Associated Press

Speed limits on Florida highways could be raised to 75 miles per hour under a bill the Senate passed.

The Senate voted 27-11 on Thursday to pass the bill, despite concerns by some that it would make roads more dangerous.

The measure would allow the Department of Transportation to raise the speed limit on interstate and limited access highways from 70 to 75 miles per hour, from 65 to 70 miles per hour on rural, four-lane divided highways and up to 65 miles per hour on other roads. It does not automatically raise the speed limits.

The Florida Senate has passed a bill that would market the state as a destination for medical procedures to national and international audiences.

The measure (SB 1150) passed with a 38 to 0 vote Thursday. It would allow the spending of $3.5 million in state funds to promote Florida's medical facilities and surrounding attractions by Visit Florida, the public-private partnership charged with attracting tourism to the state.

The state Chamber of Commerce and other supporters believe Florida offers a number of high-profile medical services but has done little to promote them.

Litigants filing a case against a nursing home would be limited in whom they can name as defendants under a bill that passed the House.

Parties that are not involved in the direct decision-making for the operation of a facility named in a legal action could not be named as defendants under Senate Bill 670.

The bill passed the House with a 109-7 vote Wednesday. Supporters say the bill is aimed at Tampa lawyer James Wilkes, who has built a successful business suing nursing homes.

Florida physicians would be allowed to double the number of certified medical assistants under their supervision under legislation that passed the House.

The bill (HB 1275) would allow most doctors to supervise eight assistants instead of four. The measure passed 100 to 19.

The measure excludes assistants working for doctors at a dermatological service other than their primary practice location, where the maximum number remains four.

A Florida bill that would forbid insurance companies from refusing to serve or charging higher rates to applicants based on their ownership of a firearm has been sent to Gov. Rick Scott to sign.

The measure passed the House 74-44 on Tuesday. The bill also prohibits an insurer from disclosing information related to the ownership of weapons by a client without the consent of the insured. It extends to both existing and new policies.

Three Southern Republican governors are writing President Barack Obama to complain about newly announced Medicare Advantage payments.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal signed the April 15 letter that says changes to Medicare Advantage payments will harm "America's seniors." The changes are blamed on the nation's health care overhaul.

The letter contends an announcement from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that payments will increase "amounts to little more than political theater."

Following a Florida Supreme Court decision that struck down caps on certain awards in medical malpractice lawsuits, the members of a 2002 task force that supported those caps are calling for a constitutional amendment that would place the caps on solid footing.

The Florida Legislature won't be getting much work done in the next week.

State legislators are taking off the seventh week of the 2014 session because it conflicts with Passover and Easter.

The session lasts 60 days and is scheduled to end in early May.

Legislators have already passed major bills dealing with sex offenders and a rollback in auto registration fees.

However, the Legislature must still pass a state budget in order to adjourn on time.

A Senate bill that would increase the use of telemedicine and establish requirements for health providers who treat patients remotely remains in play in Florida’s Legislature.

A companion bill is also making its way through the House, but that bill doesn't require doctors to have a Florida license — only that they be licensed in their home state and registered in Florida.

There is one simple way for a Florida medical clinic to avoid being licensed and undergoing an annual inspection: Don't accept insurance.

A bill moving through the Legislature would close that loophole for so-called cash-only clinics, which can escape government oversight because the statutory definition of a clinic is interpreted as an operation that takes third-party insurance.

The bill (SB 746) sponsored by Sen. Eleanor Sobel, D-Hollywood, would require that all medical clinics be subject to licensure, renewal and inspection, whether they accept insurance or not.

A federal judge in West Palm Beach has sentenced a South Florida doctor to more than six years in prison on money laundering charges related to her prescription of millions of oxycodone pills and other narcotics.

Also sentenced in the case Friday, a fellow doctor who received 18 months behind bars on similar charges. Both physicians were part of a broad 2010 investigation into so-called "pill mills".

Florida Blue has appointed Dr. René Lerer as president of the state’s largest insurer.

Lerer's will also be president of the GuideWell group. He will report to CEO Pat Geraghty.

Lerer was previously the chairman and CEO of Magellan Health Services. Magellan is a leading national health care management organization or HMO. Earlier in his career he co-founded Internet HealthCare Group, a health care technology venture fund.

He holds a medical degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo and is board-certified in internal medicine.

A House committee has approved a measure that would amend state abortion law, making the ability of a fetus to survive outside the womb through standard medical care the threshold for termination.

The bill (HB 1047) passed the House Health and Human Services Committee by a 12-5 vote on Thursday.

Current Florida law uses the third trimester threshold to prohibit abortion, making anything after the 24th week of pregnancy illegal.

Roughly 100 nurses, doctors and consumers are flying to Tallahassee to lobby legislators about affordable health care.

The advocates from Miami’s Jackson Health System say chronically-ill patients are falling through the cracks because state lawmakers decided not to expand Medicaid to more than 1 million Floridians.

A 59-year-old uninsured crossing guard with high blood pressure is among those heading to the capitol Wednesday.

Cash-only medical clinics are allowed to skirt the licensing and regulation most other clinics are subject to, a loophole that a Florida lawmaker contends allows some of them to dispense drugs illicitly.

State Sen. Eleanor Sobel, D-Hollywood, addresses the secrecy in these clinics, which don't accept Medicare or insurance payments, in a measure that sailed through the Senate Committee on Criminal Justice on Monday.

Sick of hearing about the health care law?

Plenty of people have tuned out after all the political jabber and website woes.

But now is the time to tune back in, before it’s too late.

The big deadline is coming March 31.

By that day, for the first time, nearly everyone in the United States is required to be signed up for health insurance or risk paying a fine.

Here’s what you need to know about this month’s open enrollment countdown:

ALREADY COVERED? NO WORRIES

Florida legislators from both parties come to the Capitol today agreeing that some of the first bills they'll pass could have saved the life of an 8-year-old Jacksonville girl.

The death of Cherish Perrywinkle, who was abducted at a Wal-Mart, and a newspaper investigation into the state's sexual predator civil commitment program have created a rarely seen unity in a process that's more often known for division and political differences.