Florida Offering Grants for Health Care Employee Retention

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (February 8, 2022)—Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) is offering a stipend to allow Florida health care providers to recruit and retain staff to care for vulnerable patient populations and increase the ability of Floridians to receive care in a community-based setting. As the application instructions make clear, this funding is available to increase and improve staffing for your company.
 
Applications for the funding are due by next Monday, Feb. 14, 2022.
 
The application form can be found on the Florida HCBS Eligibility and Application Instructions page; scroll down to Complete and Upload an Application section. The application is spreadsheet-based; click on the “One-Time Provider Stipend and/or One-Time Provider Retention Payments Application” link there to download. A 26-minute instructional video and PDF of written instructions are also shown below the application form link.
 
There is also material on the main application page regarding funding for delayed egress payments for residential facilities; you may disregard that information.
 
Note: While durable medical equipment (DME) providers are not specifically noted as eligible provider types on the main eligibility and application page, Question 4 under Frequently Asked Questions confirms that DME is included in Florida’s definition of home and community-based services (4th bullet under Question 4):
 
“Providers who deliver home and community-based services to enrollees in Florida’s HCBS waiver programs and who are enrolled as PT 67. This can include providers such as those who provide respite, homemaker and companion services, home modification services and durable medical equipment providers.”
 
AAHomecare and the Florida Alliance of Home Care Services have been working with AHCA officials and state legislators since 2021 to ensure that DME suppliers would be included in provider types eligible for this funding.
 
See Florida HCBS Eligibility and Application Instructions for complete details.