Senate panel OKs no-shots, pot, and docs bill
Healthcare professional in protective gloves and workwear holding a tray of COVID-19 vaccine vials. (Stock photo by Getty Images)
A top priority for Gov. Ron DeSantis this legislative session is to prohibit healthcare providers and facilities from discriminating against patients based solely on vaccination status.
That moved closer to becoming law when a Senate panel this week on a 5-3 vote, to approve the bill (SB 1270), which amends the existing 'Florida Patient's Bill of Rights' and includes provision related to medical marijuana treatment centers and physician licensing.
DeSantis argues that lawmakers need to permanently enshrine policy changes he put in place during the Covid-19 pandemic.
But some of the language drew opposition from Republicans, including Sen. Gayle Harrell, who has long supported the positions of organized medicine, such as the Florida Medical and Florida Osteopathic associations.
She was one of the three 'no' votes on the bill Thursday in the Senate Appropriations Committee on Health and Human Services meeting.
The bill requires physicians to treat patients, regardless of whether they reject their advice to be vaccinated, Harrell said, and provides them with no protection against potential medical malpractice lawsuits.
The mandate for doctors to treat unvaccinated patients wasn't the only concern committee members had with the proposal. Bill sponsor Sen. Jay Collins tagged an amendment onto the proposal addressing background screenings that adds in statutory definitions of owners, managers, and employees at medical marijuana treatment centers.
Collins said the Florida Department of Law Enforcement told him the changes were necessary if the state wants to continue to tap into that agency's background check system. But Sens. Lori Berman, Jason Brodeur, and Joe Gruters (A Democrat and two Republicans), worried the definitions might be too broad.
'You've got publicly traded companies in marijuana. So would some poor person who just gets on their Schwab account and goes to invest in some company need to get background checks because he's doing some kind of publicly traded company? Because I'm worried about it.'
Collins said, 'I don't believe that is the intent of this law.'
Another provision tweaks legislation Collins spearheaded last year (SB 1600) regarding professions regulated by the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPRS) as well as the Florida Department of Health (DOH).
Specific to the DOH, the 2024 law eliminated a statute regarding medical licensure by endorsement and created a new universal endorsement statute that applies to medical doctors and a dozen-plus other medical professionals. Licensure by endorsement is the route for any doctor who holds a medical license in one state but applies to practice in another.
The 2024 law eliminated the Board of Medicine's ability to approve by endorsement any physician applying for Florida licensure who:
Has a complaint, an allegation, or an investigation pending before a licensing entity in another state or territory.
Has been convicted of, or pleaded no contest to, any felony or misdemeanor related to the practice of a healthcare profession, regardless of adjudication,
Has had a healthcare provider license revoked or suspended by another state,
Has voluntarily surrendered any license in lieu of having disciplinary action taken against the license.
Has been reported to the National Practitioner Data Bank, which includes medical malpractice settlements.
The National Practitioner Data Bank includes information on medical malpractice settlements.
Although SB 1600 made it harder for domestically trained physicians to be licensed in Florida, another 2024 bill signed into law by DeSantis (SB 7016) allowed internationally trained physicians to be licensed by endorsement as long as they graduated from World Health Organization-recognized medical schools and complete international medical residencies that are 'substantially similar' to those endorsed by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.
Members of the Board of Medicine complained the Legislature was making it harder for domestically trained physicians to get licensed in Florida but easier for internationally trained physicians, and considered asking DeSantis to veto Collins' bill but did not.
Aware of the angst, Collins includes a fix: SB 1270 tweaks the 2024 law to allow the BOM to approve an applicant's licensure by endorsement as long as the offense reported to the National Practitioner Data Bank 'would not constitute a violation of any law or rule in this state.'
Collins said the DOH supports the bill. State Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo is secretary of the department. The House companion measure (HB 1299), meanwhile, is slated to be heard by the House Health & Human Services Committee next.
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