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their most common legal questions allowing them to treat patients, instead of addressing legal concerns. Last Update: May 2013 UNLICENSED ACTIVITY Section 456.065, Florida Statutes, is entitled “Unlicensed Practice of A Health Care Profession.” It provides that “It is the intent of the Legislature that vigorous enforcement of licensure regulation for all health care professions is a state priority…”A joint effort has been entered into between the Florida Department of Health and the Florida Attorney General’s Office to combat unlicensed practice. Offices have been set up in Florida to investigate and assist in the prosecution of unlicensed activity in health care. To report unlicensed activity, please call 1-877-425-8852 or visit www.doh.state.fl.us.It is a felony to practice a health care profession without an active, valid Florida license. It is a higher degree felony, with higher penalties, if the practice results in serious bodily injury. The State Attorney’s offices in Florida prosecute these cases as criminal matters; in addition, the health boards (such as the Board of Medicine) will take action against anyone practicing outside the law. To ensure that your physician is duly licensed, visit the Department of Health’s website at www.doh.state.fl.us As a result, physicians may not discriminate against HIV infected individuals who wish to be treated by refusing to treat an HIV infected individual on the basis that the physician does not wish to treat such patients. Fortunately, the prohibition against discrimination does not necessarily mean every physician must treat every HIV/AIDS patient. For instance, it may be proper for an orthopedist with no training in infectious diseases to refuse to treat an HIV infected individual who does not have an orthopedic problem. In other words, it is arguable that a physician need not treat an HIV infected individual for a condition for which the physician has not been trained or is outside the physician's normal scope of practice. On the other hand, a physician may not refuse to treat an HIV infected patient whose primary complaint concerns a condition which the provider normally treats. For instance, an ophthalmologist asked to provide a routine visual acuity exam would not be able to refuse treatment of an HIV infected patient on the basis of that individual's disease. When in doubt, physicians should err on the side of treating on HIV infected individual, as theADA's penalties can be quite severe. This article is presented for educational purposes only and should not be taken as a substitute for legal advice, which should be obtained from personal legal counsel. Nevertheless, the FMA hopes that the information provided here and in its other publications continues to assist physicians in answering many of their most common legal questions allowing them to treat patients, instead of addressing legal concerns. Last Update: April 2013 ADVERSE INCIDENT REPORTS Florida law (Sections 458.351 and 459.026, Florida Statutes) requires that physicians report adverse incidents that occur in their offices. It is important that physicians understand the requirements of the statute before filing a report. Office adverse incident reports are public information (except for patient identifying information) and trigger an investigation of the physician by the Department of Health. Physicians should carefully read the definition of “adverse incident” prior to completing a report. The law requires that adverse incidents that occur in an office maintained by a physician for the practice of medicine which are not licensed under Chapter 395 must be reported to the Department of Health. The report must be filed within 15 days of the occurrence and must be sent by certified mail. Physicians can be disciplined for failing to comply with these requirements. Below are the components of what constitutes an adverse incident:1. It is an incident over which the physician could exercise control. If the physician could not exercise control over the incident it does not need to be reported. In addition, it must be: 2. an incident associated with a medical intervention, rather than the condition for which the intervention occurred. In addition to the first two requirements,3. the incident has to have resulted in one of the following :a. death of the patient; b. brain or spinal damage to the patient; c. the performance of a surgical procedure on the wrong patient; d. a procedure to remove unplanned foreign objects remaining from a surgical procedure;e. a condition that required transfer of the patient; or d. one of the following conditions if it resulted in death, brain or spinal damage, permanent disfigurement, fracture or dislocation of bones or joints or a limitation of neurological, physical or sensory function or transfer of the patient: i. the performance of a wrong-site surgical procedure ii. the performance of a wrong surgical procedure iii. the surgical repair of damage to a patient resulting from a planned surgical procedure where the damage is not a recognized specific risk as disclosed to thepatient.If 1, 2, and 3 are all met, then the incident should be reported to the DOH. Rule 64B8-9.001,Florida Administrative Code, sets forth the requirements for reporting the incident.This article is presented for educational purposes only and should not be taken as a substitute for legal advice, which should be obtained from personal legal counsel. Nevertheless, the FMA hopes that the information provided here and in its other publications continues to assist physicians in answering many of their most common legal questions allowing them to treat patients, instead ofaddressing legal concerns. Last Update: August 2016 ADVERTISING According to Rule 64B8-11.001, Florida Administrative Code, the Florida Board of Medicine ADVERTISINGAccording to Rule 64B8-11.001, Florida Administrative Code, the Florida Board of Medicineprohibits advertising which is false, deceptive or misleading. The Board of Medicine considers any advertisement which contains the following to be false, deceptive or misleading:1. A misrepresentation of fact or a partial disclosure of relevant facts; 2. False or unjustified expectations of beneficial assistance; 3. Any representation or claim which the physician does not expect to perform;4. Statement or implication that the physician has received formal recognition as a specialist in an aspect of medical practice, unless the recognition has been received, and the recognized agency is approved by the Board of Medicine; 5. Representation that services can and will be competently performed for a stated fee when this is not the case; 6. Representation of fees for professional services that do not disclose all variables affecting the fees that will be charged; 7. The impression the physician possesses qualifications, skills or other attributes that are superior to other physicians, other than a simple listing of earned professional postdoctoral or other professional achievements recognized by the Board of Medicine; 8. Failure to conspicuously identify the physician by name in the advertisement; 9. Any representation that contains only a partial disclosure of relevant facts;10. Includes reference to specialty certification without identifying the name of the specialty board that has awarded specialty certification. 11. Implies specialty or sub-specialty for which the physician has not received specialty recognition. Section 458.3312, Florida Statutes, provides that an allopathic physician “may not hold himself or herself out as a board-certified specialist unless the physician has received formal recognition as a specialist from a specialty board of the American Board of Medical Specialties or other recognizing agency approved by the Board. However, a physician may indicate the services offered and may state that his or her practice is limited to one or more types of services when this accurately reflects the scope of practice of the physician.” However, Rule 64B8-11.001, F.A.C. provides that a physician may advertise a specialty received from a recognizing agency not approved by the Board only if the letterhead or advertising contains the