CS/HB 877

1	A bill to be entitled
2	An act relating to physician workforce assessment and
3	development; creating s. 381.4018, F.S.; providing
4	legislative intent; creating the Office of Physician
5	Workforce Assessment and Development within the Department
6	of Health; providing a purpose; providing functions of the
7	office; requiring the department to collect physician
8	workforce data; providing rulemaking authority; providing
9	a contingent effective date.
10
11	Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
12
13	Section 1.  Section 381.4018, Florida Statutes, is created
14	to read:
15	381.4018  Office of Physician Workforce Assessment and
16	Development.--
17	(1)  LEGISLATIVE INTENT.--The Legislature recognizes that
18	physician workforce planning is an essential component in
19	ensuring that there is an adequate and appropriate supply of
20	well-trained physicians to meet the state's future healthcare
21	service needs as both the general population and elderly
22	population of the state increase. The Legislature finds that
23	issues to consider relative to the assessment of physician
24	workforce need may include physician practice status; specialty
25	mix; geographic distribution; demographic information,
26	including, but not limited to, age, gender, race, and cultural
27	considerations; and meeting the needs of current or projected
28	medically underserved areas in the state. Long-term strategic
29	planning is essential, as the period of time from the time of
30	entering medical school to completion of graduate medical
31	education may range from 7 to 10 years, or longer. The
32	Legislature recognizes that strategies to provide for a well-
33	trained supply of physicians must include ensuring the
34	availability of quality medical schools and graduate medical
35	education capacity in the state as well as utilizing new or
36	existing state or federal programs that might provide incentives
37	for physicians to practice in needed specialties and in
38	underserved areas in a manner that addresses projected physician
39	manpower needs.
40	(2)  CREATION; PURPOSE.--The Office of Physician Workforce
41	Assessment and Development is created in the Department of
42	Health and shall serve as a coordinating and strategic planning
43	body to actively assess the state's current and future physician
44	workforce needs and shall work with multiple stakeholders to
45	develop strategies and alternatives to address the state's
46	current and projected physician workforce needs.
47	(3)  GENERAL FUNCTIONS.--The Office of Physician Workforce
48	Assessment and Development shall maximize the utilization of
49	existing programs under the jurisdiction of the department and
50	other state agencies; coordinate among governmental and
51	nongovernmental stakeholders and resources to determine a state
52	strategic plan; and assess implementation of such strategic plan
53	to:
54	(a)  Monitor, evaluate, and report on the supply and
55	distribution of physicians licensed under chapters 458 and 459.
56	The department shall maintain a database to serve as the
57	official statewide source of valid, objective, and reliable data
58	on the physician workforce.
59	(b)  Develop a model and quantify, on an ongoing basis, the
60	adequacy of the state's current and future physician workforce,
61	as reliable physician workforce data becomes available. Such
62	model shall consider the following factors: demographics,
63	physician practice status, place of education and training,
64	generational changes, population growth, economic indicators,
65	and issues relating to the channeling of students into medical
66	education.
67	(c)  Develop and recommend strategies to determine whether
68	availability of qualified state medical school applicants who
69	might become competent practicing physicians in the state will
70	be sufficient to meet medical school capacity of the state's
71	medical schools. If appropriate, the Office of Physician
72	Workforce Assessment and Development, working with
73	representatives of appropriate governmental and nongovernmental
74	entities, shall develop strategies and recommendations and
75	identify best practice programs that introduce health care as a
76	profession and strengthen skills needed for medical school
77	admission for elementary, middle, and high school students and
78	that improve premedical education at the K-12 and college level
79	to increase the state's potential pool of medical students.
80	(d)  Assess strategies to ensure that graduates from the
81	state's public and private allopathic and osteopathic medical
82	schools are adequate to meet physician workforce needs, based on
83	the analysis of the physician workforce data, and strategies to
84	ensure that the state's medical schools are adequately funded to
85	provide a high quality medical education to students in a manner
86	that recognizes the uniqueness of each of the state's new and
87	existing medical schools.
88	(e)  Pursue strategies and policies to create, expand, and
89	maintain graduate medical education positions in the state,
90	based on the analysis of the physician workforce data. Such
91	strategies and policies shall consider the impact of federal
92	funding limitations on the expansion and creation of graduate
93	medical education positions and shall develop options to address
94	such federal funding limitations. Options to provide direct
95	state funding for graduate medical education positions shall be
96	considered in a manner that addresses requirements and needs
97	relative to accreditation of graduate medical education
98	programs. Funding for residency positions should be targeted to
99	address needed physician specialty areas, rural and physician
100	shortage areas, areas of ongoing critical need, and other
101	physician workforce needs of the state, based on the analysis of
102	ongoing physician workforce data.
103	(f)  Develop strategies to maximize federal and state
104	programs that provide for the use of incentives to attract
105	physicians to the state or retain physicians in the state in
106	order to meet the state's physician workforce needs. Such
107	strategies should explore and maximize federal-state
108	partnerships available to provide for incentives for physicians
109	to practice in federally designated shortage areas. Strategies
110	shall also consider the use of state programs, such as the
111	Florida Health Services Corps established pursuant to s.
112	381.0302 and the Medical Education Reimbursement and Loan
113	Repayment Program pursuant to s. 1009.65, that provide for
114	education loan repayment or loan forgiveness to provide
115	physicians monetary incentives to relocate to underserved areas
116	of the state.
117	(g)  Coordinate and enhance activities relative to
118	physician workforce needs, undergraduate medical education, and
119	graduate medical education provided by the Division of Medical
120	Quality Assurance, the Community Hospital Education Program, and
121	the Graduate Medical Education Committee established pursuant to
122	s. 381.0403, the area health education center network
123	established pursuant to s. 381.0402, and other offices and
124	programs within the department as deemed by the secretary.
125	(h)  Monitor, evaluate, and quantify on an ongoing basis
126	the availability of critical physician services statewide and by
127	geographic area. Such critical physician services shall include,
128	but are not limited to, availability of and trends relating to
129	obstetric care and services, particularly delivery of babies;
130	radiological services, particularly performance of mammograms
131	and breast-imaging services; physician specialty services for
132	hospital emergency departments and trauma centers; and
133	additional services as may be determined by the department.
134	(i)  Work in conjunction with and act as a coordinating
135	body for governmental and nongovernmental stakeholders to
136	develop strategies and recommendations regarding assessment and
137	development of the state's physician workforce. The Office of
138	Physician Workforce Assessment and Development shall report its
139	findings to the Governor, the President of the Senate, and the
140	Speaker of the House of Representatives by November 1 of each
141	year. The report shall include, at a minimum, a description of
142	the status of each requirement of this subsection,
143	recommendations of strategies needed to address each
144	requirement, assessment of the implementation of previous
145	recommendations, and recommendations relative to other
146	alternative strategies or matters deemed important by the
147	department to ensure that the state has an adequate supply of
148	well-trained physicians to meet the state's future health care
149	needs. Stakeholders that may serve as resources may include, but
150	are not limited to, the secretaries or designees of the
151	Department of Health, Department of Education, and Agency for
152	Healthcare Administration; the Chancellor or designee of the
153	Board of Governors; and, at the discretion of the department,
154	other representatives of state and local agencies involved in
155	the assessment, education, training, or provision of the state's
156	current or future physician workforce. Other stakeholders shall
157	include, but are not limited to, organizations representing the
158	state's public and private allopathic and osteopathic medical
159	schools; organizations representing hospitals and other
160	healthcare-providing institutions, particularly those that
161	currently provide or have an interest in providing accredited
162	medical education and graduate medical education to medical
163	students and medical residents in the state; organizations
164	representing allopathic and osteopathic practicing physicians,
165	including organizations representing physician specialties as
166	needed to address items requiring specific physician specialist
167	expertise; and, at the discretion of the department,
168	representatives of other organizations or entities involved in
169	the assessment, education, training, or provision of the state's
170	current or future physician workforce.
171	(j)  Serve as a state liaison with other states and federal
172	agencies and programs to enhance resources available to the
173	state's physician workforce and medical education continuum.
174	(k)  Act as a clearinghouse for collecting and
175	disseminating information regarding physician workforce and
176	medical education continuum issues in the state.
177	(4)  DATA COLLECTION.--In order to collect the physician
178	workforce data described in subsection (3), the department shall
179	develop a physician workforce survey instrument that shall be
180	provided to each person who applies for licensure renewal as a
181	physician under chapter 458 or chapter 459 in conjunction with
182	the renewal of such license, under procedures adopted by the
183	department. Completion of the physician workforce survey
184	instrument shall be voluntary.
185	(5)  RULEMAKING.--The department shall adopt rules,
186	pursuant to ss. 120.536(1) and 120.54, necessary to implement
187	this section.
188	Section 2.  This act shall take effect July 1, 2007, only
189	if a specific appropriation is made in the General
190	Appropriations Act for fiscal year 2007-2008.

CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.