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How to Survive and Stay in Business After Receiving a Complaint or Notice from AHCA

3/18/2022

When AHCA issues a complaint or a notice seeking to close your facility, you need to know how to stay in business.

AHCA will issue an administrative complaint (A.C.) seeking revocation or suspension of your license or a notice of intent to deny your renewal license (NOI) or notice of withdrawal of your application for renewal (NOIW). There are statutory provisions that help you stay in business and not get shut down when litigating with AHCA and the case is sent to the Division of Administrative Hearings (DOAH).

Read more about your options after receiving a Notice of Intent to Deny.

The Stay Process | Step 01
After receiving the complaint or notice, it is crucial that you file your election of rights (EOR) form or contact an attorney to prepare a request for a hearing. Time is of the essence! You only have 21 days after receiving any of these notices to file the EOR. If not timely filed, AHCA will default your case. If you do not complete the EOR form correctly, AHCA will give you one chance to correct it. If it is not corrected to pass the review, AHCA will proceed to default your case.

When completing the EOR form, you also need to choose between an informal hearing and a formal hearing. It is helpful to have an attorney skilled in administrative law to assist in making this choice. Upon filing your EOR or request for a hearing, there are several statutes that apply to help you stay in business. Licensees should be reminded that if they continue to operate while the complaint or notice is pending in litigation, they must continue to comply with all applicable statutes, including filing renewal applications. (See, Section 408.815(2), Florida Statutes)

The Stay Process | Step 02
Equally important is that you can seek a stay after AHCA enters a Final Order on a complaint or notice that requires you to shut down or close. This is step two of the stay process and it's when you need to seek a court’s assistance to stay in business.

At this point, you need to appeal the final order and seek assistance from an appellate court. It is crucial to take an appeal within thirty (30) days of “rendition of the final order” by AHCA. If an appeal is not taken, this right vanishes. After the appeal is filed, the licensee must seek a request for a stay or halting of enforcement of the final order issued by AHCA.

A stay must be granted by an appellate court so that you are not required to shut down or close your business. There are five appellate courts in Florida. A licensee can seek help from either the district court of appeal (DCA) for their home county or the DCA where the agency is located – Tallahassee. An administrative law attorney with appellate experience can assist in seeking the stay before a specific District Court of Appeal.

How an Attorney Can Assist
Contact Howell, Buchan & Strong if you need assistance for:

Review of the AHCA Notice or Administrative Complaint you have received;
Advice and counsel on options to save your facility from being shut down;
Discuss ways to stay (or "freeze") AHCA's attempt to suspend or revoke your license.
Represent you against AHCA in legal proceedings.

Read the original article.

Have questions? Contact: lawyerhelpnow@jsh-pa.com

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Received a NOID (Notice of Intent to Deny) in Florida? What to Expect

3/18/2022

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In Florida, business and professionals licensed by state agencies are subject to rigorous requirements in order to operate. Florida law governs the requirements to get and keep a license. Applicants submit an initial application (or renewal application) and are customarily notified by the state agency if additional information is required. Generally speaking, there are three types of license applications: Initial, Renewal, and Change of Ownership. Failure to provide required information to the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) means you could receive a NOID or Notice of Intent to Deny the application for licensure.

Received a NOID? Know Your Options

If You Do Nothing, You'll Lose Your License This usually happens when you fail to follow instructions on the NOID. You are required to respond within 21 days of receipt of the notice.
File a Petition for Formal Administrative Hearing If you are seeking a full-blown trial challenging the state’s reasons for the denial of the license, you will need to file a petition for a formal administrative hearing. Since this is a lengthy and complicated process, a lawyer should be retained to draft and file the Petition. The requirements are detailed and your Petition can get tossed out if you fail to follow the specific requirements of the law. It is very common for government agency attorneys to seek a dismissal of a Petition filed by a non-lawyer on the grounds that it does not meet certain requirements for pleading a case. Note: This is also a potentially costly option.
Request an Informal Hearing In this option, you admit to the violation(s) or reasons for denial in the NOID and ask for a hearing officer to hear your case and decide the penalties. Because you are admitting to violations or not meeting the requirements for a license, you are at the mercy of the Informal Hearing officer who is usually an employee of AHCA or DOH. While these officers claim to be neutral, our Firm does not accept the premise that Informal Hearing Officers can fairly judge a case, due to the fact that they are on the payroll of one of the sides.
Hybrid File a Petition for Formal Administrative Hearing, Then Seek a Written Settlement Agreement Our Firm has extensive experience with the process and knows what works and what does not. Often, we employ a strategy on behalf of our clients that begins by challenging the allegations in the NOID, just to put AHCA (or DOH) in a defensive posture where they have to prove the allegations. This involves our attorneys drafting a detailed Petition for Formal Administrative Hearing (the “Petition”). We conduct a little discovery and then start negotiating with the Agency attorneys to try and convince them that they have a weak case for denying our client a license. Our goal under this general scenario is to discover evidence and facts that make the Agency pause and consider working out a written Settlement Agreement with our client. An agreement whereby the client does not admit any violations, promises to fulfill certain obligations, the Agency withdraws the NOID, and issues the license. While every case is different, this scenario is a general approach our Firm takes.

What Can Trigger a NOID: The Omission Letter
The Agency for Health Care Administration typically sends what is known as an “omission” letter within 30 days of receipt of an application. The omission letter notifies the applicant that AHCA needs additional information in order to consider the issuance of the license. Typically, some of the items requested by AHCA in an Omission Letter are:

Additional proof of financial ability to operate (bank statements; continuing funds)
Blanks left on the application itself where required information is missing
Proof showing that all owners and employers have been background checked

After the Omission Letter is sent to an applicant there are typically two scenarios:

AHCA does not receive the information within the deadline period (usually 30 days) or
The supplemental information submitted by (the application) is deemed “incomplete” or not satisfactory by AHCA officials.

It is at this point that AHCA issues a Notice of Intent to Deny.

Received a NOID? Your Next Step Matters
Notices of Intent to Deny generally have a 21-day deadline to respond to or the decision to deny becomes final.

WARNING: It is important to point out that we encounter individuals, management personnel, and professionals who wrongly, in our opinion, attempt to handle things on their own.

Many incorrectly believe the Notice of Intent to Deny can be remedied in simply writing a response to AHCA or merely filling out the document known as an Election of Rights (EOR) and sending it into the Agency only to be later disappointed when the Agency issues a Final Order denying the license (or license renewal) because the response is deemed insufficient.

Notice of Intent to Deny Response

It is our recommendation that if you receive a Notice of Intent to Deny from Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration you promptly seek the advice of an experienced health care attorney. Along these lines, we further recommend that you:

Gather the Notice of Intent to Deny, together with any other documents/correspondence to or from AHCA
Don’t forget to include copies of the application and supporting documents
Schedule a consultation or telephone conference with an experienced health care attorney to review all of the relevant documents
It is important to have the Notice of Intent to Deny, together with all relevant documents reviewed by an experienced lawyer well within the 21-day period in order to determine AHCA’s basis for denial and to evaluate viable strategies for getting your application back on track.

At Howell, Buchan & Strong, Attorneys at Law, our attorneys review the Notice of Intent to Deny along with documents submitted by the client to determine a basis for challenging the denial. Generally speaking, we draft a Petition, in conformity with legal requirements, challenging AHCA’s basis for denial along with a completed Election of Rights (EOR) form. This slows down the denial process and allows us the opportunity to communicate with AHCA in an effort to get the application back to the licensing unit so that the license can be issued. While every situation is different we endeavor to work promptly and strategically to put our client’s license application back on course to be issued.

Read the original article here.

Have questions? Contact lawyerhelpnow@jsh-pa.com

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5 IDEAS FOR DEALING WITH THE LABOR SHORTAGE

10/29/2021

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Author: Senior Dining Association

Everyone is trying to drive more applicants into their Human Resources office through a variety of methods. One SDA member likened the situation to advertising, saying everything is a numbers game. The more you do, the more likely you’ll be successful. A group of SDA members recently shared some ideas.

Reach out to your local schools. Hand out flyers. Consider business cards with QR codes linking to your community’s opportunities. Participate in career fairs. Speak to student groups. Take along a package of cookies or something like you’d use when marketing to prospective residents – something that gives an impression of what you do. Look what others are giving out as swag. One SDA member says they’re working with special education students on a work program during school hours. They’re helping in the dish pit, serving residents, doing food deliveries, and things like that throughout the weekday. That gives them 10 students every other day.
See if the National Restaurant Association’s ProStart program is a fit for your organization. ProStart is a career and technical education program that unites the foodservice industry and the classroom to teach high school students culinary skills and restaurant management principles, as well as employability skills such as communication, teamwork, professionalism, and time management.
Check with local non-profits and churches that may be working with refugees to help them relocate. These people want to work, and they are going to need jobs to be able to sustain themselves and their families. Beyond the influx of Afghan refugees, some areas are expecting large numbers of additional refugees. Church World Services (Hyperlink: https://cwsglobal.org/) is one organization helping refugees and immigrants.
Consider a direct mail campaign through your post office. It’s not that expensive, and you can target by zipcode, by where your location is. Your audience is not just the waitstaff if that’s what you’re looking for. It may be a family member or mother or father that sees it and says, “Hey, here’s a job for you.” Include your benefits!
One SDA member’s company is looking at Q-1 Visas. The Q-1 is a visa for participants in an international cultural exchange program. Trying to get an international internship program isn’t a quick fix but in the long-term may be helpful.

Read the original blog.

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How to Survive and Stay in Business After Receiving a Complaint or Notice from AHCA

Received a NOID (Notice of Intent to Deny) in Florida? What to Expect

5 IDEAS FOR DEALING WITH THE LABOR SHORTAGE

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