Health Law Section applauds refinement of healthcare licensure provision
'The amended statute ensures that Florida’s healthcare licensure framework remains robust in protecting national security interests, while also enabling providers to move forward with confidence in establishing or renewing their operations in Florida'
Jamie Gelfman
The Health Law Section officers are applauding recent legislative changes they say provide much-needed clarity to a licensure requirement that had caused significant compliance challenges and uncertainty for Florida’s healthcare providers.
The Florida Legislature established F.S. §408.810(15) in 2023 that imposed a new minimum standard for healthcare licensure that applied to more than 25 provider types regulated by the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA), including hospitals, nursing homes, ambulatory surgical centers, assisted living facilities, hospices, and healthcare clinics.
Under the original statute, applicants and licensees were required to attest that no person or entity with a “controlling interest” in the licensee held, directly or indirectly, an “interest” in an entity with a “business relationship” with a “foreign country of concern.”
Due to the vague and expansive nature of these statutory definitions, many healthcare providers with complex ownership structures faced significant uncertainty and risk in attempting to comply, according to the section, noting “the ambiguity had a chilling effect on efforts to expand or sustain healthcare services in Florida for which a license is required by AHCA.”
The Health Law Section’s Executive Council supported an advocacy effort that culminated in the passage of SB 768 that better defines key terms and explicitly provides that no adverse licensure, insurance, civil, or criminal consequences will result for applicants or licensees who, in the absence of actual knowledge, fail to identify an indirect interest holder’s disqualifying business relationship.
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed SB 768 into law on May 27.
Jamaal Jones
“The Health Law Section’s Executive Council heard from many providers who expressed apprehension about continuing to provide or expand their healthcare operations into the state due to uncertainty surrounding §408.810(15),” said Executive Council member Jamie Gelfman, a board certified health law attorney at McDermott Will & Emery. “These providers were not seeking to circumvent the law — they were committed to compliance but found the statute’s scope nearly impossible to navigate. The amendment preserves the statute’s original intent while alleviating concerns arising from unintentional violations due to the business activities of unknown or indiscernible indirect ownership interests.”
Other Health Law Section members who advocated for the legislation included Steven Grigas, Elizabeth Scarola, and section Chair Jamaal R. Jones.
Jones believes the reform strikes the right balance.
“The amended statute ensures that Florida’s healthcare licensure framework remains robust in protecting national security interests, while also enabling providers to move forward with confidence in establishing or renewing their operations in Florida, said Jones of Jones Health Law in Miami. “The section believes this legislative change will reinvigorate efforts by new and existing providers to offer high-quality, medically necessary services to Floridians — without fear of punitive consequences for factors beyond their reasonable knowledge or control.”
