Gov. Ron DeSantis signed off on a measure increasing compensation for families whose infants suffer injuries during birth.
The bill (SB 1786) targets the Florida Birth-Related Neurological Injury Compensation Association (NICA), which helps care for infants born with brain or spinal-cord injuries.
The reform package boosts the initial payment to parents or legal guardians of children accepted into the NICA program from $100,000 to $250,000. That total will then increase by 3% each year on Jan. 1.
The death benefit payout for infants with neurological injuries also increases under the bill from $10,000 to $50,000.
An investigation by the Miami Herald profiled parents who have struggled to receive payments from the NICA program. However, NICA Executive Director Kenny Shipley told lawmakers this year that there’s “another side to this story than what you saw come out of the Miami Herald.”
That didn’t stop both the House and Senate from giving the measure their unanimous support on its final passage.
The Legislature was set to pass a version of the measure that didn’t apply the increased compensation retroactively. But after protests from Democratic Rep. Andrew Learned, taken into consideration by bill sponsor and Republican Rep. Traci Koster, the Senate and bill sponsor Sen. Danny Burgess, a Republican, agreed to make the provision retroactive, as it was in the original House bill.
But NICA general counsel Steve Ecenia told a House panel the retroactive application would be a problem because it could affect a lawsuit pending in the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The House ultimately agreed to eliminate the retroactive provisions.
Lawmakers created NICA in 1988 as a no-fault system to pay for the care of children so long as the physicians participate in NICA and pay yearly assessments. Participating physicians are required to pay $5,000 each year for coverage, and all licensed Florida physicians pay a mandatory fee of $250, regardless of specialty.
Hospitals pay $50 for each live birth during the previous calendar year. In 2019, NICA collected $26,989,960 in hospital and physician assessments; in 2020, NICA collected $27 million, according to a legislative staff analysis.
