Florida Senate - 2024 CS for SB 1474
By the Committee on Health Policy; and Senator Trumbull
588-02977-24 20241474c1
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 after demonstrating to the Board of Chiropractic
7 Medicine’s satisfaction completion of certain
8 training; amending s. 460.406, F.S.; revising
9 education requirements for licensure as a chiropractic
10 physician; providing an effective date.
11
12 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
13
14 Section 1. Subsection (9) of section 460.403, Florida
15 Statutes, is amended to read:
16 460.403 Definitions.—As used in this chapter, the term:
17 (9)(a) “Practice of chiropractic medicine” means a
18 noncombative principle and practice consisting of the science,
19 philosophy, and art of the adjustment, manipulation, and
20 treatment of the human body in which vertebral subluxations and
21 other malpositioned articulations and structures that are
22 interfering with the normal generation, transmission, and
23 expression of nerve impulse between the brain, organs, and
24 tissue cells of the body, thereby causing disease, are adjusted,
25 manipulated, or treated, thus restoring the normal flow of nerve
26 impulse which produces normal function and consequent health by
27 chiropractic physicians using specific chiropractic adjustment
28 or manipulation techniques taught in chiropractic colleges
29 accredited by the Council on Chiropractic Education. No person
30 other than a licensed chiropractic physician may render
31 chiropractic services, chiropractic adjustments, or chiropractic
32 manipulations.
33 (b) Any chiropractic physician who has complied with the
34 provisions of this chapter may examine, analyze, and diagnose
35 the human living body and its diseases by the use of any
36 physical, chemical, electrical, or thermal method; use the X ray
37 for diagnosing; phlebotomize; and use any other general method
38 of examination for diagnosis and analysis taught in any school
39 of chiropractic.
40 (c)1. Chiropractic physicians may adjust, manipulate, or
41 treat the human body by manual, mechanical, electrical, or
42 natural methods; by the use of physical means or physiotherapy,
43 including light, heat, water, or exercise; by the use of
44 acupuncture; by the use of monofilament intramuscular
45 stimulation treatment for trigger points or myofascial pain,
46 after demonstrating to the board’s satisfaction the completion
47 of training in such modality which includes a board-approved
48 number of credit hours in a board-approved education program; or
49 by the administration of foods, food concentrates, food
50 extracts, and items for which a prescription is not required and
51 may apply first aid and hygiene, but chiropractic physicians are
52 expressly prohibited from prescribing or administering to any
53 person any legend drug except as authorized under subparagraph
54 2., from performing any surgery except as stated herein, or from
55 practicing obstetrics.
56 2. Notwithstanding the prohibition against prescribing and
57 administering legend drugs under subparagraph 1. or s.
58 499.83(2)(c), pursuant to board rule chiropractic physicians may
59 order, store, and administer, for emergency purposes only at the
60 chiropractic physician’s office or place of business,
61 prescription medical oxygen and may also order, store, and
62 administer the following topical anesthetics in aerosol form:
63 a. Any solution consisting of 25 percent ethylchloride and
64 75 percent dichlorodifluoromethane.
65 b. Any solution consisting of 15 percent
66 dichlorodifluoromethane and 85 percent
67 trichloromonofluoromethane.
68
69 However, this paragraph does not authorize a chiropractic
70 physician to prescribe medical oxygen as defined in s.
71 499.82(10) chapter 499.
72 (d) Chiropractic physicians shall have the privileges of
73 services from the department’s laboratories.
74 (e) The term “chiropractic medicine,” “chiropractic,”
75 “doctor of chiropractic,” or “chiropractor” shall be synonymous
76 with “chiropractic physician,” and each term shall be construed
77 to mean a practitioner of chiropractic medicine as the same has
78 been defined herein. Chiropractic physicians may analyze and
79 diagnose the physical conditions of the human body to determine
80 the abnormal functions of the human organism and to determine
81 such functions as are abnormally expressed and the cause of such
82 abnormal expression.
83 (f) Any chiropractic physician who has complied with the
84 provisions of this chapter is authorized to analyze and diagnose
85 abnormal bodily functions and to adjust the physical
86 representative of the primary cause of disease as is herein
87 defined and provided. As an incident to the care of the sick,
88 chiropractic physicians may advise and instruct patients in all
89 matters pertaining to hygiene and sanitary measures as taught
90 and approved by recognized chiropractic schools and colleges. A
91 chiropractic physician may not use acupuncture until certified
92 by the board. Certification shall be granted to chiropractic
93 physicians who have satisfactorily completed the required
94 coursework in acupuncture and after successful passage of an
95 appropriate examination as administered by the department. The
96 required coursework shall have been provided by a college or
97 university which is recognized by an accrediting agency approved
98 by the United States Department of Education.
99 Section 2. Paragraph (d) of subsection (1) of section
100 460.406, Florida Statutes, is amended to read:
101 460.406 Licensure by examination.—
102 (1) Any person desiring to be licensed as a chiropractic
103 physician must apply to the department to take the licensure
104 examination. There shall be an application fee set by the board
105 not to exceed $100 which shall be nonrefundable. There shall
106 also be an examination fee not to exceed $500 plus the actual
107 per applicant cost to the department for purchase of portions of
108 the examination from the National Board of Chiropractic
109 Examiners or a similar national organization, which may be
110 refundable if the applicant is found ineligible to take the
111 examination. The department shall examine each applicant whom
112 the board certifies has met all of the following criteria:
113 (d)1. For an applicant who has matriculated in a
114 chiropractic college before July 2, 1990, completed at least 2
115 years of residence college work, consisting of a minimum of one
116 half the work acceptable for a bachelor’s degree granted on the
117 basis of a 4-year period of study, in a college or university
118 accredited by an institutional accrediting agency recognized and
119 approved by the United States Department of Education. However,
120 before being certified by the board to sit for the examination,
121 each applicant who has matriculated in a chiropractic college
122 after July 1, 1990, must have been granted a bachelor’s degree,
123 based upon 4 academic years of study, by a college or university
124 accredited by an institutional accrediting agency that is a
125 member of the Commission on Recognition of Postsecondary
126 Accreditation or have produced a credentials evaluation report
127 from a board-approved organization that deems the applicant’s
128 education equivalent to a bachelor’s degree.
129 2. Effective July 1, 2000, completed, before matriculation
130 in a chiropractic college, at least 3 years of residence college
131 work, consisting of a minimum of 90 semester hours leading to a
132 bachelor’s degree in a liberal arts college or university
133 accredited by an institutional accrediting agency recognized and
134 approved by the United States Department of Education or
135 produced a credentials evaluation report from a board-approved
136 organization that deems the applicant’s education equivalent to
137 a bachelor’s degree. However, before being certified by the
138 board to sit for the examination, each applicant who has
139 matriculated in a chiropractic college after July 1, 2000, must
140 have been granted a bachelor’s degree from an institution
141 holding accreditation for that degree from an institutional
142 accrediting agency that is recognized by the United States
143 Department of Education. The applicant’s chiropractic degree
144 must consist of credits earned in the chiropractic program and
145 may not include academic credit for courses from the bachelor’s
146 degree.
147
148 The board may require an applicant who graduated from an
149 institution accredited by the Council on Chiropractic Education
150 more than 10 years before the date of application to the board
151 to take the National Board of Chiropractic Examiners Special
152 Purposes Examination for Chiropractic, or its equivalent, as
153 determined by the board. The board shall establish by rule a
154 passing score.
155 Section 3. This act shall take effect July 1, 2024.