Florida Senate - 2022                             CS for SB 1184
       
       
        
       By the Committee on Health Policy; and Senator Broxson
       
       
       
       
       
       588-02352-22                                          20221184c1
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to free speech of health care
    3         practitioners; creating s. 456.61, F.S.; prohibiting
    4         certain regulatory boards and the Department of Health
    5         from reprimanding, sanctioning, or revoking or
    6         threatening to revoke a license, certificate, or
    7         registration of a health care practitioner for
    8         specified use of his or her right of free speech
    9         without specified proof; providing for liability;
   10         requiring the board or department, as applicable, to
   11         provide to a health care practitioner certain
   12         complaints within a specified timeframe; providing a
   13         penalty; providing an effective date.
   14          
   15  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   16  
   17         Section 1. Section 456.61, Florida Statutes, is created to
   18  read:
   19         456.61 Use of free speech by a health care practitioner;
   20  prohibition.—
   21         (1) A board, or the department if there is no board, may
   22  not reprimand, sanction, or revoke or threaten to revoke a
   23  license, certificate, or registration of a health care
   24  practitioner for exercising his or her constitutional right of
   25  free speech, including, but not limited to, speech through the
   26  use of a social media platform as defined in s. 501.2041(1)(g).
   27         (2) To reprimand, sanction, or revoke or threaten to revoke
   28  a license, certificate, or registration of a health care
   29  practitioner for his or her speech, the board, or the department
   30  if there is no board, must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that
   31  the health care practitioner’s speech led to the direct physical
   32  harm of a person with whom the health care practitioner had a
   33  practitioner-patient relationship within the 3 years immediately
   34  preceding the incident of physical harm. If the board or the
   35  department, as applicable, reprimands, sanctions, revokes, or
   36  threatens to revoke a license, certificate, or registration of a
   37  health care practitioner for his or her speech, and proof beyond
   38  a reasonable doubt has not been established under this
   39  subsection, the board or the department is liable for a sum of
   40  up to $1.5 million per occurrence for any direct or indirect
   41  damages to a health care practitioner.
   42         (3) The board, or the department if there is no board, must
   43  provide a health care practitioner with any complaints it has
   44  received which may result in the revocation of the health care
   45  practitioner’s license, certification, or registration, within 7
   46  days after receipt of the complaint. The board, or the
   47  department if there is no board, must pay the health care
   48  practitioner an administrative penalty of $500 for each day the
   49  complaint is not provided to the health care practitioner after
   50  the specified 7 days.
   51         Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2022.