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The Florida Statutes

The 2024 Florida Statutes

Title XXIX
PUBLIC HEALTH
Chapter 408
HEALTH CARE ADMINISTRATION
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F.S. 408.07
408.07 Definitions.As used in this chapter, with the exception of ss. 408.031-408.045, the term:
(1) “Accepted” means that the agency has found that a report or data submitted by a health care facility or a health care provider contains all schedules and data required by the agency and has been prepared in the format specified by the agency, and otherwise conforms to applicable rule or Florida Hospital Uniform Reporting System manual requirements regarding reports in effect at the time such report was submitted, and the data are mathematically reasonable and accurate.
(2) “Adjusted admission” means the sum of acute and intensive care admissions divided by the ratio of inpatient revenues generated from acute, intensive, ambulatory, and ancillary patient services to gross revenues. If a hospital reports only subacute admissions, then “adjusted admission” means the sum of subacute admissions divided by the ratio of total inpatient revenues to gross revenues.
(3) “Agency” means the Agency for Health Care Administration.
(4) “Alcohol or chemical dependency treatment center” means an organization licensed under chapter 397.
(5) “Ambulatory care center” means an organization which employs or contracts with licensed health care professionals to provide diagnosis or treatment services predominantly on a walk-in basis and the organization holds itself out as providing care on a walk-in basis. Such an organization is not an ambulatory care center if it is wholly owned and operated by five or fewer health care providers.
(6) “Ambulatory surgical center” means a facility licensed as an ambulatory surgical center under chapter 395.
(7) “Audited actual data” means information contained within financial statements examined by an independent, Florida-licensed, certified public accountant in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards, but does not include data within a financial statement about which the certified public accountant does not express an opinion or issues a disclaimer.
(8) “Birth center” means an organization licensed under s. 383.305.
(9) “Cardiac catheterization laboratory” means a freestanding facility that employs or contracts with licensed health care professionals to provide diagnostic or therapeutic services for cardiac conditions such as cardiac catheterization or balloon angioplasty.
(10) “Case mix” means a calculated index for each health care facility or health care provider, based on patient data, reflecting the relative costliness of the mix of cases to that facility or provider compared to a state or national mix of cases.
(11) “Comprehensive rehabilitative hospital” or “rehabilitative hospital” means a hospital licensed by the agency as a specialty hospital as defined in s. 395.002; provided that the hospital provides a program of comprehensive medical rehabilitative services and is designed, equipped, organized, and operated solely to deliver comprehensive medical rehabilitative services, and further provided that all licensed beds in the hospital are classified as “comprehensive rehabilitative beds” pursuant to s. 395.003(4), and are not classified as “general beds.”
(12) “Consumer” means any person other than a person who administers health activities, is a member of the governing body of a health care facility, provides health services, has a fiduciary interest in a health facility or other health agency or its affiliated entities, or has a material financial interest in the rendering of health services.
(13) “Continuing care facility” means a facility licensed under chapter 651.
(14) “Critical access hospital” means a hospital that meets the definition of “critical access hospital” in s. 1861(mm)(1) of the Social Security Act and that is certified by the Secretary of Health and Human Services as a critical access hospital.
(15) “Cross-subsidization” means that the revenues from one type of hospital service are sufficiently higher than the costs of providing such service as to offset some of the costs of providing another type of service in the hospital. Cross-subsidization results from the lack of a direct relationship between charges and the costs of providing a particular hospital service or type of service.
(16) “Deductions from gross revenue” or “deductions from revenue” means reductions from gross revenue resulting from inability to collect payment of charges. For hospitals, such reductions include contractual adjustments; uncompensated care; administrative, courtesy, and policy discounts and adjustments; and other such revenue deductions, but also includes the offset of restricted donations and grants for indigent care.
(17) “Diagnostic-imaging center” means a freestanding outpatient facility that provides specialized services for the diagnosis of a disease by examination and also provides radiological services. Such a facility is not a diagnostic-imaging center if it is wholly owned and operated by physicians who are licensed pursuant to chapter 458 or chapter 459 and who practice in the same group practice and no diagnostic-imaging work is performed at such facility for patients referred by any health care provider who is not a member of that same group practice.
(18) “FHURS” means the Florida Hospital Uniform Reporting System developed by the agency.
(19) “FNHURS” means the Florida Nursing Home Uniform Reporting System developed by the agency.
(20) “Freestanding” means that a health facility bills and receives revenue which is not directly subject to the hospital assessment for the Public Medical Assistance Trust Fund as described in s. 395.701.
(21) “Freestanding radiation therapy center” means a facility where treatment is provided through the use of radiation therapy machines that are registered under s. 404.22 and the provisions of the Florida Administrative Code implementing s. 404.22. Such a facility is not a freestanding radiation therapy center if it is wholly owned and operated by physicians licensed pursuant to chapter 458 or chapter 459 who practice within the specialty of diagnostic or therapeutic radiology.
(22) “GRAA” means gross revenue per adjusted admission.
(23) “Gross revenue” means the sum of daily hospital service charges, ambulatory service charges, ancillary service charges, and other operating revenue. Gross revenues do not include contributions, donations, legacies, or bequests made to a hospital without restriction by the donors.
(24) “Health care facility” means an ambulatory surgical center, a hospice, a nursing home, a hospital, a diagnostic-imaging center, a freestanding or hospital-based therapy center, a clinical laboratory, a home health agency, a cardiac catheterization laboratory, a medical equipment supplier, an alcohol or chemical dependency treatment center, a physical rehabilitation center, a lithotripsy center, an ambulatory care center, a birth center, or a nursing home component licensed under chapter 400 within a continuing care facility licensed under chapter 651.
(25) “Health care provider” means a health care professional licensed under chapter 458, chapter 459, chapter 460, chapter 461, chapter 463, chapter 464, chapter 465, chapter 466, part I, part III, part IV, part V, or part X of chapter 468, chapter 483, chapter 484, chapter 486, chapter 490, or chapter 491.
(26) “Health care purchaser” means an employer in the state, other than a health care facility, health insurer, or health care provider, who provides health care coverage for her or his employees.
(27) “Health insurer” means any insurance company authorized to transact health insurance in the state, any insurance company authorized to transact health insurance or casualty insurance in the state that is offering a minimum premium plan or stop-loss coverage for any person or entity providing health care benefits, any self-insurance plan as defined in s. 624.031, any health maintenance organization authorized to transact business in the state pursuant to part I of chapter 641, any prepaid health clinic authorized to transact business in the state pursuant to part II of chapter 641, any multiple-employer welfare arrangement authorized to transact business in the state pursuant to ss. 624.436-624.45, or any fraternal benefit society providing health benefits to its members as authorized pursuant to chapter 632.
(28) “Home health agency” means an organization licensed under part III of chapter 400.
(29) “Home office” has the same meaning as provided in the Provider Reimbursement Manual, Part 1 (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Pub. 15-1), as that definition exists on the effective date of this act.
(30) “Hospice” means an organization licensed under part IV of chapter 400.
(31) “Hospital” means a health care institution licensed by the Agency for Health Care Administration as a hospital under chapter 395.
(32) “Lithotripsy center” means a freestanding facility that employs or contracts with licensed health care professionals to provide diagnosis or treatment services using electro-hydraulic shock waves.
(33) “Local health council” means the agency defined in s. 408.033.
(34) “Market basket index” means the Florida hospital input price index (FHIPI), which is a statewide market basket index used to measure inflation in hospital input prices weighted for the Florida-specific experience which uses multistate regional and state-specific price measures, when available. The index shall be constructed in the same manner as the index employed by the Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services for determining the inflation in hospital input prices for purposes of Medicare reimbursement.
(35) “Medical equipment supplier” means an organization that provides medical equipment and supplies used by health care providers and health care facilities in the diagnosis or treatment of disease.
(36) “Net revenue” means gross revenue minus deductions from revenue.
(37) “New hospital” means a hospital in its initial year of operation as a licensed hospital and does not include any facility which has been in existence as a licensed hospital, regardless of changes in ownership, for over 1 calendar year.
(38) “Nursing home” means a facility licensed under s. 400.062 or, for resident level and financial data collection purposes only, any institution licensed under chapter 395 and which has a Medicare or Medicaid certified distinct part used for skilled nursing home care, but does not include a facility licensed under chapter 651.
(39) “Operating expenses” means total expenses excluding income taxes.
(40) “Other operating revenue” means all revenue generated from hospital operations other than revenue directly associated with patient care.
(41) “Physical rehabilitation center” means an organization that employs or contracts with health care professionals licensed under part I or part III of chapter 468 or chapter 486 to provide speech, occupational, or physical therapy services on an outpatient or ambulatory basis.
(42) “Prospective payment arrangement” means a financial agreement negotiated between a hospital and an insurer, health maintenance organization, preferred provider organization, or other third-party payor which contains, at a minimum, the elements provided for in s. 408.50.
(43) “Rate of return” means the financial indicators used to determine or demonstrate reasonableness of the financial requirements of a hospital. Such indicators shall include, but not be limited to: return on assets, return on equity, total margin, and debt service coverage.
(44) “Rural hospital” means an acute care hospital licensed under chapter 395, having 100 or fewer licensed beds and an emergency room, and which is:
(a) The sole provider within a county with a population density of no greater than 100 persons per square mile;
(b) An acute care hospital, in a county with a population density of no greater than 100 persons per square mile, which is at least 30 minutes of travel time, on normally traveled roads under normal traffic conditions, from another acute care hospital within the same county;
(c) A hospital supported by a tax district or subdistrict whose boundaries encompass a population of 100 persons or fewer per square mile;
(d) A hospital with a service area that has a population of 100 persons or fewer per square mile. As used in this paragraph, the term “service area” means the fewest number of zip codes that account for 75 percent of the hospital’s discharges for the most recent 5-year period, based on information available from the hospital inpatient discharge database in the Florida Center for Health Information and Transparency at the Agency for Health Care Administration; or
(e) A critical access hospital.

Population densities used in this subsection must be based upon the most recently completed United States census. A hospital that received funds under s. 409.9116 for a quarter beginning no later than July 1, 2002, is deemed to have been and shall continue to be a rural hospital from that date through June 30, 2015, if the hospital continues to have 100 or fewer licensed beds and an emergency room. An acute care hospital that has not previously been designated as a rural hospital and that meets the criteria of this subsection shall be granted such designation upon application, including supporting documentation, to the Agency for Health Care Administration.

(45) “Special study” means a nonrecurring data-gathering and analysis effort designed to aid the agency in meeting its responsibilities pursuant to this chapter.
(46) “Teaching hospital” means any Florida hospital officially affiliated with an accredited Florida medical school which exhibits activity in the area of graduate medical education as reflected by at least seven different graduate medical education programs accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education or the Council on Postdoctoral Training of the American Osteopathic Association and the presence of 100 or more full-time equivalent resident physicians. The Director of the Agency for Health Care Administration shall be responsible for determining which hospitals meet this definition.
History.s. 71, ch. 92-33; s. 75, ch. 92-289; s. 13, ch. 93-129; s. 39, ch. 93-217; s. 17, ch. 95-144; s. 38, ch. 97-103; s. 2, ch. 98-14; s. 2, ch. 98-21; s. 14, ch. 98-89; s. 44, ch. 2000-153; s. 28, ch. 2000-163; s. 2, ch. 2000-227; s. 2, ch. 2003-258; s. 5, ch. 2005-81; s. 77, ch. 2006-197; s. 10, ch. 2006-261; s. 15, ch. 2009-223; s. 15, ch. 2015-225; s. 14, ch. 2016-234; s. 65, ch. 2018-24; s. 4, ch. 2021-41.