IMPORTANT NOTICE: The State of Florida, Department of Health, will audit Physical Therapists and Physical Therapist Assistants for CE course completion using the "CE Broker" system at the end of the current biennium, after November 30, 2011.

Questions on Continuing Education Requirements

Q: How many contact hours of continuing education are needed for this licensing period?

A: A minimum of twenty-four (24) hours of approved continuing education which includes 2 hours in Prevention of Medical Errors must be obtained by physical therapists and physical therapist assistants during the current biennium.

Q: How many hours of HIV/AIDS are required by the Board?

A: Effective July 1, 2006, the Legislature changed the HIV/AIDS requirements for most health care licensees. A minimum of one hour per biennium used to be required for all licensees. New applicants were also required to take a HIV/AIDS course. Starting July 1, 2006, a 1-hour course is required by new licensees "prior to first license renewal." Other licensees are not required to take the course each biennium, but can still take the HIV/AIDS course as an elective course.

Q: What is the requirement concerning a course in "Medical Errors?"

A: The Florida Legislature requires that all health care licensees of the Florida Department of Health take a 2 hour course in the prevention of medical errors every biennium. The course must also be taken prior to initial licensure. Our courses have been approved by the Board of Occupational Therapy, and the Florida Physical Therapy Association.

Q: Are Domestic Violence and Laws and Rules courses mandatory?

A: No, these are elective courses that are accepted by the Florida Board of Physical Therapy for continuing education credit. Like all of our courses they have been reviewed and accredited by the Florida Physical Therapy Association.

Q: How many hours of continuing education may be taken by home study?

A: All PTs and PTAs may take no more than 12 hours of home study per biennium. All of our courses are classified as home study.

Q: When will I receive my renewal notice from the State?

A: The notices are mailed approximately 90-120 days before November 30, 2011. They are mailed to the last address of record with the Florida Board of Physical Therapy Practice. The Board maintains a "Licensee Lookup" page on its website that includes your name, address of record, license number, and status of your license. This is a public record. You can change your address by writing, or e-mailing the Florida Board of Physical Therapy Practice. Here is a link to the Physical Therapy Board Website.

Q: What courses must APPLICANTS for Initial Licensure take?

A: Applicants must take a 2 hour course in Prevention of Medical Errors. Applicants for initial licensure may wish to take our Laws and Rules course as a review to help prepare to take the Florida Laws and Rules exam that all applicants must take. However, if you take this course before you are licensed you do not receive CE credit for it.

Q: What are the CE requirements for persons NEWLY LICENSED during the current biennium?

A: Persons certified for licensure in the second half of the biennium are exempt form all continuing education, except that they must take a 2 hour course in Prevention of Medical Errors and the 1-hour HIV/AIDS course. Persons certified for licensure in the first half of the biennium must take all of the required CE including the Medical Errors courses and the 1-hour HIV/AIDS course.

Q: If I take more than the required number of CE hours during one biennium, do the extra hours carry over the next biennium?

A: No, the courses are "cancelled out" at the end of the biennium, and you must start over during the new biennium. Make sure you keep your certificates of course completion for at least 4 years (this is a Board rule) and it is easy to prove when you took the courses.

Questions on Signing Up for Courses

Q: How do I order courses?

A: To order courses, go to the Order Page and create a Member Profile for yourself. On the Order Page, there are three sections - Course Selection, Current Members, and New Member Profile. After checking the course(s) you want to order, go to the New Member Profile section and enter the necessary information. The following fields are required: first name, last name, email address, profession, license number, email, login name and password. Remember your login name and password, you'll need these later to login to the member section to gain access to the courses, tests and course completion certificates. To correctly enter your Florida license number, do not use the two or three letter prefix for your profession or the zeroes that appear before your license number. If you are not licensed in Florida, put in "applicant" or "student." Do not put in your license number from another state. Once you have submitted your information, the next screen allows you to verify the information. If there is an error, use your browser's back button and correct the information on the form. However, if the information is correct, press the "Submit Info" button and you'll be sent to a secure site to enter your credit card information.

Q: How does the secure site work, and what sort of security is being used for my credit card information?

A: The secure pages where you enter your credit card information are being hosted by VeriSign, one of the leading security companies on the net. VeriSign has added a Secure Socket Layer (or SSL) to protect these pages. An SSL is an industry standard protocol for encrypting data to prevent eavesdropping or message forging. Note: Once you submit your credit card information, the approval is almost instantaneous. Do NOT push the button more than once or you may reorder and be charged again. Once the transaction has been successfully completed you will see the transaction approval page. You may then return to our website by pushing the Login button at the bottom of that page and your Account will open. You will also receive an e-mail Receipt of the transaction. Please print out this Receipt for your records. If you do not want to log in at this time you may return to the CEHCPRO website later and go to Member Login to log in and access your courses.

Q: What do I do after I've paid? / How do I get to my courses?

A: Once the system has verified your credit card, you can go immediately to the Member Login page by using the button at the bottom of the transaction approval page. Enter the login name and password exactly as you entered them during the initial course purchase. You will then be sent to your personal Account. On this page there will be a list of courses and below that a listing of the contact information provided at sign up. For each course in the list there will be two links. The top link for each course, "Review Course Materials", will take you to the course. The second link, "Take the Test", will direct you to the test.

Q: How do I change my profile's contact information?

A: To change your contact information, log into your Account from the Member Login page. Use the button on the bottom of your Account page that reads "Update Contact Info." Once you have changed your contact info you will need to enter your password in order to confirm the changes.

Q: How do I go back and add more courses later?

A: To add additional courses at a later time go to the order page and check the course you want to add. Then enter your login name and password in the Current Member section. You will be presented with a screen to verify the order information (classes ordered, cost, name, and license number). If there is an error, use your browser's back button and enter your login information again. However, if the information is correct press the "Submit Info" button and you will be sent to the secure site to enter your credit card information. Contact us by e-mail at support@CEHCPRO.com if you have any problems.

Questions on Course Procedures

Q: How long do I have to take the courses?

A: You can take as long as you need to take the course. You can open the course, read it, close it and come back to it later. You can print it out and read it. CEHCPRO does not impose any time limit on how long you have to take a course, however you should be mindful of the deadline for renewal imposed by your licensing Board or Council.

Q: What are the testing procedures? / How many times can I take the test?

A: Tests must be taken online. All tests in the CEHCPRO system are in a "true / false" format with any blank answers counting as wrong. A score of 70% or more is considered passing and you can take the test as many times as necessary to achieve a passing grade. Once you have passed the test you will be able to open a new window which contains your certificate of completion.

Q: How do I make a copy of the certificate of completion for my own records?

A: When you log in to the member's section, your Account page will have a list of all of the courses that you ordered. Each course will have two links associated with it, and for each completed course and test passage, the second link will read "Certificate of Completion." This link allows you to view your certificate in a new window and use the Print button in your browser to print a copy of the certificate for your records. If you need a copy of the Certificate in the future, just enter your Account and print out another copy. If you need to review when and what courses you took, you can go to your Account anytime in the future.

Q: Who do I contact if I have additional questions or concerns?

A: You may contact the support personnel for CEHCPRO. The necessary contact information can be found on the Contact Us page. Our office telephone staff does not have access to your login name and password, so e-mail us and we will e-mail you back as soon as possible.

Information on CE Broker

Q: What is CE Broker?

A: "CE Broker" is a company that tracks the continuing education courses taken by all health care practitioners licensed by the Florida Department of Health. Several years ago, the Florida Legislature received evidence that many health care licensees were not taking the required CE courses and in 2001 passed a law that required the Department to set up an "electronic CE tracking system." However the Legislature did not provide any funding for the tracking program. The Department then contracted with a company, CE Broker, which agreed to do the tracking without charging the Department. Under the contract, CE Broker makes money by charging licensees $35 to subscribe to its services for two years. The CE Course Providers must register their courses with CE Broker, and submit the names, license number and other information about the licensees who take CE courses from the Provider. CE Broker then creates a "transcript" for each licensee showing their name, profession, license number, name of course taken and number of hours for each course. For more information visit the CE Broker website: www.cebroker.com

Q: Do health care licensees have to subscribe to CE Broker in order to have their license renewed?

A: No, subscription is not mandatory and is completely voluntary, although Department letters to licensees earlier seemed to imply otherwise, and seemed to tie license renewal with membership in CE Broker. But for now, the Department will check for compliance after a person renews their license. A licensee can and should keep their own records of the CE courses they have taken; in fact, most Board rules require the licensee to keep their CE records for 4 years. CE Course Providers also must keep their attendance and course taker records for 4 years. CE Providers must report their attendance records to CE Broker. If this is done, CE Broker will have a complete transcript for ALL licensees. The Department will then electronically obtain those records from CE Broker, and will be able, after license renewal, to very quickly and simply conduct audits to determine which licensees have failed to take the required CE.

Q: Can I find out my CE records from CE Broker without being a subscriber?

A: No, not unless you subscribe; however, any records of CE Broker are "public records" under the state of Florida public records law, Chapter 119, Florida Statutes. The Department of Health has stated that they will provide a "list of courses taken" under the public records law, at the normal public records charge of $0.15 a page. To obtain a list of the courses that CE Broker has listed for you (without joining CE Broker), you can send a letter to the following address:

Division of Medical Quality Assurance
Management Services, Bin C01
Attention: Public Records-CE History
4052 Bald Cypress Way
Tallahassee, FL 32399-3251

Here is a sample letter:

Under the Florida Public Records law, please send me a copy of the completed CE courses that CE Broker has listed for me. My name, profession and license number are: (Put that information in here). My mailing address is (Put that information here) and sign your name.

For further information, here is a link to the Florida Department of Health, Division of Medical Quality Assurance FAQs on "CE Tracking System (CE Broker)" : Florida Medical Quality Assurance - CE Broker FAQ

Q: What should I do with my CE records?

A: Our advice is to keep all your CE attendance records and certificates in one place and treat them like gold. In May 2005 the Department of Health announced that it will audit 100% of the licensed health care professionals over the next two years. This means that all licensees will be audited. In the past only approximately 5-10% of licensees were audited. Any licensees who have not complied with the CE requirements will be disciplined by their respective licensing Boards or Councils. Each profession is on a different two year renewal cycle, and as each profession finishes renewing their licenses the Department will "electronically" check with CE Broker to determine the compliance of each health care licensee for that profession. Thus, if CE Broker's records are not correct, you will be sent a notice that you must prove that you took all the CE courses or you will be disciplined. You will need your records to prove that you took all the courses to avoid a discipline action.

Q: Is CE for Health Care Professionals complying with the new rules?

A: Yes, once you pass the test, we immediately send that information to CE Broker electronically (from our computer to their computer). CE Broker uses your state of Florida License number to keep the records. If you do not use your correct license number, the system kicks back your information OR it credits someone else if you use their number.

Q: Is there any thing else I should do to keep my license?

A: Yes, update your address changes to your licensing board. Approximately 20% of the licensees do not update their addresses with their Board. Renewal notices and discipline notices are mailed to the address listed with the Board. If a discipline notice comes back to the Board because of improper address, the Board will also add another discipline charge of failure to keep your current address with the Board. This is a Citation and a Fine of $250. In May 2005, an occupational therapist was disciplined by the Board for failure to take the required CE courses and failure to keep her address current. The Board suspended her license until she had taken the CE courses, waived the fine of $1,000, but charged her the Board's costs of investigating the charges in an amount of $1,200. Since she was also attempting to get licensing in the state of California, California would not issue her a license until she had entirely resolved the Florida discipline case.

Q: Is there any health care person that CE Broker does not apply to?

A: Yes, only health care licensees of the Florida Department of Health are affected. Applicants for licensure frequently take our CE courses, as needed for initial licensure or review, but the CE Broker system does not keep records for these persons.

Q: What is the penalty for not taking the correct number or type of CE credits?

A: The penalty for first violation is a Citation and Fines, which are: a. failure to complete less than 9 hours, a fine of $300; b. failure to complete between 9 and 16 hours, a fine of $600; c. failure to complete 17 and 24 hours, fine of $1,000. Plus pay the Board's cost of investigation. PT Board rule 64B17-7.002.

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