Title: Nursing Home Facilities

Summary: Revising the division of an award of punitive damages between a claimant and the Quality of Long-Term Care Facility Improvement Trust Fund; authorizing the trust fund to expend certain funds on a grant program administered by the Agency for Health Care Administration to provide funding to reimburse nursing home facilities for the cost of purchasing, installing, repairing, replenishing, or improving certain onsite operational generators and certain onsite supplies of fuel; specifying that such reimbursement may not exceed the amount of appropriated funds and must be made on a first-come, first-served basis, etc.

Full Text:
An act relating to nursing home facilities; amending s. 400.0238, F.S.; revising the division of an award of punitive damages between a claimant and the Quality of Long-Term Care Facility Improvement Trust Fund; revising provisions related to punitive damages to include provisions for cases that are settled; amending s. 400.0239, F.S.; authorizing the trust fund to expend certain funds on a grant program administered by the Agency for Health Care Administration to provide funding to reimburse nursing home facilities for the cost of purchasing, installing, repairing, replenishing, or improving certain onsite operational generators and certain onsite supplies of fuel; creating s. 400.0627, F.S.; providing legislative intent; requiring the agency, within any funds appropriated for that purpose, to reimburse nursing home facilities for the cost of purchasing, installing, repairing, replenishing, or improving certain onsite operational generators and certain onsite supplies of fuel; providing eligibility criteria for such reimbursement; specifying that such reimbursement may not exceed the amount of appropriated funds and must be made on a first-come, first-served basis; providing construction; authorizing the agency to adopt rules; providing for the appropriation of general revenue and trust fund monies to the agency for the purpose of reimbursing eligible nursing home facilities as provided in the act, subject to legislative appropriation; providing an effective date. Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: Section 1. Subsection (4) of section 400.0238, Florida Statutes, is amended to read: 400.0238 Punitive damages; limitation.  (4) Notwithstanding any other law to the contrary, if a claimant has received a final judgment for the amount of punitive damages or there is a settlement of a case in which the claimant was granted leave to amend his or her complaint to add a claim for punitive damages, the punitive award must awarded pursuant to this section shall be equally divided between with the claimant receiving percent of the award and the Quality of Long-Term Care Facility Improvement Trust Fund receiving percent of the award,in accordance with the following provisions: (a)  In the event of a judgment, the clerk of the court shall transmit a copy of the jury verdict to the Chief Financial Officer by certified mail. In the final judgment, the court shall order the percentages of the award, payable as provided in this subsection. In the event of a settlement, the parties shall transmit by certified mail to the Chief Financial Officer a statement of the proportionate share due to the Quality of Long Term Care Facility Improvement Trust Fund herein.(b) A settlement agreement entered into between the original parties to the action after a verdict has been returned must provide a proportionate share payable to the Quality of Long-Term Care Facility Improvement Trust Fund specified herein. For purposes of this paragraph, a proportionate share is a percent 50-percent share of that percentage of the settlement amount which the punitive damages portion of the verdict bore to the total of the compensatory and punitive damages in the verdict. (c) The Department of Financial Services shall collect or cause to be collected all payments due the state under this section. Such payments are made to the Chief Financial Officer and deposited in the appropriate fund specified in this subsection. (d) If the full amount of punitive damages awarded cannot be collected, the claimant and the other recipient designated pursuant to this subsection are each entitled to a proportionate share of the punitive damages collected. Section 2. Paragraph (h) is added to subsection (2) of section 400.0239, Florida Statutes, to read: 400.0239 Quality of Long-Term Care Facility Improvement Trust Fund.  (2) Expenditures from the trust fund shall be allowable for direct support of the following: (h) A grant program administered by the agency to provide funding to reimburse nursing home facilities for the cost of purchasing, installing, repairing, replenishing, or improving certain onsite operational generators and certain onsite supplies of fuel.Section 3. Section 400.0627, Florida Statutes, is created to read: 400.0627   Emergency power.  (1)   It is the intent of the Legislature to encourage each nursing home facility in this state to have the necessary emergency power equipment to provide for the health and safety of its residents and residents of other facilities who may be temporarily placed in the facility due to emergency evacuations. (2)   To the extent that funds are available, the agency shall reimburse an eligible nursing home facility for the costs of purchasing, installing, repairing, replenishing, or improving an onsite operational generator and an onsite supply of fuel sufficient to sustain the generator for at least hours during a power outage. A nursing home facility is eligible for reimbursement if the facility meets all of the following requirements: (a)   Has not been cited for a class I deficiency within the months before the submission of an application for reimbursement. (b)   Is not located within a hurricane evacuation zone or the-year flood plain of the county in which it is located. (c)   Has the capacity, as determined by the agency, to house evacuated residents from other facilities during an emergency. (d)   Agrees to receive residents who are transferred from other facilities during an emergency. (3) Reimbursement to a facility under subsection (2) is available to the extent that funds are specifically appropriated for such reimbursements and must be made available on a first come, first-served basis. ( )   This section may not be construed to impose any requirement on a nursing home facility. ( ) The agency may adopt rules necessary to administer this section. Section 4.  Subject to legislative appropriation for the 2018-2019 fiscal year, nonrecurring funds from the General Revenue Fund, from the Quality of Long-Term Care Facility Improvement Trust Fund, and from the Medical Care Trust Fund shall be appropriated to the Agency for Health Care Administration for the purpose of reimbursing eligible nursing home facilities as provided in this act for costs incurred during the 2017-2018 fiscal year for purchasing, installing, repairing, replenishing, or impr oving emergency power equipment. Each provider s Medicaid rate as of October 1, 2018, will be increased by the cost of the emergency power equipment incurred divided by months of Medicaid days. Any rate caps or freezes do not apply to this increase in Medicaid rate. Section 5. This act shall take effect upon becoming a law.