Florida Senate - 2014                        COMMITTEE AMENDMENT
       Bill No. SB 722
       
       
       
       
       
       
                                Ì206024rÎ206024                         
       
                              LEGISLATIVE ACTION                        
                    Senate             .             House              
                  Comm: RCS            .                                
                  03/11/2014           .                                
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    1         Senate Amendment (with title amendment)
    2  
    3         Between lines 83 and 84
    4  insert:
    5         Section 3. Section 383.146, Florida Statutes, is created to
    6  read:
    7         383.146 Children who are deaf or hard of hearing; notice of
    8  service providers.—
    9         (1) At the time that a health care practitioner diagnoses a
   10  child as having a permanent hearing impairment, the health care
   11  practitioner shall ask the child’s parent or legal guardian if
   12  he or she would like to provide a mailing address or an e-mail
   13  address to receive direct correspondence from providers or
   14  institutions that offer speech and language pathology services,
   15  auditory-oral education, instruction with American Sign
   16  Language, or other such services as approved by rule of the
   17  Department of Health. A parent or legal guardian shall authorize
   18  the release of the mail or e-mail address by signing a consent
   19  form.
   20         (2) The health care practitioner shall fax the form to
   21  those providers and institutions that:
   22         (a) Are licensed, approved, or listed in this state by the
   23  Children’s Medical Services Early Steps Program to provide
   24  direct services to children who are deaf or hard of hearing; and
   25         (b) Have notified the Department of Health of their
   26  interest in providing direct communication to families about
   27  their services.
   28         (3) The Department of Health shall post a list of the
   29  providers and institutions specified in subsection (2) on its
   30  website and may adopt rules as necessary to implement and
   31  administer this section.
   32  
   33  ================= T I T L E  A M E N D M E N T ================
   34  And the title is amended as follows:
   35         Delete line 10
   36  and insert:
   37         reference; creating s. 383.146, F.S.; requiring a
   38         health care practitioner to provide an opportunity for
   39         the parent or legal guardian of a child who is
   40         diagnosed with a hearing impairment to provide contact
   41         information so that he or she may receive information
   42         directly from specified service providers; requiring
   43         the health care practitioner to transmit the
   44         information; requiring the Department of Health to
   45         post a list of certain service providers and
   46         institutions; authorizing the department to adopt
   47         rules; providing an effective date.