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FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions
About The Consumer Health Freedom Act
Click on a question to go to the answer or scroll down to see all the answers.
Q: What are gentle, natural health therapies?
A: These therapies, sometimes called “complementary and alternative therapies,” are practices not taught at U.S. medical schools or generally made available in U.S. hospitals. These therapies include homeopathy, herbal therapies, exercise/movement, vitamins, relaxation methods, lifestyle diet, guided imagery (such as imagining a relaxing scene to reduce stress), energy practices, biofeedback, and folk remedies (remember your grandmother’s chicken soup for a cold?). Health-related practices that pose an imminent risk of significant harm are regulated and licensed by the state; only licensed health practitioners may provide them to you.
Q: Why is the Consumer Health Freedom Act needed?
A: It will protect your right to choose the gentle, natural health therapies and practitioners that you decide are right for you. It also provides important protections for Floridians.
Florida's existing laws are in conflict about which health care practices are regulated - that is, may only be provided by licensed practitioners - and which practices are not regulated - that is, may be provided by either licensed or by unlicensed persons.
Here is the Problem: In the opinion of Florida’s Department of Health (DOH) because licensed practitioners may provide gentle, natural health therapies to their patients, others cannot. It doesn’t matter that you have chosen another kind of practitioner! It doesn’t matter that these therapies do not place you at risk of significant harm.
In FHFA’s opinion, the DOH’s opinion reflects misguided health care policy. Florida’s laws are intended to protect you from serious harm, not to give one group a monopoly in gentle, natural health therapies and to shut out others.
Most importantly, this position ignores your Constitutional right to choose low and no-risk health therapies and practitioners without unnecessary state interference. The state has no right to prevent you from deciding for yourself which gentle therapies and practitioners suit your needs.
The Consumer Health Freedom Act is needed to protect you from unnecessary governmental intrusion into your private decisions about Natural Health Therapies. The Act will make it clear that state law protects - rather than violates - your Constitutional right to choose the gentle, natural health therapies and practitioners of your choice.
The Act will also protect you by empowering you to make informed choices of gentle, natural health therapies and practitioners.
The Act will require that practitioners of gentle, natural health therapies inform you about their training and experience, describe their therapies and make it clear to you that they are not licensed by the state.
Q: Licensed health care providers in Florida can now provide natural health therapies in conjunction with conventional health care treatments. Why isn’t that enough?
A: Licensed providers are not always trained in gentle, natural health therapies; most are not intimately familiar with the range of these modalities; and some do not recognize or approve of these therapies.
Individuals trained in gentle, natural health therapies are an important source of health care to members of the public. 69% of Americans use these therapies, most often for minor ailments or serious conditions for which conventional medicine can offer little in the way of therapeutic help. These problems include chronic pain, anxiety, chronic fatigue syndrome, sprains and muscle strains, addictive problems, arthritis, and headaches. Over 95% of consumers who now use natural health therapies do so in conjunction with conventional care, and not in place of care by licensed health care providers.
While some physicians recognize and approve of gentle, natural health therapies, 60% of surveyed physicians referred their patients to practitioners of these therapies rather than performing them themselves.
The Act will improve public safety in three ways. First, it will prohibit practitioners of natural health therapies from causing or creating an imminent risk of significant harm to their clients, and will explicitly forbid certain medical activities.
Second, the Act will require practitioners to disclose their training and experience, and explain the therapy they’re offering.
Third, by allowing practitioners of low and no-risk natural health therapies to work openly, and by giving you written information about your practitioner and his/her therapy, the Act will encourage you to discuss with your doctor all the health therapies that you’re using.. It will also encourage all professionals working to support your health to collaborate about how they might best serve you, with your permission.
Ideally, everyone should be monitored by a licensed health care provider, and in all circumstances a consumer should consult his or her licensed health care provider about any serious medical concerns.
Q: What if I have a problem with a natural health therapies practitioner?
A: First of all, you should talk to your practitioner and try to work out any problem with him or her. If that proves to be unsatisfactory, contact your practitioner’s certifying organization or association. As a last resort, the Consumer Health Freedom Act does not stop you from seeking civil relief against a practitioner or, depending on the nature of your problem, asking the Florida Department of Health to intervene.
As always, responsibility ultimately rests with you, as a client or patient, for wisely choosing a practitioner who has the experience and skills that fits your needs. Talk to friends for referrals, and ask for references. Check to see if your practitioner has been certified by or is a member of a reputable professional society. Ask questions of your practitioner. Tell your doctor about the natural health therapies that you’re using.
Q. What can happen if a natural health therapies practitioner practices in a prohibited area, creates an imminent risk of significant harm to a client, or doesn’t give a client the written information required by the Act?
A: A practitioner who practices in a prohibited area (such as making recommendations about prescription drugs), or who creates an imminent risk of significant harm, is denied the protections of the Act and may be treated as they can today. That is, the offending practitioner may be criminally prosecuted, fined, ordered by a court to stop the forbidden practices, and required to reimburse the Department of Health for the costs of legal proceedings against them.
Any practitioner who fails to provide written information about himself/herself or his/her therapy methodology, or fails to give clients notice that he/she is not licensed by the state, may be fined civilly, ordered by a court to do these required things, and reimburse the Department of Health for the costs of legal proceedings needed to force compliance with the law.
Q: My homeopath, energy worker or other natural health therapies practitioner has formal training and is certified in his/her healing art. Doesn’t that mean s/he may legally practice?
A: Practitioners who have formal training and are certified have met certain requirements that demonstrate proficiency in their health care modality. However, certification exams are administered by professional's organizations themselves, and not by the state. For example, a homeopathy organization certifies homeopathy practitioners. Whether or not the State of Florida licenses a profession is a completely separate issue.
Having a “license” means that a practitioner can legally practice in Florida within the scope of his or her license. This may include the use of gentle, natural health therapies but rarely does. Some practitioners of these therapies, such as acupuncturists, chiropractors, and massage therapists are licensed by the state. However, many practitioners are not licensed even though they may be well-trained, experienced and certified in their healing art.
Under the Consumer Health Freedom Act, practitioners who are not licensed by the state will be allowed to practice their healing arts so long as their practices do not create an imminent risk of significant harm to their clients. Of equal importance, they will be required to inform clients about their training and experience, and to affirmatively state that they are not a licensed health care practitioner.
Florida Health Freedom Action
P.O. Box 430871, South Miami, FL 33243-0871
Phone: 305 668 2800
Contact us: info@floridahealthfreedom.org