New Laws That Affect Special Needs Children
One of the most important reasons to retain a Jacksonville special needs attorney is keeping up with relevant changes to the law. These updates may affect your and your child’s rights moving forward. Tupper Law works to stay on top of legislative changes so we can deliver the highest quality of legal service to our clients.
In 2025, two new state laws went into effect that were designed to improve special needs children’s access to the care they deserve. Here is what parents should know about the updates:
Changes to the Home Health Aide for Medically Fragile Children program (HHAMFC)
SB 1156 enacted much-needed reforms to HHAMFC, which is also known as the Family Home Health Aide (FHHA) program. The updates will allow children with complex medical needs and disabilities to have more and better access to high-quality home health care.
Here are a few details of what SB 1156 accomplished:
- Strengthening family aide requirements: Caregivers must successfully complete 76 hours of home health aide training, a reduction from the previous 85-hour requirement. They must also complete 40 hours of aide theory, 20 hours of specific skills matched with the child’s unique care plan, and 16 hours of supervised clinical practice.
- Ongoing training and CPR certification: The new law also imposes ongoing training requirements for family aides, which will be based on modifications made to the child’s plan of care. In addition, the aide must maintain current CPR certification.
- 48-hour adverse incident reporting: Home health agencies must report deaths, brain or spinal cord injuries, and similar incidents to Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) within 48 hours. They must also share details of such events with managed-care plans.
- Oversight enhancements: SB 1156 also improves oversight through annual assessments, adverse incident reporting (mentioned above) and hospitalization tracking, and other measures designed to compare the quality of care that aides deliver versus what nurses deliver.
- Increases daily utilization limits: The cap on daily home health aide service has been raised to 12 hours per day and 40 hours per week, with at least $25/hour guaranteed Medicaid reimbursement. Exceptions to the 40-hour weekly cap are allowed on medically necessary grounds.
- Waivers to cut down on red tape: Because families often rely on Medicaid to provide for their special needs children, the new law directed the AHCA to file waivers which could reduce red tape that delayed the delivery of care.
In summary, home health aides will have better and more child-specific training than they did before, but they will need to undergo additional training as changes in the child’s plan dictate. CPR certification is required, which is an essential in the event of an emergency. The law’s stronger adverse incident reporting will help parents know about problems with any aides.
Also, better oversight requirements will help parents understand the quality of care their child receives. Finally, more daily utilization limits, with longer hours and less red tape, means more Medicaid-covered care.
Oversight of Children’s Medical Services (CMS) reassigned to the AHCA
CMS is a collection of programs that provide Medicaid-eligible healthcare services to special needs children in Jacksonville and elsewhere in Florida. The objective of CMS is to provide preventative, evaluative, and early intervention services to the children who need it most.
If you have children that are either Florida Medicaid (Title XIX) or Florida KidCare (Title XXI) eligible, you are likely already familiar with CMS. Its Managed Care Plan provides some of the most extensive care available for special needs children.
Starting July 1, 2025, oversight of Children’s Medical Services was reassigned from the Florida Department of Health (DOH) to the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA). The move should allow more consolidation and streamlining of healthcare services for children.
These are some important notes parents should keep in mind about the change:
- The move does not affect recipients’ access to medical providers, services, and plan networks
- Enrollment in the CMS Managed Care Plan does not change
- The AHCA will continue to operate its Medicaid Helpline to assist both providers and recipients
- DOH will continue to perform clinical eligibility for the CMS Managed Care Plan, but actual and likely more efficient administration will fall under the AHCA
The key takeaway for parents of special needs children is efficiency. The oversight change won’t affect their current plans or their children’s access to care, nor will enrollment change. The AHCA will also continue to operate its Medicaid Helpline.