State law worsens medical staff shortage

A new state law designed mainly to crack down on Medicaid fraud is having unexpected consequences by keeping some health care professionals from getting or keeping their licenses at a time when the state is suffering a shortage.

A little-noticed provision in the 160-page measure is preventing doctors, nurses, pharmacists, lab technicians and others licensed by the state from working in Florida if they have old felony convictions for fraud or drugs.

The law, which went into effect July 1, prohibits applicants who have had such convictions - even if unrelated to Medicaid or other government programs - from getting new or renewed licenses until at least 15 years after they have completed their sentences, including probation. The ban also applies to no-contest pleas and cases where judges have withheld findings of guilt.

As of Oct. 27, state regulators had denied 28 license applications because of the new law, and notified one doctor of their intent to deny renewal. Another 27 applicants withdrew their requests. State Department of Health records show most who were denied or withdrew their applications were certified nursing assistants; six were nurses; two were doctors; one was a psychologist.

About one third of the denials and withdrawals were for applicants from around the Tampa Bay area, including Sarasota and Polk County.

One twist that irked some in the medical community: The new law covers only those who have violated state or federal laws. Applicants convicted of the same crimes in other states can still be licensed in Florida.

"To favor people who commit their crimes out of state doesn't make any sense," said Anna Small, legislative counsel for the Florida Nurses Association.

Katina Campbell, who graduated from LPN school in June, withdrew her Florida application after the state notified her of the new law. The 37-year-old single mother of two, including a legally blind teenager, could not get licensed because she had been convicted of credit card fraud.

"I'm heading for Alabama," Campbell said. "I have to move out of my home I've been in for two years since I've been released from prison and uproot my kids."

After being turned away by Florida, Campbell received an Alabama license and has been driving back and forth looking for a job there.

After her release in 2007, she received clearance from the state Board of Nursing to enroll in the LPN program at Winter Haven's Ridge Career Center. Campbell said her parents and grandparents sacrificed to put her through school and she had a job lined up at a nursing home.

"Even when the governor says rehabilitate-rehabilitate, restore-restore, Florida still says, 'No, you're out,'" Campbell said.

"It's so antithetical to the whole concept of how we deal with people who have drug problems," said Allan Grossman, a lawyer who once worked for the state Board of Medicine and now represents license applicants. "That is just absurd - draconian and absurd."

Lucy Gee, the Health Department's director of medical quality assurance, said those being affected include young medical professionals who have successfully completed impaired practitioner programs.

Most states, like Florida, do not have enough nurses, Small said.

"I feel bad for Georgia; they have a nursing shortage, too," Small said. "But I don't want to fix their problem, I want to fix our problem."

Small's organization wants lawmakers to repeal the provision and go back to letting licensing boards make decisions on a case-by-case basis so they can take into account the severity of crimes and mitigating factors such as Campbell's volunteer work trying to help other former inmates turn their lives around.

The law's sponsor, Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, acknowledged the 15-year waiting period was arbitrarily chosen, and left the door open for "fine-tuning."