The Florida Legislature not too long ago the Florida Digital Well being Information Trade Act (the “Act”) to ban sure well being care suppliers using licensed digital well being report applied sciences from storing certified digital well being data outdoors of the US, its territories, or Canada. Considerably, the prohibition additionally extends to certified digital well being data which can be saved by a third-party or subcontracted computing facility or cloud service supplier.

In impact, qualifying well being care suppliers could not themselves retailer certified digital well being data offshore, nor can they depend on third-party distributors who function offshore. It’s also necessary to emphasise that the idea of storage extends to a celebration’s means to retrieve, entry, and even transmit certified digital well being data. This idea turns into a priority the place a 3rd occasion contractor outdoors of the US, its territories, or Canada, resembling an IT assist vendor, digital well being data platform, or information entry subcontractor, is ready to entry certified digital well being data which can be in any other case saved on servers inside the US.

For functions of this offshore prohibition, a “well being care supplier” consists of sure qualifying:

• Well being care practitioners licensed or permitted below Florida regulation, resembling physicians, doctor assistants, acupuncturists, chiropractors, podiatrists, naturopathic physicians, optometrists, nurses, pharmacists, dentists, speech pathologists, occupational therapists, nursing residence directors, dieticians, athletic trainers, therapeutic massage therapists, amongst others.
• Well being care services and associated service suppliers, resembling hospitals, ambulatory surgical facilities, nursing properties, assisted dwelling services, pharmacies, residence well being companies, nurse registries, companion providers or homemaker providers suppliers, grownup day care facilities, hospices, laboratories licensed to carry out testing below the Drug-Free Office Act, beginning facilities, abortion clinics, disaster stabilization models, short-term residential remedy services, residential remedy facilities for kids and adolescents, grownup family-care properties, transitional dwelling services, prescribed pediatric prolonged care facilities, residence medical gear suppliers, intermediate care services for individuals with growth disabilities, well being care providers swimming pools, well being care clinics, organ, tissues, and eye procurement organizations, persevering with care services, amongst others.
• Licensed services and suppliers furnishing psychological well being or substance abuse providers, together with their respective scientific and non-clinical workers who assist inpatient and outpatient providers.

The Act is slated to take impact on July 1, 2023. Qualifying well being care suppliers ought to assess the place digital affected person info is saved, together with whether or not third-party distributors (resembling IT assist, scheduling assist, and so on.) outdoors of the US or Canada have entry to the affected person info. The place there’s a battle, qualifying well being care suppliers may have to start transitioning affected person info to new storage areas or take steps to make sure that entry to affected person info is appropriately restricted previous to the Act’s efficient date.

In case you have any questions on this latest laws or its impression in your group, please contact a member of the .

FOOTNOTES

Fla. Stat. § 408.051(3). For functions of the Act, a “certified digital well being report” consists of “an digital report of health-related info regarding a person which incorporates affected person demographic and scientific well being info, resembling medical historical past and drawback lists, and which has the capability to offer scientific choice assist, to assist doctor order entry, to seize and question info related to well being care high quality, and to change digital well being info with, and combine such info from, different sources.” Fla. Stat. § 408.051(2).

Fla. Stat. § 408.051(3).

Fla. Stat. § 408.051(3).

Fla. Stat. § 408.051(3).

Fla. Stat. § 408.051(2).