Residential Fee Collection Information

From: Mike Palecki Date: Thu, Apr 5, 2012 at 5:05 PM Subject: Residential Fee Collection Section 402.33 provides the Agency with the statutory legal authority to seek the collection of residential fees pursuant to proposed rule 65G-2.016. The following bullets address individual concerns from your email to Director Hansen: As stated during the rule workshops and rule hearing for 65G-2.016, section 402.33, Florida Statutes, directs the agency to "charge, assess, or collect... fees for any service it provides to its clients either directly or through its agencies or contractors" with the exception that we cannot collect fees for "developmental disability services provided under chapter 393 to any person... whose earned income falls below the federal... Poverty Guidelines, unless such fees are collected from third-party benefits and benefit payments." As seen in the proposed rule, our residential fee collection would only collect funds from third-party benefits and benefit payments. Section 402.33(5), Florida Statutes, specifically states that "The payment of charges shall not be a prerequisite to treatment or care." Because these fees are not tied to a client's receipt of services, the payment or nonpayment of the fees does not affect a client's Medicaid eligibility or service approvals. Section 402.33, Florida Statutes, has existed in law for almost 40 years, and was revised in 2006 to include services provided by the Agency for Persons with Disabilites (which had been newly created). Several other agencies already collect fees related to the provision of services (and specifically residential services). This includes the Department of Children and Families, which collects fees for its services pursuant to Rule Chapter 65-6 of the Florida Administrative Code, and the Department of Health, which collects fees pursuant to Rule 64F-9.002 of the Florida Administrative Code. We are confident that Proposed Rule 65G-2.016 will pass legal muster. In our own office attorneys Jonathan Grabb and Cathy Bedell have spent many long hours drafting and redrafting this bill to sustain legal challenge. The bill has been reviewed for legal sufficiency in several other forums. These include AHCA's General Counsel, the Office of Fiscal Responsibility and Regulatory Reform (OFARR) and the Joint Administrative Procedures Committee (JAPC). We have worked closely with the Governor's General Counsel on this rule. The correspondence between JAPC and our office is attached below. While JAPC's March 20, 2012, letter does identify two remaining technical issues with the rule, they have indicated that the rule should be ready for certification once these issues are resolved.