Florida Senate - 2024 SB 1474
By Senator Trumbull
2-01588-24 20241474__
1 A bill to be entitled
2 An act relating to chiropractic medicine; amending s.
3 460.403, F.S.; revising the definition of the term
4 “practice of chiropractic medicine” to include a
5 specified treatment that a chiropractic physician may
6 use; amending s. 460.406, F.S.; revising education
7 requirements for licensure as a chiropractic
8 physician; providing an effective date.
9
10 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
11
12 Section 1. Subsection (9) of section 460.403, Florida
13 Statutes, is amended to read:
14 460.403 Definitions.—As used in this chapter, the term:
15 (9)(a) “Practice of chiropractic medicine” means a
16 noncombative principle and practice consisting of the science,
17 philosophy, and art of the adjustment, manipulation, and
18 treatment of the human body in which vertebral subluxations and
19 other malpositioned articulations and structures that are
20 interfering with the normal generation, transmission, and
21 expression of nerve impulse between the brain, organs, and
22 tissue cells of the body, thereby causing disease, are adjusted,
23 manipulated, or treated, thus restoring the normal flow of nerve
24 impulse which produces normal function and consequent health by
25 chiropractic physicians using specific chiropractic adjustment
26 or manipulation techniques taught in chiropractic colleges
27 accredited by the Council on Chiropractic Education. No person
28 other than a licensed chiropractic physician may render
29 chiropractic services, chiropractic adjustments, or chiropractic
30 manipulations.
31 (b) Any chiropractic physician who has complied with the
32 provisions of this chapter may examine, analyze, and diagnose
33 the human living body and its diseases by the use of any
34 physical, chemical, electrical, or thermal method; use the X ray
35 for diagnosing; phlebotomize; and use any other general method
36 of examination for diagnosis and analysis taught in any school
37 of chiropractic.
38 (c)1. Chiropractic physicians may adjust, manipulate, or
39 treat the human body by manual, mechanical, electrical, or
40 natural methods; by the use of physical means or physiotherapy,
41 including light, heat, water, or exercise; by the use of
42 acupuncture; by the use of monofilament intramuscular
43 stimulation treatment for trigger points or myofascial pain; or
44 by the administration of foods, food concentrates, food
45 extracts, and items for which a prescription is not required and
46 may apply first aid and hygiene, but chiropractic physicians are
47 expressly prohibited from prescribing or administering to any
48 person any legend drug except as authorized under subparagraph
49 2., from performing any surgery except as stated herein, or from
50 practicing obstetrics.
51 2. Notwithstanding the prohibition against prescribing and
52 administering legend drugs under subparagraph 1. or s.
53 499.83(2)(c), pursuant to board rule chiropractic physicians may
54 order, store, and administer, for emergency purposes only at the
55 chiropractic physician’s office or place of business,
56 prescription medical oxygen and may also order, store, and
57 administer the following topical anesthetics in aerosol form:
58 a. Any solution consisting of 25 percent ethylchloride and
59 75 percent dichlorodifluoromethane.
60 b. Any solution consisting of 15 percent
61 dichlorodifluoromethane and 85 percent
62 trichloromonofluoromethane.
63
64 However, this paragraph does not authorize a chiropractic
65 physician to prescribe medical oxygen as defined in s.
66 499.82(10) chapter 499.
67 (d) Chiropractic physicians shall have the privileges of
68 services from the department’s laboratories.
69 (e) The term “chiropractic medicine,” “chiropractic,”
70 “doctor of chiropractic,” or “chiropractor” shall be synonymous
71 with “chiropractic physician,” and each term shall be construed
72 to mean a practitioner of chiropractic medicine as the same has
73 been defined herein. Chiropractic physicians may analyze and
74 diagnose the physical conditions of the human body to determine
75 the abnormal functions of the human organism and to determine
76 such functions as are abnormally expressed and the cause of such
77 abnormal expression.
78 (f) Any chiropractic physician who has complied with the
79 provisions of this chapter is authorized to analyze and diagnose
80 abnormal bodily functions and to adjust the physical
81 representative of the primary cause of disease as is herein
82 defined and provided. As an incident to the care of the sick,
83 chiropractic physicians may advise and instruct patients in all
84 matters pertaining to hygiene and sanitary measures as taught
85 and approved by recognized chiropractic schools and colleges. A
86 chiropractic physician may not use acupuncture until certified
87 by the board. Certification shall be granted to chiropractic
88 physicians who have satisfactorily completed the required
89 coursework in acupuncture and after successful passage of an
90 appropriate examination as administered by the department. The
91 required coursework shall have been provided by a college or
92 university which is recognized by an accrediting agency approved
93 by the United States Department of Education.
94 Section 2. Paragraph (d) of subsection (1) of section
95 460.406, Florida Statutes, is amended to read:
96 460.406 Licensure by examination.—
97 (1) Any person desiring to be licensed as a chiropractic
98 physician must apply to the department to take the licensure
99 examination. There shall be an application fee set by the board
100 not to exceed $100 which shall be nonrefundable. There shall
101 also be an examination fee not to exceed $500 plus the actual
102 per applicant cost to the department for purchase of portions of
103 the examination from the National Board of Chiropractic
104 Examiners or a similar national organization, which may be
105 refundable if the applicant is found ineligible to take the
106 examination. The department shall examine each applicant whom
107 the board certifies has met all of the following criteria:
108 (d)1. For an applicant who has matriculated in a
109 chiropractic college before July 2, 1990, completed at least 2
110 years of residence college work, consisting of a minimum of one
111 half the work acceptable for a bachelor’s degree granted on the
112 basis of a 4-year period of study, in a college or university
113 accredited by an institutional accrediting agency recognized and
114 approved by the United States Department of Education. However,
115 before being certified by the board to sit for the examination,
116 each applicant who has matriculated in a chiropractic college
117 after July 1, 1990, must have been granted a bachelor’s degree,
118 based upon 4 academic years of study, by a college or university
119 accredited by an institutional accrediting agency that is a
120 member of the Commission on Recognition of Postsecondary
121 Accreditation or have produced a credentials evaluation report
122 from a board-approved organization that deems the applicant’s
123 education equivalent to a bachelor’s degree.
124 2. Effective July 1, 2000, completed, before matriculation
125 in a chiropractic college, at least 3 years of residence college
126 work, consisting of a minimum of 90 semester hours leading to a
127 bachelor’s degree in a liberal arts college or university
128 accredited by an institutional accrediting agency recognized and
129 approved by the United States Department of Education or
130 produced a credentials evaluation report from a board-approved
131 organization that deems the applicant’s education equivalent to
132 a bachelor’s degree. However, before being certified by the
133 board to sit for the examination, each applicant who has
134 matriculated in a chiropractic college after July 1, 2000, must
135 have been granted a bachelor’s degree from an institution
136 holding accreditation for that degree from an institutional
137 accrediting agency that is recognized by the United States
138 Department of Education. The applicant’s chiropractic degree
139 must consist of credits earned in the chiropractic program and
140 may not include academic credit for courses from the bachelor’s
141 degree.
142
143 The board may require an applicant who graduated from an
144 institution accredited by the Council on Chiropractic Education
145 more than 10 years before the date of application to the board
146 to take the National Board of Chiropractic Examiners Special
147 Purposes Examination for Chiropractic, or its equivalent, as
148 determined by the board. The board shall establish by rule a
149 passing score.
150 Section 3. This act shall take effect July 1, 2024.