Florida Pain Clinic Law
Florida pain clinics are obviously a hot topic right now. With Palm Beach County deciding not to issue any new occupational licenses to pain management clinics in unincorporated areas and with the two new House bills that are on the table. Pretty soon it could be a lot tougher for people to get quality affordable pain management. One House Bill addresses who can own a Florida pain clinic and the second bill wants to put a seventy two hour limit on the amount of medications that can be dispensed on site from a physicians office. The first bill is a huge problem because you can be a great Doctor, but not a great business person. With SB-462 addressing the doctor taking responsibility for all medical aspects of the clinic by becoming medical director before January 4, 2010 why should he have to pay bills, worry about marketing, hiring, firing, and so on? Also why can you own a plastic surgery office as a non physician and employ numerous surgeons as independent contractors, but with the new house bill owning a Florida Pain Clinic as a non physician would be impossible. When it comes to the second bill most pain clinics offer lower prices on medications then local pharmacies and are still subject to the same inspections.
So should the Pt. have to pay more for their medication and be inconvenienced because of a few bad apples? It seems to make more sense to inspect the suspicious clinics and if they are not dispensing within the 29 point state checklist shut them down. The other reason that Onsite dispensing is frowned upon is because people say that it gives the Dr. a financial motive to write more medication. What if the Dr. is paid an hourly rate and doesn't benefit by the amount or types of medications dispensed? These are all different things that need to be considered before these absurd bills become law.