AHCA

Two families from Northeast Florida claim the state's Medicaid program is illegally applying the same criteria to infants and children with medically complex needs that it applies to adults.

Thirty-four petitions have been filed in administrative court by companies that are challenging AHCA's decisions to deny applications for hospice services or to approve those of competitors.

Advocates for poor, elderly and disabled individuals, who have been pressing the DeSantis administration to leverage the additional funding since spring, hailed the plan.

Gov. Ron DeSantis let an executive order declaring a public health emergency expire Saturday, and with it many regulatory flexibilities providers received during the pandemic including those related to telehealth.

New hospice programs may now be coming to seven counties, including Broward, Lee and Manatee, which were not included in a Feb. 5 list of areas that needed new programs.

Among the changes: “Wrap around” payments will go from a monthly back to a quarterly schedule and prior authorizations will resume for behavioral health services.

The state wants a 30-day extension to consider the effects of using added funds from the American Rescue Plan for home- and community-based services.

Stuart-based Positive Behavior Support alleges that the electronic visit-verification system is changing behavior-analysis claims after submission and making them invalid.

At Gov. Ron DeSantis' direction, AHCA files a friend-of-the-court brief siding with the federal government in a lawsuit filed by a pharmaceutical industry group.

U.S. District Judge William Dimitrouleas last week ended the case after attorneys for The Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills and the Department of Health and Human Services agreed to the dismissal.