Do Doctors and Nurses Have to Self-Report to the Florida Department of Health if Arrested?
In our society, Medical Professionals have always been held to a higher-than-average standard. Doctors, nurses, and physicians must abide by several professional rules of conduct that not many other employees have to keep in mind. This in turn also means that your personal life is up for scrutiny as well. Ethical standards and moral values are usually private assumptions but for those who have chosen the medical field, those normally private matters can have a deep affect your employment status. Any serious off-duty conduct issue must be reported, reviewed, and taken care of on a case-by-case basis.
Florida Requirements for Self-Reporting
In Florida, doctors are required to report all criminal activities committed after they receive their medical license even though it is not in relation to employment and occurs after regular working hours. Any report or complaint filed towards a medical professional will be investigated by the Florida Department of Health. Being placed under arrest can trigger disciplinary action from the state licensing boards. Medical disciplinary actions require a much lower burden of proof than federal cases. It is possible to be penalized, face Medicare/Medicaid exclusion, and potentially have your license revoked based on the severity of the crime and investigation. It is entirely possible that a physician can face the loss of their medical license even if an investigation does not result in criminal prosecution and a conviction at a trial.
Complaints Against Medical Professionals
The most common criminal concerns leading to the harshest disciplinary actions towards a medical professional involve healthcare fraud, solicitation, moral turpitude, dishonesty, or deceit in any jurisdiction in the state. According to the Florida Department of Health’s website, they do not carry out complaints regarding the fees charged for individual procedures, missed, or cancelled appointments, unfair customer service, rudeness or disrespect, bedside manner, professionalism or personality conflicts again medical professionals.
Complaints against medical professionals can lead the Board of Medicine to issue citations based on the type of and severity of the complaint. It is completely free to file complaints against medical professionals. The only potential fees may be for requesting copies of medical records if deemed necessary. Complaints remain confidential until the panel determines reasonable cause, and a violation is issued.
How to Report
According to the Florida Board of medicine, all criminal activities after receiving your medical license must be timely reported. The Board provides various options for reporting including email, online service portal, or via regular mail. If a complaint is issued via sending an email or letter, the correspondence must include the date of the offense, the activity that happened, and the county and state of jurisdiction. The complaint cannot reach processing without the proper information.
The Florida Department of Health’s Medical Quality Assurance (MQA) launched a user-friendly online portal. The portal was developed in collaboration with the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) to allow for easy reporting of any complaints again medical providers from fraud to unlicensed activity and violations. The portal offers education on the different federal agencies for complaints as well.
See below for email, website and address:
MQAOnlineService@FLHealth.Gov
www.mqa-vo.doh.state.fl.us./datamart/voservicesportal
Florida Department of Health
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It should be noted that I am not your lawyer (unless you have presently retained my services through a retainer agreement). This post is not intended as legal advice, it is purely educational and informational, and no attorney-client relationship shall result after reading it. Please consult your own attorney for legal advice. If you do not have one and would like to retain my legal services, please contact me using the contact information listed above.
 All information and references made to laws, rules, regulations, and advisory opinions were accurate based on the law as it existed at this time, but laws are constantly evolving. Please contact me to be sure that the law which will govern your business is current. Thank you.
