Florida chiropractors recently celebrated not one, but two legislative victories. The first qualifies that dry needling is clearly within the chiropractic scope of practice for Florida DCs; the second corrects an antiquated state statute that required applicants for Florida licensure to possess a bachelor’s degree from a U.S. college / university. Both provisions were included in House Bill 1063, introduced in the Florida legislature in December 2023.
Instrumental in the passage of H.B. 1063, which was signed into law by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in late June 2024 and took effect with his signature: the Florida Chiropractic Association, with support from the Florida Chiropractic Physicians’ Association (FCPA), Palmer College of Chiropractic – Florida, National University of Health Sciences (which offers a chiropractic degree program in Florida at St. Petersburg College), and key sponsors from both state legislative parties.
The collaborative effort resulted in near-unanimous passage in the Florida House and Senate: 114-1 in the full House and 40-0 in the Senate. H.B. 1063 modifies the term chiropractic medicine as follows: “Authorizes chiropractic physicians to use dry needling treatments for specified purposes; requires certain training & certification; requires Board of Chiropractic Medicine to certify certain applicants who provide specified credentials evaluation report.”
“It’s a giant win for the profession and we applaud Governor DeSantis for bringing our seven-month exhaustive effort to a successful landing by signing House Bill 1063 to support today’s and tomorrow’s DC’s, and their many patients across our state,” said Dr. David Zamikoff, FCA president, in an association press release touting the legislative victories.
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