On June 2, 2022, the Florida governor signed the Freedom First budget for State Fiscal Year 2022-2023 (the Law), which provided over $600 million in funding to the Agency for Health Care Administration (the Agency) specifically to increase the minimum wage for employees of Medicaid providers to at least $15.00 an hour. While the Law contains many ambiguous provisions, the Agency has recently issued Q&A guidance that has clarified some of the application issues raised by the Law. Below, we have provided the key points based on the text of the Law and on the Agency Q&A issued to date:

• Deadline: All providers that bill for services under the impacted fee schedules must sign the Medicaid Provider Supplemental Wage Agreement by Oct. 1, 2022. Providers can log in to the Medicaid Provider Secure Web Portal and sign the Supplemental Wage Agreement on or after Aug. 4, 2022. The Supplemental Wage Agreement contains an attestation that the Medicaid provider is paying all applicable employees at least $15.00 per hour.
• Applicable Providers: All Medicaid providers that are reimbursed for services under the Medicaid fee-for-service fee schedules, and that will therefore receive increased reimbursement, are required to pay applicable employees at least $15.00 per hour. The full list of impacted fee schedules can be found at the Agency's Medicaid Provider Minimum Wage requirements web page.
• Applicable Employees: For all Medicaid providers other than nursing home providers, the...

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