(1) The agency, pursuant to s. 154.3105, shall adopt rules which provide statewide eligibility determination procedures, forms, and criteria which shall be used by all counties for determining whether a person financially qualifies as indigent for the purposes of this part.

(a) The criteria used to determine eligibility must be uniform statewide and include, at a minimum, which assets, if any, may be included in the determination, which verification of income shall be required, which categories of persons shall be eligible, and any other criteria which may be determined as necessary.

Terms Used In Florida Statutes 154.308

  • Agency: means the Agency for Health Care Administration. See Florida Statutes 154.304
  • Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
  • Eligibility determination procedures: means the process used by a county or the agency to evaluate a person's financial eligibility, eligibility for state-funded or federally funded programs, and the availability of insurance, in order to document a person as a qualified indigent for the purpose of this part. See Florida Statutes 154.304
  • Hospital: means an establishment as defined in…. See Florida Statutes 154.304
  • Participating hospital: means a hospital which is eligible to receive reimbursement under the provisions of this part because it has been certified by the agency as having met its charity care obligation and has either:
    (a) A formal signed agreement with a county or counties to treat such county's indigent patients; or
    (b) Demonstrated to the agency that at least 2. See Florida Statutes 154.304
  • person: includes individuals, children, firms, associations, joint adventures, partnerships, estates, trusts, business trusts, syndicates, fiduciaries, corporations, and all other groups or combinations. See Florida Statutes 1.01
  • Regional referral hospital: means any hospital that is eligible to receive reimbursement under the provision of this part because it has met its charity care obligation and it meets the definition of teaching hospital as defined in…. See Florida Statutes 154.304
  • writing: includes handwriting, printing, typewriting, and all other methods and means of forming letters and characters upon paper, stone, wood, or other materials. See Florida Statutes 1.01
(b) The methodology for determining financial eligibility must be uniform statewide such that any county or the state could determine whether a person is a qualified indigent.
(2) Determination of financial eligibility as a qualified indigent may occur either prior to a person’s admission to a participating or a regional referral hospital or subsequent to such admission.
(3) Determination of whether a hospital patient not already determined eligible meets or does not meet eligibility standards to financially qualify as indigent shall be made within 60 days following notification by the hospital requesting a determination of indigency, by certified letter, to the county known or believed to be the county of residence or to the agency. If, for any reason, the county or agency is unable to determine a patient’s eligibility within the allotted timeframe, the hospital shall be notified in writing of the reason or reasons.
(4) A patient determined eligible as a qualified indigent subsequent to his or her admission to a participating hospital or a regional referral hospital shall be considered to have been qualified upon admission. Such determination shall be made by a person designated by the governing board of the county to make such a determination or by the agency.
(5) Notwithstanding any other provision of this part, any county may establish thresholds of financial eligibility which are less restrictive than 100 percent of the federal poverty line. However, a county may not establish eligibility thresholds which are more restrictive than 100 percent of the federal poverty line.
(6) Notwithstanding any other provision of this part, there is hereby established a spend-down program for persons who would otherwise qualify as qualified indigent persons, but whose average family income, for the 12 months preceding the determination, is between 100 percent and 150 percent of the federal poverty level. The agency shall adopt, by rule, procedures for the spend-down program. The rule shall require that in order to qualify, a person must have incurred bills for hospital care which would otherwise have qualified for payment under this part. This subsection does not apply to persons who are residents of counties that are at their 10-mill cap on October 1, 1991.
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