House Speaker Danny Perez (R) has invited lawmakers to join a committee to examine potential mid-decade redistricting. Perez said the House lacks the time and resources to hold a special session but wants the committee to convene in October during the scheduled interim committee meeting period. 

Also in Florida, Attorney General James Uthmeier (R) has issued an emergency rule prohibiting 7-OH, a concentrated byproduct of kratom. Physicians caution that the substance is as addictive as opioids. Joining Uthmeier for the announcement, FDA Commissioner Mark Makary warned that kratom could signal the fourth wave of the opioid epidemic. 

Finally, the Department of Revenue has released Tax Information Publication (TIP), titled "Sales Tax on Commercial Rentals Repealed Effective October 1, 2025." Effective October 1, the state sales tax imposed on rent or license fees for the use of real property (commercial rentals) under section 212.031, Florida Statutes (F.S.), is repealed. This means no state sales tax or discretionary sales surtax applies to rent or license fees for rental or occupancy periods beginning on or after October 1, 2025. Examples of commercial rentals subject to the repeal include rentals of commercial office or retail space, warehouses and self-storage units. This publication provides important guidance regarding the upcoming repeal of sales tax on commercial rentals. We encourage you to review the TIP for details on how this change may affect your business or operations. 

For more information, contact NACDS’ Leigh Knotts at 803-243-7207.

The Board of Pharmacy has seen a recent surge in fraudulent emails and phone calls targeting Florida health care practitioners by impersonating the Department of Health or Division of Medical Quality Assurance (MQA). These scams leverage information about the licensure and enforcement processes to attempt to steal your personal or financial information. 

If you have accidentally entered your credentials into any prompt or website that seems suspicious, or if you have been contacted by a suspicious caller or email, change your password immediately, gather the following information about the incident, and report it by calling the MQA Customer Contact Call Center at 850-488-0595 or emailing MedicalQualityAssurance@flhealth.gov. 

• A description of the scam and how you were contacted. 

• Screenshots of the phone call (with the timestamp and number). 

• Photos of any documents or emails received (including the sender's email or fax number). 

• A copy of the envelope or bank charges, if applicable. 

Thank you for helping us protect the integrity of Florida's health care workforce. 

For more information, contact NACDS’ Leigh Knotts at 803-243-7207.

The Senate Budget Chairs have continued productive discussions with the House regarding joint budget allocations. However, the budget conference will not begin next week. Senators have been informed that they will not need to return to Tallahassee before Memorial Day. 

For more information, contact NACDS’ Leigh Knotts at 803-243-7207.

NACDS submitted comments to the Board of Pharmacy in support of proposed rules eliminating the current maximum pharmacy technician-to-pharmacist ratios across various pharmacy settings. Instead, the proposed rules would allow supervising pharmacists to determine the number of technicians under their oversight, thereby enabling pharmacies to optimize the use of pharmacy technicians to perform technical and administrative tasks and allowing pharmacists to dedicate more time to direct patient care. 

Also in Florida, the State Legislature has passed a concurrent resolution to extend the Legislative Session until 11:59 pm on June 6, in accordance with Section 3(d), Article III of the State Constitution. All other measures in both houses were indefinitely postponed and withdrawn from consideration of the respective House as of 12:00 am on May 3. The Legislature will only be considering bills related to the budget during the extension. Senate President Ben Albritton (R) issued a statement on the 60th day of the 2025 legislative session, announcing that the Senate has developed "a framework for a budget plan and a tentative schedule to move forward" in agreement with the House. As part of this agreement, the Senate and House are proposing a historic $2.8 billion in tax relief. The Legislature is expected to return to Tallahassee the week of May 12 to hash out differing ideas about the spending plan for the coming fiscal year. 

For more information, contact NACDS’ Leigh Knotts at 803-243-7207.

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) issued Executive Order Number 25-44, creating the state's Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE) task force, which will work to further eliminate waste within state government, save taxpayers money and ensure accountability in the state. 

Also in Florida, the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) scheduled a workshop for Rule 59G-4.002, F.A.C., Provider Reimbursement Schedules and Billing Codes, for March 11 from 10:00 am to 10:30 am at AHCA, 2727 Mahan Drive, Building 3, Tallahassee, FL 32308. A virtual option or call-in number will not be available for this meeting. Official notice of the meeting was published in Vol. 51/No. 38 of the Florida Administrative Register (FAR) on February 25. A copy of the notice may be found at https://flrules.org/Gateway/View_notice.asp?id=29291301; click on "View Notice". Please note that a preliminary draft of the reference material, if available, will be posted prior to the meeting on the Rules Web page. 

For more information, contact NACDS’ Leigh Knotts at 803-243-7207.

The Florida Pharmacy Association is hosting an upcoming ACPE–approved conference on February 22-23 via Zoom, focused exclusively on Women’s Health and care for these patients. Register here! 

For more information, contact NACDS’ Leigh Knotts at 803-243-7207.

The Agency for Health Care Administration (Agency) contracts with Medicaid health and dental plans to provide State Plan services to health plan enrollees in the Statewide Medicaid Managed Care (SMMC) program. The Agency recently contracted with health and dental plans effective February 1, 2025. In this new iteration of SMMC, the Medicaid regions have been realigned into nine regions from eleven. The regional naming convention has also changed, with regions 1-9 have become regions A-I. The Agency has posted a map of the regional changes ,a list of the plans by type, and plan coverage.  Visit the Agency’s SMMC 3.0 webpage for more information. Please refer to the SMMC 3.0 website for more information.

For more information, contact NACDS’ Leigh Knotts at 803-243-7207.

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) issued an Emergency Order (EO) on January 20, EO 25-13 ,declaring a state of emergency, which allows for state officials to make critical resources available to communities ahead of any potential storm impacts. 

For more information, contact NACDS’ Leigh Knotts at 803-243-7207.

The Florida Administrative Register has published a proposed rule RE: “Definition of Compounding”; see the lower left and upper right sections of page 4574.

For more information, contact NACDS’ Leigh Knotts at 803-243-7207.