No. CS/SB 688
Filed under Healthcare.
Naturopathic Medicine; Creating the Board of Naturopathic Medicine within the Department of Health; prohibiting unlicensed persons from practicing naturopathic medicine or promoting, identifying, or describing themselves using specified titles or abbreviations; providing for licensure by examination of naturopathic doctors; providing for licensure by endorsement of naturopathic doctors; revising continuing education requirements for naturopathic doctors, etc.
Plain English Summary
AI-GENERATEDEnds Florida's decades-old de facto ban on naturopathy by creating a real path to licensure. A new seven-member Board of Naturopathic Medicine, housed in the Department of Health, will oversee it.
To get licensed, applicants need a bachelor's degree, an accredited naturopathic doctoral degree, a clean background screening, and a passing score on the national naturopathic licensing exam.
Licensed naturopathic doctors can use nutrition, homeopathy, lab testing, imaging, and physical medicine to diagnose and treat patients, but cannot perform surgery, use anesthesia, or prescribe most prescription drugs.
Practicing without a license, or falsely using titles like 'naturopathic doctor,' becomes a second-degree misdemeanor. Unlicensed people may still call themselves 'naturopath' and offer herbalism or nutrition advice.
AIThe bill states outright that its purpose is to end a de facto ban on naturopathy that has been in place since 1959, by making real licensure available for the first time.
AIEstablishes a new licensing board inside the Department of Health, with four licensed naturopathic doctors, two physicians, and one member who has never held any of those licenses.
AIA person may not practice naturopathic medicine or call themselves a naturopathic doctor, N.D., or N.M.D. without a license; doing so is a second-degree misdemeanor.
AIApplicants must be at least 21, hold a bachelor's degree, hold an accredited naturopathic doctoral degree, pass a background check, and pass both parts of the national naturopathic licensing exam.
AIDeletes the old bar that kept the department from licensing anyone who wasn't already grandfathered in as of July 1, 1959, clearing the way for the new exam and endorsement pathways to actually issue licenses.
AISomeone who is not a licensed naturopathic doctor may still describe their occupation with terms like naturopath or naturopathy, as long as they don't use a protected title or claim to be a naturopathic doctor.
AIDrops the old fixed 2-day continuing education program run by a single named association in favor of a 60-hour biennial requirement approved by the new board and tracked electronically.
AIA licensee who refuses an ordered mental or physical exam no longer automatically loses by default; the department must instead file a circuit court petition, but that case is closed to the public and the licensee isn't even named by initials.