Department of Health | The Health Law Firm Blog

Relocating, Selling or Closing Your Medical Practice? Be Sure to Comply with Florida Law

By George F. Indest III, J.D., M.P.A., LL.M., Board Certified by The Florida Bar in Health Law

Relocating, selling or retiring is never an easy decision for a physician. On top of patients’ anxiety about their doctor leaving, there are also legal hoops you will be required to jump through. It’s important to know what is expected of you as you relocate, sell or retire from a practice. The last thing any doctor on his or her way out would want is a letter from the Florida Department of Health (DOH) informing him or her that when the practice closed he or she failed to follow the proper procedures under Florida law. […]

By The Health Law Firm|2024-03-14T10:00:50-04:00June 1, 2018|Department of Health, In the Know, The Health Law Firm Blog|

Removal of Past Criminal History from Florida Department of Health Practitioner Profile

By Lance O. Leider, J.D., The Health Law Firm and George F. Indest III, J.D., M.P.A., LL.M., Board Certified by The Florida Bar in Health Law

By statute, the Florida Legislature requires that the Department of Health (DOH) maintain an online practitioner profile for medical doctors, osteopathic physicians (DOs), chiropractors (DCs), advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) and podiatric physicians.

Click here to learn more about these profiles from the DOH’s website.

However, the same law requires those health professionals to immediately update the profile when there is a change and to verify its accuracy.

What Does the Practitioner Profile Contain?

DOH practitioner profiles contain information such as education, disciplinary history, practice […]

By The Health Law Firm|2024-03-14T10:00:52-04:00June 1, 2018|Department of Health, Public Records, The Health Law Firm Blog|

Some Providers Billing PIP Claims No Longer Exempt From Health Care Clinic Act

By Michael L. Smith, R.R.T., J.D., Board Certified by The Florida Bar in Health Law

Some health care providers that were previously exempt from the requirements of the Health Care Clinic Act are now required to obtain a Health Care Clinic license in order to bill for care provided to their patients injured in car accidents.

The original purpose of the Health Care Clinic Act was to regulate health care entities that were not owned by licensed health care providers. Entities that were owned by licensed health care providers were exempt from the Health Care Clinic license requirements because those health care providers were already regulated by the Department of Health (DOH).

Effective January […]

By The Health Law Firm|2024-03-14T10:00:55-04:00June 1, 2018|Department of Health, Licensing issues, The Health Law Firm Blog|

OIG Audit Finds Federal Database of Terminated Medicaid Providers Needs Improvement

By Lenis L. Archer, J.D., M.P.H., The Health Law Firm

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to establish a process for sharing information about terminated Medicaid providers. The federal database, called Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program State Information Sharing System (MCSIS), is designed to prevent terminated health care providers from billing another state’s program. However, an audit by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG), released in March 2014, states the MCSIS is not working as intended.

The MCSIS is supposed to collect data from every state Medicaid program on providers that were terminated […]

By The Health Law Firm|2024-03-14T10:00:56-04:00June 1, 2018|Department of Health, Health Care Industry, MCSIS, Medicaid, Medicaid audit, Our Firm, The Health Law Firm Blog|

Preparing for a Florida Board of Medicine Informal Hearing

by George F. Indest III, J.D., M.P.A., LL.M.
Board Certified by The Florida Bar in Health Law

If you are scheduled to appear for an informal hearing before the Florida Board of Medicine, there are a number of facts that you will want to know in order to be properly prepared. This article will cover many of them.

Limited Circumstances for Informal Administrative Hearing

First, you should understand that you will only be at an informal hearing in which you appear before the Board of Medicine itself for a very limited number of reasons. These will include the following:

If you completed an election of rights (EOR) form and agreed that you did not intend to dispute any material facts alleged against you from […]

By The Health Law Firm|2024-03-14T10:00:29-04:00June 1, 2018|Board of Medicine, Department of Health, Health Care Industry, Informal Hearings, The Health Law Firm Blog|

In Brief: Florida Pain Management Clinic Laws

Every health profession has its own set of rules and regulations. This week, we’re examining Florida laws under which pain management clinics operate.

Because Florida has one of the worst drug trafficking problems in the country, law enforcement is making sure that punishments for any violations are severe. For example, if a patient dies of drug overdose and the prescriber is found to be responsible, he or she can be charged with homicide, which was the case for a Palm Beach County pain management physician (see this New York Times article).

The DEA, Florida Department of Health and Florida law enforcement are watching pain management clinics very closely in order to keep Florida’s drug trafficking problem under control. […]

By The Health Law Firm|2024-03-14T10:00:26-04:00June 1, 2018|Department of Health, Health Care Industry, Pain Management, Pharmacy, The Health Law Firm Blog|

From the DOH: Attention Pain-Management Clinics

From the Florida Department of Health:

Florida law requires pain-management clinics report specific data to the Board of Medicine. The designated physician shall report on a quarterly basis the following data:

a. The number of new and repeat patients seen and treated at the clinic who are prescribed controlled substance medications for the treatment of chronic, nonmalignant pain.

b. The number of patients discharged due to drug abuse.

c. The number of patients discharged due to drug diversion.

d. The number of patients treated at the pain clinic whose domicile is located somewhere other

OSTEOPATHIC PHYSICIANS:
Your next reporting period is the month of October and you will be reporting for the period July 1, 2011 – September 30, 2011.

ALLOPATHIC PHYSICIANS:
Your first reporting period […]

By The Health Law Firm|2024-03-14T10:00:27-04:00June 1, 2018|Department of Health, Pain Management, The Health Law Firm Blog|

Emergency Suspension Orders and Medicaid Fraud

In the recent case of Mendelsohn v. State of Florida Department of Health, Mendelsohn’s license to practice medicine was suspended under an Emergency Suspension Order (ESO).

According to the ESO, Mendelsohn is licensed to practice medicine in Florida pursuant to the provisions of chapter 458, Florida Statutes. On December 9, 2010, he entered a plea of nolo contendere in federal court to a charge of conspiracy to commit fraud upon the United States in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371. As a result of his conviction, the Florida Department of Health immediately suspended his medical license without a hearing pursuant to section 456.074(1), Florida Statutes (2010), which states:

(1) The department shall issue an emergency […]

By The Health Law Firm|2024-03-14T10:00:27-04:00June 1, 2018|Department of Health, Health Care Industry, Medicaid, The Health Law Firm Blog|

Nurses: Advanced Practice May Mean Advanced Legal Issues

From George Indest’s Nursing Law Manual

The advanced nurse is a registered nurse (RN) who has completed some form of advanced nursing education and training. Two types of advanced nurses are the advanced registered nurse practitioner (ARNP) and the certified nurse specialist. In Florida, there are three types of certified nurse specialists: certified registered nurse anesthetists, certified nurse midwives, and nurse practitioners. The potential risk of liability for an advanced nurse is as real as the risks for any other nurse. In addition to all of the legal issues that a registered nurse is faced with, the advanced nurse is susceptible to even more legal issues.

Advanced nurses are held to […]

By The Health Law Firm|2024-03-14T10:00:27-04:00June 1, 2018|Department of Health, Nurses, The Health Law Firm Blog|

Doctor or Nurse, Please, Please, Please: Talk to an Attorney Before You Talk to an Investigator

Despite mailing out hundreds of thousands of postcards and letters to physicians, nurses, dentists, pharmacists, and psychologists throughout Florida, we continue to receive calls from new clients and from potential clients, after they have already spoken to and made critical harmful admissions against their own interests to investigators. In Florida, you do not have any duty to cooperate with any investigator who is investigating you. This extends to Department of Health (DOH) investigators (who are sometimes titled “Medical Quality Assurance Investigators” or “Medical Malpractice Investigators“), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) special agents, police officers, sheriff’s deputies, or criminal investigators of any type.

Let me state this as succinctly and clearly […]

By The Health Law Firm|2024-03-14T10:00:27-04:00June 1, 2018|Department of Health, Health Care Industry, Medicaid, Medicare, Nurses, The Health Law Firm Blog|