By: Chase Howard
In Florida, a licensed physician can provide supervision of healthcare providers that are not physicians under certain circumstances. Understanding who a physician can cover and under what circumstances can help protect your license and avoid receiving a complaint by the Florida Department of Health.
In every case, when a physician agrees to supervise another provider, Florida law requires certain documentation and notice to be filed.Continue reading
Healthcare professionals and businesses are aware of the term “fee splitting,” but rarely understand what that means, and for good reason. Is there some federal law against that? No. Is there a state law? Yes, but definitions are elusive and confusing.
Florida law prohibits licensed healthcare professionals engaging in any split-fee, rebate, commission or bonus in exchange for referral of any patient. In particular, Section 456.054 states it is a violation of a state criminal statute for a “healthcare provider” to “offer, pay, solicit, or receive a kickback, directly or indirectly, overtly or covertly, in cash or in kind, for referring or soliciting patients.”
Is there a court in Florida that has interpreted that law or opined on the concept? Not exactly. The closest thing we have is the Crow decision, where the 5th District Court of Appeals affirmed a Board of Medicine handling an issue involving the concept.Continue reading
It’s almost renewal time once again for many health care practitioners. If this is your renewal cycle, please note the following information provided by the Florida Board of Medicine, which can help you avoid some of the most common delays encountered with license renewals.
It is important to remember the upcoming renewal is the first to have mandatory continuing medical education reporting requirements. If you have not done so, please activate your account with CE Broker and ensure that all required CME you have completed for this renewal has been uploaded.
Most of the medical practitioners renewing will be required to submit the following:
By: Jackie Bain
Nearly half of U.S. States have already expanded the scope of nursing practice and several more are analyzing whether it is appropriate. The debate between physicians and nurses regarding how much autonomy a nurse should be given is a political hotbed that will likely be revisited by the legislature in the near future. Until that time, the Board of Medicine and the Board of Nursing will quietly continue to enforce the present requirements. Here’s how they stand today:
Under Florida’s current laws, in addition to the practice of professional nursing, an advanced registered nurse practitioner (“ARNP”) may perform acts of medical diagnosis, treatment and prescription. However, for the most part, such acts must be performed under the general supervision of a physician. The nature of such a supervisory relationship should be identified in a protocol which identifies the medical acts to be performed and the conditions for their performance.Continue reading
There is no such thing as a “medical spa” in Florida. True! They are not uniquely licensed. In fact, they are usually not licensed at all because (1) they are owned and operated by licensed healthcare professionals, and/or (2) they do not file claims for reimbursement with health insurers. And they are not a regulated entity.
What then is a “medical spa”? If you want the long answer, go here. The short answer is It’s simply a place where people receive traditional spa services (e.g. facials), plus many other medical procedures, typically focused on cosmetic services (e.g. hair removal, Botox). It’s “medical” because of the nature of the services provided. It’s “medical” because (ideally) physician supervision is woven into the business model.
 The Florida Board of Medicine reviewed Rule 64B8-9.003, Florida Administrative Code which provides standards for the adequacy of medical records. The underlined portions below are the new standards required for medical records as it relates to compounded medications. These standards are effective September 9, 2013.Continue reading |
The Stark Regs (1) forbid doctors and their immediate family members from referring their patients to businesses they own which provide “designated health services,” and (2) contains a long list of permitted financial relationships between health care providers. The list of what constitutes a “designated health service” (DHS) includes PT, rehab, diagnostic imaging, clinical lab, DME, and home health. A “physician” means an M.D., D.O., chiropractor, podiatrist, optometrist or dentist. An “immediate family member” is a husband or wife; birth or adoptive parent, child, or sibling; stepparent, stepchild, stepbrother, or stepsister; father-in-law, mother-in-law, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, brother-in-law, or sister-in-law; grandparent or grandchild; and spouse of a grandparent or grandchild. In short, if you or your family member owns a DHS, don’t refer to it. Unless of course your situation falls within one or more of the gazillion exceptions.
A few key changes from the third set of revisions (so called Stark III) which affect physicians are helpful to keep in mind. For instance, the way fair market value of physician compensation is determined in the Stark II regs has been simplified and now depends on an amorphous consideration of the transaction, its location and other factors. The clear formulas contained in Stark II was dropped and this makes the need for an expert FMV study even more compelling.Continue reading
By: David Hirshfeld
When people ask me what I do, I used to say “I’m a transactional health care attorney. I represent health care practitioners in their business deals. I don’t do malpractice.” That response does little to wipe the blank stare off my questioner’s face, and even I have to stifle the urge to yawn. My new and improved response is that “I spend a lot of time advising health care practitioners how they can share fees with people who refer them patients.” Now I get invited to all sorts of cocktail parties !!!
Practitioners split fees with one another for a variety of reasons; and they very often do not realize that a particular arrangement involves a split-fee arrangement, or that split-fee arrangements are often illegal in Florida. The purpose of this article is to provide practitioners with a general overview of the concepts underlying the prohibition against split-fee arrangements in Florida, in the context of three common business arrangements.Continue reading
Via Florida Board of Medicine – – – The Florida Board of Medicine’s Surgical Care/Quality Assurance Committee has been reviewing Rule 64B8-9.007, Florida Administrative Code – Standards of Practice in an effort to reduce the number of wrong patient, wrong site and/or wrong procedure disciplinary cases. This rule outlines requirements for taking a pause prior to beginning surgery to ensure you have the right patient, the right site and are performing the right surgery as described in the Informed Consent signed by the patient. The Board continues to see disciplinary cases in which the required “pause” is performed but surgery is still performed on the wrong patient, wrong site or the wrong procedure is performed. The Committee met three times and heard public testimony. During that testimony, it was determined the definition of surgery also needed to be clarified. Changes to the rule include:
These changes are effective January 29, 2013 and are underlined in the rule language below:
64B8-9.007 Standards of Practice.
The Board of Medicine interprets the standard of care requirement of Section 458.331(1)(t), F.S., and the delegation of duties restrictions of Section 458.331(1)(w), F.S., with regard to surgery as follows:
(1) The ultimate responsibility for diagnosing and treating medical and surgical problems is that of the licensed doctor of medicine or osteopathy who is to perform the procedure. In addition, it is the responsibility of the treating physician or an equivalently trained doctor of medicine or osteopathy or a physician practicing within a Board approved postgraduate training program to explain the procedure to and obtain the informed consent of the patient. It is not necessary, however, that the treating physician obtain or witness the signature of the patient on the written form evidencing informed consent.
(2) This rule is intended to prevent wrong site, wrong side, wrong patient and wrong surgeries/procedures by requiring the team to pause prior to the initiation of the surgery/procedure to confirm the side, site, patient identity, and surgery/procedure.
Florida laws that pertain to telemedicine are precious few. In fact, there is really only one regulation dead on target, and that requires face to face physician contact with a patient in order to write a prescription. The impact of the hormone replacement therapy (HRT) providers was pretty immediate, but the legal issues related to telemedicine are just not currently addressed in Florida law. Does providing a telemedicine consult create a physician patient relationship? What are the requirements related to the medical records arising out of the consult, and who owns the records? These issues and many more are simply not handled. And yet, if it is true that telemedicine will be an important tool in the effort to both broaden the availability of care while reducing associated costs, we can be sure that Florida law will evolve on these issues.Continue reading