Florida requires aging agency spending controls and allows guardian fines

The Department of Elderly Affairs maintains the Medicaid long-term care enrollment list. Aging and disability resource centers screen applicants and manage care-program lists. Resource-center lists cover Medicaid long-term care and state programs for Alzheimer’s care, community care, and home care. The state’s CARES assessment program must review or perform each Medicaid enrollee’s initial care-level assessment. Most applicants must complete screening before joining the list. Priority depends on their care needs, with earlier placement breaking ties when spaces are limited. Department-authorized, certified staff must reassess high-priority applicants annually or after notice of a significant change. Resource-center staff may reassess low-priority applicants under those circumstances. Enrollment offers require enough funding and available spaces. People released from the list must meet financial and medical eligibility rules. People meeting all other eligibility rules can skip screening and the list if they are ages 18–20 with a chronic debilitating condition generally requiring round-the-clock medical, nursing, or health supervision or intervention, or request to leave a Florida-licensed skilled nursing facility after at least 60 consecutive days there to live in the community. The exception also covers high-risk adults referred by Children and Families and placed in assisted living it temporarily funds. The law took effect July 1, 2026.

Area agencies on aging must follow purchasing and executive salary limits. The Department of Elderly Affairs oversees these agencies and aging and disability resource centers. Purchases over $35,000 require competing offers. Agency chief executives and executive directors face a salary ceiling of 150% of the Elderly Affairs secretary’s annual salary for pay from state and federal funds. Competitive purchasing requires at least two sealed offers, equal access for vendors, and published terms and selection criteria. The department must impose contract-based penalties or sanctions for violations of the spending rules. The executive salary ceiling applies across all department contracts. It does not prohibit additional cash that does not come from money set aside by the state. An aging agency may provide basic community care directly only when its designated lead provider cannot perform its duties and the department approves. A resource center needs a department waiver for direct services beyond information, referrals, outreach, screening, and intake. The department selects resource centers based on readiness, expertise, financial stability, staffing, and performance. Centers must allow department review of financial information and arrange staff coordination with CARES and Children and Families through written agreements. The law took effect July 1, 2026.

Community-care providers give priority to certain older adults referred by protective services. Home-care payments include necessary food, nutrition supplements, and specialized care. Priority covers older adults with functional impairments identified through protective investigations as high-risk vulnerable adults needing services or high-risk victims needing immediate help after abuse, neglect, or exploitation. Supplements cover eligible older people receiving home care. Assessment and services must begin within 72 hours after referral, or as established through local arrangements under department contracts. Providers may ask adult protective services to negotiate a referral or services. If they cannot agree, adult protective services’ decision controls. Home-care payments depend on the recipient’s finances. Special supplements apply when necessary to maintain the older person’s health, safety, and well-being. Community-care providers and staff may have training before starting work and annually afterward. The Department of Elderly Affairs must set training standards and requirements. The law took effect July 1, 2026.

The Office of Public and Professional Guardians may fine professional guardians and demand relevant investigation records. Its director must know guardianship law and available social services. The discipline and investigation provisions concern professional guardians, who act for people unable to manage their own affairs. The secretary appoints the oversight office’s full-time director, who reports to the secretary. Fines may reach $500 per violation after the office finds a professional guardian guilty of a covered violation. Other discipline may include extra training, monitoring, suspension, or loss of registration. The office may demand relevant records from banks, insurers, caregivers, current or former residential facilities, and professional guardians or their employees. For substantial noncompliance, it may ask a court to order production. Professional guardians need at least 30 hours of continuing education every two calendar years after their initial 40-hour training year. Required topics include two hours each on financial duties and ethics, one each on advance care instructions and Alzheimer’s disease, and three each on abuse prevention and guardianship law. Courses must be approved or offered by the office. Florida-licensed attorneys and certain institutions acting as guardians are exempt. Training expenses cannot be paid from the assets of the person under guardianship. The law took effect July 1, 2026.

The Department of Elderly Affairs must send specified guardian complaint records to Florida’s Senate president and House speaker without removing personal details. The submission covers complaints received in calendar year 2025 that were dismissed under the specified dismissal rule or resulted in concern letters, noncompliance notices, or other written cautions instead of dismissal letters. The submission includes original complaints, final investigation reports, and specified letters or notices sent to guardians and complainants. Court clerks may disclose confidential guardianship information to the Department of Elderly Affairs for purposes allowed by a court order. The reporting deadline was August 1, 2026. The action history does not show whether the department met it.