Florida good-faith exam for med spas

Good-faith examination in Florida

Florida has no statute literally titled “good-faith exam.” The requirement is built from prescribing-practice and standard-of-care law.

• Prescribing, dispensing, administering, mixing or otherwise preparing a legend drug, including any controlled substance, other than in the course of the physician’s professional practice is a ground for discipline. This is the hook Florida hangs the pre-treatment evaluation on: the requirement is not that an exam happened, it is that the prescribing sat inside a genuine course of practice — and the Board decides that after the fact.

  Fla. Stat. §458.331(1)(q) · verified Sep 1, 2026

• An advanced practice registered nurse must perform their authorized functions within the framework of an established protocol, which has to be maintained ON SITE at every location where they practice — unless registered under §464.0123 — and a physician licensed under chapter 458, 459 or 466 must maintain supervision for directing the specific course of medical treatment. Within that framework the nurse may prescribe, dispense, administer or order any drug, and may manage selected medical problems and initiate, monitor or alter therapies.

  Fla. Stat. §464.012(3) and (4)(a) · verified Sep 1, 2026

• The protocol is filed, not private. When a physician enters an established protocol with an advanced practice registered nurse contemplating the medical acts in §464.012(3) and (4), the physician must give the Board notice naming themselves and the number of nurses covered, within 30 days of entering it — and again within 30 days of terminating it.

  Fla. Stat. §458.348(1) · verified Sep 1, 2026

• ⚠️ Florida names no single person who must perform the pre-treatment examination for injectables. There is no statute or board rule titled “good faith exam”, and none that reserves the evaluation to the physician the way California’s Medical Board does. What Florida supplies instead is the combination above — the prescribing must sit inside the physician’s own course of professional practice, and a nurse or assistant may only act inside a filed protocol under a supervising physician. Anyone citing you a Florida rule that names the examiner is describing a document the statutes do not contain.

  Fla. Stat. ch. 458 and ch. 464 (surveyed); Fla. Admin. Code r. 64B8 (surveyed) · verified Sep 1, 2026

• A remote (telehealth) evaluation must meet the same standard of care as an in-person visit; a telehealth provider who conducts a patient evaluation sufficient to diagnose and treat is not separately required to perform a prior in-person exam.

  Fla. Stat. §456.47(2) · verified Jul 26, 2026