| 1 | A bill to be entitled |
| 2 | An act relating to clinical laboratories; amending s. |
| 3 | 483.181, F.S.; requiring clinical laboratories to accept |
| 4 | human specimens submitted by advanced registered nurse |
| 5 | practitioners; providing an effective date. |
| 6 |
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| 7 | Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: |
| 8 |
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| 9 | Section 1. Section 483.181, Florida Statutes, is amended |
| 10 | to read: |
| 11 | 483.181 Acceptance, collection, identification, and |
| 12 | examination of specimens.-- |
| 13 | (1) A clinical laboratory may examine human specimens at |
| 14 | the request only of a licensed practitioner or other person |
| 15 | authorized by law to use the findings of clinical laboratory |
| 16 | examinations. An individual forwarding a sample of the |
| 17 | individual's own blood to a clinical laboratory, when such blood |
| 18 | sample has been taken pursuant to a home access HIV test kit |
| 19 | approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration, |
| 20 | shall be considered a person authorized to request and use a |
| 21 | clinical laboratory test for human immunodeficiency virus, for |
| 22 | the purposes of this part. |
| 23 | (2) The results of a test must be reported directly to the |
| 24 | licensed practitioner or other authorized person who requested |
| 25 | it. The report must include the name and address of the clinical |
| 26 | laboratory in which the test was actually performed, unless the |
| 27 | test was performed in a hospital laboratory and the report |
| 28 | becomes an integral part of the hospital record. |
| 29 | (3) The results of clinical laboratory tests performed by |
| 30 | a clinical laboratory complying with this part and performed |
| 31 | before a patient's admission to a facility licensed under |
| 32 | chapter 395 must be accepted in lieu of clinical laboratory |
| 33 | tests required upon a patient's admission to the facility and in |
| 34 | lieu of tests that may be ordered for patients of the facility, |
| 35 | except that the facility may not be required to accept |
| 36 | transfusion compatibility test results. The agency shall |
| 37 | establish, by rule, standards for accepting laboratory test |
| 38 | results to specify acceptable timeframes for such laboratory |
| 39 | tests to assure that the timeframes do not adversely affect the |
| 40 | accuracy of the test. |
| 41 | (4) All specimens accepted by a clinical laboratory must |
| 42 | be tested on the premises, except that specimens for |
| 43 | infrequently performed tests may be forwarded for examination to |
| 44 | another clinical laboratory approved under this part. This |
| 45 | subsection does not prohibit referring specimens to a clinical |
| 46 | laboratory excepted under s. 483.031. However, the clinical |
| 47 | laboratory director of the referring clinical laboratory must |
| 48 | assume complete responsibility. |
| 49 | (5) A clinical laboratory licensed under this part must |
| 50 | accept a human specimen submitted for examination by a |
| 51 | practitioner licensed under chapter 458, chapter 459, chapter |
| 52 | 460, chapter 461, chapter 462, s. 464.012, or chapter 466, if |
| 53 | the specimen and test are the type performed by the clinical |
| 54 | laboratory. A clinical laboratory may only refuse a specimen |
| 55 | based upon a history of nonpayment for services by the |
| 56 | practitioner. A clinical laboratory shall not charge different |
| 57 | prices for tests based upon the chapter under which a |
| 58 | practitioner submitting a specimen for testing is licensed. |
| 59 | Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2008. |