Florida Senate - 2010 SB 2228
By Senator Haridopolos
26-00857-10 20102228__
1 A bill to be entitled
2 An act relating to child welfare contracts; limiting
3 state agency contract monitoring to once every 3 years
4 if the contracted provider is subject to accreditation
5 surveys by specified accreditation organizations;
6 providing exceptions; allowing the establishment of an
7 Internet-based data warehouse to maintain the records
8 of contract providers; requiring state agencies to use
9 the warehouse for document requests; specifying the
10 information that such records must include; amending
11 s. 402.7305, F.S.; limiting the Department of Children
12 and Family Services to one contract monitoring of a
13 child-caring or child-placing contract provider per
14 year; providing an effective date.
15
16 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
17
18 Section 1. Contracts for child welfare services.—The
19 Department of Children and Family Services, the Department of
20 Health, the Department of Juvenile Justice, the Agency for
21 Persons with Disabilities, the Agency for Health Care
22 Administration, and the community-based care lead agencies shall
23 identify and implement changes that improve efficiency in
24 contract administration for child welfare services. To assist
25 with that goal, each agency shall adopt the following policies:
26 (1) Limit administrative monitoring to once every 3 years
27 if the contracted provider is accredited by the Joint Commission
28 on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, the Commission
29 on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities, or the Council on
30 Accreditation. Notwithstanding the survey or inspection of an
31 accrediting organization, the department or agency may continue
32 to monitor the provider as necessary with respect to:
33 (a) Ensuring that services for which the agency is paying
34 are being provided.
35 (b) Investigating complaints or suspected problems and
36 monitoring the provider’s compliance with any resulting
37 negotiated terms and conditions, including provisions relating
38 to consent decrees that are unique to a specific contract and
39 are not statements of general applicability.
40 (c) Ensuring compliance with federal and state laws,
41 federal regulations, or state rules if such monitoring does not
42 duplicate the accrediting organization’s review pursuant to
43 accreditation standards.
44 (2) Allow private-sector development and implementation of
45 an Internet-based, secure, and consolidated data warehouse and
46 archive for maintaining corporate, fiscal, and administrative
47 records of child welfare provider contracts. Providers must
48 ensure that the data is up to date and accessible to the
49 contracting state agency and the contracting provider. State
50 agencies that contract with child welfare providers must use the
51 data warehouse for document requests. If information is not
52 current or is unavailable from the provider’s data warehouse and
53 archive, the state agency may contact the provider directly. At
54 a minimum, the records must include the provider’s:
55 (a) Articles of incorporation.
56 (b) Bylaws.
57 (c) Governing board and committee minutes.
58 (d) Financial audits.
59 (e) Expenditure reports.
60 (f) Compliance audits.
61 (g) Organizational charts.
62 (h) Governing board membership information.
63 (i) Human resource policies and procedures.
64 Section 2. Subsection (4) of section 402.7305, Florida
65 Statutes, is amended to read:
66 402.7305 Department of Children and Family Services;
67 procurement of contractual services; contract management.—
68 (4) CONTRACT MONITORING REQUIREMENTS AND PROCESS.—The
69 department shall establish contract monitoring units staffed by
70 career service employees who report to a member of the Selected
71 Exempt Service or Senior Management Service and who have been
72 properly trained to perform contract monitoring., with At least
73 one member of the contract monitoring unit must possess
74 possessing specific knowledge and experience in the contract’s
75 program area. The department shall establish a contract
76 monitoring process that includes must include, but need not be
77 limited to, the following requirements:
78 (a) Performing a risk assessment at the start of each
79 fiscal year and preparing an annual contract monitoring schedule
80 that considers includes consideration for the level of risk
81 assigned. The department may monitor any contract at any time
82 regardless of whether such monitoring was originally included in
83 the annual contract monitoring schedule.
84 (b) Preparing a contract monitoring plan, including
85 sampling procedures, before performing onsite monitoring at
86 external locations of a service provider. The plan must include
87 a description of the programmatic, fiscal, and administrative
88 components that will be monitored on site. If appropriate,
89 clinical and therapeutic components may be included.
90 (c) Conducting analyses of the performance and compliance
91 of an external service provider by means of desk reviews if the
92 external service provider will not be monitored on site during a
93 fiscal year.
94 (d) Unless the department sets forth in writing the need
95 for an extension, providing a written report presenting the
96 results of the monitoring within 30 days after the completion of
97 the onsite monitoring or desk review.
98 (e) Developing and maintaining a set of procedures
99 describing the contract monitoring process.
100
101 Notwithstanding any other provision of the section, the
102 department shall limit contract monitoring of a child-caring or
103 child-placing services provider to only once per year. Such
104 monitoring may not duplicate administrative monitoring that is
105 included in the survey of a contract provider conducted by a
106 national accreditation organization.
107 Section 3. This act shall take effect July 1, 2010.