Florida House considers a way to convert public hospital districts

Share
breast cancer screening
Mammogram screening for breast cancer. By gorodenkoff via iStock for WMNF.

©2024 The News Service of Florida

A House panel Wednesday supported a proposal that would create a process for public hospital districts to convert to non-profit organizations and require districts to study the financial feasibility of converting to non-profits or selling to for-profit companies.

The proposal (HB 1421), sponsored by Rep. Randy Fine, R-Brevard County, is positioned to go to the full House after getting approval from the State Affairs Committee.

But a Senate version (SB 1700) has not been heard in committees more than halfway through the 60-day legislative session.

Under current law, districts can sell or lease hospitals to other entities.

But Fine said they cannot convert to non-profit organizations.

The bill would allow districts, if they choose, to go through a conversion process.

Also, it would require all hospital districts to hire consultants to do financial evaluations of possible conversions or sales.

“We are not forcing them to do anything other than to gather information,” Fine said.

But Robin Bartleman, D-Weston, pointed to “public good” from public hospitals and said they shouldn’t have to go through the evaluations if communities don’t want changes.

“There are benefits to retaining a public hospital, as is,” Bartleman said.

Leave a Reply

  • (will not be published)

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

You may also like

Governor DeSantis touts state immigration enforcement at Tampa press conference

Listen: Governor Ron DeSantis is touting the state’s partnership with...

The Scoop: Mon. May 12, 2025, Tampa Bay and Florida headlines by WMNF

St. Petersburg celebrating three bills passed by Florida senate, Starbucks...

Check out the images from one of the hottest Tropical Heatwave shows ever!

Photos of Chuck Prophet, Skating Polly, Sue Foley, Zach Person...

Heavy rains continue with floods possible

Rainfall totals will range between 2 and 4 inches. However,...

Ways to listen

WMNF is listener-supported. That means we don't advertise like a commercial station, and we're not part of a university.

Ways to support

WMNF volunteers have fun providing a variety of needed services to keep your community radio station alive and kickin'.

Jazz in the Night
Jazz in the Night