Current Updates (as of 4/30/2021)
Managed Long-Term Services and Supports
On September 17, 2020 CBS Miami reported that the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) will remove individual on the waitlist for Florida’s Medicaid managed long-term care program. Due to a law passed in 2020, waitlists are require to only include individuals who are most at-risk for being placed in a nursing home. Individuals with an assessment score of “low priority” will not be placed on the waitlist. 1,562 of the 59,259 people on the waitlist are considered high-risk.
(Source: CBS Miami Medicaid Waitlist; 9-17-2020)
Past Updates
Section 1115 Demonstration Waiver
On July 31, 2014, CMS approved Florida to continue its §1115 Managed Medical Assistance (MMA) demonstration waiver through June 30, 2017. The waiver was initially approved in 2005. Under the demonstration, managed care participation is mandatory for TANF-related populations and the Aged and Disabled group, as well as individuals eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid. The following populations may choose to be participants in the managed care demonstration: Individuals who have other creditable health care coverage, excluding Medicare; individuals age 65 and over residing in a mental health treatment facility meeting the Medicare conditions of participation for a hospital or nursing facility; individuals in an intermediate care facility for ID; individuals with DD enrolled in the HCBS waiver pursuant to state law; and Medicaid recipients waiting for waiver services. (Source: Medicaid.gov)
Approval Letter (7/31/2014)
Fact Sheet (7/31/2014)
On October 8, 2014, the Florida chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics sent a letter to the secretaries of the Florida Department of Health and the Agency for Health Care Administration requesting urgent, face-to-face talks about barriers to care for medically fragile children related to the state’s rollout of its Managed Medicaid Assistance (MMA) program. The MMA program requires nearly all of the 3.6 million Floridians on Medicaid to be enrolled in managed care plans. Under the program, medically fragile children were supposed to be able to continue seeing their current doctors through the Children’s Medical Services (CMS) program; however, some families of CMS recipients were mistakenly told that they had to switch to a private plan, thereby dropping some CMS patients from their doctors’ network. (Source: Health News Florida, 10/16/2014; HMA Weekly Roundup, 10/22/2014)
On March 27, 2015, the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) posted its draft §1115 Medical Managed Assistance (MMA) Waiver Amendment Request, along with a Public Notice of two April meetings to solicit public input about the waiver amendment request. The state is seeking the waiver amendment to change the auto-assignment criteria and remove the 30-day wait period between eligibility determination and managed care plan enrollment. (Source: Link no longer available)
On August 3, 2017, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) approved Florida’s section 1115 waiver—Managed Medical Assistance Program (MMA)—renewal application. The new demonstration period runs from August 3, 2017, through June 30, 2022. CMS also established the state’s low-income pool (LIP) uncompensated care allotment, which is set at $1.5 billion annually. (Source: Waiver Approval Letter 8/3/2017)
Medicaid Managed LTSS Program & State Initiative to Integrate Care for Dual Eligible Individuals
The Florida Long-Term Care Community Diversion Program, operating under §1915(a) and §1915(c) waiver authorities, provided community-based services to people who would otherwise qualify for Medicaid nursing home placement. The LTC Community Diversion Program was phased out in 2014. (Source: Department of Elder Affairs Medicaid Waiver Programs Website; Approved Waiver)
The 2011 Florida Legislature passed HB 7107 which directed the state to restructure its Medicaid program into an integrated managed care program requiring almost all Medicaid recipients (including TANF, SSI and duals) to receive covered services through the Statewide Medicaid Managed Care (SMMC) program. In August 2011, in accordance with this legislation, the state submitted to CMS concurrent §1915(b) and §1915(c) waiver applications to implement the Florida Long Term Care Managed Care Program. (Source: Florida Long-Term Care Managed Care Program Website; CMS and Truven Health Analytics, 7/2012; HMA Weekly Roundup, 6/4/2014)
§1915(b) waiver application
§1915(c) waiver application
In February 2013, CMS approved the state’s §1915(b)(c) Florida Long Term Care Managed Care Program combination waiver, effective July 1, 2013 through June 30, 2016. From August 2013 through March 2014, the state regionally phased out five of its current HCBS waivers and transitioned eligible recipients from its LTC Community Diversion Program into its new Statewide Medicaid Managed Care Long-Term Care Program. Mandatory enrollment populations include dual eligibles (under fee-for-service). (Source: Department of Elder Affairs Medicaid Waiver Programs Website; Florida Long-Term Care Managed Care Program Website)
Approval letter (2/1/2013)
A Snapshot of the Florida Medicaid Long-term Care Program (2/18/2014)
On July 1, 2014, Florida began offering a Medicaid managed health plan designed exclusively for people with serious mental illness. The plan, offered by Magellan Complete Care, is part of a wave of state experimentation to coordinate physical and mental health care for those enrolled in Medicaid. About 140,000 low-income Floridians are likely to be eligible, and Magellan predicts about 20,000 will participate voluntarily in the first year. Medicaid recipients who meet the plan's criteria will automatically be assigned to it by the state, with the option to opt into a different managed care plan within 90 days of enrollment. Coverage began July 1 in Miami-Dade and Broward counties and will roll out to other regions by September 2014. (Source: Pensacola News Journal, 7/5/2014; HMA Weekly Roundup, 7/9/2014)
On July 14, 2014, the state announced all individuals with critical needs who have been on the Agency for Persons with Disabilities (APD) waiting list as of July 1, 2014 will be offered enrollment in the HCBS Medicaid Waiver. (Source: State APD News Release, 7/14/2014)
On January 7, 2016, the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) released information that long-term care beneificiaries are reporting the greatest improvement in quality of life in the agency's history. For example, over 77 percent of enrollees in the state's Long Term Care plan report improvement in their quality of life. (Source: Link no longer available 1/7/2016)
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The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration recently completed a public comment period on a draft application to renew Florida’s Long-term Care 1915(c) waiver, with an effective date of July 1, 2016. Comments on the application were due by May 27, 2016. Alterations to the Long-Term Care Waiver in the application, which authorizes LTSS benefits under the State’s MLTSS program, include:
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On November 8, 2016, the Herald Tribune reported that the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) will submit a proposal to extend the state’s managed long term services and supports (MLTSS) program to the Centers for Medicaid & Medicaid Services (CMS) following the closing of the state’s public comment period on November 10, 2016. The proposal would extend the state’s Medicaid managed care waiver through 2020. (Source: Herald Tribune 11/8/2016)
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On December 13, 2016, Health News Florida reported that Florida’s Senate President is interested in reviewing Florida’s MLTSS program. The interest comes as Florida is nearing the end of the state’s five-year MLTSS contracts with managed care organizations (MCOs), and there has been pushback from the state’s nursing home lobby on renewing mandatory managed care enrollment for individuals residing in nursing facilities. Currently, Florida has over 3 million Medicaid beneficiaries enrolled in managed care, 94,000 of which have LTSS needs. (Source: Health News Florida 12/13/2016; News4Jax 12/14/2016) On December 30, 2016, the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) submitted an application to extend the state’s section 1115 waiver, which includes MLTSS in the state. The extension period would be from July 1, 2017 – June 30, 2022. According to AHCA, the managed care waiver has succeeded in improving health outcomes for Floridian Medicaid beneficiaries, while helping to control costs. (Source: Florida Politics 12/30/2016) On January 10, 2017, News4Jax reported that the Florida Health Care Association, which represents nursing facilities in the state, is continuing to push the state to carve out certain older adults from MLTSS—namely, older adults with extended stays in nursing facilities. The nursing home lobby asserts that the state is needlessly paying MCOs an administrative fee to manage beneficiary care but they are not getting any extra services or care because they are in a nursing facility. The state disagrees, however, and an official from AHCA noted the state is committed to keeping the continuum of care needs under a managed care system, and that they have seen many cases of long-term residents of facilities returning home and being successfully cared for in the community. (Source: News4Jax 1/10/2017)
On March 21, 2017, Florida Politics reported that an analysis conducted by AHCA on a proposed bill (SB 682) that would carve out nursing facilities from the states’ Medicaid managed care program, found that it would add an additional $200 million to the state’s annual operating costs. This is largely due to the fact that MCOs in Florida have been successful at transferring and keeping members in their homes and communities, which is cheaper than institutional care received in a facility, such as a nursing home. (Source: Florida Politics 3/21/2017)
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