CS/CS/SB 1120 (Harrell) and CS/CS/CS/HB 649 (Caruso) address individuals who have been disqualified for employment with substance abuse service providers following a failed background screening. The bills require the Department of Children and Families to provide exemptions from employment disqualification for certain offenses and condense several background screening sections of current law into a single set of requirements. The bills modify patient-brokering laws to exempt discount, waivers of payment, or payments not prohibited by federal anti-kickback statutes. The bills also apply such exemptions to all payment methods by a federal health care program and provide that patient-brokering constitutes a first-degree misdemeanor. Finally, the bills provide that any person who willfully and knowingly facilitates patient brokering is guilty of a first-degree misdemeanor. (Cook)