Florida Medical Board agrees to revamp decades-old rule on weight-loss drugs

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Acknowledging that the regulation is inconsistent with Florida regulation and is out-of-step with present observe requirements, members of the Florida Board of Medicine agreed to revamp a rule for medication-assisted weight reduction that has been in impact for greater than 20 years.

“The entire space of observe has modified considerably since this rule has gone into impact, and the Board of Medicine actually has not modified the foundations in any respect since then,” Board of Medicine common counsel Ed Tellechea mentioned throughout a gathering Friday.

The rule lays out requirements of observe for the prescription of obesity-treatment medicine. At situation is a provision that requires physicians to have in-person consultations with sufferers earlier than prescribing the medicines.

Tellechea acknowledged the availability was inconsistent with the state’s telehealth regulation, which doesn’t require in-person consultations.

Eight New York-based physicians who’re registered to observe telemedicine in Florida and the Pennsylvania-based weight reduction observe Calibrate Health Medical P.C. submitted a request to the board May 3 asking it to waive the rule or to situation a variance in order that any Florida-licensed telehealth supplier or Florida doctor can use Calibrate’s telehealth platform and be compliant.

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Meanwhile, because the board begins drafting a brand new rule, Tellechea really useful that the variance be granted, noting that “if push involves shove, this rule will be challenged.”

But Tellechea mentioned the board can’t present a blanket waiver for all Florida physicians utilizing Calibrates’s telehealth platform and that the variance can solely apply to the eight physicians who requested it.

Additionally, Tellechea mentioned the board can’t grant a variance to Calibrate as a result of the board has no regulatory authority over the corporate. 

The Board of Medicine’s weight-loss rule has been in impact since Feb. 17, 1998, and hasn’t been up to date.