Two rulebooks govern incidents at an APD provider: Rule 65G-2, F.A.C., which defines reportable incidents and the reporting timeline to your regional office, and APD's Zero Tolerance policy, which governs abuse, neglect, and exploitation and routes those reports straight to the Florida Abuse Hotline. Both come with consequences that reach your waiver enrollment.
The four rules that matter
Report to your Region within 1 business day
Reportable incidents under Rule 65G-2, F.A.C. must reach your APD regional office within one business day of your agency becoming aware — on the approved Incident Reporting Form. The clock starts at awareness, not at the incident.
Follow up within 5 business days
Every initial report owes a follow-up within five business days: what was done, what was found, what changes. An initial report with no follow-up on file is itself a finding.
Abuse, neglect, exploitation → the Abuse Hotline, directly
Under Zero Tolerance, anyone who knows of or suspects abuse, neglect, or exploitation reports to the Florida Abuse Hotline. Your staff cannot be required to route it through management first — and failing to report is a third-degree felony, with waiver-enrollment termination on the provider side.
Document what you did, not just what happened
Reviewers cross-check your internal records against what was reported: every incident your notes mention must have a matching, on-time report and follow-up. The gap they look for is the incident that appears in a progress note but never became a report.
An audit-proof incident trail
In a Provider Discovery Review, incident handling is checked from both directions: reports on file, and mentions in service documentation that should have become reports. That means your incident log, progress notes, and reports need to live close together. APDHQ keeps incident reports on the client's record with status tracking (open/closed), alongside session notes and the rest of the consumer record — one place to see that what happened, what was documented, and what was reported all agree, with staff Zero Tolerance training tracked on the personnel side.
Frequently asked questions
How fast must an APD provider report an incident?
Reportable incidents must be reported to the APD regional office within one business day of the provider becoming aware of them, using the approved Incident Reporting Form, with a follow-up report due within five business days (Rule 65G-2, F.A.C.).
What makes an incident 'reportable'?
Rule 65G-2, F.A.C. defines the reportable categories — events affecting client health and safety such as injuries requiring medical attention, abuse/neglect/exploitation allegations, missing persons, baker acts, arrests, and deaths. Keep the current rule text at hand; categories and definitions are updated over time.
Can staff report abuse internally instead of calling the hotline?
No. Providers may not require employees to report internally before contacting the Florida Abuse Hotline. Internal notification can happen in parallel, but the hotline obligation is personal and immediate.
What incident records should we retain?
The initial report, the five-day follow-up, and the internal documentation behind both — plus evidence of staff Zero Tolerance training. In a Provider Discovery Review, reviewers verify that every known incident was documented AND reported on time.