Bill Summary – FastDemocracy

The Florida Senate
                                HOUSE MESSAGE SUMMARY
                    Prepared By: The Professional Staff of the Committee on Health Policy
                                                                                      [2024s01112.hms.hp]
BILL:                  CS/SB 1112
INTRODUCER:            Health Policy Committee and Senator Harrell
SUBJECT:               Health Care Practitioner Titles and Designations
DATE:                  March 6, 2024
 I. Amendments Contained in Message:
        House Amendment — 325533 (body with title)
II. Summary of Amendments Contained in Message:
        House amendment 325533 deletes three of the Senate bill’s provisions (summarized below) and
        creates a new provision not contained in the Senate bill (summarized on page 2).
        Deleted Provisions
        Legislative Intent
        The House amendment removes the bill’s revisions to s. 456.003, F.S., relating to Legislative
        intent for the regulation of health care professions. Under the Senate bill, the Legislature finds
        that the health, safety, and welfare of the public may be harmed or endangered by the unlawful
        practice of a profession; by a misleading, deceptive, or fraudulent representation relating to a
        person’s authority to lawfully practice a profession; or when patients are uninformed about the
        profession under which a practitioner is practicing before receiving consultation or services from
        such practitioner. Those provisions are deleted by the House amendment.
        Practice of Medicine or Osteopathic Medicine
        The Senate bill defines the “practice of medicine” and the “practice of osteopathic medicine” to
        include attaching to one’s name “any terms indicating that a person is licensed to practice
        medicine or osteopathic medicine” if used in an advertisement or in a manner that constitutes a
        misleading, deceptive, or fraudulent representation. The House amendment deletes that Senate
        language while maintaining the bill’s list of specific terms that are reserved for use by medical
        doctors and osteopathic physicians under the bill’s conditions cited above.
        Medicare Billing
        The House amendment deletes a Senate provision designed to ensure that the bill is not
        construed to prohibit or interfere with a practitioner’s ability to lawfully bill the Medicare
        program or other federal health care program using terminology provided under federal law.
BILL: CS/SB 1112                                                                                                           Page 2
         New Provision Added by House Amendment
         Optometrists
         The Senate bill creates exceptions to its own restrictions for instances in which those restrictions
         conflict with current law. The House amendment, however, creates an additional exception for
         which no such conflict exists. The amendment provides that a licensed optometrist may use the
         terms “doctor of optometry” and “optometric physician,” in addition to other titles or
         abbreviations authorized under his or her practice act found in ch. 463, F.S.
         However:
          Optometrists are already authorized by their practice act to use the term “doctor of
           optometry,”1 and the Senate bill provides that practitioners may use titles that are authorized
           in their respective practice acts, regardless of the bill’s restrictions that would otherwise
           apply. Those provisions in the Senate bill and current law make that portion of the House
           amendment unnecessary.
          Regarding “optometric physician,” the House amendment seeks to introduce into the bill
           authority for a health care practitioner to use a title that does not already exist under current
           law. That is, the optometry practice act does not authorize an optometrist to use the term
           “physician” or “optometric physician.” 2, 3 That would still be true even if the House
           amendment were to become law.
          The Senate bill’s exceptions apply only to practitioners already authorized under their
           practice acts to use specified terminology that overlaps with restrictions created by the bill,
           namely chiropractors, podiatrists, dentists, and anesthesiologist assistants. The bill, as passed
           by the Senate, does not contain an exception for optometrists because the bill does not
           conflict with the optometry practice act. By bringing this issue into the bill, the House
           amendment unnecessarily runs counter to the reason the Senate bill creates exceptions.
1
  Section 463.015(2)(a), F.S.
2
  The term “optometric physician” does not appear in the optometry practice act. All references to individual physicians in
the optometry practice act are specific to allopathic physicians licensed under ch. 458, F.S., or osteopathic physicians
licensed ch. 459, F.S., either directly or by implication. See ch. 463, F.S.
3
  On March 10, 2023, the Board of Optometry published a notice in the Florida Administrative Register of its intent to amend
Rule 64B13-3.009 to require licensed optometrists, when promulgating an advertisement, to use at least one “acceptable
term, title, or abbreviation” from a list of such terms being added to the rule. The board’s proposed rule amendment sought to
include the title “optometric physician” in the rule’s list, despite the lack of legislative authority within the optometry practice
act or anywhere else in Florida law. See: https://www.flrules.org/gateway/notice_Files.asp?ID=26913055 (last visited March
5, 2024). The proposed rule was withdrawn by the board on August 15, 2023. See:
https://www.flrules.org/Gateway/View_notice.asp?id=27440929 (last visited March 5, 2024).
Statutes affected: 
S 1112 Filed: 456.072
S 1112 c1: 456.003, 456.072