A newly signed state law will allow advanced practice registered nurses and physician assistants in Florida to prescribe patients Medicaid home health services.
“Home is the best place for healing and recovery for many patients,” Rep. Gallop Franklin II (D), who sponsored the bill, said in a statement. “This new law to strengthen home health services promotes independence, enhances Florida’s quality of life, and reduces healthcare costs by preventing unnecessary hospitalizations.”
Florida’s new law goes beyond the scope of the CARES Act, allowing APRNs to have a role in ordering home health services. Prior to the 2020 CARES Act, federal law only allowed physicians to prescribe home health for Medicare and Medicaid Enrollees. The CARES Act expanded the allowable ordering provider type to include nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists or physician assistants.
By allowing APRNs and physician assistants to prescribe home health care, Franklin said Florida’s home health services will be made available to a wider share of beneficiaries. Since Medicaid reimbursement rates often trail those offered by private insurers, some physicians decline to see Medicaid patients, he explained. Giving APRNs and PAs the ability to order home health care will ensure lower socioeconomic patients can receive the care that they need.
“It’s hard for people with private insurance to see doctors, so imagine [the situation for] Medicaid patients,” Franklin told McKnight’s Home Care Daily Pulse in an interview. “There’s a need there.”
The bill is also a cost-saving measure, Franklin noted. Helping more beneficiaries access home healthcare reduces their likelihood of being hospitalized, he said, or having their health worsen due to forgoing care. Home health represents the cheaper alternative.
The bill received unanimous support in Florida’s legislature, and received zero votes against during a Senate roll. Franklin said the approval is evidence of “an appetite to increase access for Medicaid patients to quality health care services.”
“I think it shows that the legislature is willing to take a pragmatic approach to trying to increase the quality of the patients in the Medicaid population, and still be cognizant of the cost of health care,” Franklin said.
The new law has been given a start date of July 1, 2024.
