corcoran was elected as Speaker Designate by his fellow House Republicans in September, he seized the moment on the floor to call for enacting 12-year term limits for all judges. “We need to shake up the status quo and introduce new energy and purpose into our judicial system,” Corcoran said. “We can do this by enacting 12-year term limits for all judges. No public office — be it state representative, governor or judge — should be for life.” The day…

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John Wood says state needs to let go of Nora Mayo Hall

in The Bay and the 'Burg by

The state of Florida is sitting on a building it cannot sell, but won’t give it to a local municipality which says it needs it. In his final year in the Florida House due to term limits, Winter Haven Republican Rep. John Wood said he and members of the Polk County delegation will be fighting to get the state to give (or sell at an affordable price) Nora Mayo Hall to the city of Winter Haven. Part of the Florida…

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2016 Legislative Food Fights: Legal, judicial reforms again on lawmakers’ to-do list

in Statewide/Top Headlines by

They don’t get as much attention as policy debates that gum up and even fracture legislative sessions (think Medicaid expansion), but a slew of proposed legal-related changes will be before legislators this year – some new, some old standbys. For instance, the Legislature will try to overhaul Florida’s alimony law for at least the third time in recent years. The same sides have aligned against each other: Ex-spouses – largely men – who say “forever alimony” isn’t fair, and their former mates – mostly women…

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Maybe Polk County will build a toll road anyway

in The Bay and the 'Burg/Top Headlines by

Polk County business leaders and legislators are readying for a possible end run around the Florida Department of Transportation’s decision to postpone and perhaps even stop support for the Central Polk Parkway toll road … maybe a half-end run. Rep. John Wood, a Winter Haven Republican who has chaired the Central Polk Parkway Working Group, plans to discuss the creation of a Polk County Expressway Authority that will plan ways to keep the project alive. The working group meets 9…

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Today on Context Florida: Killing in God’s name, Kurly’s latke recipe and defending our Constitutions

in Apolitical by

Today on Context Florida: There has been a lot of talk about mass shootings and the Second Amendment. Jac VerSteeg asks us to talk a little bit about mass shootings and the First Amendment. The First Amendment is a sweeping guarantee of rights for individuals, churches and the press. There are limits to the free exercise of religion, VerSteeg says. Courts have intervened, for example, when parents have refused to seek medical treatment for children because they believe God should do…

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