No. HB 917
Filed under Healthcare.
Health Care; Defines "treat," "treated," & "treatment"; authorizes individual to refuse examination, testing, or treatment for specified reasons; prohibits discrimination against patient based on patient's vaccination status; requires licensed health care practitioners to inform parent or legal guardian of minor child of risks, benefits, safety, & efficacy of specified vaccines, obtain signature from parent or legal guardian before administration of vaccine, & provide parent or legal guardian with option of alternative vaccination schedule; authorizes pharmacist to provide ivermectin without prescription; requires pharmacist to provide specified information to patient; provides pharmacists with immunity from civil & criminal liability & disciplinary action; authorizes Board of Pharmacy to adopt rules; authorizes parent to exempt their child from health examination or from administration of immunizing agents based on conscience grounds; requires DOH to make publicly available, by posting on its Internet website, exemption form for parents & legal guardians.
Plain English Summary
AI-GENERATEDBefore giving a minor any vaccine, health care practitioners must now explain each shot's risks and benefits, get the parent's signed acknowledgment, and offer the option of a slower, alternative schedule.
Parents can now exempt a child from the school health exam or immunizations by citing personal conscience, not just religion as before. The Department of Health must post the exemption form online.
Health care providers and facilities may no longer discriminate against a patient because of vaccination status, including for access to treatment; violating this is grounds for professional discipline.
Pharmacists can now sell ivermectin without a prescription as a behind-the-counter drug, with legal immunity, as long as they hand patients written dosing and safety information.
AIAny licensed practitioner who vaccinates a minor, plus paramedics under s. 401.272, must first tell the parent or guardian the risks, benefits, safety, and efficacy of that vaccine using materials the state's medical boards approve, and get a signed acknowledgment before the shot is given.
AIPractitioners must give parents of a minor the option to follow an alternative schedule instead of the CDC's recommended one, capped at one injection or oral dose per visit, with no floor on how long that stretched-out schedule may run.
AIHealth care providers and facilities may no longer treat a patient differently because of their vaccination status, and that status is added alongside race, religion, and handicap on the list of factors that cannot limit a patient's access to treatment. Violations are grounds for professional discipline.
AIA pharmacist may dispense ivermectin as a behind-the-counter drug to anyone, without a prescription, until the FDA approves it for over-the-counter sale. The pharmacist must hand over written dosing and safety information and advise the patient to follow up with a primary care doctor.
AIA parent can currently skip the school-entry health exam only by objecting on religious grounds, and skip immunizations only if they conflict with religious tenets or practices. The bill adds an undefined conscience-based objection to both exemptions, and requires the Department of Health to post an exemption form online.
AIA pharmacist who provides ivermectin under this new authority in good faith cannot be sued, prosecuted, or professionally disciplined for doing so, as long as the required written information was given to the patient.
AIThe Florida Patient's Bill of Rights currently cannot be used for any purpose in a civil or administrative action. The bill adds 'unless otherwise provided by law,' so any other statute that says otherwise could let a violation, like the new vaccination-status rule, be raised in such a proceeding.
AIFor purposes of the statute governing public health advisories, emergencies, isolation, and quarantine, the words 'treat,' 'treated,' and 'treatment' no longer include giving a vaccine. Any provision elsewhere in that statute that turns on the word 'treatment' would no longer reach vaccination.