Lakeland Senior AdvisorWho issues care licenses for facilities in Lakeland, Winter Haven and the rest of Polk County?
Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) licenses every assisted living facility, nursing home, home health agency, hospice, adult day care center and adult family care home in Polk County; the county and its 17 cities issue no care licenses.
Cities and the county still handle zoning, building permits and fire inspections for care buildings.
For how long is a Florida assisted living license issued?
Two years: Chapter 408, Part II makes licenses biennial, and relicensure surveys are normally unannounced and every two years.
AHCA may inspect providers with an excellent record less often, but must still visit at least 10 percent of them.
What does a status of 'In Review' mean?
AHCA is processing an application tied to that license, usually a renewal or a change of ownership, and the facility normally keeps operating under its current license in the meantime.
If a license sits In Review for months, ask the administrator what is outstanding.
What is a provisional license?
A temporary license AHCA issues while a facility finishes meeting requirements, such as a new building awaiting its first full survey or a first ECC license, which is provisional for up to six months.
Ask what remains before a standard license is issued.
Can one ALF hold several specialty licenses at once?
Yes; ECC, LNS and LMH can all sit on top of the same standard license, and each shows on the facility's AHCA profile.
Each one adds its own monitoring visits and fees.
Does Florida give assisted living facilities star ratings?
No: Florida publishes license data, sanctions and inspection histories for assisted living but no star ratings, and CMS rates only certified nursing homes.
Assisted living 'ratings' online come from private websites, not from the state.
What is FloridaHealthFinder?
AHCA's public website for health facility information, including the Facility/Provider Locator where each licensed provider's profile, sanctions and inspection history can be looked up.
The locator lives at quality.healthfinder.fl.gov.
How do AHCA and the Department of Elder Affairs divide the work?
AHCA licenses, inspects and sanctions care facilities and runs Florida Medicaid, while the Department of Elder Affairs funds the Area Agencies on Aging, runs the Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program and SHINE, sets ALF training requirements and assesses medical eligibility for long-term care through CARES.
Both are headquartered in Tallahassee and work through local offices.
Must a Florida ALF administrator be licensed?
Florida does not license ALF administrators the way it licenses nursing home administrators, but they must meet the qualifications, background screening, core training and competency test requirements in rule 59A-36.010.
Nursing home administrators are licensed by the Department of Health.
