Andrew Powell
The House Health and Human Services Committee unanimously passed a measure Tuesday to ease the financial burden on families who have children with ongoing medical needs.
Port Orange Republican Rep. Chase Tramont presented the bill (HB 1529) and explained that it aims to correct an oversight in previously passed legislation.
“A couple years ago,” Tramont said, “we established a program — Home Health Aides for Medically Fragile Children (HHAMFC) — and there was an oversight in there that parents who were now employed by the Home Health Aides, will likely make too much money to qualify for Medicaid, and that’s exactly who this population is supposed to benefit from.”
The HHAMFC program allows family members to be reimbursed by Medicaid if they are providing care to a relative who is 21 years old or younger with an underlying physical, mental, or cognitive impairment.
Tramont added that the intent of the previous legislation was “not to kiss them on one cheek and slap them on the other,” and further said that the bill would require the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) to authorize waivers.
“So, we’re going to rectify that with this bill,” Tramont said. “We’re asking AHCA to get authorization from the feds to grant a waiver for these families.”
The bill’s analysis states that the measure would increase the maximum hours a home health aide may receive from 8 to 12 hours per day. If they work more than 40 hours per week, a home health aide would also be required to justify their respective agency as to why no other qualified providers are available.
Two Amendments were adopted. The first aligns the legislation with federal requirements regarding the training requirements of Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) certified home health agencies.
“When I first filed the bill, it included significant reductions to the required hours of training that we established in ’23,” Tramont said. “Unfortunately, the reductions do not comply with the federal regulations, which require home health aides employed by CMS certified home health agencies to complete a minimum of 75 hours of training. So, this (now) requires the Home Health Aid for Medically Fragile Children training to comply with the federal regulations.”
The second adopted amendment explains that the proposed waiver would disregard any income earned while under the program.
“This simply clarifies that that the waiver should disregard income earned under the program and eligibility determination for any Medicaid benefit, instead of limiting it to eligibility determination for public assistance,” Tramont said.
The legislation is supported by the Florida Developmental Disabilities Council, Angels of Care, the Home Care Association of America, and the Home Care Association of Florida.
