Medical Foster Care Program

The Medical Foster Care Program is a home-based program for children that are medically involved and who are unable to live with their families. This program is more affordable for the citizens of Florida for the care of foster children who must live in hospitals, nursing homes, or who must have expensive nursing services in a regular foster home. The Medical Foster Care (MFC) Program allows a foster child with a chronic medical condition to grow and develop in a family setting in a state licensed foster home. Medical foster parents are trained and certified as Medicaid providers of personal care services for these children. One of this program's most important roles is to return the child to their birth family by training the family to care for their child's special medical needs.

The program offers many services to the medical foster parents, the children, and their birth families. These include a 24-hour call in system for medical support to the medical foster parents. The MFC nurse and social worker provide support and coordinate care for the children with hospitals, equipment providers, therapists, health facilities, schools, foster care staff and families. The program also responds to emergency needs of children who are in need of a medical home after hours and assists with the movement of some children into adoptive homes, when they cannot return to their birth families. The MFC Program provides follow up services to all children and their caregivers once the children leave medical foster care to make certain that they continue to receive the services they need to stay in the community.