Last week, the Florida Board of Medicine published notice of its intent to propose new rules for laser and light-based electrology. You can read the notice in the July 24 issue of the Florida Administrative Register.
The proposed changes are made to administrative rule 64B8-56.002 on Equipment and Devices; Protocols for Laser and Light-based Devices. Under the current rules, a licensed electrologist may use laser or light-based hair removal only if they have completed training as required by the board, are using a device on which they have been trained and are under the direct supervision of a physician. The supervising physician has a duty to develop written protocols, review the practices of the electrologist and ensure that they receive ongoing training.
The proposed changes keep this structure largely intact; the only substantial change is in defining what is needed for the physician to provide “direct” supervision. In this proposal, direct supervision can only be provided by either:
This would likely require some laser electrology relationships to be revised, as Florida’s telehealth rules do not allow for audio-only phone calls or email. So, supervision would need to take place using some sort of audio/visual system.
It should be noted that these are only rules in development and are not ready for adoption at this time. A development workshop will be held in the coming weeks to refine these changes. Once a version has been finalized, it can be approved by the board to begin the formal adoption process. There are at least several months until this rule could potentially be adopted, with several points where the language or provisions may change.