Florida Senate - 2016                              CS for SB 212
       
       
        
       By the Committee on Health Policy; and Senator Gaetz
       
       588-02302-16                                           2016212c1
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to ambulatory surgical centers;
    3         amending s. 395.002, F.S.; revising the definition of
    4         the term “ambulatory surgical center” or “mobile
    5         surgical facility”; amending s. 395.003, F.S.;
    6         requiring, as a condition of licensure and license
    7         renewal, that ambulatory surgical centers provide
    8         services to specified patients; defining a term;
    9         providing an effective date.
   10          
   11  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   12  
   13         Section 1. Subsection (3) of section 395.002, Florida
   14  Statutes, is amended to read:
   15         395.002 Definitions.—As used in this chapter:
   16         (3) “Ambulatory surgical center” or “mobile surgical
   17  facility” means a facility the primary purpose of which is to
   18  provide elective surgical care, in which the patient is admitted
   19  to and discharged from such facility within 24 hours the same
   20  working day and is not permitted to stay overnight, and which is
   21  not part of a hospital. However, a facility existing for the
   22  primary purpose of performing terminations of pregnancy, an
   23  office maintained by a physician for the practice of medicine,
   24  or an office maintained for the practice of dentistry shall not
   25  be construed to be an ambulatory surgical center, provided that
   26  any facility or office which is certified or seeks certification
   27  as a Medicare ambulatory surgical center shall be licensed as an
   28  ambulatory surgical center pursuant to s. 395.003. Any structure
   29  or vehicle in which a physician maintains an office and
   30  practices surgery, and which can appear to the public to be a
   31  mobile office because the structure or vehicle operates at more
   32  than one address, shall be construed to be a mobile surgical
   33  facility.
   34         Section 2. Present subsections (6) through (10) of section
   35  395.003, Florida Statutes, are redesignated as subsections (7)
   36  through (11), respectively, a new subsection (6) is added to
   37  that section, and present subsections (9) and (10) of that
   38  section are amended, to read:
   39         395.003 Licensure; denial, suspension, and revocation.—
   40         (6) An ambulatory surgical center, as a condition of
   41  initial licensure and license renewal, must provide services to
   42  Medicare patients, Medicaid patients, and patients who qualify
   43  for charity care. For the purposes of this subsection, “charity
   44  care” means uncompensated care delivered to uninsured patients
   45  with incomes at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty
   46  level when such services are preauthorized by the licensee and
   47  not subject to collection procedures.
   48         (10)(9) A hospital licensed as of June 1, 2004, shall be
   49  exempt from subsection (9) subsection (8) as long as the
   50  hospital maintains the same ownership, facility street address,
   51  and range of services that were in existence on June 1, 2004.
   52  Any transfer of beds, or other agreements that result in the
   53  establishment of a hospital or hospital services within the
   54  intent of this section, shall be subject to subsection (9)
   55  subsection (8). Unless the hospital is otherwise exempt under
   56  subsection (9) subsection (8), the agency shall deny or revoke
   57  the license of a hospital that violates any of the criteria set
   58  forth in that subsection.
   59         (11)(10) The agency may adopt rules implementing the
   60  licensure requirements set forth in subsection (9) subsection
   61  (8). Within 14 days after rendering its decision on a license
   62  application or revocation, the agency shall publish its proposed
   63  decision in the Florida Administrative Register. Within 21 days
   64  after publication of the agency’s decision, any authorized
   65  person may file a request for an administrative hearing. In
   66  administrative proceedings challenging the approval, denial, or
   67  revocation of a license pursuant to subsection (9) subsection
   68  (8), the hearing must be based on the facts and law existing at
   69  the time of the agency’s proposed agency action. Existing
   70  hospitals may initiate or intervene in an administrative hearing
   71  to approve, deny, or revoke licensure under subsection (9)
   72  subsection (8) based upon a showing that an established program
   73  will be substantially affected by the issuance or renewal of a
   74  license to a hospital within the same district or service area.
   75         Section 3. This act shall take effect July 1, 2016.