Florida Senate - 2009             CONFERENCE COMMITTEE AMENDMENT
       Bill No. CS/SB 8-A, 1st Eng.
       
       
       
       
       
       
                                Barcode 681414                          
       
                              LEGISLATIVE ACTION                        
                    Senate             .             House              
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                 Floor: AD/2R          .                                
             01/14/2009 10:23 AM       .                                
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       The Conference Committee on CS/SB 8-A, 1st Eng. 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. Section 409.9082, Florida Statutes, is created
    7  to read:
    8         409.9082Quality assessment on nursing home facility
    9  providers; exemptions; purpose; federal approval required;
   10  remedies.—
   11         (1)As used in this section, the term:
   12         (a)“Net patient service revenue” means gross revenues from
   13  services provided to nursing home facility patients, less
   14  reductions from gross revenue resulting from an inability to
   15  collect payment of charges. Such reductions include bad debts;
   16  contractual adjustments; uncompensated care; administrative,
   17  courtesy, and policy discounts and adjustments; and other such
   18  revenue deductions.
   19         (b)“Nursing home facility” means a facility licensed under
   20  part II of chapter 400.
   21         (c)“Resident day” means a calendar day of care provided to
   22  a nursing home facility resident, including the day of admission
   23  and excluding the day of discharge, except that, when admission
   24  and discharge occur on the same day, 1 day of care is deemed to
   25  exist.
   26         (d)“Medicare Part A resident days” means those patient
   27  days funded by the Medicare program or by a Medicare Advantage
   28  or special needs plan.
   29         (e)“Skilled nursing facility units of acute care
   30  hospitals” means the Medicare-certified skilled nursing beds
   31  located in hospitals licensed under chapter 395.
   32         (2)Effective April 1, 2009, there is imposed upon each
   33  nursing home facility a quality assessment. The aggregated
   34  amount of assessments for all nursing home facilities in a given
   35  year shall be an amount not exceeding 5.5 percent of the total
   36  aggregate net patient service revenue of assessed facilities.
   37  The agency shall calculate the quality assessment rate annually
   38  on a per-resident-day basis, exclusive of those resident days
   39  funded by the Medicare program, as reported by the facilities.
   40  The per-resident-day assessment rate shall be uniform except as
   41  prescribed in subsection (3). Each facility shall report monthly
   42  to the agency its total number of resident days, exclusive of
   43  Medicare Part A resident days, and shall remit an amount equal
   44  to the assessment rate times the reported number of days. The
   45  agency shall collect, and each facility shall pay, the quality
   46  assessment each month. The agency shall collect the assessment
   47  from nursing home facility providers by no later than the 15th
   48  of the next succeeding calendar month. The agency shall notify
   49  providers of the quality assessment and provide a standardized
   50  form to complete and submit with payments. The collection of the
   51  nursing home facility quality assessment shall commence no
   52  sooner than 5 days after the agency’s initial payment of the
   53  Medicaid rates containing the elements prescribed in subsection
   54  (4). Nursing home facilities may not create a separate line-item
   55  charge for the purpose of passing through the assessment to
   56  residents.
   57         (3)(a)The following nursing home facility providers are
   58  exempt from the quality assessment:
   59         1.Nursing home facilities that are licensed under part II
   60  of chapter 400 and located on the campus of continuing care
   61  retirement communities operating pursuant to a certificate of
   62  authority under chapter 651;
   63         2.Nursing home facilities that have 45 or fewer beds; and
   64         3.The skilled nursing facility units of acute care
   65  hospitals licensed by the agency under chapter 395.
   66         (b)The agency may apply a lower quality assessment rate to
   67  high-volume Medicaid nursing facilities. The agency shall apply
   68  the lower rate to the fewest number of such facilities necessary
   69  to meet federal Medicaid waiver requirements.
   70         (c)The agency may apply a lower quality assessment rate to
   71  high-patient-volume nursing facilities. The agency shall apply
   72  the lower rate to the fewest number of such facilities necessary
   73  to meet federal Medicaid waiver requirements.
   74         (4)The purpose of the nursing home facility quality
   75  assessment is to ensure continued quality of care. Collected
   76  assessment funds shall be used to obtain federal financial
   77  participation through the Medicaid program to make Medicaid
   78  payments for nursing home facility services up to the amount of
   79  nursing home facility Medicaid rates as calculated in accordance
   80  with the approved state Medicaid plan in effect on December 31,
   81  2007. The quality assessment and federal matching funds shall be
   82  used exclusively for the following purposes and in the following
   83  order of priority:
   84         (a)To reimburse the Medicaid share of the quality
   85  assessment as a pass-through, Medicaid-allowable cost;
   86         (b)To increase to each nursing home facility’s Medicaid
   87  rate, as needed, an amount that restores the rate reductions
   88  implemented January 1, 2008, and January 1, 2009;
   89         (c)To increase to each nursing home facility’s Medicaid
   90  rate, as needed, an amount that restores any rate reductions for
   91  the 2008-2009 fiscal year; and
   92         (d)To increase each nursing home facility’s Medicaid rate
   93  that accounts for the portion of the total assessment not
   94  included in paragraphs (a)-(c) which begins a phase-in to a
   95  pricing model for the operating cost component.
   96         (5)The agency shall seek necessary federal approval in the
   97  form of waivers and state plan amendments in order to implement
   98  the provisions of this section.
   99         (6)The quality assessment shall terminate and the agency
  100  shall discontinue the imposition, assessment, and collection of
  101  the nursing facility quality assessment if any of the following
  102  occur:
  103         (a)The agency does not obtain necessary federal approval
  104  for the nursing home facility quality assessment or the payment
  105  rates required by subsection (4); or
  106         (b)The weighted average Medicaid rate paid to nursing home
  107  facilities is reduced below the weighted average Medicaid rate
  108  to nursing home facilities in effect on December 31, 2008, plus
  109  any future annual amount of the quality assessment and the
  110  applicable matching federal funds.
  111  Upon termination of the quality assessment, all collected
  112  assessment revenues, less any amounts expended by the agency,
  113  shall be returned on a pro rata basis to the nursing facilities
  114  that paid them.
  115         (7)The agency may seek any of the following remedies for
  116  failure of any nursing home facility provider to pay its
  117  assessment timely:
  118         (a)Withholding any medical assistance reimbursement
  119  payments until such time as the assessment amount is recovered;
  120         (b)Suspension or revocation of the nursing home facility
  121  license; and
  122         (c)Imposition of a fine of up to $1,000 per day for each
  123  delinquent payment, not to exceed the amount of the assessment.
  124         (8)The agency shall adopt rules necessary to administer
  125  this section.
  126         Section 2. This act shall take effect upon becoming a law.
  127         
  128  ================= T I T L E  A M E N D M E N T ================
  129         And the title is amended as follows:
  130         Delete everything before the enacting clause
  131  and insert:
  132                        A bill to be entitled                      
  133  An act relating to Medicaid; creating s. 409.9082, F.S.;
  134  providing definitions; providing for a quality assessment to be
  135  imposed upon nursing home facility providers; requiring the
  136  Agency for Health Care Administration to calculate the quality
  137  assessment rate annually; providing requirements for reporting
  138  and collecting the assessment; exempting certain nursing home
  139  facility providers from the assessment; providing for certain
  140  providers to pay a lower assessment; specifying the purposes of
  141  the assessment and an order of priority; requiring that the
  142  agency seek federal authorization to implement the act;
  143  specifying circumstances requiring discontinuance of the quality
  144  assessment; authorizing the agency to impose certain penalties
  145  against providers that fail to pay the assessment; requiring the
  146  agency to adopt rules; providing an effective date.