A new bill in Florida seeks to expand registration and oversight of clinics offering outpatient surgery. The bill is sponsored by Senator Anitere Flores and is known as Senate Bill 732 (SB 732). You can review the text of SB 732 in full here; it initially was referred to the Health Policy Committee, where it was amended and awaits further consideration by the Senate.
Under current Florida law, clinics that provide healthcare services and tender charges for reimbursement (such as through insurance) must meet certain requirements to register. SB 732 would broaden this requirement to include healthcare service providers that are compensated either directly in cash or by reimbursement through insurance. Additionally, all clinics will need to maintain financial responsibility with coverage limits to be set by the board.
SB 732 also provides a number of enforcement mechanisms over clinics that offer office surgery—Level II (surgery where the patient is under moderate sedation and analgesia or conscious sedation) and Level III (surgery where the patient is under deep sedation and analgesia, general sedation, or a spinal or epidural anesthesia) procedures and any liposuction where more than 1,000 CCs of fat is removed—including denying, suspending or revoking their clinic licenses. Unlicensed clinics offering office surgery and physicians performing in unlicensed clinics can be subject to fines of $5,000 per day.
A recent number of high-profile complications and deaths from office-based plastic surgery procedures seems to be the impetus for SB 732. We will be monitoring SB 732 as it works its way through Florida’s legislative process this year.