Administrative monitoring of child welfare providers, and administrative, licensure, and programmatic monitoring of mental health and substance abuse service providers.

The Department of Children and Families, the Department of Health, the Agency for Persons with Disabilities, the Agency for Health Care Administration, community-based care lead agencies, managing entities as defined in s. 394.9082, and agencies who have contracted with monitoring agents shall identify and implement changes that improve the efficiency of administrative monitoring of child welfare services, and the administrative, licensure, and programmatic monitoring of mental health and substance abuse service providers. For the purpose of this section, the term “mental health and substance abuse service provider” means a provider who provides services to this state’s priority population as defined in s. 394.674. To assist with that goal, each such agency shall adopt the following policies:

(1) Limit administrative monitoring to once every 3 years if the child welfare provider is accredited by an accrediting organization whose standards incorporate comparable licensure regulations required by this state. If the accrediting body does not require documentation that the state agency requires, that documentation shall be requested by the state agency and may be posted by the service provider on the data warehouse for the agency’s review. Notwithstanding the survey or inspection of an accrediting organization specified in this subsection, an agency specified in and subject to this section may continue to monitor the service provider as necessary with respect to:

(a) Ensuring that services for which the agency is paying are being provided.

(b) Investigating complaints or suspected problems and monitoring the service provider’s compliance with resulting negotiated terms and conditions, including provisions relating to consent decrees that are unique to a specific service and are not statements of general applicability.

(c) Ensuring compliance with federal and state laws, federal regulations, or state rules if such monitoring does not duplicate the accrediting organization’s review pursuant to accreditation standards.

Medicaid certification and precertification reviews are exempt from this subsection to ensure Medicaid compliance.

(2) Limit administrative, licensure, and programmatic monitoring to once every 3 years if the mental health or substance abuse service provider is accredited by an accrediting organization whose standards incorporate comparable licensure regulations required by this state. If the services being monitored are not the services for which the provider is accredited, the limitations of this subsection do not apply. If the accrediting body does not require documentation that the state agency requires, that documentation, except documentation relating to licensure applications and fees, must be requested by the state agency and may be posted by the service provider on the data warehouse for the agency’s review. Notwithstanding the survey or inspection of an accrediting organization specified in this subsection, an agency specified in and subject to this section may continue to monitor the service provider as necessary with respect to:

(a) Ensuring that services for which the agency is paying are being provided.

(b) Investigating complaints, identifying problems that would affect the safety or viability of the service provider, and monitoring the service provider’s compliance with resulting negotiated terms and conditions, including provisions relating to consent decrees that are unique to a specific service and are not statements of general applicability.

(c) Ensuring compliance with federal and state laws, federal regulations, or state rules if such monitoring does not duplicate the accrediting organization’s review pursuant to accreditation standards.

Federal certification and precertification reviews are exempt from this subsection to ensure Medicaid compliance.

(3) Allow private sector development and implementation of an Internet-based, secure, and consolidated data warehouse and archive for maintaining corporate, fiscal, and administrative records of child welfare, mental health, or substance abuse service providers. A service provider shall ensure that the data is up to date and accessible to the applicable agency under this section and the appropriate agency subcontractor. A service provider shall submit any revised, updated information to the data warehouse within 10 business days after receiving the request. An agency that conducts administrative monitoring of child welfare, mental health, or substance abuse service providers under this section must use the data warehouse for document requests. If the information provided to the agency by the provider’s data warehouse is not current or is unavailable from the data warehouse and archive, the agency may contact the service provider directly. A service provider that fails to comply with an agency’s requested documents may be subject to a site visit to ensure compliance. Access to the data warehouse must be provided without charge to an applicable agency under this section. At a minimum, the records must include the service provider’s:

(a) Articles of incorporation.

(b) Bylaws.

(c) Governing board and committee minutes.

(d) Financial audits.

(e) Expenditure reports.

(f) Compliance audits.

(g) Organizational charts.

(h) Governing board membership information.

(i) Human resource policies and procedures.

(j) Staff credentials.

(k) Monitoring procedures, including tools and schedules.

(l) Procurement and contracting policies and procedures.

(m) Monitoring reports.