Medically Essential Service

Are you or someone you love dependent on having special electric-powered medical equipment at home? Please let us know. Our Medically Essential Service can help.

Services
When appropriate, this service can help you with:

• Referrals to social-service agencies that provide financial assistance
• Special notices before electrical service is disconnected for non-payment
• Special notices before and after a hurricane

Your Responsibility
If you’re eligible for this service, you may be provided extra time to secure funds or make other arrangements to help ensure your electricity-dependent medical needs are met. However, this does not guarantee uninterrupted service nor provide an exemption from paying electric bills. You will still be responsible for backup equipment and power supply in the event of power outages.

Who is Eligible?

Any residential customer whose electric service is medically essential is eligible to join if that medical condition has been certified by a physician licensed to practice in the state of Florida. Electric service is considered essential if you’re dependent on electric-powered equipment as specified by a physician to avoid:

• Loss of life
• Serious medical complications requiring immediate hospitalization
  

How to Apply

To join this service, you will need to:

• Complete Part A on the Medically Essential Service application form
• Have your physician complete Part B, “Physician’s Certificate”
• Return the completed and signed form to FPL at the address below or you can email it to Forms@FPL.com

FPL
One Energy Place
BIN 0031
Pensacola, FL 32520

• Re-apply each year with a new, completed Medically Essential Service application form

Information you should know

Collections

• FPL will provide those customers certified as Medically Essential with an additional 30 days to pay a past due bill. This is 30 days beyond the date service would normally be subject to disconnection for non-payment of an electric bill. The separate disconnect notice will be mailed to the customer advising them of the past due amount needed to avoid disconnection and the disconnection date if payment is not made.
• If it becomes necessary to disconnect the service of a Medically Essential Service Customer, the Company will attempt to contact the customer by telephone or at the premise on the workday prior to disconnection to inform the customer of the Company’s intent to disconnect service. If contact is not made, the Company may leave written notification of its intent. Electric service is eligible for disconnection on the next workday. Full payment of the past due bill is required before service may be reconnected.

Planned Outages

• FPL attempts to contact, by mail, those customers who may be affected by a planned outage.

Unplanned Outages

• Notifications of unplanned outages are not made because the Company does not always have prior knowledge of such outages. Medically Essential Service Customers are encouraged to call the Company’s power out telephone number, 1-800-4-OUTAGE, if they are affected by an unplanned outage. Every attempt is made to keep our voice response unit, (VRU), up to date on outages and expected restoration times.

Back-Up Power

• FPL strives to provide the most reliable service possible for all of its customers. However, the Company cannot guarantee continuous service 100% of the time. Therefore, it is vitally important that a Medically Essential Customer maintain a back-up power supply to meet their needs in case of a power outage. There are many causes of power outages that are beyond the Company’s control such as storms, squirrels on the line, etc. When these situations occur, the Medically Essential Service Customer should ensure that a back-up power supply is available for their use or make other arrangements for Medically Essential care until service is restored. If assistance is needed to evaluate back-up power sources, the Medically Essential Service Customer may contact Customer Service at (800) 225-5797.

Additional Links

• Build a personal Family Emergency Plan by visiting The State of Florida Division of Emergency Management website
  
• Find shelter locations and register with your county Special Needs Registry by visiting FloridaDisaster.org/Shelters