Breaking News! 5-01-19
Florida Senate and House Pass Legislation for 23 Hour Care for Florida Ambulatory Surgical Centers!
FSASC is pleased to announce that the Florida House of Representatives and the Florida Senate passed legislation this week allowing ASCs to keep patients for up to 23 hours and 59 minutes of surgery and recovery time. The language contained in House Bill 843 amends the definition of ambulatory surgical center to read:
“Ambulatory surgical center” means a facility the primary purpose of which is to provide elective surgical care, in which the patient is admitted to and discharged from such facility within 24 hours and which is not part of a hospital.”
In order to push this passage a compromise was made that requires the Agency for Healthcare Administration (AHCA) to create, by rule, minimum standards for pediatric patient care. Until that rule making is finalized, ASCs are not allowed to keep patients under the age of 18 past midnight.
Pending final signage by Governor DeSantis, the new law will be effective July 1, 2019.
FSASC has worked on this piece of legislation since 2014. In spite of many attempts to kill the bill this year, it was kept alive through the efforts of our legislative director Mike Cusick, our Senate Sponsor Senator Gayle Harrell, House sponsor Representative Cindy Stevenson, and our House leaders, Representatives Ray Rodrigues and Paul Renner.
Passing this legislation was a tremendous team effort over many years. FSASC is grateful to its many members who contacted legislators, wrote campaign contributions, testified to the legislature, and gave to SurgiPAC. You truly made this happen.
Click the video icon below to watch Representative Rodrigues’ announcement of this historical day in Florida healthcare history.
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