CS/CS/CS/HB 17 Summary

• Creates section 768.755 of Florida Statutes establishing standards for calculating damages for unpaid health care services, procedures, or equipment in personal injury and wrongful death actions.

• Defines "charge benchmark" as the value at a specified percentile rank of full, non-discounted standard rates charged by out-of-network providers in the same geographical area and specialty.

• Defines "imputed allowed amount benchmark" as the value at a specified percentile rank of negotiated in-network rates authorized by commercial insurance carriers for providers in the same geographical area and specialty.

• Requires evidence of usual and customary rates based on percentile benchmarks: 50th percentile for government program claimants, 85th percentile for commercial insurance claimants, and 85th percentile for uninsured claimants, using databases similar to FAIR Health Database as of July 1, 2019.

• Makes inadmissible at trial any evidence of whether a claimant is a Medicare or Medicaid beneficiary; applies only to actions arising on or after July 1, 2019.