(1) “Accrediting organization” means an organization whose standards incorporate licensure regulations required by this state.

(2) “Agency” means the Agency for Health Care Administration.

(3) “Consumer” or “patient” means any person who uses home medical equipment in his or her place of residence.

(4) “Department” means the Department of Children and Families.

(5) “General manager” means the individual who has the general administrative charge of the premises of a licensed home medical equipment provider.

(6) “Home medical equipment” includes any product as defined by the Food and Drug Administration’s Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, any products reimbursed under the Medicare Part B Durable Medical Equipment benefits, or any products reimbursed under the Florida Medicaid durable medical equipment program. Home medical equipment includes:

(a) Oxygen and related respiratory equipment;

(b) Motorized scooters;

(c) Personal transfer systems;

(d) Specialty beds, for use by a person with a medical need; and

(e) Manual, motorized, or customized wheelchairs and related seating and positioning, but does not include prosthetics or orthotics or any splints, braces, or aids custom fabricated by a licensed health care practitioner.

(7) “Home medical equipment provider” means any person or entity that sells or rents or offers to sell or rent to or for a consumer:

(a) Any home medical equipment and services; or

(b) Home medical equipment that requires any home medical equipment services.

(8) “Home medical equipment provider personnel” means persons who are employed by or under contract with a home medical equipment provider.

(9) “Home medical equipment services” means equipment management and consumer instruction, including selection, delivery, setup, and maintenance of equipment, and other related services for the use of home medical equipment in the consumer’s regular or temporary place of residence.

(10) “Life-supporting or life-sustaining equipment” means a device that is essential to, or that yields information that is essential to, the restoration or continuation of a bodily function important to the continuation of human life. Life-supporting or life-sustaining equipment includes apnea monitors, enteral feeding pumps, infusion pumps, portable home dialysis equipment, and ventilator equipment and supplies for all related equipment, including oxygen equipment and related respiratory equipment.

(11) “Moratorium” means a mandated temporary cessation or suspension of the sale, rental, or offering of equipment after the imposition of the moratorium, in accordance with part II of chapter 408. Services related to equipment sold or rented prior to the moratorium must be continued without interruption, unless determined otherwise by the agency.

(12) “Premises” means those buildings and equipment which are located at the address of the licensed home medical equipment provider for the provision of home medical equipment services, which are in such reasonable proximity as to appear to the public to be a single provider location, and which comply with zoning ordinances.

(13) “Residence” means the consumer’s home or place of residence, which may include nursing homes, assisted living facilities, transitional living facilities, adult family-care homes, or other congregate residential facilities.

History.—s. 1, ch. 99-189; s. 1, ch. 2001-214; s. 11, ch. 2002-400; s. 25, ch. 2006-71; s. 106, ch. 2007-230; s. 5, ch. 2013-93; s. 126, ch. 2014-19; s. 24, ch. 2017-3; s. 54, ch. 2018-24.