13. Modifying the requirement under 42 CFR 430.20 to submit the state plan amendment by March 31, 2020, to obtain an effective date during the first calendar quarter of 2020. The department of health services shall comply with s. 49.45 (2t) for any item included in the state plan amendment that is not specifically described in this subsection.
14. Simplifying program administration by allowing for temporary state plan flexibilities rather than requiring states to go through the state plan amendment submission and approval process.
15. Waiving timely filing requirements for billing under 42 USC 1395cc and 1396a (a) (54) and 42 CFR 424.44 to allow time for providers to implement changes.
16. Expanding hospital presumptive eligibility to include the population over age 65 and disabled.
17. Allowing flexibility for submission of electronic signatures on behalf of a Medical Assistance recipient by application assistors if a signature cannot be captured in person.
18. Waiving requirements for managed care organizations to complete initial and periodic recredentialing of network providers if the providers meet Medical Assistance provider enrollment requirements during the 2019 novel coronavirus public health emergency.
19. Requiring managed care organizations to extend preexisting authorizations through which a Medical Assistance recipient has received prior authorization until the termination of the 2019 novel coronavirus public health emergency.
20. Waiving sanctions under Section 1877 (g) of the Social Security Act relating to limitations on physician referral.
21. Allowing flexibility in how a teaching physician is present with the patient and resident including real-time audio and video or access through a window.
22. Waiving certain equipment requirements in hospital equipment maintenance requirement guidance issued on December 20, 2013, to maintain the health and safety of the hospitals' patients and providers.
23. Creating provisions allowing for additional flexibilities to allow for the use in nursing homes of physician extenders in place of medical directors and attending physicians and telehealth options.
24. Waiving notice of transfers within a nursing home due to medically necessary protection from the 2019 novel coronavirus.
25. Waiving requirements to document sufficient preparation and orientation to residents to ensure a safer and orderly intrafacility nursing home transfer.
26. Waiving requirements for a nursing home bedhold policy.
27. Waiving the requirements for nursing home in-service education under 42 CFR 483.35 (d) (7).
28. Waiving nurse staffing information and posting of that information for nursing homes.
29. Suspending the requirement that a pharmacist go monthly to the nursing home to do record review.
30. Waiving or lessening requirements for a paid feeding assistant program in nursing homes and setting guidelines for training to assist with the 2019 novel coronavirus pandemic.
31. Waiving the annual and quarterly screening of fire extinguishers and any other annual maintenance review for nursing homes.
32. Allowing all clinical hours required under 42 CFR 483.152 (a) (3) to be online simulation.
33. Waiving under 42 CFR 483.151 (b) (2) the loss of the Nurse Aide Training and Competency Evaluation Program.
34. Waiving the requirements under 42 CFR 483.160 for training of paid feeding assistants.
35. Allowing home health agencies to perform certifications, initial assessments, and determine homebound status remotely or by record review.
36. Waiving life safety codes for intermediate care facilities for individuals with intellectual disabilities under 42 CFR 483.70 and for hospitals, hospices, nursing homes, critical access hospitals and intermediate care facilities for individuals with intellectual disabilities relating to fire alarm system maintenance and testing, automatic sprinkler and standpipe system inspection, testing, and maintenance, and inspection and maintenance of portable fire extinguishers.
37. Relating to the home and community-based waiver programs of Family Care, IRIS, and Children's Long-Term Supports, any of the following:
a. Allowing all waiver services and administrative requirements that that can be provided with the same functional equivalency of face-to-face services to occur remotely.
b. Removing the requirement to complete a 6-month progress report to reauthorize prevocational service.
c. Removing the limitation that quotes from at least 3 providers must be obtained and submitted for home modifications.
d. Removing the limitation preventing supportive home care from being provided in adult family homes and residential care apartment complexes.
e. Removing the limitation preventing personal or nursing services for recipients in residential care apartment complexes.
f. Removing the limitation that participants cannot receive other waiver services on the same day as receiving respite care.
g. Allowing adult day service providers, prevocational providers, and supported employment providers to provide services in alternate settings.
h. Allowing up to 3 meals per day for home delivered meals for Family Care and IRIS program enrollees and adding home delivered meals as a benefit in the Children's Long-Term Supports waiver.
i. Removing the limitation on using moneys to relocate individuals from an institution or family home to an independent living arrangement.
j. Allowing any individual with an intellectual or developmental disability to reside in a community-based residential facility with greater than 8 beds.
k. Modifying the scope of the child care benefit to allow for the provision of child care payments for children under the age of 12 in the program for direct care workers and medical workers who need access to child care during the emergency.
l. Allowing for all home and community-based waiver services to be provided in temporary settings.
m. Allowing home and community-based waiver services to be provided temporarily in an acute care hospital or in a short-term institutional stay.
n. Allowing payment for home and community-based waiver services provided in settings outside this state.
o. Allowing general retailers to provide assistive technology or communication aids.
p. Allowing providers certified or licensed in other states or enrolled in the Medicare program to perform the same or comparable services in this state.
q. Delaying provider licensing or certification reviews.
r. Allowing the department of health services to waive provider qualifications as necessary to increase the pool of available providers.
s. Allowing 4-year background checks to be delayed.
t. Expanding transportation providers to include individual and transportation network companies.
u. Allowing noncertified individuals to provide home delivered meals.
v. Allowing nursing students to provide allowable nursing services.
w. Allowing parents to be paid caregivers for their minor children in the Children's Long-Term Supports program when providing a service that would otherwise have been performed and paid for by a provider.
x. Allowing for qualified individuals to provide training to unpaid caregivers.
y. Waiving choice of provider requirements.
z. Waiving the managed care network adequacy requirements under 42 CFR 438.68 and 438.207.
za. Waiving requirements to complete initial and required periodic credentialing of network providers.
zb. Adding a verbal and electronic method to signing required documents.
zc. Allowing the option to conduct evaluations, assessments, and person-centered service planning meetings virtually or remotely in lieu of face-to-face meetings.
zd. Allowing the lessening of prior approval or authorization requirements.
ze. Allowing for data entry of incidents into the incident reporting system outside of typical timeframes.
zf. Waiving the requirement to distribute member-centered plans to essential providers.
zg. Allowing the department of health services to draw federal financing match for payments, such as hardship or supplemental payments, to stabilize and retain providers who suffer extreme disruptions to their standard business model or revenue streams as a result of the 2019 novel coronavirus.
zh. Allowing the department of health services to waive participant liability for room and board when temporarily sheltered at noncertified facilities.
zi. Allowing payment for home and community-based waiver services that are not documented in the recipient's plan.
zj. Allowing managed care enrollees to proceed almost immediately to a state fair hearing without having a managed care plan resolve the appeal first by permitting the department of health services to modify the timeline for managed care plans to resolve appeals to one day so the impacted appeals satisfy the exhaustion requirements and give enrollees more time to request a fair hearing.
zk. Waiving public notice requirements that would otherwise be applicable to waiver changes.
zl. Modifying the tribal consultation timelines to allow for consultation at the next future tribal health directors meeting.
zm. Waiving timelines for reports, required surveys, and notifications.
zn. Allowing the extension of the certification period of level-of-care screeners.
zo. Allowing the waiver of requirements related to home and community-based settings on a case by case basis in order to ensure the health, safety and welfare of affected beneficiaries under 42 CFR 441.301 (c) (4).
zp. Applying any provisions under this paragraph automatically to the concurrent 1915 (b) waiver.
zq. Allowing the waiver enrollment or eligibility changes based on a completed functional screen resulting in a change in level-of-care.
zr. Allowing for continued enrollment in the Children's Long-Term Supports program past the ages of 18 and 21.
zs. Allowing the suspension of involuntary disenrollment.
(b) The department of health services may implement any of the items specified in par. (a
) only on a temporary basis to address the 2019 novel coronavirus pandemic for which the public health emergency described in par. (a) is declared, and any extension or renewal of the items in par. (a) shall comply with s. 20.940 and, if applicable, s. 49.45 (2t).
(11) Audit of programs and expenditures. Beginning July 1, 2020, and ending June 30, 2021, the legislative audit bureau shall use risk-based criteria to review selected programs affected by this act and selected expenditures made with funds authorized by this act and report the results of its reviews at least quarterly to the chief clerk of each house of the legislature and to the joint legislative audit committee.
(13) Communications limitations under campaign finance law. Section 11.1205 (1) does not apply to communications made during, or within 30 days after termination of, the public health emergency declared on March 12, 2020, by executive order 72, if the communications relate to the public health emergency.
(14) Authority to waive interest and penalties for general fund and transportation fund taxes. For any person who fails to remit a covered tax or fee by the date required by law, the secretary of revenue may waive, on a case-by-case basis, any penalty or interest that accrues during the applicable period if the date required by law for the remittance is during the applicable period and the secretary determines that the person's failure is due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. For purposes of this subsection, “applicable period” means the period covered by the public health emergency declared on March 12, 2020, by executive order 72, and “covered tax or fee” means a tax that is deposited or expected to be deposited into the general fund or a tax or fee that is deposited or expected to be deposited into the transportation fund.
(15) Autopsies and cremation of bodies of persons who died of COVID-19.
(a) Definition. In this subsection, “COVID-19” means an infection caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.
(b) Viewing of a corpse to be cremated following death from COVID-19. Notwithstanding s. 979.10 (1) (b), for the duration of the public health emergency declared on March 12, 2020, by executive order 72, if any physician, coroner, or medical examiner has signed the death certificate of a deceased person and listed COVID-19 as the underlying cause of death, a coroner or medical examiner shall issue a cremation permit to cremate the corpse of that deceased person without viewing the corpse.
(c) Time for cremation of a person who has died of COVID-19. Notwithstanding s. 979.10 (1) (a) (intro.), for the duration of the public health emergency declared on March 12, 2020, by executive order 72, if a physician, coroner, or medical examiner has signed the death certificate of a deceased person and listed COVID-19 as the underlying cause of death, a coroner or medical examiner shall issue, within 48 hours after the time of death, a cremation permit for the cremation of a corpse of a deceased person.
(d) Examination of the body of an inmate who has died of COVID-19. Notwithstanding s. 979.025, for the duration of the public health emergency declared on March 12, 2020, by executive order 72, if an individual who has been diagnosed with COVID-19 dies while he or she is in the legal custody of the department of corrections and confined to a correctional facility located in this state, the coroner or medical examiner may perform a limited examination of the deceased individual instead of a full autopsy, which may include an external examination of the body of the deceased individual, a review of the deceased individual's medical records, or a review of the deceased individual's radiographs.
(e) Requiring electronic signature on death certificates with 48 hours if death is caused by COVID-19. Notwithstanding s. 69.18 or any other requirements to the contrary, during the public health emergency declared on March 12, 2020, by executive order 72, if the underlying cause of a death is determined to be COVID-19, the person required to sign the death certificate shall provide an electronic signature on the death certificate within 48 hours after the death occurs.
(16) Credential renewal during COVID-19 emergency.
(a) Definition. In this subsection, “emergency period” means the period covered by the state of emergency related to public health declared by the governor on March 12, 2020, by executive order 72, and for the 60 days following the date that the state of emergency is terminated.
(b) Emergency medical services renewals. Notwithstanding s. 256.15 (6) (b) and (c), (8) (c) and (cm), and (10), during the emergency period, the department of health services may not require an ambulance service provider, emergency medical services practitioner, or emergency medical responder that holds a license, training permit, or certificate under s. 256.15 that has not been suspended or revoked to renew that license, training permit, or certificate or impose renewal requirements, such as continuing education, on an ambulance service provider, emergency medical services practitioner, or emergency medical responder that holds a license, training permit, or certificate under s. 256.15. A renewal that occurs after the emergency period is not considered a late renewal if the application to renew the credential is received before the next applicable renewal date. The department of health services may, for that next applicable renewal date, provide an exemption from or reduction of continuing education or other conditions for renewal.
(17) Child Care and Development Fund block grant funds. The federal Child Care and Development Fund block grant funds received under the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, P.L. 116-136, shall be credited to the appropriations under s. 20.437 (1) (mc) and (md). No moneys credited under this subsection may be encumbered or expended except as provided under s. 16.54 (2) (a) 2.
(18) Eligibility for local fair aids. Notwithstanding s. 93.23 (1) (c), each agricultural society, board, or association that received aid under s. 93.23 in 1950 shall continue to remain eligible for aid if a fair operated by the society, board, or association is not held during 2020 because of the public health emergency declared on March 12, 2020, by executive order 72.
(19) Applications for heating assistance. Households may apply for heating assistance under s. 16.27 (4) (a) at any time during calendar year 2020.
(20) Pay-for-performance; health information exchange. The department of health services shall develop for the Medical Assistance program a payment system based on performance to incentivize participation in health information data sharing to facilitate better patient care, reduced costs, and easier access to patient information. The department shall establish performance metrics for the payment system under this subsection that satisfy all of the following:
(a) The metric shall include participation by providers in a health information exchange at a minimum level of patient record access.
(b) The payment under the payment system shall increase as the participation level in the health information exchange increases.
