Florida contracts its iBudget quality assurance to Qlarant, whose reviewers conduct Provider Discovery Reviews (PDRs) measuring your agency against the iBudget Waiver Services Coverage and Limitations Handbook. The review tools are public — Qlarant publishes the administrative and service-specific instruments it scores against — so a PDR is less an exam with secret questions than an audit of whether your files match a known checklist.
What reviewers check
Administrative compliance
Provider qualifications, staff files, and required trainings measured against the iBudget Handbook and Florida Statute: is every person rendering services qualified, screened, and current on the trainings their service requires?
Service-specific record review
The consumer's service record as your agency maintains it: support plan on file and current, service documentation matching what was authorized and delivered, and evidence that the person's individual needs drive service delivery.
Incident handling
Through record review and conversations with the provider and the people served, reviewers determine whether all known incidents were properly documented and reported on time.
Medication administration
If your agency administers or supervises self-administration of medication, expect requests for Medication Error Reports (APD Form 65G7-05) and the records behind them.
Preparation is file hygiene, not cramming
Everything a PDR scores lives in two places: your staff files and your consumer records. If those are complete and current every week of the year, the PDR is retrieval, not preparation. The failure pattern is the reverse: scrambling to reconstruct training histories and hunt signatures in the two weeks before the visit. Our survey-readiness guide covers the operating rhythm that prevents it.
The deadlines that decide your score
Per Qlarant's operational manual, the PDR runs on hard windows — and missing them scores worse than any file gap. Your employee list is due 1 calendar day after the scheduling call (training or screening completed after that date counts as not present for the review); interview contact info is due within 7 calendar days. A desk review (typically earned by scoring 85%+ the prior year) gives you 7 calendar days and one electronic submission — nothing is accepted afterward. Dodge two scheduling attempts and, after a 3-business-day APD follow-up, you're scored Not Met in every area; a no-show does the same after 30 minutes. The report arrives within 45 days, and billing-discrepancy findings can be disputed only within 30 days of the report's mailing date. If findings land, here's how the Plan of Remediation works.
Frequently asked questions
Who conducts APD provider reviews?
Qlarant runs the Florida Statewide Quality Assurance Program on APD's behalf, including Provider Discovery Reviews of iBudget waiver providers. Reviews measure compliance with the iBudget Waiver Services Coverage and Limitations Handbook.
What documents get pulled in a PDR?
Staff personnel files (qualifications, screenings, trainings) and consumer service records (support plan, authorizations, consents, service logs, progress notes, incident documentation). The published review tools on Qlarant's Florida site show the exact instruments reviewers score against.
How do I prepare for a Provider Discovery Review?
Run your own review first: work a sample of staff files and consumer records against the same checklists reviewers use, fix expirations before they lapse, and confirm every incident in your records was reported on the required timeline. Agencies that self-audit quarterly rarely get surprised.
What happens if a PDR finds problems?
Findings typically require corrective action, and patterns of noncompliance can escalate — up to effects on your waiver enrollment. The cheapest finding is the one you catch yourself before the review.