Florida Senate - 2009             CONFERENCE COMMITTEE AMENDMENT
       Bill No. CS for SB 1660
       
       
       
       
       
       
                                Barcode 657932                          
       
                              LEGISLATIVE ACTION                        
                    Senate             .             House              
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                 Floor: AD/CR          .                                
             05/08/2009 11:56 AM       .                                
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       The Conference Committee on CS for SB 1660 recommended the
       following:
       
    1         Senate Conference Committee Amendment (with title
    2  amendment)
    3  
    4         Delete everything after the enacting clause
    5  and insert:
    6         Section 1. Subsection (5) of section 393.065, Florida
    7  Statutes, is amended, present subsection (6) of that section is
    8  renumbered as subsection (7) and amended, and a new subsection
    9  (6) is added to that section, to read:
   10         393.065 Application and eligibility determination.—
   11         (5) Except as otherwise directed by law, beginning July 1,
   12  2010, the agency shall assign and provide priority to clients
   13  waiting for waiver services in the following order:
   14         (a)Category 1, which includes With the exception of
   15  clients deemed to be in crisis whom the agency shall serve as
   16  described in rule., the agency shall place at the top of its
   17  wait list for waiver services those
   18         (b)Category 2, which includes children on the wait list
   19  who are from the child welfare system with an open case in the
   20  Department of Children and Family Services’ statewide automated
   21  child welfare information system.
   22         (c)Category 3, which includes, but is not required to be
   23  limited to, clients:
   24         1.Whose caregiver has a documented condition that is
   25  expected to render the caregiver unable to provide care within
   26  the next 12 months and for whom a caregiver is required but no
   27  alternate caregiver is available;
   28         2.At substantial risk of incarceration or court commitment
   29  without supports;
   30         3.Whose documented behaviors or physical needs place them
   31  or their caregiver at risk of serious harm and other supports
   32  are not currently available to alleviate the situation; or
   33         4.Who are identified as ready for discharge within the
   34  next year from a state mental health hospital or skilled nursing
   35  facility and who require a caregiver but for whom no caregiver
   36  is available.
   37         (d)Category 4, which includes, but is not required to be
   38  limited to, clients whose caregivers are 70 years of age or
   39  older and for whom a caregiver is required but no alternate
   40  caregiver is available.
   41         (e)Category 5, which includes, but is not required to be
   42  limited to, clients who are expected to graduate within the next
   43  12 months from secondary school and need support to obtain or
   44  maintain competitive employment, or to pursue an accredited
   45  program of postsecondary education to which they have been
   46  accepted.
   47         (f)Category 6, which includes clients 21 years of age or
   48  older who do not meet the criteria for category 1, category 2,
   49  category 3, category 4, or category 5.
   50         (g)Category 7, which includes clients younger than 21
   51  years of age who do not meet the criteria for category 1,
   52  category 2, category 3, or category 4.
   53  
   54  Within categories 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7, the agency shall maintain a
   55  wait list of clients placed in the order of the date that the
   56  client is determined eligible for waiver services.
   57         (6)The client, the client’s guardian, or the client’s
   58  family must ensure that accurate, up-to-date contact information
   59  is provided to the agency at all times. The agency shall remove
   60  from the wait list any individual who cannot be located using
   61  the contact information provided to the agency, fails to meet
   62  eligibility requirements, or becomes domiciled outside the
   63  state.
   64         (7)(6) The agency and the Agency for Health Care
   65  Administration may adopt rules specifying application
   66  procedures, criteria associated with wait-list categories,
   67  procedures for administering the wait list, and eligibility
   68  criteria as needed to administer this section.
   69         Section 2. Subsections (3), (4), (5), and (6) of section
   70  393.0661, Florida Statutes, are amended to read:
   71         393.0661 Home and community-based services delivery system;
   72  comprehensive redesign.—The Legislature finds that the home and
   73  community-based services delivery system for persons with
   74  developmental disabilities and the availability of appropriated
   75  funds are two of the critical elements in making services
   76  available. Therefore, it is the intent of the Legislature that
   77  the Agency for Persons with Disabilities shall develop and
   78  implement a comprehensive redesign of the system.
   79         (3) The Agency for Health Care Administration, in
   80  consultation with the agency, shall seek federal approval and
   81  implement a four-tiered waiver system to serve eligible clients
   82  through with developmental disabilities in the developmental
   83  disabilities and family and supported living waivers. The agency
   84  shall assign all clients receiving services through the
   85  developmental disabilities waiver to a tier based on a valid
   86  assessment instrument, client characteristics, and other
   87  appropriate assessment methods. All services covered under the
   88  current developmental disabilities waiver shall be available to
   89  all clients in all tiers where appropriate, except as otherwise
   90  provided in this subsection or in the General Appropriations
   91  Act.
   92         (a) Tier one is shall be limited to clients who have
   93  service needs that cannot be met in tier two, three, or four for
   94  intensive medical or adaptive needs and that are essential for
   95  avoiding institutionalization, or who possess behavioral
   96  problems that are exceptional in intensity, duration, or
   97  frequency and present a substantial risk of harm to themselves
   98  or others.
   99         (b) Tier two is shall be limited to clients whose service
  100  needs include a licensed residential facility and who are
  101  authorized to receive a moderate level of support for standard
  102  residential habilitation services or a minimal level of support
  103  for behavior focus residential habilitation services, or clients
  104  in supported living who receive more greater than 6 hours a day
  105  of in-home support services. Total annual expenditures under
  106  tier two may not exceed $55,000 per client each year.
  107         (c) Tier three includes shall include, but is not limited
  108  to, clients requiring residential placements, clients in
  109  independent or supported living situations, and clients who live
  110  in their family home. Total annual expenditures under tier three
  111  may not exceed $35,000 per client each year.
  112         (d) Tier four is the family and supported living waiver and
  113  includes. Tier four shall include, but is not limited to,
  114  clients in independent or supported living situations and
  115  clients who live in their family home. An increase to the number
  116  of services available to clients in this tier shall not take
  117  effect prior to July 1, 2009. Total annual expenditures under
  118  tier four may not exceed $14,792 per client each year.
  119         (e) The Agency for Health Care Administration shall also
  120  seek federal approval to provide a consumer-directed option for
  121  persons with developmental disabilities which corresponds to the
  122  funding levels in each of the waiver tiers. The agency shall
  123  implement the four-tiered waiver system beginning with tiers
  124  one, three, and four and followed by tier two. The agency and
  125  the Agency for Health Care Administration may adopt any rules
  126  necessary to administer this subsection.
  127         (f) The agency shall seek federal waivers and amend
  128  contracts as necessary to make changes to services defined in
  129  federal waiver programs administered by the agency as follows:
  130         1. Supported living coaching services may shall not exceed
  131  20 hours per month for persons who also receive in-home support
  132  services.
  133         2. Limited support coordination services is shall be the
  134  only type of support coordination service that may be provided
  135  to persons under the age of 18 who live in the family home.
  136         3. Personal care assistance services are shall be limited
  137  to no more than 180 hours per calendar month and may shall not
  138  include rate modifiers. Additional hours may be authorized for
  139  persons who have intensive physical, medical, or adaptive needs
  140  if such hours are essential for avoiding institutionalization.
  141         4. Residential habilitation services are shall be limited
  142  to 8 hours per day. Additional hours may be authorized for
  143  persons who have intensive medical or adaptive needs and if such
  144  hours are essential for avoiding institutionalization, or for
  145  persons who possess behavioral problems that are exceptional in
  146  intensity, duration, or frequency and present a substantial risk
  147  of harming themselves or others. This restriction shall be in
  148  effect until the four-tiered waiver system is fully implemented.
  149         5. Chore services, nonresidential support services, and
  150  homemaker services are shall be eliminated. The agency shall
  151  expand the definition of in-home support services to allow
  152  enable the service provider of the service to include activities
  153  previously provided in these eliminated services.
  154         6. Massage therapy, medication review, and psychological
  155  assessment services are shall be eliminated.
  156         7. The agency shall conduct supplemental cost plan reviews
  157  to verify the medical necessity of authorized services for plans
  158  that have increased by more than 8 percent during either of the
  159  2 preceding fiscal years.
  160         8. The agency shall implement a consolidated residential
  161  habilitation rate structure to increase savings to the state
  162  through a more cost-effective payment method and establish
  163  uniform rates for intensive behavioral residential habilitation
  164  services.
  165         9. Pending federal approval, the agency may is authorized
  166  to extend current support plans for clients receiving services
  167  under Medicaid waivers for 1 year beginning July 1, 2007, or
  168  from the date approved, whichever is later. Clients who have a
  169  substantial change in circumstances which threatens their health
  170  and safety may be reassessed during this year in order to
  171  determine the necessity for a change in their support plan.
  172         10.The agency shall develop a plan to eliminate
  173  redundancies and duplications between in-home support services,
  174  companion services, personal care services, and supported living
  175  coaching by limiting or consolidating such services.
  176         11.The agency shall develop a plan to reduce the intensity
  177  and frequency of supported employment services to clients in
  178  stable employment situations who have a documented history of at
  179  least 3 years’ employment with the same company or in the same
  180  industry.
  181         (4) Effective July 1, 2008, The geographic differential for
  182  Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach Counties for residential
  183  habilitation services shall be 7.5 percent. Effective July 1,
  184  2009, the geographic differential for Miami-Dade, Broward, and
  185  Palm Beach Counties for residential habilitation services shall
  186  be 4.5 percent.
  187         (5) Effective July 1, 2008, The geographic differential for
  188  Monroe County for residential habilitation services shall be 20
  189  percent. Effective July 1, 2009, the geographic differential for
  190  Monroe County for residential habilitation services shall be 15
  191  percent. Effective July 1, 2010, the geographic differential for
  192  Monroe County for residential habilitation services shall be 10
  193  percent.
  194         (6) Effective January 1, 2010 2009, and except as otherwise
  195  provided in this section, a client an individual served by the
  196  home and community-based services waiver or the family and
  197  supported living waiver funded through the agency for Persons
  198  with Disabilities shall have his or her cost plan adjusted to
  199  reflect the amount of expenditures for the previous state fiscal
  200  year plus 5 percent if such amount is less than the client’s
  201  individual’s existing cost plan. The agency for Persons with
  202  Disabilities shall use actual paid claims for services provided
  203  during the previous fiscal year that are submitted by October 31
  204  to calculate the revised cost plan amount. If the client an
  205  individual was not served for the entire previous state fiscal
  206  year or there was any single change in the cost plan amount of
  207  more than 5 percent during the previous state fiscal year, the
  208  agency shall set the cost plan amount at an estimated annualized
  209  expenditure amount plus 5 percent. The agency shall estimate the
  210  annualized expenditure amount by calculating the average of
  211  monthly expenditures, beginning in the fourth month after the
  212  client individual enrolled, interrupted services are resumed, or
  213  the cost plan was changed by more than 5 percent and ending on
  214  with August 31, 2009 2008, and multiplying the average by 12. In
  215  order to determine whether a client was not served for the
  216  entire year, the agency shall include any interruption of a
  217  waiver-funded service or services lasting at least 18 days. If
  218  In the event that at least 3 months of actual expenditure data
  219  are not available to estimate annualized expenditures, the
  220  agency may not rebase a cost plan pursuant to this subsection.
  221  The agency may not rebase the cost plan of any client who
  222  experiences a significant change in recipient condition or
  223  circumstance which results in a change of more than 5 percent to
  224  his or her cost plan between July 1 and the date that a rebased
  225  cost plan would take effect pursuant to this subsection. This
  226  subsection expires June 30, 2009, unless reenacted by the
  227  Legislature before that date.
  228         Section 3. Subsection (1) of section 393.23, Florida
  229  Statutes, is amended to read:
  230         393.23 Developmental disabilities centers; trust accounts.
  231  All receipts from the operation of canteens, vending machines,
  232  hobby shops, sheltered workshops, activity centers, farming
  233  projects, and other like activities operated in a developmental
  234  disabilities center, and moneys donated to the center, must be
  235  deposited in a trust account in any bank, credit union, or
  236  savings and loan association authorized by the State Treasury as
  237  a qualified depository to do business in this state, if the
  238  moneys are available on demand.
  239         (1) Moneys in the trust account must be expended for the
  240  benefit, education, or and welfare of clients. However, if
  241  specified, moneys that are donated to the center must be
  242  expended in accordance with the intentions of the donor. Trust
  243  account money may not be used for the benefit of agency
  244  employees of the agency or to pay the wages of such employees.
  245  The welfare of the clients includes the expenditure of funds for
  246  the purchase of items for resale at canteens or vending
  247  machines, and for the establishment of, maintenance of, and
  248  operation of canteens, hobby shops, recreational or
  249  entertainment facilities, sheltered workshops, activity centers,
  250  farming projects, or other like facilities or programs
  251  established at the center for the benefit of clients.
  252         Section 4. (1) The Prepaid Services for Parents of Children
  253  with Developmental Disabilities Study Group is created to
  254  evaluate the establishment of a prepaid service plan for
  255  children with disabilities modeled after the Florida prepaid
  256  college program. The prepaid service plan would allow funds to
  257  be paid into a plan on behalf of a child to provide a voucher
  258  for purchasing additional services from a qualified, willing
  259  provider upon the child’s exit from an exceptional student
  260  program. These services would provide support to help the parent
  261  retain the benefits to the child of the exceptional student
  262  program and to help the child in transitioning to the workforce
  263  if possible.
  264         (2) The study group shall consist of the following:
  265         (a) A member of the House of Representatives appointed by
  266  the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
  267         (b) A member of the Senate appointed by the President of
  268  the Senate.
  269         (c) The director of the Agency for Persons with
  270  Disabilities, or designee.
  271         (d) The director of the Division of Vocational
  272  Rehabilitation, or designee.
  273         (e) The executive director of the State Board of
  274  Administration, or designee.
  275         (f) The Commissioner of Education, or designee.
  276         (g) The executive director of The Arc of Florida, or
  277  designee.
  278         (h) An Arc of Florida family board member appointed by the
  279  executive director of The Arc of Florida.
  280         (i) The chairperson of the Family Care Council Florida, or
  281  his or her designee.
  282         (j) A parent representative from the Family Care Council
  283  Florida appointed by the chairperson of the Family Care Council
  284  Florida.
  285         (3) The Agency for Persons with Disabilities shall provide
  286  administrative support for the study group.
  287         (4) The study group shall evaluate and develop findings and
  288  recommendations regarding the following:
  289         (a) The services for which a voucher could be used.
  290         (b) The financial requirements for such a system.
  291         (c) The qualifications of service providers.
  292         (d) The steps necessary to qualify prepaid service plan
  293  funds for a federal waiver match program or other federal
  294  funding and the possibilities of such a waiver match or other
  295  federal funding.
  296         (5) Members of the study group shall serve without
  297  compensation but are entitled to reimbursement for per diem and
  298  travel expenses as provided in s. 112.061, Florida Statutes.
  299         (6) The members of the study group shall be appointed by
  300  July 30, 2009, and shall hold their first meeting by September
  301  1, 2009. The final report of the study group shall be submitted
  302  to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of
  303  Representatives by January 29, 2010. The group is abolished and
  304  this section is repealed upon submission of the group’s final
  305  report.
  306         Section 5. This act shall take effect July 1, 2009.
  307  
  308  ================= T I T L E  A M E N D M E N T ================
  309         And the title is amended as follows:
  310         Delete everything before the enacting clause
  311  and insert:
  312                        A bill to be entitled                      
  313         An act relating to the Agency for Persons with
  314         Disabilities; amending s. 393.065, F.S.; requiring
  315         that the agency assign and provide priority to clients
  316         waiting for waiver services; classifying and
  317         specifying the order of priority; authorizing the
  318         agency and the Agency for Health Care Administration
  319         to adopt rules; amending s. 393.0661, F.S.; deleting a
  320         provision that permits all developmental waiver
  321         services to be available in all waiver tiers; deleting
  322         a provision that limits an increase in the number of
  323         waiver services until after a certain date; directing
  324         the agency to eliminate medication-review services;
  325         directing the agency to develop plans to eliminate
  326         redundancies in certain services and reduce the
  327         supported employment services for certain clients;
  328         deleting an upcoming reduction in the geographic
  329         differential for residential habilitation services in
  330         certain counties; revising criteria for rebasing a
  331         client’s cost plan; deleting the expiration date for a
  332         provision relating to the calculation of the amount of
  333         a waiver cost plan adjustment; deleting obsolete
  334         provisions; amending s. 393.23, F.S.; revising how
  335         moneys in trust accounts in developmental disability
  336         centers may be spent; creating the Prepaid Services
  337         for Parents of Children with Developmental
  338         Disabilities Study Group to evaluate the creation of a
  339         prepaid service plan for children with disabilities;
  340         providing for membership; providing for administrative
  341         support; providing for the duties of the study group;
  342         providing for per diem and travel expenses for
  343         members; requiring the study group to present a final
  344         report to the Legislature; providing an effective
  345         date.