The agency may make payments for the following services, which are required of the state by Title XIX of the Social Security Act, furnished by Medicaid providers to recipients who are determined to be eligible on the dates on which the services were provided. Any service under this section shall be provided only when medically necessary and in accordance with state and federal law. Mandatory services rendered by providers in mobile units to Medicaid recipients may be restricted by the agency. Nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent or limit the agency from adjusting fees, reimbursement rates, lengths of stay, number of visits, number of services, or any other adjustments necessary to comply with the availability of moneys and any limitations or directions provided for in the General Appropriations Act or chapter 216.

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   (1) ADVANCED REGISTERED NURSE PRACTITIONER SERVICES.—The agency shall pay for services provided to a recipient by a licensed advanced registered nurse practitioner who has a valid collaboration agreement with a licensed physician on file with the Department of Health or who provides anesthesia services in accordance with established protocol required by state law and approved by the medical staff of the facility in which the anesthetic service is performed. Reimbursement for such services must be provided in an amount that equals not less than 80 percent of the reimbursement to a physician who provides the same services, unless otherwise provided for in the General Appropriations Act.

   (2) EARLY AND PERIODIC SCREENING, DIAGNOSIS, AND TREATMENT SERVICES.—The agency shall pay for early and periodic screening and diagnosis of a recipient under age 21 to ascertain physical and mental problems and conditions and provide treatment to correct or ameliorate these problems and conditions. These services include all services determined by the agency to be medically necessary for the treatment, correction, or amelioration of these problems, including personal care, private duty nursing, durable medical equipment, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, respiratory therapy, and immunizations.

   (3) FAMILY PLANNING SERVICES.—The agency shall pay for services necessary to enable a recipient voluntarily to plan family size or to space children. These services include information; education; counseling regarding the availability, benefits, and risks of each method of pregnancy prevention; drugs and supplies; and necessary medical care and followup. Each recipient participating in the family planning portion of the Medicaid program must be provided freedom to choose any alternative method of family planning, as required by federal law.

   (4) HOME HEALTH CARE SERVICES.—The agency shall pay for nursing and home health aide services, supplies, appliances, and durable medical equipment, necessary to assist a recipient living at home. An entity that provides services pursuant to this subsection shall be licensed under part III of chapter 400. These services, equipment, and supplies, or reimbursement therefor, may be limited as provided in the General Appropriations Act and do not include services, equipment, or supplies provided to a person residing in a hospital or nursing facility.

   (a)() In providing home health care services, the agency may require prior authorization of care based on diagnosis, utilization rates, or billing rates. The agency shall require prior authorization for visits for home health services that are not associated with a skilled nursing visit when the home health agency billing rates exceed the state average by 50 percent or more. The home health agency must submit the recipient’s plan of care and documentation that supports the recipient’s diagnosis to the agency when requesting prior authorization.

   (b)() The agency shall implement a comprehensive utilization management program that requires prior authorization of all private duty nursing services, an individualized treatment plan that includes information about medication and treatment orders, treatment goals, methods of care to be used, and plans for care coordination by nurses and other health professionals. The utilization management program shall also include a process for periodically reviewing the ongoing use of private duty nursing services. The assessment of need shall be based on a child’s condition, family support and care supplements, a family’s ability to provide care, and a family’s and child’s schedule regarding work, school, sleep, and care for other family dependents. When implemented, the private duty nursing utilization management program shall replace the current authorization program used by the Agency for Health Care Administration and the Children’s Medical Services program of the Department of Health. The agency may competitively bid on a contract to select a qualified organization to provide utilization management of private duty nursing services. The agency is authorized to seek federal waivers to implement this initiative.

   (c)() The agency may not pay for home health services unless the services are medically necessary and:

   (1.) The services are ordered by a physician.

   (2.) The written prescription for the services is signed and dated by the recipient’s physician before the development of a plan of care and before any request requiring prior authorization.

   (3.) The physician ordering the services is not employed, under contract with, or otherwise affiliated with the home health agency rendering the services. However, this subparagraph does not apply to a home health agency affiliated with a retirement community, of which the parent corporation or a related legal entity owns a rural health clinic certified under 42 C.F.R. part 491, subpart A, ss. 1-11, a nursing home licensed under part II of chapter 400, or an apartment or single-family home for independent living. For purposes of this subparagraph, the agency may, on a case-by-case basis, provide an exception for medically fragile children who are younger than 21 years of age.

   (4.) The physician ordering the services has examined the recipient within the 30 days preceding the initial request for the services and biannually thereafter.

   (5.) The written prescription for the services includes the recipient’s acute or chronic medical condition or diagnosis, the home health service required, and, for skilled nursing services, the frequency and duration of the services.

   (6.) The national provider identifier, Medicaid identification number, or medical practitioner license number of the physician ordering the services is listed on the written prescription for the services, the claim for home health reimbursement, and the prior authorization request.

   (5) HOSPITAL INPATIENT SERVICES.—The agency shall pay for all covered services provided for the medical care and treatment of a recipient who is admitted as an inpatient by a licensed physician or dentist to a hospital licensed under part I of chapter 395. However, the agency shall limit the payment for inpatient hospital services for a Medicaid recipient 21 years of age or older to 45 days or the number of days necessary to comply with the General Appropriations Act.

   (a)() The agency is authorized to implement reimbursement and utilization management reforms in order to comply with any limitations or directions in the General Appropriations Act, which may include, but are not limited to: prior authorization for inpatient psychiatric days; prior authorization for nonemergency hospital inpatient admissions for individuals 21 years of age and older; authorization of emergency and urgent-care admissions within 24 hours after admission; enhanced utilization and concurrent review programs for highly utilized services; reduction or elimination of covered days of service; adjusting reimbursement ceilings for variable costs; adjusting reimbursement ceilings for fixed and property costs; and implementing target rates of increase. The agency may limit prior authorization for hospital inpatient services to selected diagnosis-related groups, based on an analysis of the cost and potential for unnecessary hospitalizations represented by certain diagnoses. Admissions for normal delivery and newborns are exempt from requirements for prior authorization. In implementing the provisions of this section related to prior authorization, the agency shall ensure that the process for authorization is accessible 24 hours per day, 7 days per week and authorization is automatically granted when not denied within 4 hours after the request. Authorization procedures must include steps for review of denials. Upon implementing the prior authorization program for hospital inpatient services, the agency shall discontinue its hospital retrospective review program.

   (b)() A licensed hospital maintained primarily for the care and treatment of patients having mental disorders or mental diseases is not eligible to participate in the hospital inpatient portion of the Medicaid program except as provided in federal law. However, the department shall apply for a waiver, within 9 months after June 5, 1991, designed to provide hospitalization services for mental health reasons to children and adults in the most cost-effective and lowest cost setting possible. Such waiver shall include a request for the opportunity to pay for care in hospitals known under federal law as “institutions for mental disease” or “IMD’s.” The waiver proposal shall propose no additional aggregate cost to the state or Federal Government, and shall be conducted in Hillsborough County, Highlands County, Hardee County, Manatee County, and Polk County. The waiver proposal may incorporate competitive bidding for hospital services, comprehensive brokering, prepaid capitated arrangements, or other mechanisms deemed by the department to show promise in reducing the cost of acute care and increasing the effectiveness of preventive care. When developing the waiver proposal, the department shall take into account price, quality, accessibility, linkages of the hospital to community services and family support programs, plans of the hospital to ensure the earliest discharge possible, and the comprehensiveness of the mental health and other health care services offered by participating providers.

   (c)() The agency shall adjust a hospital’s current inpatient per diem rate to reflect the cost of serving the Medicaid population at that institution if:

   (1.) The hospital experiences an increase in Medicaid caseload by more than 25 percent in any year, primarily resulting from the closure of a hospital in the same service area occurring after July 1, 1995;

   (2.) The hospital’s Medicaid per diem rate is at least 25 percent below the Medicaid per patient cost for that year; or

   (3.) The hospital is located in a county that has six or fewer general acute care hospitals, began offering obstetrical services on or after September 1999, and has submitted a request in writing to the agency for a rate adjustment after July 1, 2000, but before September 30, 2000, in which case such hospital’s Medicaid inpatient per diem rate shall be adjusted to cost, effective July 1, 2002.

By October 1 of each year, the agency must provide estimated costs for any adjustment in a hospital inpatient per diem rate to the Executive Office of the Governor, the House of Representatives General Appropriations Committee, and the Senate Appropriations Committee. Before the agency implements a change in a hospital’s inpatient per diem rate pursuant to this paragraph, the Legislature must have specifically appropriated sufficient funds in the General Appropriations Act to support the increase in cost as estimated by the agency.

   (d)() The agency shall implement a hospitalist program in nonteaching hospitals, select counties, or statewide. The program shall require hospitalists to manage Medicaid recipients’ hospital admissions and lengths of stay. Individuals who are dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid are exempted from this requirement. Medicaid participating physicians and other practitioners with hospital admitting privileges shall coordinate and review admissions of Medicaid recipients with the hospitalist. The agency may competitively bid a contract for selection of a single qualified organization to provide hospitalist services. The agency may procure hospitalist services by individual county or may combine counties in a single procurement. The qualified organization shall contract with or employ board-eligible physicians in Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, Hillsborough, Pasco, and Pinellas Counties. The agency is authorized to seek federal waivers to implement this program.

   (e)() The agency shall implement a comprehensive utilization management program for hospital neonatal intensive care stays in certain high-volume participating hospitals, select counties, or statewide, and shall replace existing hospital inpatient utilization management programs for neonatal intensive care admissions. The program shall be designed to manage the lengths of stay for children being treated in neonatal intensive care units and must seek the earliest medically appropriate discharge to the child’s home or other less costly treatment setting. The agency may competitively bid a contract for selection of a qualified organization to provide neonatal intensive care utilization management services. The agency is authorized to seek any federal waivers to implement this initiative.

   (f)() The agency may develop and implement a program to reduce the number of hospital readmissions among the non-Medicare population eligible in areas 9, 10, and 11.

   (6) HOSPITAL OUTPATIENT SERVICES.—The agency shall pay for preventive, diagnostic, therapeutic, or palliative care and other services provided to a recipient in the outpatient portion of a hospital licensed under part I of chapter 395, and provided under the direction of a licensed physician or licensed dentist, except that payment for such care and services is limited to $1,500 per state fiscal year per recipient, unless an exception has been made by the agency, and with the exception of a Medicaid recipient under age 21, in which case the only limitation is medical necessity.

   (7) INDEPENDENT LABORATORY SERVICES.—The agency shall pay for medically necessary diagnostic laboratory procedures ordered by a licensed physician or other licensed practitioner of the healing arts which are provided for a recipient in a laboratory that meets the requirements for Medicare participation and is licensed under chapter 483, if required.

   (8) NURSING FACILITY SERVICES.—The agency shall pay for 24-hour-a-day nursing and rehabilitative services for a recipient in a nursing facility licensed under part II of chapter 400 or in a rural hospital, as defined in s. 395.602, or in a Medicare certified skilled nursing facility operated by a hospital, as defined by s. 395.002(10), that is licensed under part I of chapter 395, and in accordance with provisions set forth in s. 409.908(2)(a), which services are ordered by and provided under the direction of a licensed physician. However, if a nursing facility has been destroyed or otherwise made uninhabitable by natural disaster or other emergency and another nursing facility is not available, the agency must pay for similar services temporarily in a hospital licensed under part I of chapter 395 provided federal funding is approved and available. The agency shall pay only for bed-hold days if the facility has an occupancy rate of 95 percent or greater. The agency is authorized to seek any federal waivers to implement this policy.

   (9) PHYSICIAN SERVICES.—The agency shall pay for covered services and procedures rendered to a recipient by, or under the personal supervision of, a person licensed under state law to practice medicine or osteopathic medicine. These services may be furnished in the physician’s office, the Medicaid recipient’s home, a hospital, a nursing facility, or elsewhere, but shall be medically necessary for the treatment of an injury, illness, or disease within the scope of the practice of medicine or osteopathic medicine as defined by state law. The agency shall not pay for services that are clinically unproven, experimental, or for purely cosmetic purposes.

   (10) PORTABLE X-RAY SERVICES.—The agency shall pay for professional and technical portable radiological services ordered by a licensed physician or other licensed practitioner of the healing arts which are provided by a licensed professional in a setting other than a hospital, clinic, or office of a physician or practitioner of the healing arts, on behalf of a recipient.

   (11) RURAL HEALTH CLINIC SERVICES.—The agency shall pay for outpatient primary health care services for a recipient provided by a clinic certified by and participating in the Medicare program which is located in a federally designated, rural, medically underserved area and has on its staff one or more licensed primary care nurse practitioners or physician assistants, and a licensed staff supervising physician or a consulting supervising physician.

   (12) TRANSPORTATION SERVICES.—The agency shall ensure that appropriate transportation services are available for a Medicaid recipient in need of transport to a qualified Medicaid provider for medically necessary and Medicaid-compensable services, provided a client’s ability to choose a specific transportation provider shall be limited to those options resulting from policies established by the agency to meet the fiscal limitations of the General Appropriations Act. The agency may pay for transportation and other related travel expenses as necessary only if these services are not otherwise available.

s. 34, ch. 91-282; s. 32, ch. 93-129; s. 27, ch. 93-211;