Florida Senate - 2020                                    SB 1884
       
       
        
       By Senator Broxson
       
       
       
       
       
       1-01744A-20                                           20201884__
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to the duty to notify patients;
    3         amending s. 456.0575, F.S.; requiring a health care
    4         practitioner to notify a patient in writing upon
    5         referring the patient to certain providers and
    6         hospitals under certain circumstances; providing
    7         requirements for such notice; defining the term
    8         “investment interest”; providing an effective date.
    9          
   10  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   11  
   12         Section 1. Subsection (2) of section 456.0575, Florida
   13  Statutes, is redesignated as subsection (3), and a new
   14  subsection (2) and subsection (4) are added to that section, to
   15  read:
   16         456.0575 Duty to notify patients.—
   17         (2) A health care practitioner shall notify a patient in
   18  writing upon referring the patient to a nonparticipating
   19  provider for nonemergency services, as those terms are defined
   20  in s. 627.64194(1), or to a provider, as defined in s. 641.47,
   21  which is not under contract with the patient’s health
   22  maintenance organization. Such notice must state that the
   23  services will be provided on an out-of-network basis, which may
   24  result in additional cost-sharing responsibilities for the
   25  patient, and must be documented in the patient’s medical record.
   26  Failure to comply with this subsection, without good cause,
   27  shall result in disciplinary action against the health care
   28  practitioner.
   29         (4) If a health care practitioner has an investment
   30  interest in a hospital or an entity that owns or leases and that
   31  operates a hospital, the health care practitioner must notify a
   32  patient, in writing, of the investment interest upon referring
   33  the patient for nonemergency services to such hospital. For
   34  purposes of this subsection, the term “investment interest”
   35  means an equity or debt security issued by an entity, including,
   36  without limitation, shares of stock in a corporation, units or
   37  other interests in a partnership, bonds, debentures, notes, or
   38  other equity interests or debt instruments.
   39         Section 2. This act shall take effect January 1, 2021.