Florida's New Immigration Law and How it Affects Physicians
On May 10, 2023, Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law Senate Bill 1718 relating to immigration. It takes effect on July 1, 2023, and there are provisions in the new law that will affect some Florida physicians.
Beginning July 1, 2023, the new law requires a private employer with 25 or more employees to use the E-Verify system to verify the employment eligibility of new employees. If the E-Verify system is unavailable for the three business days after the first day a new employee begins working and the employer cannot access the system, the employer must use the Employment Eligibility Verification Form (Form I-9) to verify employment eligibility. The employer must document the unavailability of the E-Verify system and must keep documentation of any official employee verification for at least three years.
The law also provides that an employer who obtains knowledge that an employee is or has become an unauthorized alien may not to continue to employ that person.
The law allows the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Attorney General, a state attorney, the statewide prosecutor or the Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO)/Florida Commerce to request the documentation from a private employer that was used to verify an individual’s employment eligibility.
Beginning July 1, 2024, if the DEO/Florida Commerce determines that an employer failed to use the E-Verify system to verify the employment eligibility of employees, the DEO/Florida Commerce must notify the employer of the noncompliance and provide the employer 30 days to cure the noncompliance. If an employer failed to use the E-Verify system as required three times within any 24-month period, the DEO/Florida Commerce may impose a fine of $1,000 per day until the employer provides sufficient proof that noncompliance is resolved.
Importantly for physicians, noncompliance constitutes grounds for suspension of all licenses issued by a licensing agency, including the Florida Department of Health, until noncompliance is resolved.
The law also requires any hospital that accepts Medicaid to include a question on its admission or registration forms, that may be answered by the patient, inquiring about whether the patient is a United States citizen, is lawfully present in the United States, or is not lawfully present in the United States. The question must be followed by a statement indicating that the response to the question will not affect patient care or result in a report of the patient’s immigration status to immigration authorities.
The law requires each hospital to provide a quarterly report to the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA), detailing the number of hospital admissions or emergency department visits by patients who responded to the above question in each category. AHCA must then provide an annual report to the Governor and Legislature compiling the data received from the hospitals. The report must also describe the costs of uncompensated care provided to patients not lawfully in the country, the impact of uncompensated care on the cost or ability of hospitals to provide services to the public and on hospital funding needs, and other related information.
FOMA recommends that physician employers consult with legal counsel to ensure compliance with the provisions of Senate Bill 1718, as well as other federal and state law governing employee eligibility.