Florida Senate - 2025                                     SB 714
       
       
        
       By Senator Burton
       
       
       
       
       
       12-01086A-25                                           2025714__
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to nonopioid advance directives;
    3         amending s. 765.1103, F.S.; requiring the Department
    4         of Health to develop a voluntary nonopioid advance
    5         directive form for a specified purpose and make the
    6         form available on its website; providing requirements
    7         for the form; providing for the valid execution of the
    8         form; requiring that the form be filed in the
    9         patient’s medical record with the facility or provider
   10         of the patient’s choosing; authorizing a patient to
   11         revoke the form for any reason, verbally or in
   12         writing; providing health care providers with immunity
   13         from civil and criminal liability for failing to act
   14         in accordance with an advance directive under certain
   15         circumstances; providing exceptions; defining the term
   16         “medical emergency situation”; providing an effective
   17         date.
   18          
   19  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   20  
   21         Section 1. Subsection (3) is added to section 765.1103,
   22  Florida Statutes, to read:
   23         765.1103 Pain management and palliative care.—
   24         (3)(a) The Department of Health shall develop a voluntary
   25  nonopioid advance directive form that allows a person to
   26  indicate to a treating health care provider that he or she does
   27  not want to be prescribed or administered an opioid drug for
   28  pain management or palliative care in the event that he or she
   29  should become incapacitated and is unable to personally direct
   30  his or her health care. The department shall make the form
   31  available on its website. The form must indicate to a treating
   32  health care provider that the person may not be prescribed or
   33  administered an opioid drug.
   34         (b) A valid nonopioid advance directive form must be signed
   35  by both the patient and a physician licensed under chapter 458
   36  or chapter 459. The form must be filed in the patient’s medical
   37  record, either with a health care facility of the patient’s
   38  choosing or the patient’s primary care physician, or both, and
   39  is transferable to another facility or provider upon the
   40  patient’s request.
   41         (c) A person may, verbally or in writing, revoke the
   42  voluntary nonopioid advance directive form for any reason.
   43         (d) A health care provider without actual knowledge of a
   44  patient’s nonopioid advance directive form who prescribes an
   45  opioid to the patient in a medical emergency situation is not
   46  civilly or criminally liable for failing to act in accordance
   47  with the directive unless the act or omission was the result of
   48  a provider’s gross negligence or willful misconduct. For
   49  purposes of this paragraph, the term “medical emergency
   50  situation” means an acute injury or illness that poses an
   51  immediate risk to a person’s life or long-term health.
   52         Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2025.