Welcome to the Florida Association of Counties

Communcations & Publications

Opportunity to more than double local dollars: every $1.00 a county directs to three substance abuse services results in federal drawdown of $1.43 Medicaid Federal Financial Participation.

There is the potential to draw down $22 million new dollars for substance abuse services to Medicaid recipients, based on initial county commitments. Dollars are reimbursed directly to county government.

Fourteen (14) counties alone allocate over $34 million annually to local substance abuse services, and most of these dollars are unmatched. The following twenty-nine (29) counties submitted commitment forms to AHCA: Alachua, Charlotte, Brevard, Broward, Citrus, Clay, Dade, Dixie, Escambia, Flagler, Hernando, Hillsborough, Jackson, Jacksonville, Lake, Lee, Leon, Martin, Manatee, Marion, Orange, Osceola, Palm Beach, Polk, Pinellas, Sarasota, Santa Rosa, Volusia, and Wakulla

Eligible services: Intervention ($60 an hour), Aftercare ($60 an hour), and Peer Recovery Support ($ 39 an hour individual and $9.76 an hour group services.)

Possible target populations: children and their families in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems; handicapped adults with addictions; clients completing addictions treatment who require continuing support; Medicaid eligible adults and juveniles returning to the community from institutions.

Possible referral sources: JACs, jails, courts, homeless programs, schools, Emergency Rooms, child welfare (Community Based Care agencies.)

Eligible local dollars which can be matched: local taxes, Children's Services Council dollars, Health Trust or Homeless Trust monies, funds contracted to treatment agencies in excess of DCF required match. The revenue does not need to be new dollars.

The funds and services will never be added to managed care contracts. The services will continue fee for service because AHCA has no ability to add county funds to HMO or PSN contracts.

Process:
1. Any county can participate. The county sets the budget for the amount it wishes to allocate to these services, which can be increased or decreased at any time. There is no cap on the amount of federal matching funds.
2. The county selects a provider network or licensed treatment agency (ies) to deliver the services and maintain documentation. Only providers designated by a participating county will be able to bill for these three services; the service codes will not be in the Medicaid Handbook.
3. The county signs an agreement with AHCA, agreeing to "certify" in writing that the required local match was spent on one of the three services to Medicaid recipients.
4. The county must disburse the local match dollars they have committed, and either advance the federal portion or agencies will have to come up with this cost. Agencies will forward batched claims to counties, who will transmit them to the fiscal intermediary. Counties will receive quarterly reimbursement checks once the program is established.
5. AHCA is working out procedures now, seeking to minimize the paperwork burden on counties. Counties not enrolled in Medicaid will have to enroll in a special "provider" class created for this purpose. The enrollment process will be very abbreviated for local governments, e.g. no fingerprinting required.