The Agency for Health Care Administration has issued a Final Order Partially Granting and Partially Denying JSA’s Petition for Variance from Rule 59A-33.013. The Order concerned the Petition for Waiver or Variance, filed on September 28, 2007, by ...

 

AGENCY FOR HEALTH CARE ADMINISTRATION
Health Facility and Agency Licensing

RULE NO: RULE TITLE
59A-33.013: Medical and Clinic Directorships Maximum Number of Clinics

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN THAT on December 13, 2007, the Agency for Health Care Administration has issued an order.

The Agency for Health Care Administration has issued a Final Order Partially Granting and Partially Denying JSA’s Petition for Variance from Rule 59A-33.013, F.A.C.

The Order concerned the Petition for Waiver or Variance, filed on September 28, 2007, by JSA Healthcare Corporation. The Notice of Petition for Waiver or Variance was published on pp. 4820 of Vol. 33, No. 41, of the October 12, 2007, F.A.W. Petitioner sought a permanent variance from Rule 59A-33.013, F.A.C., entitled “Medical and Clinic Directorships Maximum Number of Clinics,” which states that a medical or clinic director may serve in that capacity for no more than 5 licensed health care clinics. The petition sought a permanent waiver and permission to have one medical director serve in that capacity for a maximum of 15 licensed health care clinics operated by the petitioner. The Agency received favorable comments concerning the granting of the petition from the Florida Chapter of the American College of Physicians (FACP) and Florida Academy of Family Physicians (FAFP) through their attorney.

The Agency considered the Petition, the public comments and the petitioner’s answers to the Agency’s omission and clarification questions without hearing and granted the petitioner a renewable 3 year partial variance of the 5 clinic rule limitation to 7 clinics per medical director for each medical director engaged by the petitioner. The variance was further conditioned upon specific reasons put forth in the petition for the granting of the variance. The petition established that compliance with Rule 59A-33.013, F.A.C., would be a substantial hardship on the petitioner in its particular circumstances. The petitioner did not claim that compliance with the rule would violate the principles of fairness.

A copy of the Order may be obtained by contacting: Bell, Unit Manager, Agency for Health Care Administration, 2727 Mahan Drive, Mail Stop #53, Tallahassee, Florida 32308.