The Florida Senate

408.062  Research, analyses, studies, and reports.--

(1)  The agency shall have the authority to conduct research, analyses, and studies relating to health care costs and access to and quality of health care services as access and quality are affected by changes in health care costs. Such research, analyses, and studies shall include, but not be limited to, research and analysis relating to:

(a)  The financial status of any health care facility or facilities subject to the provisions of this chapter.

(b)  The impact of uncompensated charity care on health care facilities and health care providers.

(c)  The state's role in assisting to fund indigent care.

(d)  The availability and affordability of health insurance for small businesses.

(e)  Total health care expenditures in the state according to the sources of payment and the type of expenditure.

(f)  The quality of health services, using techniques such as small area analysis, severity adjustments, and risk-adjusted mortality rates.

(g)  The development of an alternative uniform system of financial reporting of gross revenues per adjusted admission, based on the American Institute of Certified Public Accounts' Hospital Audit and Accounting Guide, which also measures the services provided by a hospital to charity, medically indigent, and other underinsured patients. Recommendations for the development of an alternative uniform system of financial reporting shall be submitted to the Legislature by July 1, 1993.

(h)  The development of physician payment systems which are capable of taking into account the amount of resources consumed and the outcomes produced in the delivery of care.

(i)  The impact of subacute admissions on hospital revenues and expenses for purposes of calculating adjusted admissions as defined in s. 408.07.

(2)  The board shall evaluate data from nursing home financial reports and shall document and monitor:

(a)  Total revenues, annual change in revenues, and revenues by source and classification, including contributions for a resident's care from the resident's resources and from the family and contributions not directed toward any specific resident's care.

(b)  Average resident charges by geographic region, payor, and type of facility ownership.

(c)  Profit margins by geographic region and type of facility ownership.

(d)  Amount of charity care provided by geographic region and type of facility ownership.

(e)  Resident days by payor category.

(f)  Experience related to Medicaid conversion as reported under s. 408.061.

(g)  Other information pertaining to nursing home revenues and expenditures.

The findings of the board shall be included in an annual report to the Governor and Legislature by January 1 each year.

(3)  The agency may assess annually the caesarean section rate in Florida hospitals using the analysis methodology that the agency determines most appropriate. To assist the agency in determining the impact of this chapter on Florida hospitals' caesarean section rates, each provider hospital, as defined in s. 383.336, shall notify the agency of the date of implementation of the practice parameters and the date of the first meeting of the hospital peer review board created pursuant to this chapter. The agency shall use these dates in monitoring any change in provider hospital caesarean section rates. An annual report based on this monitoring and assessment shall be submitted to the Governor, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the President of the Senate by the agency, with the first annual report due January 1, 1993.

(4)  The agency may also prepare such summaries and compilations or other supplementary reports based on the information analyzed by the agency under this section, as will advance the purposes of this chapter.

(5)  The board is directed to research hospital financial and nonfinancial data in order to determine the need for establishing a category of inpatient hospital patients defined as medically indigent. For purposes of this section, a medically indigent patient is an individual who is admitted as an inpatient to a hospital, who is not classified as a Medicare beneficiary, a Medicaid recipient, or a charity care patient, but who has insufficient financial resources to pay for needed medical care. In its determination of the need for establishing a category of medically indigent patients, the board shall consider the creation of income and asset levels that would establish a person as medically indigent. The board shall submit a report and recommendations to the Governor and the Legislature on the establishment of a category of medically indigent inpatient hospital patients on or before January 1, 1994. If the board recommends the establishment of a category of medically indigent patients, it shall provide a specific recommendation for the eligibility determination process to be used in classifying a patient as medically indigent.

History.--s. 69, ch. 92-33; s. 12, ch. 93-129.