Active Spine v. State Farm Fire and Cas., 3D04-3285.

• Decision Date: 28 September 2005
• Docket Number: No. 3D04-3285.,3D04-3285.
• Citation: 911 So.2d 241
• Parties: ACTIVE SPINE CENTERS, LLC, Appellant, v. STATE FARM FIRE AND CASUALTY CO., Appellee.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

Page 241

911 So.2d 241

ACTIVE SPINE CENTERS, LLC, Appellant, v. STATE FARM FIRE AND CASUALTY CO., Appellee.

No. 3D04-3285.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Third District.

September 28, 2005.

Ted H. Bartelstone, Miami, for appellant.

Wilke & Brooks; Bunnell, Woulfe, Kirschbaum, Keller, McIntyre & Gregoire, and Nancy W. Gregoire, Fort Lauderdale, for appellee.

Before RAMIREZ, and CORTIÑAS, JJ., and SCHWARTZ, Senior Judge.

RAMIREZ, J.

Active Spine Centers, LLC appeals an order granting summary judgment in favor of State Farm Fire & Casualty Company in this declaratory judgment action. Active Spine claims that it was entitled to compensation for chiropractic services provided to patients who were insured with State Farm. We affirm because the trial court properly found that it was without authority to rewrite section 456.0375, Florida Statutes (2001), in order to carve out an exception not created by the Legislature or the Florida Department of Health.

Active Spine Centers, LLC, a chiropractic clinic in Miami-Dade County, Florida, has been providing medical services to individuals who have been injured in motor vehicle accidents and who are entitled to Personal Injury Protection benefits under automobile insurance policies. In 2001, the Florida Legislature enacted a registration statute, section 456.0375, Florida Statutes, which required that certain health care clinics, including chiropractic clinics, register with the Florida Department of Health.¹ Evidently, intending to allow clinics time to comply with new registration duty, the legislature required "[t]he clinic to file the registration form with the department within 60 days after the effective date of this section or prior to the inception of operation." § 456.0375(2)(b)1, Fla. Stat. (2003). The statute further provided certain exceptions to the registration requirement, including the following:

For purposes of this section, the term "clinic" does not include and the registration requirements herein do not apply to:

(6) Sole proprietorships, group practices, partnerships, or corporations that provide health care services by licensed health care practitioners pursuant to chapte[r] . . . 460 [Chiropractic Medicine] . . . which are wholly owned by licensed health care practitioners . . ., so long as one of the owners who is a licensed health care practitioner is supervising the services performed therein and is legally responsible for the entity's compliance with all federal and state laws. . . .

§ 456.0375(1)(b)6, Fla. Stat. (2003).

The statute also provides that:

All charges or reimbursement claims made by or on behalf of a clinic that is required to be registered under this section, but that is not so registered, are unlawful charges and therefore are noncompensable and unenforceable.

§ 456.0375(4)(a), Fla. Stat. (2003).

Initially, the clinic was not required to register with the department because Dr. Michael K. Scholz, the owner/supervisor of the clinic, was already a licensed chiropractor; thus, the registration exception carved out by subsection (1)(b)6 applied. However, on January 9, 2003, Dr. Scholz died in an automobile accident.

Promptly after Dr. Scholz's death, the clinic engaged the services of Dr. Raymond Ruszkowski, a licensed chiropractor, to provide medical services to the clinics' existing patients. The clinic then admittedly operated without registering with the department for almost two months. On March 8, 2003, the clinic submitted an application for registration with the department, which was issued on March 11, 2003. However, during the time that it was not registered, from January 9, 2003 through March 11, 2003, the clinic provided medical service to twenty six patients who claimed entitlement to PIP benefits under automobile insurance policies issued by State Farm. State Farm denied the claims because the clinic was not registered with the department.

The clinic filed the underlying declaratory judgment action seeking a determination that, under section 456.0375, the clinic was entitled to receive compensation for the chiropractic services it provided to the twenty six State Farm insureds between January 9, 2003 (the date of Dr. Scholz' death) and March 11, 2003 (the date the clinic's registration was issued). Both sides moved for summary judgment.

The clinic argued that "the sixty (60) day grace period prescribed by § 456.0375(1)(b)1, Florida Statutes, for the registration of existing clinics should be applied to the registration of an existing, exempt clinic whose practitioner/owner, such as Dr. Michael Kenneth Scholz, is killed." State Farm argued that any treatment allegedly rendered by the clinic during the relevant time period "was illegal because of [the clinic's] failure to satisfy the Licensing Statute" and that "the clear language of the Registration statute and the legislative intent behind the Statute provide no support for [the clinic's] position." After a hearing on the parties' motions, the trial court entered summary judgment in State Farm's favor, reasoning that the clinic violated the registration statute, and that as a result of the violation, the services the clinic provided during the period of the violation were not lawfully rendered. Because the services were not lawfully rendered, State Farm was not obligated to pay the clinic for the services under State Farm policies or Florida's PIP statute (section 627.736(5)(a), Fla. Stat. (2005), requires State Farm to pay only for "lawfully" rendered treatment).

The issue now before this Court is one of statutory construction. It is a pure question of law, requiring a de novo review. See State v. Joubert, 847 So.2d 1023, 1025 (Fla. 3d DCA 2003). Whether it was error to enter summary judgment in State Farm's favor is also reviewed de novo. See Volusia Cty. v. Aberdeen at Ormond Beach, L.P., 760 So.2d 126, 130 (Fla.2000).

The clinic contends that section 456.0375(1)(b)1 — the grace period provision — should be interpreted as giving the clinic sixty days from Dr. Scholz' death to register with the department. It argues that until Dr. Scholz died on January 9, 2003, the clinic was not a "clinic" within the meaning of the registration statute. Thus, the statute did not become effective with regard to the clinic until January 9, 2003. The clinic contends that any other result would bestow a windfall to State Farm.

The clear language of the statute provides a sixty-day window to register only when the requirement to register was first enacted. Prior to that time there was no registration requirement. The statute then required all non-exempt clinics to register "within sixty days after the effective date of this section or prior to the inception of operation." § 456.0375(2)(b)1, Fla. Stat. (emphasis supplied). When the clinic filed its application on March 11, 2003, it obviously did not register within 60 days after the effective date of the statute, which had been in effect since 2001....