• Licensure. To ensure that health care professionals meet certain minimum standards, the program administers professional testing and processes licensure applications and renewals.
• Enforcement. To protect the public from incompetent, unethical, or impaired practitioners, the program investigates complaints against health care professionals. Once an investigation is complete, legal staff makes a recommendation about whether the evidence supports disciplinary action against the health care practitioner and presents a recommendation to the relevant professional board.
• Public Information. To help people make more informed choices about their health care practitioners, the program provides current licensure information for all licensed health care providers and more extensive profile information for members of specific professions. Practitioner profiles contain information about the practitioner's educational and professional background and any disciplinary action taken against the practitioner within the past 10 years.

In Florida, health care practitioners are governed by professional licensing boards or councils. Board or council appointments vary by profession and may be made by the Governor, Speaker of the House, President of the Senate, Surgeon General, and other state agencies as specified in law. Board members share authority with the department for developing rules for licensure, establishing exams, setting fees, establishing guidelines for discipline, and reducing the unlicensed practice of health care professions.

The boards and councils are housed within the Department of Health. The division of MQA coordinates, supports, and manages the programs and services of the regulatory boards and councils and department-administered healthcare professions. The program also directly regulates some health care facilities.

Currently, the program, in conjunction with 22 boards and six councils, regulates 200-plus license types in more than 40 professions and nine types of health care facilities (dental laboratories, electrolysis facilities, massage establishments, office surgery facilities, pain management clinics, optical establishments, pharmacies, and resident and nonresident sterile compounding pharmacies.)

Information about the professional licensing boards and councils, including board membership, minutes of board meetings, and the board's meeting schedule, is available on the MQA website by clicking on the appropriate profession in the list. This site also contains information on each profession's licensure process, including licensure requirements, application deadlines, and exam requirements. Other requirements, such as continuing education and license renewal requirements, are also provided.

The program has 180 days from the receipt of a complaint to complete an initial investigation and make a recommendation concerning the existence of probable cause to the probable cause panel made up of members from the appropriate board. In Fiscal Year 2019-2020, the program investigated 5,400 legally sufficient complaints and determined that probable cause for pressing charges against a licensee existed for 1,579 cases. For Fiscal Year 2019-2020, 95.6% of complaints were investigated for probable cause within 180 days, which was above the approved standard of 90.0%.

In addition, for Fiscal Year 2019-2020, the department received 978 complaints alleging unlicensed activity. During the same year, 962 unlicensed activity complaints were referred for investigation and the department made 438 referrals to law enforcement. Unlicensed activity is a criminal offense and often requires coordination with law enforcement. Prosecution is handled by state attorneys.

The 2021 Legislature enacted several laws related to the practice of health care in Florida.

• Podiatric Medicine. Chapter 2021-136, Laws of Florida, authorizes the board of podiatric medicine to require a specified number of continuing education hours related to safe and effective prescribing of controlled substances; provides for governance of podiatric physicians who are supervising medical assistants; and revises the definition of the term "health care provider" to include podiatric physicians.
• Physician Assistants. Chapter 2021-204, Laws of Florida, revises legislative intent; defines an approved physician assistant program; revises the number of physician assistants physician may supervise at one time from four to ten; deletes a requirement that a physician assistant inform their patients that they have the right to see a physician before the physician assistant prescribes or dispenses a prescription; authorizes physician assistants to procure drugs and medical devices; and authorizes physician assistants to authenticate documents that may be authenticated by a physician.
• Administration of Vaccines. Chapter 2021-127, Laws of Florida, revises the specified immunizations or vaccines that certified pharmacists and registered interns may administer to adults; and authorizes certain pharmacists to administer vaccines to individuals seven years of age or older under certain circumstances.
• Health Care Practitioner Discipline. Chapter 2021-190, Laws of Florida, subjects health care practitioners to disciplinary action for specified offenses; revises provisions relating to immediate suspension of licensure to apply to all health care practitioners; and requires the Department of Health to issue emergency orders to suspend health care practitioners' licenses if they enter a criminal plea to, or are convicted or found guilty of, a felony related to homicide or are arrested for committing or attempting, soliciting, or conspiring to commit acts that would constitute violations or specified criminal offenses.
• Genetic Counseling.  Chapter 2021-133, Laws of Florida, creates a new licensed and regulated profession, genetic counseling, within the Department of Health; defines genetic counselor and scope of practice; sets requirements for licensing and continuing education, grounds for disciplinary action, and exemptions from regulation for certain practitioners; and establishes an allowance for genetic counselors to refuse to participate in counseling that conflicts with their moral or religious beliefs. 

Cassandra Pasley, Director, Division of Medical Quality Assurance, 850-245-4080, email:  cassandra.pasley@flhealth.gov  

Consumer Services Call Center, 850-245-4339

 
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