HB 0801 2004
1	A bill to be entitled
2	An act relating to complementary or alternative health
3	care services; creating s. 456.43, F.S.; providing a
4	popular name; providing legislative findings and intent;
5	defining the term "complementary or alternative health
6	care services"; clarifying that persons who are not health
7	care practitioners licensed by this state may provide
8	complementary or alternative health care services under
9	certain circumstances; prohibiting certain acts; requiring
10	certain disclosures; providing civil and criminal
11	penalties; amending s. 456.065, F.S.; providing that the
12	disciplinary provisions of the law prohibiting the
13	unlicensed practice of a health care profession do not
14	prohibit the provision of complementary or alternative
15	health care services as provided under the act; providing
16	an effective date.
17
18	Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
19
20	Section 1. Section 456.43, Florida Statutes, is created to
21	read:
22	456.43 The practice of complementary or alternative health
23	care services.--
24	(1) POPULAR NAME.--This section may be cited by the
25	popular name the "Consumer Health Freedom Act."
26	(2) FINDINGS AND INTENT.--
27	(a) Based upon studies, research, and public policy
28	declarations by state governments, including a comprehensive
29	report by the National Institutes of Medicine, a study published
30	by the New England Journal of Medicine, laws enacted by the
31	states of California, Idaho, Minnesota, and Rhode Island, and a
32	Proclamation issued by the Governor of Florida, it is widely
33	recognized that millions of Americans and hundreds of thousands
34	of Floridians are presently receiving a substantial amount of
35	health care from providers of complementary or alternative
36	health care services. Those studies show that complementary or
37	alternative health care services are used by individuals from a
38	wide variety of age, ethnic, socioeconomic, and other
39	demographic categories.
40	(b) Notwithstanding the widespread use of complementary or
41	alternative health care services, the Legislature finds that
42	access to these services for residents of the state has been
43	hampered, and the free flow of information about these services
44	inhibited, by a failure of the state to openly acknowledge the
45	existence of health care therapies and methods that are not
46	suitable for regulation or licensure under the police power of
47	the state. As a result, the providers of these services who are
48	not licensed by the state as health care practitioners, as
49	defined in this chapter, cannot openly offer their services with
50	the comfort and safety of knowing that they will not be exposed
51	to fines, penalties, or the restriction of their practices,
52	based on charges that they are in violation of state
53	professional practice acts governing licensed health care
54	practitioners, notwithstanding the delivery of health care
55	services that have not been shown to pose a recognizable and
56	imminent risk of significant and discernible harm to the
57	public's health, safety, or welfare.
58	(c) The Legislature further finds that the state's failure
59	to acknowledge such unregulated health care services impedes the
60	beneficial delivery of health care information by clients of
61	complementary or alternative health care providers to those
62	clients' licensed health care providers, and between licensed
63	and unlicensed health care providers with respect to their
64	clients or patients.
65	(d) The Legislature acknowledges the public's desire for
66	broader access to complementary or alternative health care
67	therapies and finds that the health and welfare of this state's
68	residents can be enhanced by restating and clarifying the
69	state's long-standing public policy, enunciated in the Sunrise
70	Act, that a profession or occupation is not subject to
71	regulation under the police power of the state unless, and then
72	only to the extent that, the profession or occupation has been
73	shown to pose a recognizable and imminent risk of significant
74	and discernible harm to the health, safety, or welfare of the
75	public.
76	(e) Based on these findings and the further finding that
77	the unregulated practice of complementary or alternative health
78	care services is suitable and desirable for the public's health
79	and welfare, it is the intent of the Legislature to allow,
80	protect, and encourage public access to and the performance and
81	delivery of complementary or alternative health care services in
82	this state, subject only to the limitations and restrictions
83	provided in this section.
84	(3) DECLARATION OF PUBLIC POLICY.--The Legislature
85	recognizes and acknowledges that the health and welfare of this
86	state's residents has been and will continue to be enhanced by
87	the practice of complementary or alternative health care
88	therapies and methods in the state and that no state licensure
89	or regulation is appropriate or necessary for the delivery of
90	those services that are not shown to pose a recognizable and
91	imminent risk of significant and discernible harm to the
92	public's health, safety, or welfare.
93	(4) DEFINITION.--As used in this section, the term
94	"complementary or alternative health care services" means the
95	broad domain of complementary or alternative health care
96	treatment, as defined in s. 456.41, provided by persons who are
97	not licensed as health care practitioners as defined in this
98	chapter and to the extent the services are not prohibited by
99	subsection (5), or as otherwise excepted by law from state
100	regulation.
101	(5) PROHIBITED ACTS.--
102	(a) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a person
103	who provides complementary or alternative health care services
104	does not violate s. 456.065 or any other health care
105	professional practice act, unless the person:
106	1. Performs surgery or any other procedure that punctures
107	the skin, or a chiropractic adjustment of the articulations of
108	joints or the spine of any person;
109	2. Prescribes or administers X-ray radiation to any
110	person;
111	3. Prescribes or administers a legend drug, a legend
112	medical device, or a controlled substance to any person or
113	recommends the discontinuance of a legend drug, a legend medical
114	device, or a controlled substance;
115	4. Engages in a practice that has as its primary purpose
116	the deep manipulation of the muscle of the human body with the
117	hand, foot, arm, or elbow or represents that the practice is
118	massage therapy;
119	5. Willfully provides an allopathic biomedical disease
120	diagnosis;
121	6. Willfully provides a diagnosis or treatment of a
122	physical or mental health condition of any person which directly
123	poses to that person a recognizable and imminent risk of
124	significant and discernible physical or mental harm; or
125	7. Holds out, states, indicates, advertises, or implies to
126	any person that he or she is a health care practitioner licensed
127	by this state.
128	(6) DISCLOSURE.--
129	(a) Any person providing complementary or alternative
130	health care services shall, prior to providing the services,
131	disclose to the client in a plainly worded written statement:
132	1. The nature of the services to be provided and the
133	theory upon which the services are based; and
134	2. The degrees, training, experience, credentials, or
135	other qualifications of the person regarding the services being
136	provided, followed by a statement in at least 11-point font
137	size:
138
139	"I AM NOT LICENSED BY THE STATE OF FLORIDA AS A HEALTH
140	CARE PRACTITIONER. THE STATE HAS NOT ADOPTED ANY
141	EDUCATIONAL AND TRAINING STANDARDS FOR UNLICENSED
142	COMPLEMENTARY OR ALTERNATIVE HEALTH CARE
143	PRACTITIONERS."
144
145	(b) Any person providing complementary or alternative
146	health care services shall:
147	1. Obtain a written acknowledgment from the client stating
148	that he or she has been provided with the information described
149	in this subsection and provide a copy of this written
150	acknowledgment to the client. The written acknowledgment must be
151	maintained for 2 years by the person providing the service.
152	2. State in any advertisement for complementary or
153	alternative health care services that he or she is not licensed
154	by this state as a health care practitioner.
155	(7) PENALTIES FOR VIOLATIONS.--
156	(a) A person who violates any provision of subsection (5)
157	is subject to the administrative, civil, and criminal penalties
158	specified in s. 456.065(2), including, but not limited to, court
159	costs, reasonable attorney's fees, and the reasonable costs of
160	investigation and prosecution.
161	(b) A person who violates any provision of subsection (6)
162	is subject to the administrative and civil penalties specified
163	in s. 456.065(2)(a)-(c), including, but not limited to, court
164	costs, reasonable attorney's fees, and the reasonable costs of
165	investigation and prosecution.
166	Section 2. Subsection (4) of section 456.065, Florida
167	Statutes, is amended to read:
168	456.065 Unlicensed practice of a health care profession;
169	intent; cease and desist notice; penalties; enforcement;
170	citations; fees; allocation and disposition of moneys
171	collected.--
172	(4) The provisions of this section apply only to health
173	care professional practice acts administered by the department
174	and do not prohibit the provision of complementary or
175	alternative health care services under s. 456.43 by a person who
176	is not licensed in this state as a health care practitioner.
177	Section 3. This act shall take effect July 1, 2004.