The Florida Senate

400.609  Hospice services.--Each hospice shall provide a continuum of hospice services which afford the patient and the family of the patient a range of service delivery which can be tailored to specific needs and preferences of the patient and family at any point in time throughout the length of care for the terminally ill patient and during the bereavement period. These services must be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and must include:

(1)  SERVICES.--

(a)  The hospice care team shall directly provide the following core services: nursing services, social work services, pastoral or counseling services, dietary counseling, and bereavement counseling services. Physician services may be provided by the hospice directly or through contract. A hospice may also use contracted staff if necessary to supplement hospice employees in order to meet the needs of patients during periods of peak patient loads or under extraordinary circumstances.

(b)  Each hospice must also provide or arrange for such additional services as are needed to meet the palliative and support needs of the patient and family. These services may include, but are not limited to, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, massage therapy, home health aide services, infusion therapy, provision of medical supplies and durable medical equipment, day care, homemaker and chore services, and funeral services.

(2)  HOSPICE HOME CARE.--Hospice care and services provided in a private home shall be the primary form of care. The goal of hospice home care shall be to provide adequate training and support to encourage self-sufficiency and allow patients and families to maintain the patient comfortably at home for as long as possible. The services of the hospice home care program shall be of the highest quality and shall be provided by the hospice care team.

(3)  HOSPICE RESIDENTIAL CARE.--Hospice care and services, to the extent practicable and compatible with the needs and preferences of the patient, may be provided by the hospice care team to a patient living in an assisted living facility, adult family-care home, nursing home, hospice residential unit or facility, or other nondomestic place of permanent or temporary residence. A resident or patient living in an assisted living facility, adult family-care home, nursing home, or other facility subject to state licensing who has been admitted to a hospice program shall be considered a hospice patient, and the hospice program shall be responsible for coordinating and ensuring the delivery of hospice care and services to such person pursuant to the standards and requirements of this part and rules adopted under this part.

(4)  HOSPICE INPATIENT CARE.--The inpatient component of care is a short-term adjunct to hospice home care and hospice residential care and shall be used only for pain control, symptom management, or respite care. The total number of inpatient days for all hospice patients in any 12-month period may not exceed 20 percent of the total number of hospice days for all the hospice patients of the licensed hospice. Hospice inpatient care shall be under the direct administration of the hospice, whether the inpatient facility is a freestanding hospice facility or part of a facility licensed pursuant to chapter 395 or part II of this chapter. The facility or rooms within a facility used for the hospice inpatient component of care shall be arranged, administered, and managed in such a manner as to provide privacy, dignity, comfort, warmth, and safety for the terminally ill patient and the family. Every possible accommodation must be made to create as homelike an atmosphere as practicable. To facilitate overnight family visitation within the facility, rooms must be limited to no more than double occupancy; and, whenever possible, both occupants must be hospice patients. There must be a continuum of care and a continuity of caregivers between the hospice home program and the inpatient aspect of care to the extent practicable and compatible with the preferences of the patient and his or her family. Fees charged for hospice inpatient care, whether provided directly by the hospice or through contract, must be made available upon request to the Agency for Health Care Administration. The hours for daily operation and the location of the place where the services are provided must be determined, to the extent practicable, by the accessibility of such services to the patients and families served by the hospice.

(5)  BEREAVEMENT COUNSELING.--The hospice bereavement program must be a comprehensive program, under professional supervision, that provides a continuum of formal and informal supportive services to the family for a minimum of 1 year after the patient's death. This subsection does not constitute an additional exemption from chapter 490 or chapter 491.

History.--s. 9, ch. 79-186; s. 7, ch. 81-271; s. 2, ch. 81-318; ss. 73, 79, 83, ch. 83-181; s. 5, ch. 91-48; s. 67, ch. 91-221; s. 97, ch. 92-33; ss. 8, 14, ch. 93-179; s. 789, ch. 95-148; s. 21, ch. 95-210; s. 3, ch. 99-139.