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Volume II Issue 9
May 2, 2008 |
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Last Week of Session
The House and Senate met in session all week and took up the following bills.
The House and Senate agreed on and passed SB 0856, sponsored by Senate Education Pre-K – 12 and introduced by Senator Mike Fasano (R-New Port Richey). The House had an identical companion bill, HB 91, sponsored by Schools & Learning Council and introduced by Representative Curtis Richardson (D-Tallahassee). The bill:
Requires district school boards to designate the first two weeks in October each year as "Disability History and Awareness Weeks."
District school boards would provide disability history and awareness instruction in all K-12 public schools.
The bill will now go to the Governor for signature.
The House and the Senate agreed on and passed HB 7075, sponsored by Representative Bill Galvano (R-Bradenton) at the request of APD. The Senate made one amendment, removing the requirement that the sheriff transport a forensic defendant to the county jail within 15 days of being determined competent. The Senate had two companion bills, SB 1950 and SB 1954, sponsored by Senator Nan Rich (D-Sunrise) at the request of APD. The bill:
Revises the definition of "retardation" in Chapter 393, F.S., to ensure consistency with the definition of "developmental disability" by including an onset date prior to the age of 18.
The use of the term "developmental disabilities institutions" throughout Chapter 393, F.S., was changed to "developmental disabilities centers" in order to more accurately reflect the nature of service delivery currently rendered to Agency clients in such settings.
Under the proposed legislation, s.393.0657, F.S., was revised to indicate that direct service providers who have been unemployed for less than 90 days will not be required to undergo a background screening if they attempt to resume employment in another direct service position.
Section 393.0673 was amended in order to provide the Agency with specific authority to suspend or revoke a residential facility license in cases where the licensee has been verified by the Department of Children and Families to be a caregiver responsible for the abuse, neglect, or abandonment of a child or the abuse, neglect, or exploitation of a vulnerable adult. The Agency may also impose an administrative fine.
The revision also grants the Agency the authority to deny an applicant a license if the applicant has been verified by the Department of Children and Families to be a caregiver responsible for the abuse, neglect, or abandonment of a child or the abuse, neglect, or exploitation of a vulnerable adult.
The term "or" has been added as appropriate to clarify that any one of the specified conditions is all that is required to take the specified actions.
Section 393.506, F.S., was revised to allow unlicensed direct care staff, who have been properly trained and validated, to administer certain types of medication to Agency clients through feeding tubes.
Section 400.063, F.S., addressing the Residential Protection Trust Fund, was amended to provide the correct reference in Chapter 393.
The term "department"was replaced by the term "agency"where appropriate.
The bill will now go to the Governor for signature.
Wrap-Up Report
The 2008 legislative session has come to an end. Now our task is to review the bills that were passed and determine what APD has to do to implement the requirements of the bills. As the first step in this process, we have been tracking a number of bills since their introduction. The next step will be to develop our 2008 Legislative Wrap-Up Report. This report will provide information about all of the bills impacting APD. We anticipate having the report completed by the end of next week. When the report is completed, it will be posted on our Web site for your reading pleasure. We will send an e-mail notifying everyone when it is posted.
General Appropriations Act for Agency for Persons with Disabilities FY 2008-09
Overview:
Total budget of $1.063 billion. Discounting for the effect of a transfer to the Agency for Health Care Administration, the budget is $42.5 million, or 3.8% less than the recurring base budget.
Major funding decisions:
9 FTEs and $1.3 million to continue the successful in-house provision of fiscal employer agent functions for the Consumer Directed Care Plus program
$20.4 million transferred to Agency for Health Care Administration to provide personal care assistance services to children through the Medicaid state plan pursuant to early, periodic, screening, diagnosis and treatment requirements
14 FTEs and $0.8 million transferred from Department of Children and Families to provide critical support in finance and accounting, legal services, and information technology (IT)
$0.8 million to continue critical IT support positions funded from nonrecurring funds for FY 2007-08.
$2.6 million transferred from the Developmental Disabilities Public Facilities (Gulf Coast Center) to move 60 more individuals into community-based settings pursuant to Brown v. Bush
$43.5 million reduction to waiver provider rates (roughly 5%). This figure includes $24.1 million of federal funds that the state will lose as a result of this decision.
$12.4 million reduction to personal care assistance services provided through the waiver by setting rates at $15.00 per hour. This is about a 15% reduction compared to the current overall average rate paid for this service. This figure includes $6.9 million of federal funds that the state will lose as a result of this decision.
Total loss of federal Medicaid matching funds is $31 million.
$1.9 million reduction to agency administration, community resource start-up funds, and headquarters contracts
$14.6 million from General Revenue to offset loss of federal funds due to a reduction of the federal Medicaid matching rate.
$9.6 million to partially restore $54 million of non-recurring funds provided for the Medicaid waiver in FY 2007-08.
$0.6 million to establish a dental services pilot in the Development Disabilities Public Facilities.
$3.1 million to expedite assessments of all current waiver enrollees by June 30, 2009, using the Questionnaire for Situational Information instrument. Senate proviso language requiring the use of current waiver support coordinators to conduct the additional assessments was not approved.
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