Two New Laws Immediately Impact Florida Healthcare Providers

NEWS UPDATE: April 8, 2022

GOVERNMENT & ADMINISTRATIVE

Two New Laws Immediately Impact Florida Healthcare Providers

On April 6, 2022, Governor Ron DeSantis signed a slate of hotly contested healthcare-related bills coming out of Florida’s 2022 Legislative Session. Two bills in particular are likely to have industry-wide regulatory impacts to nursing homes, hospitals, and long-term care facilities. Both bills became effective upon the Governor signing them into law.

One bill signed, the “No Patient Left Alone Act” (Senate Bill 988), was championed by Governor DeSantis in response to COVID-19 pandemic policies restricting patient visitors in nursing homes, hospitals, and long-term care facilities. This new law requires many healthcare providers to develop visitation policies within 30 days. That deadline is May 6, 2022—30 days from the day the Governor signed the bill into law on April 6, 2022.

Under this new law, healthcare providers will also be required to create an infection control procedure for families visiting their loved ones, and must make both such policies and procedures easily accessible from the homepage of their websites.

The Governor also signed House Bill 1239 relating to nursing homes on Wednesday. This was one of the more controversial bills to pass this Session. This new law will reduce the minimum number of hours of direct care provided by certified nursing assistants in nursing homes from 2.5 hours to 2 hours per resident per day. This new law will also retain the weekly average of 3.6 hours of direct care per patient per day, but allows that calculation to include physical therapists and occupational therapists, in lieu of certified nursing assistants. The nursing home industry sought these changes to allow more flexibility to nursing homes and to address rampant staffing shortages caused at least in part by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over the next 30 days, and in the coming months, these two bills will have far-reaching effects for nursing homes, hospitals, and long-term care facilities. Our Government & Administrative group has the necessary experience and relationships to assist healthcare providers in navigating these new laws.

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Strategically positioned at the crossroads of business and government, our team assists both businesses and government offices through Florida's complex legal and regulatory landscape. Our statewide team of attorneys and professionals have diverse collective experience and full-service capabilities to assist in every segment of a project from start to finish, with experience in nearly every industry affected by Florida regulation. We are a multi-disciplinary, collaborative firm well-versed in all aspects of Florida, local and federal government & administrative law. We frequently represent clients before Florida and federal agencies and local governments.

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