FL H1263

Reorganizes the Department of Health by redefining its core mission to seven streamlined functions (disease surveillance, interventions, vital statistics, emergency preparedness, health care for identified populations, environmental health regulation, and health practitioner regulation), renaming multiple divisions, eliminating three divisions (Children's Medical Services Prevention and Intervention, Information Technology, and Health Access and Tobacco), and removing the Officer of Women's Health Strategy position

Repeals numerous programs and entities, including the Florida Community Health Protection Act, Healthy People/Healthy Communities Act, Florida Center for Universal Research to Eradicate Disease, Florida Health Services Corps, osteoporosis prevention program, Health Information Systems Council, epidemiological research authority, the department's eminent domain power, and authority to purchase/lease/sell real property

Restructures Children's Medical Services as a statewide managed care network, requiring a physician director serving as Deputy Secretary, authorizing contracts with third-party administrators for claims processing, mandating minimum reserves of 10% of projected Title XIX/XXI expenditures or 2% of total annualized AHCA payments, and broadening the program's exemption from the Florida Insurance Code

Mandates closure of A.G. Holley State Hospital by January 1, 2013, requiring the department to develop a transition plan (due May 31, 2012) that includes transferring patients, contracting with community providers, and coordinating with AHCA to modify Medicaid reimbursement for TB treatment in licensed community hospitals

Overhauls onsite sewage treatment and disposal system regulation by defining "bedroom" for system sizing, prohibiting mandatory inspections at point of sale, changing aerobic treatment unit operating permits from annual to biennial, and requiring counties/municipalities containing first magnitude springs (median discharge ≥100 cubic feet per second) to adopt evaluation and assessment programs by January 1, 2013

Simplifies public swimming pool and bathing place regulation by limiting department authority to sanitation and safety standards, removing plan review and Florida Building Code enforcement responsibilities, allowing operating permit transfers, and consolidating fees into the Grants and Donations Trust Fund

Creates s. 383.141 requiring health care providers to give patients comprehensive information when a developmental disability (including Down syndrome) is prenatally diagnosed, establishes a Department of Health information clearinghouse website, and creates a 9-member advisory council with quarterly meetings and staggered 2-to-4-year terms

Allocates $25 million annually from the Health Care Trust Fund for tobacco and cancer research, distributing $5 million each to the James and Esther King Program, Bankhead-Coley Cancer Research, Moffitt Cancer Center, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, and University of Florida Shands Cancer Hospital

Transfers the Nursing Student Loan Forgiveness Program and Nursing Scholarship Program from the Department of Health to the Department of Education, providing loan repayments up to $4,000/year for up to 4 years and scholarships up to $8,000/year ($12,000 for graduate degrees), with non-completion penalties including full repayment plus 18% interest

Strengthens nursing education accountability by requiring programs to maintain NCLEX passage rates within 10 percentage points of the average for comparable programs, placing programs failing for 2 consecutive years on probation, and terminating programs that remain on probation for 2 additional years without improvement