Florida House Passes Bill That Creates New Health Care Workforce Programs, Makes Changes to Existing Programs

The Florida House of Representatives passed legislation that, if enacted, will create several new programs that will impact the state’s health care workforce and will make changes to several existing programs. While not all the changes will directly impact oral health professionals, many will. Summaries of those changes can be found below.

The legislation proposes multiple changes to the state’s Dental Student Loan Repayment Program that include:

• Expanding the program to include dental hygienists;
• Expanding eligibility to include private dental practices that are located in dental health professional shortage (HPSA) areas as eligible practice locations for dentists and dental hygienists;
• Requiring dentists and dental hygienists who participate to also volunteer 25 hours per year, providing dental services in a free clinic that is located in a dental HPSA or a medically underserved area, through another volunteer program operated by the state pursuant to part IV of chapter 110, or through a pro bono program approved by the Florida Board of Dentistry;
• Specifying that the annual award for a qualifying dentist or dental hygienist is 20% of his or her principal loan amount at the time that he or she applies for the program, but may not be more than $50,000 per year for dentists or $7,500 per year for dental hygienists;
• Specifying that a dentist or dental hygienist may receive up to five such awards and that the awards are not required to be awarded in consecutive years;
• Eliminating language that limits participants to no more than 10 per fiscal year;
• Clarifying that the program is meant to support the state Medicaid program; and
• Appropriating $8 million for the program for the 2024-2025 fiscal year.

The bill would also create a preceptor program known as the Training, Education and Clinicals in Health (TEACH) Funding Program. The program would provide a high-quality educational experience while supporting participating federally qualified health centers, community mental health centers, rural health clinics and certified community behavioral health clinics by offsetting administrative costs and loss of revenue associated with training residents and students to become licensed health care practitioners. Under the program, the Florida Area Health Care Administration (AHCA) would be required to enter into an agreement with qualified facilities that agree to provide appropriate supervision or precepting of specified health care professionals, including dental residents, dental students and dental hygiene students. Facilities that participate in the program are eligible for hourly reimbursement rates of $50 for dental residents, $22 for dental students and $15 for dental hygiene students.

Effective Oct. 1, 2024, the sums of $14,888,903 in recurring funds from the General Revenue Fund and $20,036,979 in recurring funds from the Medical Care Trust Fund would be appropriated to the Florida AHCA to provide a Medicaid reimbursement rate increase for dental care services.

Finally, the bill would also create the Dr. and Mrs. Alfonse and Kathleen Cinotti Health Care Screening and Services Grant Program to fund the provisions of no-cost health care screenings or services for the general public by nonprofit entities. Dental screenings are included among eligible expenses under the grant program.

The bill has been sent to the state’s Senate for consideration.