The Florida Senate

409.8134  Program enrollment and expenditure ceilings.--

(1)  Except for the Medicaid program, a ceiling shall be placed on annual federal and state expenditures and on enrollment in the Florida KidCare program as provided each year in the General Appropriations Act.

(2)  Upon a unanimous recommendation by representatives from each of the four Florida KidCare administrators, the Florida KidCare program may conduct an open enrollment period for the purpose of enrolling children eligible for all program components listed in s. 409.813 except Medicaid. The four Florida KidCare administrators shall work together to ensure that the open enrollment period is announced statewide at least 1 month before the open enrollment is to begin. Eligible children shall be enrolled on a first-come, first-served basis using the date the open enrollment application is received. The potential open enrollment periods shall be January 1st through January 30th and September 1st through September 30th. Open enrollment shall immediately cease when the enrollment ceiling is reached. An open enrollment shall only be held if the Social Services Estimating Conference determines that sufficient federal and state funds will be available to finance the increased enrollment through federal fiscal year 2007. Any individual who is not enrolled, including those added to the waiting list after March 11, 2004, must reapply by submitting a new application during the next open enrollment period. However, the Children's Medical Services Network may annually enroll up to 120 additional children based on emergency disability criteria outside of the open enrollment periods, and the cost of serving these children must be managed within the KidCare program's appropriated or authorized levels of funding. ¹Except for the Medicaid program, whenever the Social Services Estimating Conference determines that there is presently, or will be by the end of the current fiscal year, insufficient funds to finance the current or projected enrollment in the Florida KidCare program, all additional enrollment must cease and additional enrollment may not resume until sufficient funds are available to finance such enrollment.

(3)  Upon determination by the Social Services Estimating Conference that there are insufficient funds to finance the current enrollment in the Florida KidCare program within current appropriations, the program shall initiate disenrollment procedures to remove enrollees, except those children enrolled in the Children's Medical Services Network, on a last-in, first-out basis until the expenditure and appropriation levels are balanced.

(4)  The agencies that administer the Florida KidCare program components shall collect and analyze the data needed to project program enrollment costs, including price level adjustments, participation and attrition rates, current and projected caseloads, utilization, and current and projected expenditures for the next 3 years. The agencies shall report caseload and expenditure trends to the Social Services Estimating Conference in accordance with chapter 216.

History.--ss. 37, 57, ch. 98-288; s. 3, ch. 2000-253; s. 22, ch. 2003-405; s. 3, ch. 2004-1; s. 3, ch. 2004-270.

¹Note.--As amended by s. 3, ch. 2004-270, which reinserted this sentence without coding. The sentence was stricken by s. 3, ch. 2004-1, but the amendment by s. 3, ch. 2004-270, amended subsection (2) as amended by ch. 2004-1.