Terms Used In Florida Statutes > Chapter 408 - Health Care Administration

• Accepted: means that the agency has found that a report or data submitted by a health care facility or a health care provider contains all schedules and data required by the agency and has been prepared in the format specified by the agency, and otherwise conforms to applicable rule or Florida Hospital Uniform Reporting System manual requirements regarding reports in effect at the time such report was submitted, and the data are mathematically reasonable and accurate. See Florida Statutes 408.07
• Adjusted admission: means the sum of acute and intensive care admissions divided by the ratio of inpatient revenues generated from acute, intensive, ambulatory, and ancillary patient services to gross revenues. See Florida Statutes 408.07
• Affidavit: A written statement of facts confirmed by the oath of the party making it, before a notary or officer having authority to administer oaths.
• Agency: means the Agency for Health Care Administration. See Florida Statutes 408.07
• Agency: means the Agency for Health Care Administration, which is the licensing agency under this part. See Florida Statutes 408.803
• Alcohol or chemical dependency treatment center: means an organization licensed under chapter 397. See Florida Statutes 408.07
• Ambulatory care center: means an organization which employs or contracts with licensed health care professionals to provide diagnosis or treatment services predominantly on a walk-in basis and the organization holds itself out as providing care on a walk-in basis. See Florida Statutes 408.07
• Ambulatory surgical center: means a facility licensed as an ambulatory surgical center under chapter 395. See Florida Statutes 408.07
• Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
• Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
• Appellate: About appeals; an appellate court has the power to review the judgement of another lower court or tribunal.
• Applicant: means an individual, corporation, partnership, firm, association, or governmental entity that submits an application for a license to the agency. See Florida Statutes 408.803
• Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
• Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Bankruptcy: Refers to statutes and judicial proceedings involving persons or businesses that cannot pay their debts and seek the assistance of the court in getting a fresh start. Under the protection of the bankruptcy court, debtors may discharge their debts, perhaps by paying a portion of each debt. Bankruptcy judges preside over these proceedings.
• Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. ^{Source: OCC}
• Birth center: means an organization licensed under…. See Florida Statutes 408.07
• Board: means the Board of Funeral, Cemetery, and Consumer Services. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• Cardiac catheterization laboratory: means a freestanding facility that employs or contracts with licensed health care professionals to provide diagnostic or therapeutic services for cardiac conditions such as cardiac catheterization or balloon angioplasty. See Florida Statutes 408.07
• Cemetery: means a place dedicated to and used or intended to be used for the permanent interment of human remains or cremated remains. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• Centralized embalming facility: means a facility in which embalming takes place that operates independently of a funeral establishment licensee and that offers embalming services to funeral directors for a fee. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• Certification: means certification as a Medicare or Medicaid provider of the services that require licensure, or certification pursuant to the federal Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendment (CLIA). See Florida Statutes 408.803
• Change of ownership: means :
  (a) An event in which the licensee sells or otherwise transfers its ownership to a different individual or entity as evidenced by a change in federal employer identification number or taxpayer identification number; or
  (b) An event in which 51 percent or more of the ownership, shares, membership, or controlling interest of a licensee is in any manner transferred or otherwise assigned. See Florida Statutes 408.803
• Charity: An agency, institution, or organization in existence and operating for the benefit of an indefinite number of persons and conducted for educational, religious, scientific, medical, or other beneficent purposes.
• Client: means any person receiving services from a provider listed in…. See Florida Statutes 408.803
• Common law: The legal system that originated in England and is now in use in the United States. It is based on judicial decisions rather than legislative action.
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Consumer: means any person other than a person who administers health activities, is a member of the governing body of a health care facility, provides health services, has a fiduciary interest in a health facility or other health agency or its affiliated entities, or has a material financial interest in the rendering of health services. See Florida Statutes 408.07
• Continuance: Putting off of a hearing ot trial until a later time.
• Continuing care facility: means a facility licensed under chapter 651. See Florida Statutes 408.07
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Control: means the possession, directly or indirectly, through the ownership of voting shares, by contract, arrangement, understanding, relationship, or otherwise, of the power to direct or cause the direction of the management and policies of a person or entity. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• Controlling interest: means :
  (a) The applicant or licensee;
  (b) A person or entity that serves as an officer of, is on the board of directors of, or has a 5-percent or greater ownership interest in the applicant or licensee; or
  (c) A person or entity that serves as an officer of, is on the board of directors of, or has a 5-percent or greater ownership interest in the management company or other entity, related or unrelated, with which the applicant or licensee contracts to manage the provider. See Florida Statutes 408.803
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Cremation: means any mechanical or thermal process whereby a dead human body is reduced to ashes and bone fragments. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• Critical access hospital: means a hospital that meets the definition of "critical access hospital" in…. See Florida Statutes 408.07
• Cross-subsidization: means that the revenues from one type of hospital service are sufficiently higher than the costs of providing such service as to offset some of the costs of providing another type of service in the hospital. See Florida Statutes 408.07
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• dead human bodies: means the body of a deceased human person for which a death certificate or fetal death certificate is required under chapter 382 and includes the body in any stage of decomposition. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• deductions from revenue: means reductions from gross revenue resulting from inability to collect payment of charges. See Florida Statutes 408.07
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Department: means the Department of Financial Services. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Deposition: An oral statement made before an officer authorized by law to administer oaths. Such statements are often taken to examine potential witnesses, to obtain discovery, or to be used later in trial.
• Diagnostic-imaging center: means a freestanding outpatient facility that provides specialized services for the diagnosis of a disease by examination and also provides radiological services. See Florida Statutes 408.07
• Direct supervision: means supervision by a licensed:
  (a) Funeral director who provides initial direction and periodic inspection of the arrangements and who is physically present or on the premises of the funeral establishment at all times when the tasks, functions, and duties relating to funeral directing are performed; or
  (b) Embalmer who provides initial direction and instruction regarding the preservation of a dead human body in its entirety or in part and who is physically present or on the premises of the funeral establishment or embalming facility at all times when the tasks, functions, and duties relating to embalming are performed. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• Director: means the director of the Division of Funeral, Cemetery, and Consumer Services. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Dismissal: The dropping of a case by the judge without further consideration or hearing. ^Source:
• Entitlement: A Federal program or provision of law that requires payments to any person or unit of government that meets the eligibility criteria established by law. Entitlements constitute a binding obligation on the part of the Federal Government, and eligible recipients have legal recourse if the obligation is not fulfilled. Social Security and veterans' compensation and pensions are examples of entitlement programs.
• Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. ^{Source: U.S. Courts}
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Ex officio: Literally, by virtue of one's office.
• Fair market value: The price at which an asset would change hands in a transaction between a willing, informed buyer and a willing, informed seller.
• Fee simple: Absolute title to property with no limitations or restrictions regarding the person who may inherit it.
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Final disposition: means the final disposal of a dead human body by earth interment, aboveground interment, cremation, burial at sea, anatomical donation, or delivery to a medical institution for lawful dissection if the medical institution or entity receiving the anatomical donation assumes responsibility for disposition after use pursuant to…. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• Foreclosure: A legal process in which property that is collateral or security for a loan may be sold to help repay the loan when the loan is in default. ^{Source: OCC}
• Forgery: The fraudulent signing or alteration of another's name to an instrument such as a deed, mortgage, or check. The intent of the forgery is to deceive or defraud. ^{Source: OCC}
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Freestanding: means that a health facility bills and receives revenue which is not directly subject to the hospital assessment for the Public Medical Assistance Trust Fund as described in…. See Florida Statutes 408.07
• Freestanding radiation therapy center: means a facility where treatment is provided through the use of radiation therapy machines that are registered under…. See Florida Statutes 408.07
• Funeral director: means any person licensed under this chapter to practice funeral directing in this state. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• Funeral establishment: means a facility licensed under this chapter where a funeral director or embalmer practices funeral directing or embalming. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• funeral service: means the observances, services, or ceremonies held to commemorate the life of a specific deceased human being and at which the human remains are present. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• General supervision: means supervision by a licensed:
  (a) Funeral director who is reasonably available and in a position to provide direction and guidance by being physically present, being on the premises of the funeral establishment, or being in proximity to the funeral establishment and available telephonically or by electronic communication at all times when the tasks, functions, and duties relating to funeral directing are performed; or
  (b) Embalmer who is reasonably available and in a position to provide direction and guidance by being physically present, being on the premises of the funeral establishment or embalming facility, or being in proximity to the funeral establishment or embalming facility and available telephonically or by electronic communication at all times when the tasks, functions, and duties relating to embalming are performed. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Gross revenue: means the sum of daily hospital service charges, ambulatory service charges, ancillary service charges, and other operating revenue. See Florida Statutes 408.07
• Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
• Health care facility: means an ambulatory surgical center, a hospice, a nursing home, a hospital, a diagnostic-imaging center, a freestanding or hospital-based therapy center, a clinical laboratory, a home health agency, a cardiac catheterization laboratory, a medical equipment supplier, an alcohol or chemical dependency treatment center, a physical rehabilitation center, a lithotripsy center, an ambulatory care center, a birth center, or a nursing home component licensed under chapter 400 within a continuing care facility licensed under chapter 651. See Florida Statutes 408.07
• Health care provider: means a health care professional licensed under chapter 458, chapter 459, chapter 460, chapter 461, chapter 463, chapter 464, chapter 465, chapter 466, part I, part III, part IV, part V, or part X of chapter 468, chapter 483, chapter 484, chapter 486, chapter 490, or chapter 491. See Florida Statutes 408.07
• Health insurer: means any insurance company authorized to transact health insurance in the state, any insurance company authorized to transact health insurance or casualty insurance in the state that is offering a minimum premium plan or stop-loss coverage for any person or entity providing health care benefits, any self-insurance plan as defined in…. See Florida Statutes 408.07
• Home health agency: means an organization licensed under part III of chapter 400. See Florida Statutes 408.07
• Hospice: means an organization licensed under part IV of chapter 400. See Florida Statutes 408.07
• Hospital: means a health care institution licensed by the Agency for Health Care Administration as a hospital under chapter 395. See Florida Statutes 408.07
• individual: includes both natural persons and legal entities. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Lawsuit: A legal action started by a plaintiff against a defendant based on a complaint that the defendant failed to perform a legal duty, resulting in harm to the plaintiff.
• Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). ^{Source: OCC}
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• License: includes all authorizations required or issued under this chapter, except where expressly indicated otherwise, and shall be understood to include authorizations previously referred to as registrations or certificates of authority in chapters 470 and 497 as those chapters appeared in the 2004 edition of the Florida Statutes. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• License: means any permit, registration, certificate, or license issued by the agency. See Florida Statutes 408.803
• Licensee: means the person or entity holding any license or other authorization issued under this chapter, except where expressly indicated otherwise. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• Licensee: means an individual, corporation, partnership, firm, association, governmental entity, or other entity that is issued a permit, registration, certificate, or license by the agency. See Florida Statutes 408.803
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Lithotripsy center: means a freestanding facility that employs or contracts with licensed health care professionals to provide diagnosis or treatment services using electro-hydraulic shock waves. See Florida Statutes 408.07
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Local health council: means the agency defined in…. See Florida Statutes 408.07
• Low-risk provider: means a nonresidential provider, including a nurse registry, a home medical equipment provider, or a health care clinic. See Florida Statutes 408.803
• Market basket index: means the Florida hospital input price index (FHIPI), which is a statewide market basket index used to measure inflation in hospital input prices weighted for the Florida-specific experience which uses multistate regional and state-specific price measures, when available. See Florida Statutes 408.07
• Markup: The process by which congressional committees and subcommittees debate, amend, and rewrite proposed legislation.
• Medical equipment supplier: means an organization that provides medical equipment and supplies used by health care providers and health care facilities in the diagnosis or treatment of disease. See Florida Statutes 408.07
• merchandise: means any personal property offered or sold by any person for use in connection with the final disposition, memorialization, interment, entombment, or inurnment of human remains or cremated remains, including, but not limited to, caskets, outer burial containers, alternative containers, cremation containers, cremation interment containers, urns, monuments, private mausoleums, flowers, benches, vases, acknowledgment cards, register books, memory folders, prayer cards, and clothing. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• minor: includes any person who has not attained the age of 18 years. See Florida Statutes 1.01
• Moratorium: means a prohibition on the acceptance of new clients. See Florida Statutes 408.803
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Mortgagee: The person to whom property is mortgaged and who has loaned the money.
• New hospital: means a hospital in its initial year of operation as a licensed hospital and does not include any facility which has been in existence as a licensed hospital, regardless of changes in ownership, for over 1 calendar year. See Florida Statutes 408.07
• Nolo contendere: No contest-has the same effect as a plea of guilty, as far as the criminal sentence is concerned, but may not be considered as an admission of guilt for any other purpose.
• Nursing home: means a facility licensed under…. See Florida Statutes 408.07
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• Operating expenses: means total expenses excluding income taxes. See Florida Statutes 408.07
• Other operating revenue: means all revenue generated from hospital operations other than revenue directly associated with patient care. See Florida Statutes 408.07
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• Person: when used without qualification such as "natural" or "individual" includes both natural persons and legal entities. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• person: includes individuals, children, firms, associations, joint adventures, partnerships, estates, trusts, business trusts, syndicates, fiduciaries, corporations, and all other groups or combinations. See Florida Statutes 1.01
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Physical rehabilitation center: means an organization that employs or contracts with health care professionals licensed under part I or part III of chapter 468 or chapter 486 to provide speech, occupational, or physical therapy services on an outpatient or ambulatory basis. See Florida Statutes 408.07
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Plea: In a criminal case, the defendant's statement pleading "guilty" or "not guilty" in answer to the charges, a declaration made in open court.
• Pleadings: Written statements of the parties in a civil case of their positions. In the federal courts, the principal pleadings are the complaint and the answer.
• political subdivision: include counties, cities, towns, villages, special tax school districts, special road and bridge districts, bridge districts, and all other districts in this state. See Florida Statutes 1.01
• Power of attorney: A written instrument which authorizes one person to act as another's agent or attorney. The power of attorney may be for a definite, specific act, or it may be general in nature. The terms of the written power of attorney may specify when it will expire. If not, the power of attorney usually expires when the person granting it dies. ^{Source: OCC}
• Practice of funeral directing: means the performance by a licensed funeral director of any of those functions authorized by…. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• Preneed: means any arrangement or method, of which the provider of funeral merchandise or services has actual knowledge, whereby any person agrees to furnish funeral merchandise or service in the future. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• Probation: A sentencing alternative to imprisonment in which the court releases convicted defendants under supervision as long as certain conditions are observed.
• Processing: means the reduction of identifiable bone fragments after the completion of the cremation process to unidentifiable bone fragments by manual means. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• Prospective payment arrangement: means a financial agreement negotiated between a hospital and an insurer, health maintenance organization, preferred provider organization, or other third-party payor which contains, at a minimum, the elements provided for in…. See Florida Statutes 408.07
• Provider: means any activity, service, agency, or facility regulated by the agency and listed in…. See Florida Statutes 408.803
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Recourse: An arrangement in which a bank retains, in form or in substance, any credit risk directly or indirectly associated with an asset it has sold (in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles) that exceeds a pro rata share of the bank's claim on the asset. If a bank has no claim on an asset it has sold, then the retention of any credit risk is recourse. ^{Source: FDIC}
• Refrigeration facility: means a facility that is operated independently of a funeral establishment, crematory, or direct disposal establishment, that maintains space and equipment for the storage and refrigeration of dead human bodies, and that offers its service to funeral directors, funeral establishments, direct disposers, direct disposal establishments, or crematories for a fee. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• Relative: means an individual who is the father, mother, stepfather, stepmother, son, daughter, brother, sister, grandmother, grandfather, great-grandmother, great-grandfather, grandson, granddaughter, uncle, aunt, first cousin, nephew, niece, husband, wife, father-in-law, mother-in-law, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, stepson, stepdaughter, stepbrother, stepsister, half brother, or half sister of a patient or client. See Florida Statutes 408.803
• Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.
• Rescission: The cancellation of budget authority previously provided by Congress. The Impoundment Control Act of 1974 specifies that the President may propose to Congress that funds be rescinded. If both Houses have not approved a rescission proposal (by passing legislation) within 45 days of continuous session, any funds being withheld must be made available for obligation.
• Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
• Rules: refers to rules adopted under this chapter unless expressly indicated to the contrary. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• Rural hospital: means an acute care hospital licensed under chapter 395, having 100 or fewer licensed beds and an emergency room, and which is:
  (a) The sole provider within a county with a population density of no greater than 100 persons per square mile;
  (b) An acute care hospital, in a county with a population density of no greater than 100 persons per square mile, which is at least 30 minutes of travel time, on normally traveled roads under normal traffic conditions, from another acute care hospital within the same county;
  (c) A hospital supported by a tax district or subdistrict whose boundaries encompass a population of 100 persons or fewer per square mile;
  (d) A hospital with a service area that has a population of 100 persons or fewer per square mile. See Florida Statutes 408.07
• service: means any service offered or provided in connection with the final disposition, memorialization, interment, entombment, or inurnment of human remains or cremated remains. See Florida Statutes 497.005
• service area: means the fewest number of zip codes that account for 75 percent of the hospital's discharges for the most recent 5-year period, based on information available from the hospital inpatient discharge database in the Florida Center for Health Information and Transparency at the Agency for Health Care Administration; or