Senate Bill sb2096

    Florida Senate - 2003                                  SB 2096

    By Senator Wasserman Schultz





    34-756-03

  1                      A bill to be entitled

  2         An act relating to nursing homes; requiring a

  3         portion of nursing home Medicaid per diem funds

  4         to be used to fund certain wage or benefit

  5         increases; providing guidelines; requiring the

  6         development of application and monitoring

  7         systems; providing an effective date.

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  9  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:

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11         Section 1.  (1)  The Agency for Health Care

12  Administration shall require that a portion of a nursing home

13  facility's Medicaid per diem be earmarked for increases in the

14  wages or benefits of the facility's staff. This earmarked

15  portion, known as "wage or benefit pass-through," must be

16  sufficient to provide for an increase of $1 per hour in wages

17  or benefits for the facility's staff.

18         (2)  Wage or benefit pass-through funds must be used by

19  facilities for wage increases or benefit improvements for all

20  employees of the nursing home except the administrator and the

21  director of nursing. Agency, temporary, pool, or home office

22  staff who are not directly employed by and assigned

23  exclusively to the facility are not entitled to benefits under

24  this section. Wage or salary increases are reimbursable;

25  one-time bonuses are not. The wage or benefit pass-through

26  funds may be used to provide new or improved benefits or to

27  defray the costs to employees of benefits, such as lower

28  premiums for health insurance. Funds may not be used to defray

29  the increased costs to facilities of existing benefits such as

30  premium increases paid by facilities for health insurance.

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CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.






    Florida Senate - 2003                                  SB 2096
    34-756-03




 1         (3)  The agency shall develop systems for the

 2  application and monitoring of the wage or benefit

 3  pass-through.

 4         Section 2.  This act shall take effect July 1, 2003.

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 7                          SENATE SUMMARY

 8    Requires that a portion of nursing home Medicaid per diem
      funds be used for certain wage or benefit increases for
 9    employees.

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CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.