TheProfessional Guardian enewsletter AUGUST 2018 A publication by the Guardian Association of Pinellas County for the purpose of promoting advocacy & education. GENERAL MEETING INFO HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF AN ATTORNEY-CLIENT RELATIONSHIP We are pleased to announce that Ha Dao will be our speaker for GAPC s monthly membership meeting. As an attorney in practice since 1992, Ha Dao has maintained the highest AV Peer Review Rating of Martindale-Hubbell since 2002. Ha is admitted to practice in Florida, Washington and Oregon; a Ha Dao, Esq. graduate of the National Institute for Trial Advocacy Boot Camp and the Max Gardner Bankruptcy Litigation Boot Camp. She is a member of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, Academy of Florida Elder Law Attorneys, The Florida Bar Elder Law Section, the Florida Bar Real Property, Probate & Trust Law Section. Ha is an experienced trial attorney as well as an accomplished appellate lawyer in both state and federal courts. She argued before the Florida Supreme Court and prevailed in both of her cases as Assistant Attorney General with the Office of the Attorney General. Ha practices all aspects of elder law with an emphasis on guardianship, probate and trust litigation. Ha will discuss the nature of the attorney-client relationship between a professional guardian and his/her lawyer and how the Professional Guardian can make the most out of such relationship. She ll discuss how the guardian can maintain good business records; prepare for evidentiary hearings including cross-examination; protection from potential liability associated with guardian s work; and current case law affecting guardian s work. Please RSVP at GAPC s website link below. 1 CEU is provided for members in good standing. ASSOCIATION COMMUNICATIONS CONTACT INFO. P.O. Box 1826 Pinellas Park, FL 33780 (517) 256-0403 Info@GuardianAssociation.org www.guardianassociation.org Monthly Calendar AUGUST 8, 11:30 A.M. ASSOCIATION MEETING Palms of Largo - CYPRESS PALMS Bldg., 400 Lake Avenue NE, Largo 1 CEU available AUGUST 31, 9:00 A.M. GAPC NETWORKING BREAKFAST FREEDOM SQUARE, 7800 Liberty Lane, Seminole, FL 33772 BOARD MEETING - DATES & TIMES ROTATE Contact BOD Secretary for specific dates/times. Palms of Largo - REGAL PALMS Bldg., Verandah Room PLEASE RSVP TO ASSOCIATION WEBSITE
2018 Board of Directors Officers Committee Meetings 2 President...Traci Samuel 517-256-0403 Traci.Flguardianship@gmail.com Vice President... Amber Watkins 727-492-6391 prosperguardianservices@gmail.com Treasurer... Keith Crosby Info@guardianassociation.org Secretary... Michelle Lowack 727-641-5483 mlowack@homecareassistance.com Board Members Lori Clark 727-4479968 lcguardian@yahoo.com Tina Costa 813-334-3472 Tina.Costa@rescare.com Ha Dao 727-381-9800 ha@deebelderlaw.com David Menneke 727-902-1761 david@floridafamilycremations.com Quyen Trujillo 813-409-7446 Qsellshomes@yahoo.com Maria Winer 727-906-6161 winermaria@yahoo.com Committees By-Laws Committee Ha Dao, Esq., Chair Steve Hitchcock, Esq.,Co-Chair Conference Committee Traci Samuel, Chair Tina Costa, Co-Chair Education Committee Michelle Lowack, Chair Maria Winer, Co-Chair Finance & Budget Committee Traci Samuel, Chair Legislative Committee Ha Dao, Esq., Chair Steve Hitchcock, Esq.,Co-Chair Public Relations Committee Amber Watkins, Chair Sheri Gruden, Co-Chair Membership Committee Quyen Trujillo, Chair David Menneke, Co-Chair ASSOCIATION COMMUNICATIONS P.O. Box 1826, Pinellas Park, FL 33780 (517) 256-0403 Info@GuardianAssociation.org www.guardianassociation.org https://facebook.com/guardianassociationpinellas BYLAWS & LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE Meeting is normally held the first Wednesday, at Deeb Elder Law, P.A., 6675 13th Avenue N., Suite 2C, St. Petersburg. Please contact Deeb Elder Law for the date/time for the August meeting. CONFERENCE COMMITTEE Meets 3rd Thursday of each month at 10:00-11:30 a.m. Meeting location is at Perkins Restaurant, 2626 Gulf to Bay Boulevard, Clearwater. Upcoming meeting is July 16th. EDUCATION COMMITTEE Meets 2nd Tuesday of each month at 4:00 p.m. Meeting location is rotated between Maria s Adult Day Care, Seminole located at 7821 Seminole Blvd, Seminole and Home Care Assistance of Tampa Bay, located at 1530 N McMullen Booth, #D12, Clearwater. Upcoming meeting is August 14 at Maria s Adult Day Care, Seminole. MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE Meets 2nd Tuesday of each month at 11:00 a.m., Florida Family Cremations, 5840 Ulmerton Road, Clearwater. Upcoming meeting is August 14th. PUBLIC RELATIONS COMMITTEE Meets immediately following GAPC Monthly Membership Meeting (2nd Wednesday of each month) at 1:15-1:45 p.m., Cypress Palms Assisted Living, 400 Lake Avenue, NE, Largo. Upcoming meeting is August 8th. Everyday Essentials The GAPC is excited to announce that they will be at Bayside Te rrace in Pinellas Park on August 21st to deliver Everyday Essentials to the residents.
FROM THE DESK OF THE PRESIDENT 3 SAVE THE DATE! We are so excited to announce our 2018 GAPC Conference speakers. We have a talented group who are excited to share their presentations with you. Please take a moment to secure your attendance by logging on to the GAPC weebsite and registering. You won t want to miss it. TRACI Traci.Flguardianship@gmail.com
Clerk of the Circuit Court 4 Office of Ken Burke Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller For Pinellas County, Florida HELPFUL HINTS FROM THE CLERK S OFFICE A new Administrative Order governing Guardianship cases in Pinellas and Pasco will be released soon. Please check www.jud6.org to see any changes of which you may need to be aware. The court requires that you use court-approved forms for your initial and annual reports. These forms can be found on www.mypinellasclerk.org or www.jud6.org. If relocating the ward, please file your new Disaster Plan with your Notice of Relocation of Ward. This will prevent you from getting an Order Disapproving with your annual report. The purpose of a disaster plan is to let the court know where the ward will be, should they need to be evacuated from their current home. Often, we get certificates indicating that a facility is disaster prepared or disaster compliant from the county. This is not a plan. It does not tell the court how the ward s needs will be accommodated and how they will be safe in the event of a disaster. A simple, easy to use form is available on the clerk s website when the facility does not provide an appropriate plan (mypinellasclerk.org, click on Get Forms, and then click Guardianship). Original, hard copy Guardianship bonds must still be filed in paper with the Clerk of Court. Please put the GD case number on the bond and send it in to the clerk with the $8.50 approval fee. Do not forget to include the POA as the second page of the bond. Riders to Bonds may be e-filed. When asked to provide proof of payment, please provide the copy of the front and back of the cancelled check. It is the back of the check which proves that the payment cleared the ward s account. Guardian Advocates: There are no court approved annual affidavits or Developmental Services plans. However, there is an annual affidavit form on the clerk s office that has been reviewed by the Magistrates. If the ward is not in a community program that provides plans, or the ward is on a waiting list to get one, the guardian advocate may use the court approved Annual Plan form. Guardians of minors: There are specific forms for the plan and physician s report for minors on www.jud6.org. Maintenance fees of Professional Guardians ($7.50) are due in January of each year, regardless of when you were appointed to a case. Guardians who have not paid their annual fee may get an Order Disapproving! If you mail in the payment, please provide a self-addressed, stamped envelope to get your receipt. These fees are per guardian, not per case, but since they are paid on a case may sometimes be overlooked when another case is audited. The Clerk s office tries to prevent such lapses, but hanging on to your receipt is helpful for all! HOW TO CONTACT US: Please feel free to contact the Probate Court Records department by calling (727) 464-3321, or sending an email to probate@mypinellasclerk.org.
HOW WILL FLORIDA S NEW LAW ON PRESCRIBING PAIN MEDICATIONS EFFECT YOU? SUBMITTED BY LINDA CHAMBERLAIN, ESQ. 5 Linda Chamberlain, Typically if you have surgery, dental work, or happen to slip and fall and wake up later with pain your doctor may prescribe a pain reliever that often contains an opioid. It is not unusual to receive a prescription with 15-30 pain tablets, prescribed every four hours as needed. That process is all changing. Beginning July 1, 2018 a prescription for a Schedule II opioid for the treatment of acute pain may not exceed a three-day supply. The three day limit may be increased to seven days if determined to be medically necessary with proper documentation and Acute Pain Exception written on the face of the prescription. The prescriber must document in the patient s medical record the acute medical condition and lack of alternative treatment options that justify deviation from the three day supply limit. Acute pain is statutorily defined as the normal, predicted, physiological, and time-limited response to an adverse chemical, thermal, or mechanical stimulus associated with surgery, trauma, or acute illness. It s almost easier to understand what is defined as non-acute pain. Acute pain does not include pain related to cancer, terminal conditions (death to occur within one year), pain treated with palliative care (incurable, progressive illness or injury), or traumatic injuries with an Injury Severity Score of 9 or greater (an internationally recognized scoring system). Schedule II opioids you may recognize include: codeine, hydrocodone, morphine, oxycodone, and amphetamines. A complete list of Schedule II medications is listed in Chapter 893.03 of the Florida Statutes. If you are prescribed a medication that includes a controlled substance your prescription is entered into a statewide database. The Department of Health is required to maintain this electronic system to collect and store controlled substance dispensing information in Florida. The Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) known as E-FORCSE, Electronic-Florida Online Reporting of Controlled Substances Evaluation Program maintains patient s controlled substance dispensing history. The dispensing of a controlled substance must be reported to the database no later than the next business day. The new law requires health care practitioners to consult the database to review the patient s controlled substance history before prescribing or dispensing a controlled substance for a patient who is 16 years of age or older. This requirement is for almost any controlled substance, for any reason, not just acute pain or chronic nonmalignant pain. One of the goals of the PDMP is to help prevent drug abuse, however for the prescribing practitioner there are not specific guidelines of how they should respond or prescribe after reviewing the patient s controlled substance dispensing history. This may need to be tackled by the State Medical Boards. The Center for Disease Control states Opioids are the main driver of drug overdose deaths. Florida had over 4,500 deaths related to overdose in 2016. In 2017 Governor Scott declared Florida s Opioid epidemic a Public Health Emergency. Finding the balance between treating patients with pain and discovering who may be an addict is challenging. Medical providers registered with the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and authorized to prescribe controlled substances continued on page 6
HOW WILL FLORIDA S NEW LAW ON PRESCRIBING PAIN MEDICATIONS EFFECT YOU?..CONTINUED 6 must take a board-approved two hour continuing education course on prescribing controlled substances by January 31, 2019. (4) While this course may be helpful for understanding the new law I have to wonder how much education will be made available or required to recognize, diagnose and treat addiction. More information and FAQ s are available at Florida Take Control, a website describing the new law is available at http://www.flhealthsource.gov/floridatakecontrol/. I appreciate your interest in this article. I love feedback and hearing your comments and questions. Please email me at Linda@agingwisely.com. UPDATE ON GUARDIAN REGISTRATION BY IRENE RAUSCH, MASTER GUARDIAN At the recent FSGA annual conference in Orlando, OPPG Director Carol Berkowitz provided an update on guardian registration procedures. Briefly outlined below are some of changes. Registration Process: Shelby Davis has been employed to fill the guardian registration position formerly held by Theresa Martin. Soon, OPPG will begin notifying guardians 60 days in advance and in writing, when their registration must be completed and what will be needed; for example, new fingerprinting or credit report. Revision of the application form has been initiated and there will be an option to include contact information on the List of Registered Guardians and a space to indicate what languages the guardian speaks. A future goal is to allow registration and payment of fees on-line. Registration for Guardian employees: All staff with fiduciary responsibilities must be registered with OPPG. Employee with fiduciary responsibilities is defined in Florida Guardian Standards as: an employee of a professional guardian who has the ability to direct any withdrawal or investments from a ward s banking or investment accounts, supervises the care of the ward under the supervision of the guardian, or who makes any health care decision, as defined by Florida Statutes 765.101(6), on behalf of the ward. This term shall also include an employee of a professional guardian who has in-person contact with the Ward more than five (5) times in any thirty (30) day period. All aspects of the guardian registration must be in compliance throughout the year and revised forms must be submitted to OPPG when new employees are added. CEU Reporting: There is a new interpretation of when the 2 year continuing education reporting period starts for new guardians. Formerly, the Irene Rausch reporting period began upon completion of the 40 hour course. The new interpretation is the period begins the next year after OPPG registration has been completed. For example, if you register in September 2017, the 2 year period will be September 2018 through August 2019. Also ceu s must be earned within the 2 year reporting period; surplus ceu s will no longer carry over to the next reporting period. Fingerprinting: Ms. Berkowitz noted that if the fingerprinting does not take then the applicant can do it over for free. If there is still a problem, then the applicant will need to pick up a finger print card from the clerk s office and take it to a police or sheriff department to have it completed. Attorney Registration: The application form will be revised to include the attorney s bar number and the registration period will now be valid for 1 full year. Ms. Berkowitz suggested that although attorneys are not required to complete the 40 hour course they probably should because of the specialized information necessary to effectively administer guardianship cases.
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