No. CS/HB 915
Filed under Healthcare.
Medical Assistance Eligibility for Working Individuals with Disabilities; Provides definition of term "department"; creates Working People with Disabilities program within AHCA; provides for purpose of program; provides eligibility requirements; provides income & assets requirements for eligibility in program; requires department to provide written notice to eligible adults within specified timeframe; provides requirements for such notice; requires agency to share specified information with department.
Plain English Summary
AI-GENERATEDAdults 18 or older with a developmental disability who already receive a Medicaid home and community-based waiver and who are employed with earned income are automatically enrolled in this new program, no application required.
Enrollees can keep their Medicaid waiver while earning up to 550% of the SSI federal benefit rate each month, and the state must disregard up to $13,000 in individual assets, $24,000 for a couple, plus retirement accounts.
The state must notify each enrollee in writing when they join and every year after, explaining that enrollment is automatic but optional, how a special needs trust could help, and who to contact with questions.
The state's Medicaid agency must identify eligible current waiver recipients and hand their information to the Department of Children and Families, which then has 90 days after the law takes effect to notify everyone already qualified.
AIAnyone 18 or older with a developmental disability, already enrolled in one of five named Medicaid home and community-based waivers, and employed with earned income must be automatically enrolled in the program, with no application required.
AITo stay eligible for Medicaid through the program, an enrollee's monthly income cannot exceed 550 percent of the Supplemental Security Income Federal Benefit Rate, far above the income limits that apply under ordinary Medicaid waiver rules.
AIWhen deciding Medicaid eligibility for program enrollees, the state must ignore up to $13,000 in assets for an individual or $24,000 for a couple, on top of whatever asset allowance ordinary Medicaid rules already provide.
AIThe Department of Children and Families must send each enrollee a written notice when they first enroll in a qualifying waiver and at least once a year after that, covering their automatic enrollment and eligibility.
AIRetirement accounts recognized by the IRS are excluded entirely from the asset test used to decide Medicaid eligibility for program enrollees, on top of the flat dollar asset disregards.
AIEven though eligible people are enrolled automatically, the required notice must tell them participation in the program is optional, though the bill does not spell out how an enrollee would actually opt out.
AIThe state's Medicaid agency must identify Medicaid recipients who receive Supplemental Security Income and a qualifying home and community-based waiver, then share that information with the Department of Children and Families so it can run the program.
AIPeople already eligible under the program when the law passes are not left waiting for the annual notice cycle; the Department of Children and Families must send them the required written notice within 90 days of the effective date.