TALLAHASSEE — An administrative law judge has rejected challenges by two health-care groups to the way state Medicaid officials have carried out a requirement that “direct care” workers get paid a minimum of $15 an hour.
Judge Robert Cohen on Monday issued a 26-page decision that backed the state Agency for Health Care Administration in the challenges filed by the Florida Assisted Living Association and the Florida Ambulance Association. The groups also are pursuing a separate case in Leon County circuit court.
The disputes involve fine print in this year’s state budget that directed money to the Agency for Health Care Administration to adjust reimbursement rates so Medicaid providers would pay at least $15 an hour to direct-care employees. Also, the budget said employees could file civil lawsuits against providers that do not pay $15 an hour, including possibly class-action lawsuits.
In the cases filed at the state Division of Administrative Hearings, the health-care groups contended, in part, that the agency should have gone through a formal rule-making process to define the workers who would be subject to the $15 minimum wage. Also, they contended that a rule-making process was needed for agreements that Medicaid providers would sign to show compliance.
They said the agency’s interpretation of direct-care workers and its use of the agreements were improper “unadopted” rules.
But Cohen rejected the arguments, saying that the agency’s interpretation of the term “direct...
ALTON - Eric Sykes, the executive director of Alton Little Theater, recently took to social media to address “a narrative circulating online that Alton Little Theater is somehow an unsafe space.” ...