No. HB 13
Filed under Healthcare.
Social Work Licensure Interstate Compact; Creates Social Work Licensure Interstate Compact; provides for recognition of access to social work services, including through telehealth, in member states; provides for development of data system, reporting procedures, & exchange of specified information between member states; specifies licensees practicing in remote state under compact must adhere to laws & rules of that state.
Plain English Summary
AI-GENERATEDFlorida joins a multistate compact recognizing clinical social workers' licenses across every other member state. A social worker with a multistate license can practice, including by telehealth, in any state that has joined, without applying for a separate license there.
To qualify, applicants must hold an active license in their home state, pass a national exam, and submit fingerprints for an FBI background check. Florida's board gains new power to discipline a social worker's compact practice privileges directly.
Other states can restrict a Florida social worker's ability to practice there for misconduct, using their own rules. If Florida disciplines a license, the worker loses multistate practice rights everywhere until the discipline is resolved.
A new multistate commission writes binding rules for the compact that apply in Florida without going through the state's own rulemaking process. Only a majority of member states' legislatures can overturn one.
AIA clinical social worker's home-state license becomes valid in every other compact state. The home state issues one multistate license that other member states must recognize, letting the worker practice across state lines, including by telehealth, without a separate license in each one.
AIThe compact's stated purpose includes using telehealth to expand access to social work services across state lines. A licensee treating a client by telehealth in another member state must still follow that state's laws, since the client's location controls which rules apply.
AIAny applicant for a multistate license, and any licensee changing their home state, must submit fingerprints or other biometric data so states can obtain an FBI and state criminal-history check before a license is granted or transferred.
AIA remote member state may restrict a visiting social worker's authorization to practice within that state's own borders for a set time, and impose fines, using its own due-process procedures, independent of the home state's disciplinary process.
AIFlorida's board gains explicit authority to discipline a clinical social worker's privilege to practice under the compact, using the same penalties available under s. 456.072(2), for the same conduct that already triggers discipline of an ordinary Florida license.
AIRules the multistate commission adopts take on the force of law in Florida directly, bypassing Florida's own agency rulemaking procedures. A rule can be nullified only if a majority of member-state legislatures vote to reject it within four years.
AICommission members, officers, employees and representatives are immune from personal suit and liability for acts within the scope of commission duties, except for intentional, willful, or wanton misconduct, and the commission must defend and indemnify them.
AIFlorida's delegate to the commission, and commission officers and employees acting in Florida, are treated as agents of the state for tort-claim purposes, and the compact commission itself must pay or insure any resulting claims or judgments.