The Florida Senate

400.602  Licensure required; prohibited acts; exemptions; display, transferability of license.--

(1)(a)  It is unlawful to operate or maintain a hospice without first obtaining a license from the agency.

(b)  It is unlawful for any person or legal entity not licensed as a hospice under this part to use the word "hospice" in its name, or to offer or advertise hospice services or hospice-like services in such a way as to mislead a person to believe that the offeror is a hospice licensed under this part.

(2)  Services provided by a hospital, nursing home, or other health care facility, health care provider, or caregiver, or under the Community Care for the Elderly Act, do not constitute a hospice unless the facility, provider, or caregiver establishes a separate and distinct administrative program to provide home, residential, and homelike inpatient hospice services.

(3)(a)  A separately licensed hospice may not use a name which is substantially the same as the name of another hospice licensed under this part.

(b)  A licensed hospice which intends to change its name or address must notify the agency at least 60 days before making the change.

(4)  The license shall be displayed in a conspicuous place inside the hospice program office; shall be valid only in the possession of the person or public agency to which it is issued; shall not be subject to sale, assignment, or other transfer, voluntary or involuntary; and shall not be valid for any hospice other than the hospice for which originally issued.

(5)  Notwithstanding s. 400.601(3), any hospice operating in corporate form exclusively as a hospice, incorporated on or before July 1, 1978, may be transferred to a for-profit or not-for-profit entity, and may transfer the license to that entity.

(6)  Notwithstanding s. 400.601(3), at any time after July 1, 1995, any entity entitled to licensure under subsection (5) may obtain a license for up to two additional hospices in accordance with the other requirements of this part and upon receipt of any certificate of need that may be required under the provisions of ss. 408.031-408.045.

History.--s. 3, ch. 79-186; s. 2, ch. 80-64; s. 2, ch. 81-271; s. 2, ch. 81-318; ss. 66, 79, 83, ch. 83-181; s. 10, ch. 89-527; ss. 3, 14, ch. 93-179; s. 58, ch. 95-418; s. 11, ch. 97-270.