Rep. Black: Florida has an opportunity to lead with proposed blood clot study group

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (FLV) – A bill filed would establish a policy workgroup to understand how blood clots and pulmonary embolisms are affecting the lives of Floridians.

The bill, filed by Rep. Dean Black, R-Jacksonville, passed in the House Healthcare Appropriations Subcommittee March 14.

“This policy working group will help bring together experts, providers, advocates to facilitate a conversation around how we as a state can improve our collective response to the challenges that Floridians face with blood clots and pulmonary embolisms,” Black said.

The bill would require the secretary of the Agency for Health Care Administration and Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo to establish a blood clot and pulmonary embolism workgroup.

It would require the secretary to submit annual reports and a final report to the governor and legislature about their workgroup.

“Florida has an opportunity, a real opportunity to lead. Nobody’s really looking at 30,000 feet to try to distill a collective wisdom to deal with this problem,” Black said.

“But we can in Florida. And right now, it’s all eyes on Florida. People watch what we do, they learn from us.”

The bill would allow the workgroup to consider recommendations around standard of care guidelines and identify how many Floridians are affected.

It would identify how data is collected, identify emerging treatments and therapies, develop a recommendation for risk surveillance systems to help health care providers, and develop policy recommendations that target patients who are at high risk, according to Black.

It would also develop policy recommendations related to providing notice to patients and their families.

Black pointed to his friends, former Rep. Janet Adkins, R-Fernandina Beach, and her husband, Doug Adkins at the subcommittee, who lost their 23-year-old daughter, Emily Adkins in October 2022 to a pulmonary embolism.

“You know, my dear friends, Representative Adkins, Doug, their suffering is unimaginable. We all know though, that God uses everything for his glory. We have an opportunity to help make that happen,” Black said.

Janet Adkins said her daughter, Emily, fractured her ankle and five months later, they were “picking out cemetery blocks.”

Both Janet and Doug gave emotional speeches, urging individuals to check with their doctors for blood clots and pulmonary embolisms so that they can be properly treated “in order to ensure you don’t die needlessly” and urged members to vote yes on the bill.

“So what I can tell you is blood clots and pulmonary embolisms are a crisis. This is a kitchen table issue, members, throughout the state of Florida,” Doug Adkins said.