Our 2008 Florida Legislative Agenda

Patient Safety Act

The Epilepsy Foundation of Florida has introduced legislation in the Florida House (HB811) and Senate (SB 2414). The bill requires a pharmacist to notify the physician when substituting an epilepsy patient’s medication. To further protect patients, Epilepsy Foundation of Florida also encourages physicians to dispense medication with the “medically necessary” designation affixed to the script!

Resources

For more information, view the Report of Action PDF below.

Report of Action

Epilepsy Funding

In a year in which the State of Florida expects decreasing revenues, our goal is to not only maintain our current level of funding but to increase that funding by an additional $2.2 million through a Community Budget Issue Request filed in both houses of the Legislature. The Governor retained our current funding level in his budget submitted to the Legislators for consideration.

Seat Belt Primary Violation

In Florida today, the failure to wear a seat belt is not a primary traffic violation. Those not wearing a seat belt can only be cited if they are stopped for committing some other traffic violation and it is determined that they do not have their seat belt on. Legislation has been introduced in both houses of the Legislature (Senate-S.B. 94 & House-H.B.11) that would make the failure to wear a seat belt a primary violation. Head trauma is one of the leading causes of Epilepsy. The wearing of seat belts helps to reduce the potential for head injury in a motor vehicle accident.

For more information on how to contact your Legislators to voice support for these initiatives, contact Rich Hatfield, Epilepsy Foundation of Florida Patient Advocacy Director at (904)731-3752 or 1-888-897-8579. He can also be reached via email at rhatfield@efof.org.