CHARTER MEDICAL-JACKSONVILLE, INC., Appellant, v. COMMUNITY PSYCHIATRIC CENTERS OF FLORIDA, INC., and Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services, Appellees, 482 So. 2d 437

WENTWORTH, Judge. Charter Medical-Jacksonville, Inc., seeks review of an administrative ruling by which a hearing officer ordered that a petition for intervention be denied. We find that the contested ruling does not represent final agency action, and that Charter Medical has not shown that review of final action would provide an inadequate remedy. We therefore dismiss this cause as one which improperly seeks review of non-final agency action.

Section 120.68(1), Florida Statutes, provides that: A preliminary, procedural, or intermediate agency action or ruling, including any order of a hearing officer, is immediately reviewable if review of the final agency decision would not provide an adequate remedy, (emphasis supplied) The emphasized language was enacted by

Chapter 84-173, § 4, Laws of Florida, at the next legislative session after this court issued its opinion in Department of Professional Regulation v. LeBaron, 443 So.2d 225 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984), indicating that a hearing officer’s order is not agency action, and that judicial review may not be had until such an order is addressed by the agency.

Section 120.68(1), as amended, now permits immediate review of a hearing officer’s order. However, as with other preliminary, procedural, or intermediate rulings, the statute expressly conditions such review upon the requirement that “review of the final agency decision would not provide an adequate remedy.” In the present case Charter Medical has not shown that review after final agency action would provide inadequate relief; absent this circumstance, § 120.68(1) does not provide for immediate review of a hearing officer's order.

We therefore dismiss this cause as one which improperly seeks review of non-final action, without prejudice to Charter Medical’s ability to timely pursue review after final agency action. Accordingly, the cause is hereby dismissed. ERVIN, J., concurs. ZEHMER, J., concurs specially with written opinion. . Charter Medical seeks to obtain review in the present case by a notice of appeal. However, the proper vehicle for review of a hearing officer’s order, in an appropriate case, is by petition for review of non-final administrative action. . In Federal Property Management Corp. v.

Health Care & Retirement Corp. of America, 462 So.2d 493 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984), relief was granted after final agency action on a petition to intervene. Charter Medical has not distinguished Federal Property or otherwise shown that such relief would be inadequate in the present case.