How Can I Get My Suspended or Revoked Florida Medical License Reinstated?

Your career as a Florida health care provider is dependent on being licensed to practice. Losing your license means being unable to serve the patients you swore to protect. But if your medical, nursing, dentist’s, chiropractor’s, pharmacy, or other healthcare license is suspended, that doesn’t mean you can’t get it reinstated.

There are a variety of reasons why your medical, nursing, dentist’s, chiropractor’s, pharmacist’s, or other healthcare license may have been revoked or suspended. But suspension and revocation mean two different things.

In the state of Florida, licensure suspension is a temporary penalty, while licensure revocation is permanent. For this reason, licensure revocation, while not uncommon, is generally reserved for violations that the law considers bars to licensure or that the boards (i.e., Board of Medicine, Board of Nursing, Board of Pharmacy) find irredeemable.

For instance, physicians may face licensure revocation if they have been excluded from participation in federal or state programs such as Medicare or Medicaid; these are considered bars to licensure under Florida statutes. As another example, a nurse may face revocation if she received a criminal conviction for public assistance fraud, as this is also considered a bar to licensure under Florida statutes.

Alternatively, certain violations that would otherwise not be considered a bar to licensure can be so severe to warrant revocation; this includes sexual misconduct.

On the other hand, suspension is not a permanent penalty as it’s usually limited by scope. The boards will impose a period of suspension, most often followed by a period of probation.

Yet, suspension is also considered a relatively severe penalty, most often seen in cases where the conduct of the licensee was gross negligence, or intentional or knowing. For example, a licensee may be suspended if they have committed medical malpractice that resulted in physical harm to a patient.

Suspension may also be conditional and are not limited in time. For instance, the board may suspend the licensee’s license on the condition that until they are found safe to practice by an impaired practitioner program (the two programs in Florida are the Intervention Project for Nurses, or IPN, and the Professionals Resource Network, or PRN). In these cases, the license will be suspended until the licensee is evaluated and cleared to be safe to practice.

With an attorney on your side, you can pursue reinstatement for a suspended license. Here’s what you need to know about the procedure and what you can expect.

To have audience with the board in question, licensees must petition the board. This requires written submission of a petition requesting the relief sought. Once the petition is submitted and received by the board, it will be placed on the next board agenda for hearing.

The boards generally meet every other month, usually the even months. That means if you file a petition with the Board of Nursing in July, the case is probably going to be placed on the agenda for the October meeting, not the August meeting.

The board should provide notice to the licensee and a letter sent via email or regular USPS mail providing the date time and location of the hearing. It is important for licensees to know that the time listed is not specific to their case — rather, that is the date and time when all petitions are heard. Licensees do not have the right to ask that the board hear their case outside of their normal board meeting schedule.

The board generally follows the schedule listed on the agenda. Therefore, while you may be required to appear at 8 a.m. on a particular date, you may not be heard until several hours later. Once your name is called, you will have the opportunity to announce yourself. If you do not announce yourself or miss the time when your name is called, the board may move forward with your case without you present. It is imperative that you be present at the time and date listed regardless of your place on the agenda.