HB 7047

1	A bill to be entitled
2	An act relating to the Medicaid waiver program for
3	patients who have Alzheimer's disease; amending s.
4	430.502, F.S.; extending the authority to continue the
5	waiver program; requiring the Office of Program Policy
6	Analysis and Government Accountability to conduct a
7	comparative study of Medicaid home and community-based
8	services waiver programs; requiring that the findings and
9	recommendations be submitted to the Legislature by a
10	specified date; providing an effective date.
11
12	Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
13
14	Section 1.  Subsection (9) of section 430.502, Florida
15	Statutes, is amended to read:
16	430.502  Alzheimer's disease; memory disorder clinics and
17	day care and respite care programs.--
18	(9)  Authority to continue the waiver program specified in
19	subsection (7) shall be automatically eliminated at the close of
20	the 2010 2008 Regular Session of the Legislature unless further
21	legislative action is taken to continue it prior to such time.
22	Section 2.  The Office of Program Policy Analysis and
23	Government Accountability shall conduct an evaluation of
24	comparable Medicaid home and community-based services waiver
25	programs. The office shall consult with the Agency for Health
26	Care Administration, the Department of Elderly Affairs,
27	appropriate substantive and appropriations committees of the
28	Senate and the House of Representatives, and other subject
29	matter experts to determine which waiver programs should be
30	included in the evaluation in order to make reasonable
31	comparisons. The evaluation shall assess whether the waiver
32	programs are more effective at delaying or preventing
33	participants from entering institutional settings and the cost
34	of the waiver programs across groups compared to the regular
35	Medicaid program. The evaluation shall also assess whether
36	specialty home and community-based services waiver programs are
37	more effective at keeping participants out of institutional
38	settings than the broader home and community-based services
39	waiver programs and whether there is a difference in Medicaid
40	expenditures per participant on average between specialty and
41	broad waiver programs. The evaluation shall provide a review of
42	the flexibility provided to states by the federal Deficit
43	Reduction Act of 2005 in regard to home and community-based
44	services and recommend whether this flexibility should be used
45	instead of providing these services under the provisions of
46	current Medicaid home and community-based services waivers. The
47	evaluation's findings and recommendations shall be submitted to
48	the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of
49	Representatives by February 1, 2010.
50	Section 3.  This act shall take effect upon becoming a law.

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