Bush Signs Florida Bill Limiting Satellite Physician Offices
Gov. Jeb Bush signed into law a bill to limit the number of satellite offices certain physicians can have and what type of procedures they can do in them.
Starting July 1, the law will restrict the number of satellite offices for primary care physicians to four.
For specialists, excluding dermatologists, the limit would become two. For dermatologists and offices with aesthetic skin care services, the restriction initially would be two satellite offices no more than 25 miles apart in the same county or 75 miles apart in contiguous counties. As of July 1, 2011, dermatologists may only have one satellite office.
The law also restricts operation of a satellite office with aesthetic services such as Botox, microdermabrasion, chemical peels and laser rejuvenation treatment to only dermatologists and plastic surgeons. That means primary care physicians and other doctors who want to offer aesthetic services can only do so in their primary offices.
There were previously no restrictions on the number of satellite offices any doctor could supervise.
The governor's action will help ensure that the skin care treatment patients receive at medical spas and other satellite offices will be supervised by physicians with an expertise in skin care and skin disease, said Dr. Dan Meirson, immediate past president of the Florida Society of Dermatology and Dermatologic Surgery, which, with the Florida Medical Association, supported House Bill 699 as a way to promote patient safety.
Members of the medical spa industry and some companies that make dermatological equipment, such as rejuvenation lasers, opposed the bill. They argued that any doctor can be trained to adequately supervise these procedures.
Original Source: Orlando Business Journal; http://orlando.bizjournals.com/orlando/stories/2006/06/19/daily46.html
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