Written by a parent, not a doctor. Nothing here is medical advice.

Childhood Cancer Lantern
Search Saved

Florida program

Medical electricity registration with your utility

Medical electricity registration provides extra shutoff warnings when essential medical equipment meets Florida’s strict test.

What it is

Medical electricity registration provides extra shutoff warnings when essential medical equipment meets Florida’s strict test.

Medically essential service registration provides an extra notice safeguard with covered utilities. A Florida doctor completes the power company’s form. It does not guarantee continuous electricity or erase unpaid bills.

Eligibility rules
  • A permanent resident must need electrically powered medical equipment to prevent death or immediate hospitalization. A Florida-licensed MD or DO certifies the need on the utility’s form.
  • The rule covers investor-owned electric utilities, including FPL, Duke Energy Florida, Tampa Electric and Florida Public Utilities. Municipal utilities and rural cooperatives follow their own medical-program rules.
What you get
  • A phone-notice attempt at least 24 hours before a nonpayment shutoff.
  • A required home-visit attempt when the specified telephone contact fails.
What the help covers
  • The utility must try telephone contact at least 24 hours before a nonpayment shutoff. If there is no telephone or contact fails, it must attempt a home visit by 4 p.m. the preceding day. It leaves written notice if contact is not made. There is no automatic fixed hold or debt cancellation.
If you decide to apply
  1. Ask your utility for its medically essential service form.
  2. Ask a Florida-licensed MD or DO to complete it and keep a copy of the submitted form.
  3. Ask the utility to confirm the registration and renewal date.

Your power company’s medical registry; FPL Medically Essential Service for FPL customers · Official page ↗

What happens next
  • Certification is renewed every 12 months. The utility sends renewal information at least 30 days before expiry. You have 30 days after receiving it to return the certification.
  • Satisfactory payment arrangements under the utility’s tariff still matter. Medically essential continuation or restoration does not require an additional deposit under this provision.
Good to know

This is a warning rule, not a fixed period of shutoff protection or faster storm restoration.

Other details
  • FPL says its registry does not guarantee uninterrupted service, priority storm restoration or relief from payment.
Official sources
Ask your social worker

“Does our child’s medical situation fit the utility’s registry, and what protection would it actually give us? Could the clinic help with the form and a plan for an outage?”

Why I’m asking: I want to understand what the power company can promise and what it cannot.

More background and detailed requirements
Additional program information and published rules

Who does what

The three parts, side by side. The agency decides; nobody on this page does.

You

Get the power company's form, have the doctor complete it, keep a copy, and renew every 12 months.

Your social worker

The social worker gets the form to the doctor and back the same week.

The care team

A Florida-licensed doctor (MD or DO) completes the form, saying in medical and plain terms why electricity is medically essential.

Who decides
The power company applies the law; the Public Service Commission (the state utility regulator) oversees the investor-owned utilities.
Ask the care team
“Can you complete the power company's medically essential service form for my child's equipment? It needs a Florida-licensed MD or DO and is renewed every 12 months.”

How to apply

First step: Call the power company and ask for its medically essential service form (at FPL it is called Medically Essential Service). Have the oncologist or pediatrician complete it and send it back the same week.

  1. Ask the utility for its medically essential service form the week the child comes home with equipment.
  2. Have the oncologist or pediatrician complete it; renew every 12 months.

Official application / program page ↗

Where it starts: Ask the utility for its medically essential service form (FPL: Medically Essential Service registry); the physician completes it

What to gather

  • The utility account number
  • The utility's form
  • The doctor's statement of the equipment or medicine that needs electricity

How long: You are on the list once the power company receives the completed form; renew every 12 months.

What a yes looks like

The power company confirms the medically essential service registration in writing.

What a no looks like, and the next move

Ask whether the company is outside the rule (a city utility or co-op) or the form was incomplete. For an investor-owned utility, the Public Service Commission (the state utility regulator) takes complaints.

Watch out

  • It is a warning, not a hold: Florida has no set number of protected days. Florida Power & Light (FPL) says registering does not guarantee uninterrupted service, faster storm restoration or relief from paying.
  • The rule binds the big investor-owned utilities only. JEA, OUC, Gainesville Regional, Lakeland Electric, Tallahassee and the electric co-ops are outside it; ask each about its own medical program.
  • The certificate must come from a Florida-licensed doctor (MD or DO) on the power company's own form, and it expires after 12 months.

If they say no, quote this: Medically essential service: Fla. Stat. §366.15. 'Public utility' definition that leaves out city and co-op systems: §366.02.

The numbers and the rules

The arcane layer, kept on purpose. Checked September 9, 2026.

What it is worth

A doctor's certificate on the power company's form; a phone attempt at least 24 hours before any shutoff for nonpayment; renewed every 12 months. Not a hold and not bill forgiveness.

  • $12 — Recertification
  • $24 — Utility must attempt telephone notice before a scheduled disconnection for nonpayment, at least

Legal protection: Certification of medically essential electric service on the utility's forms by a Florida-licensed MD or DO (§366.15(3)(a)) · Telephone contact attempt no later than 24 hours before a scheduled disconnection for nonpayment (§366.15(6))

What it costs the family: None. The bill is still owed.

The eligibility facts, as published

Utilities bound
investor-owned "public utilities" under chapter 366 (FPL, Duke Energy Florida, Tampa Electric, Florida Public Utilities)
Not bound
municipal utilities and rural electric cooperatives (§366.02(8)); their own medical programs unknown
Certifier
a physician licensed in Florida under chapter 458 or 459 (MD or DO), on the utility's forms
Recertification months
12
Notice
A telephone attempt at least 24 hours before nonpayment disconnection; if there is no telephone or contact fails, an attempted home visit by 4 p.m. the preceding day and written notice if contact is not made.
Not found
a fixed-duration shutoff hold, a renewal cap, a statewide low-income discount tariff

Expect friction on: Utility scope (investor-owned only) · Annual recertification

The trap: Expecting a set number of protected days. Florida's rule gives a 24-hour phone attempt and a yearly renewal; there is no fixed medical shutoff hold, no cap on renewals and no statewide low-income discount rate.

Where I read this

← Back to your options