Medical Director Issues
What is a Medical Director?
Any clinic that is AHCA licensed must appoint a Medical Director to ensure the medical practice is run like a doctor’s office. You must list the name of the Medical Director in the Application for a License and provide a signed copy of the Agreement between the Medical Director and the Clinic.
Florida Law: What Is Required Of A Medical Director- 400.9935(1)
The overall “job” of a medical director is to ensure that a Clinic is being run as a medical office versus a business that merely puts profits before patients. Specifically, Florida law requires the medical director to:
- (a) have signs identifying the medical director posted in a “conspicuous” place like the lobby of the Clinic;
- (b) make sure that all licensed people working in the Clinic have a current active Florida license;
- (c) review any patient referral contracts that were signed by the Clinic;
- (d) make sure that all licensed people working in the Clinic are working within the “scope” allowed by their license;
- (e) serve as the records owner;
- (f) ensure compliance with recordkeeping and adverse incident reporting requirements;
- (g) conduct systematic reviews of clinic billings to make sure that there is no fraud and take immediate corrective action if fraud is discovered;
- (h) not refer any patients to the clinic if they perform MRI, X-ray, CT, or PET scans;
- (i) ensure that the clinic publishes a schedule of charges for the medical services offered to patients.
These are the specific “job duties” of a Medical Director to ensure that someone is not “appointed in name only.”
Florida Law: Day to Day Supervision- FAC 59A-33.008
A licensed health care clinic may not operate or be maintained without the day-to-day supervision of a single medical or clinic director as defined in Section 400.9905(5).
General Advice Medical Directors
In these medical director cases, you will see that the insurance companies are taking depositions of medical directors that were not properly prepared for the deposition. The medical director gives poor testimony which can result in these types of lawsuits. Never let your medical director go to a deposition without being properly prepared by a lawyer who understands F.S. 400.9935 and knows the cases listed below. Your entire medical practice can be shut down depending on the testimony of your medical director.