2021 budget

Florida lawmakers decided this session to eliminate a pair of programs, including a $600 stipend to Bright Futures recipients.

The House voted 117-1 to pass the package (HB 7061), which earlier received unanimous support from the Senate.

Advocates praised lawmakers' decision to beef up funding for the program, which helps developmentally disabled people select needed services, but worry about a shortage of providers unless there are pay increases, which wasn't part of the budget proposal.

Top Senate and House budget negotiators met Wednesday but did not make public offers on health care spending.

The program would be required to use telehealth to coordinate with prenatal home-visiting programs to provide services and education to pregnant women and to provide training to health care professionals.

The state learned this week that it will receive about $400 million in additional federal Medicaid funds, but lawmakers so far haven’t included it in a proposed budget they are trying to finalize.

The House and Senate proposals deal with the Neurological Injury Compensation Association, or NICA, that was set up in the 1980s to pay for the care of infants with neurologial injuries.

House and Senate differences remain on proposals to extend Medicaid benefits for postpartum women and spending for hospitals and nursing homes.

Lawmakers have roughly three weeks to reach agreement on a budget, a period coinciding with an expected increase in Medicaid funding from the federal government.

Similar to the Senate proposal, the House health care plan recommends reducing Medicaid payments for inpatient and outpatient hospital care by $288 million.

The austere proposal would whack funding for hospitals and reduce spending on services meant to keep people with intellectual and developmental disabilities out of institutions.

Top Republican leaders in the Florida House and Senate acknowledged there could be health care cuts as they struggle to craft a balanced budget amid the economic wreckage caused by the coronavirus.