Florida/Georgia Personal Injury & Workers Compensation

...or the prevention of such disability, injury, disease, or other condition of health, and rehabilitation ... by the use of radiant energy, includ *560 ing ultraviolet, visible, and infrared rays; ultrasound; water; the use of apparatus and equipment in the application of the foregoing or related thereto. Section 486.161 requires the physical therapists to be licensed, unless the physical therapists are exempt pursuant to section 486.161(1) which provides as follows: No provision of this chapter shall be construed to prohibit any person licensed in this state from using any physical agent as a part of, or incidental to, the lawful practice of her or his profession und...

...r or medicine, massage therapist, nurse, osteopathic physician or surgeon, occupational therapist, or naturopath. (Emphasis added). The physical therapy the medical assistants performed in this case fell within the scope of the exemption outlined in section 486.161(1) as physical therapy “incidental to” the practice....

...The physical therapy modalities performed also fell within the common practice of chiropractic medicine, osteopathic medicine, podiatric medicine, allo-pathic medicine, and massage therapists. Furthermore, whether or not these medical assistants were licensed is of no consequence under section 486.161(1)....

...Defendants recognize that the practice of physical therapy generally requires licensure under the Physical Therapy Act. See Fla. Stat. §§ 486.011 - 486.172. However, Defendants point to the exemptions to the physical therapy licensing requirement found in Fla. Stat. § 486.161 as the basis for allowing a massage therapist to perform physical therapy without a license and without *1300 supervision. Fla. Stat. § 486.161 (1) provides: No provision of this chapter shall be construed to prohibit any person licensed in this state from using any physical agent as a part of, or incidental to, the lawful practice of her or his profession under the statutes applicable to the profession of chiropractic physician, podiatric physician, doctor of medicine, massage therapist, nurse, osteopathic physician or surgeon, occupational therapist, or naturopath. Fla. Stat. § 486.161 (1)....

...practice of the respective supervising physician, the Third District found such physical therapy performed by these medical assistants exempt from the Physical Therapy Act as incidental to the supervising physician's practice pursuant to Fla. Stat. § 486.161 (1)....

...assistants, and the Physical Therapy Act's exemptions make certain not to restrict the physician's ability to practice medicine under the physician's medical license. See id. Therefore, the Third District's decision simply recognizes that Fla. Stat. § 486.161 (1) allows professionals licensed in enumerated areas to continue to perform medical services already covered under their professional license, notwithstanding the fact that the use of physical agents as part of those medical services also constitutes the "practice of physical therapy" under the Physical Therapy Act. Contrary to Defendants' position, Fla. Stat. § 486.161 (1) is not an unfettered right for these enumerated professionals to practice physical therapy outside of their professional license; it is an exemption to allow these professionals the full use of their professional license, despite the f...

...nt for these medical services. Defendants also cite five pending state actions involving the same parties wherein a Florida county court determined that massage therapists can lawfully render physical therapy without a license pursuant to Fla. Stat. § 486.161 (1), and further determined that Fla....