Doctors’ resistance to BeaconLBS comes to Florida legislature

A hearing took place recently on a healthcare bill in the Florida senate.  Physicians in Florida are working to get language inserted into a state law that would restrict the ability of health insurers to use a clinical decision support system or laboratory benefit management program in certain circumstances. Physicians are unhappy with the requirement by UnitedHealthcare that they use the BeaconLBS system to obtain pre-notification and pre-authorization for about 80 lab tests. The Florida legislature is currently considering the clinical decision support systems and laboratory benefit management programs that health plans use to dictate how physicians may order clinical laboratory tests. Florida Senate Bill 1084 includes language that would restrict the ability of health insurers to use systems designed to direct how physicians order laboratory tests in specific situations.