Florida Senate - 2009 CS for SB 408
By the Committee on Judiciary; and Senator Fasano
590-02375-09 2009408c1
1 A bill to be entitled
2 An act relating to clinical laboratories; amending s.
3 440.102, F.S.; deleting the requirement that initial
4 drug tests conducted pursuant to a drug-free workplace
5 program be conducted by a licensed or certified
6 laboratory; amending s. 483.181, F.S.; requiring
7 clinical laboratories to accept human specimens
8 submitted by advanced registered nurse practitioners;
9 providing an effective date.
10
11 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
12
13 Section 1. Paragraph (d) of subsection (5) of section
14 440.102, Florida Statutes, is amended to read:
15 440.102 Drug-free workplace program requirements.—The
16 following provisions apply to a drug-free workplace program
17 implemented pursuant to law or to rules adopted by the Agency
18 for Health Care Administration:
19 (5) PROCEDURES AND EMPLOYEE PROTECTION.—All specimen
20 collection and testing for drugs under this section shall be
21 performed in accordance with the following procedures:
22 (d) Each initial drug test and confirmation test conducted
23 under this section, not including the taking or collecting of a
24 specimen to be tested, shall be conducted by a licensed or
25 certified laboratory as described in subsection (9).
26 Section 2. Section 483.181, Florida Statutes, is amended to
27 read:
28 483.181 Acceptance, collection, identification, and
29 examination of specimens.—
30 (1) A clinical laboratory may examine human specimens at
31 the request only of a licensed practitioner or other person
32 authorized by law to use the findings of clinical laboratory
33 examinations. An individual forwarding a sample of the
34 individual’s own blood to a clinical laboratory, when such blood
35 sample has been taken pursuant to a home access HIV test kit
36 approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration,
37 shall be considered a person authorized to request and use a
38 clinical laboratory test for human immunodeficiency virus, for
39 the purposes of this part.
40 (2) The results of a test must be reported directly to the
41 licensed practitioner or other authorized person who requested
42 it. The report must include the name and address of the clinical
43 laboratory in which the test was actually performed, unless the
44 test was performed in a hospital laboratory and the report
45 becomes an integral part of the hospital record.
46 (3) The results of clinical laboratory tests performed by a
47 clinical laboratory complying with this part and performed
48 before a patient’s admission to a facility licensed under
49 chapter 395 must be accepted in lieu of clinical laboratory
50 tests required upon a patient’s admission to the facility and in
51 lieu of tests that may be ordered for patients of the facility,
52 except that the facility may not be required to accept
53 transfusion compatibility test results. The agency shall
54 establish, by rule, standards for accepting laboratory test
55 results to specify acceptable timeframes for such laboratory
56 tests to assure that the timeframes do not adversely affect the
57 accuracy of the test.
58 (4) All specimens accepted by a clinical laboratory must be
59 tested on the premises, except that specimens for infrequently
60 performed tests may be forwarded for examination to another
61 clinical laboratory approved under this part. This subsection
62 does not prohibit referring specimens to a clinical laboratory
63 excepted under s. 483.031. However, the clinical laboratory
64 director of the referring clinical laboratory must assume
65 complete responsibility.
66 (5) A clinical laboratory licensed under this part must
67 accept a human specimen submitted for examination by a
68 practitioner licensed under chapter 458, chapter 459, chapter
69 460, chapter 461, chapter 462, s. 464.012, or chapter 466, if
70 the specimen and test are the type performed by the clinical
71 laboratory. A clinical laboratory may only refuse a specimen
72 based upon a history of nonpayment for services by the
73 practitioner. A clinical laboratory shall not charge different
74 prices for tests based upon the chapter under which a
75 practitioner submitting a specimen for testing is licensed.
76 Section 3. This act shall take effect July 1, 2009.