The Florida Senate

409.1671  Foster care and related services; privatization.--

(1)  It is the intent of the Legislature to encourage the Department of Children and Family Services to contract with competent community-based agencies to provide foster care and related services. By privatizing these services, the support and commitment of communities to the reunification of families and care of children and their families will be strengthened, and efficiencies as well as increased accountability will be gained. These services may include family preservation, independent living, emergency shelter, residential group care, foster care, therapeutic foster care, intensive residential treatment, postadjudication legal services, foster care supervision, postadjudication case management, postplacement supervision, permanent foster care, family reunification, the filing of a petition for the termination of parental rights, and adoption.

(2)  The department may contract for the delivery, administration, or management of protective services, the services specified in subsection (1) relating to foster care, and other related services or programs, as appropriate. The department shall retain responsibility for the quality of contracted services and programs and shall ensure that services are delivered in accordance with applicable federal and state statutes and regulations.

(3)

(a)  The department shall establish a quality assurance program for the privatization of services. The quality assurance program must include standards for each specific component of these services. The department shall establish minimum thresholds for each component. Each program operated pursuant to contract with a community-based agency must be evaluated annually by the department or by an objective competent entity designated by the department under the provisions of the quality assurance program. The evaluation must be financed from cost savings associated with the privatization of services. The department shall submit an annual report regarding quality performance, outcome measure attainment, and cost efficiency to the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Minority leader of each house of the Legislature, and the Governor no later than January 31 of each year, beginning in 1998. The quality assurance program must be funded through administrative savings generated by this act.

(b)  The department shall establish and operate a comprehensive system to measure and report annually the outcomes and effectiveness of the services that have been privatized. The department shall use these findings in making recommendations to the Governor and the Legislature for future program and funding priorities in the child welfare system.

(4)

(a)  The community-based agency must comply with statutory requirements and agency regulations in the provision of contractual services. Each foster home, therapeutic foster home, emergency shelter, or other placement facility operated by the community-based agency must be licensed by the Department of Children and Family Services under chapter 402 or this chapter. Each community-based agency must be licensed as a child-caring or child-placing agency by the department under this chapter.

(b)  A community-based agency providing contractual services under this section may be issued a Medicaid provider number pursuant to s. 409.907 to enable the agency to maximize federal support for these services under the state's Medicaid plan. A community-based agency must also participate in and cooperate with any federal program that will assist in the maximization of federal support for those services, as directed by the department.

(5)  Beginning in fiscal year 1996-1997, the Department of Children and Family Services shall establish a minimum of five model programs. These models must be established in the department's districts 1, 4, and 13; in subdistrict 8A; and in a fifth district to be determined by the department, with the concurrence of the appropriate district health and human services board. For comparison of privatization savings, the fifth model program must be contracted with a competent for-profit corporation. Providers of these model programs may be selected from a single source pursuant to s. 287.057(3)(c) and must be established, community-based organizations within the district or subdistrict. Contracts with organizations responsible for the model programs shall include the management and administration of all privatized services specified in subsection (1), except for funds necessary to manage the contract. If the community-based organization selected for a model program under this subsection is not a Medicaid provider, the organization shall be issued a Medicaid provider number pursuant to s. 409.907 for the provision of services currently authorized under the state Medicaid plan to those children encompassed in this model and in a manner not to exceed the current level of state expenditure. Each district and subdistrict that participates in the model program effort or any future privatization effort as described in this section must thoroughly analyze and report the complete direct and indirect costs of delivering these services through the department and the full cost of privatization, including the cost of monitoring and evaluating the contracted services.

History.--s. 49, ch. 94-164; s. 5, ch. 96-402; s. 193, ch. 97-101.