Florida Health News

Correction, Medicare story

Rep. Ander Crenshaw voted to override the President's veto of the Medicare bill. A Florida Health News story published on July 17 misstated his vote. We apologize for the error.

 

Quote of the day

"If the veto is not overridden, it is going to be a holy mess out there ..." -- Joe Paduda, Managed Care Matters, on President Bush's veto of the Medicare bill that reinstated full pay for doctors, July 15, 2008.

 

Press release of the week: Invitation to a cat microchipping

UF College of Veterinary Medicine seeks cat “volunteers” who will come to the school to receive a free microchip and one of three types of collars. The first 180 cats to sign up will receive a special microchip that reports the cat’s body temperature. For appointment, call 352-392-2226 ext 5717 or e-mail at ungerl@vetmed.ufl.edu.  A demonstration will be at 3 on Thursday.

 

Readers tell us what they like -- and what they don't

Judging by the responses to our survey last month, readers like Florida Health News a lot. But you’d like it even better if it were easier to get to the stories you want. Okay. We’re going to try. In the coming weeks, we’ll be huddling with the techno-wizards to see what we can do. Here are the results of the survey. -- Carol Gentry, editor

 

From the newsroom, part 3: the long wait

In covering health subjects, reporters have to be good at working with numbers and adept at finding patients to

LaMendola

interview, our readers learned in Parts 1 and 2 of From the Newsroom. Now, in Part 3, South Florida Sun-Sentinel's Robert LaMendola describes something else reporters need to have: patience. He needed it after writing a story about the likely impact of the governor's health plan.

  

Patients in Florida give hospitals below-average scores

Floridians give their hospitals scores that are 5 to 8 percentage points lower than the national average in all 10 categories on a patient-satisfaction survey now available at a federal Web site.   
The key question -- Would you recommend the hospital to friends and family? – drew affirmative answers from 61 percent of Floridians compared with 67 percent nationwide. A similar gap pops up in questions on cleanliness, noise, pain control and how well nurses and doctors communicate with patients.   Read more...

See Survey Responses for Florida and Nation

 

Why do Medicare HMOs offer more in Miami-Dade than in Leon County?

Why do Medicare Advantage health plans charge a premium to their members in North Florida but not in South Florida? Why do enrollees from rural areas have to pay while those in cities get a free ride? It's all a matter of the quirks in the federal payment system, as Susan Jaffe, Florida Health News' Washington correspondent, explains in her story  "Freebies flow for Medicare patients -- if they're in the right county."  

 

What passed? What didn't?

If you're like most people, the flurry of bill action in the last week of the Legislative session left you confused. Find out what happened by reading the Senate Summary or House Summary.

 

Correction

Floridean Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center in Miami provided all required information for federal care-quality measures and has cleared up deficiencies in patient care cited by a survey team. A June 19 Florida Health News article was incorrect on these points, in part through a misreading of the Nursing Home Compare Web site and in part because some information on the site was out of date.

 

Notable quote

"The little money managed care may save in the short run is going to be dwarfed by the millions that will be paid out ... when the lawsuits roll in." 

--  Dennis Slate, top mental-health official in the detention program for illegal immigrants, in the Washington Post's continuing investigation of immigrants' treatment. 

 

'The Fifth Guy' wins top award for former DOH team

The 5th Guy

Four out of five people wash their hands after using the restroom. The 5th guy, the one who doesn't, inspired a 2007 series of ads from the Florida Department of Health that has won the top national PR prize -- the Silver Anvil Award -- in the government-agency category. Earlier, it won an Emmy. The concept was created by Peter Mitchell of Marketing for Change, now Salter-Mitchell. One irony: Wendy Riemann, who led the DOH communications department at the time, and her deputy Kevin Cate, who worked with Mitchell on the campaign, have both left the agency. Here is a video.

 

Now, where did that story go? Try this

Here's a question that comes up a lot: How do you find a story that we ran several days or weeks ago? If it's a Florida Health News story, click on the "Our Stories" tab. If not, go to the Search box just above this column and try likely search terms until you find it. If the publication still has that story posted, no problem. If it's been archived, you won't be able to read it. Alas, there's nothing we can do about that; we don't own the copyright. -- Carol Gentry, editor

We're looking for stories about the uninsured and under-insured

One in four Floridians under age 65 lacks health insurance. Countless others are "under-insured," which means their coverage won't meet their needs if they get seriously ill or hurt. You'd think they'd be easy to find, given their numbers, but they don't stand out until they get sick. Reporters need to find them (see Steve Nohlgren's account below). If you know any, please have them call Carol Gentry, Editor, at 727-410-3266 or write Carol.Gentry@FloridaHealthNews.org. 

 

Ocala health reporter wins Kaiser fellowship

Naseem Sowti Miller, health reporter for the Ocala Star-Banner, is one of nine journalists in the nation to be awarded a 2008 fellowship by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.  The Kaiser Media Fellowships in Health provide financial support for reporters to conduct in-depth reporting projects, study health policy and receive training in multimedia reporting techniques. Sowti Miller will study the quality of medical care in jails and prisons and the broader impact on public health. 

 

Blog analyzes candidates' health plans

For an in-depth look at health care reform proposals by Presidential candidates Sens. Hilary Clinton, John McCain and others, check out the details outlined by health care analyst Robert Laszewski in his blogs at Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review.

Get help with Medicare drug plan choices

Posted 10/11/07
Beneficiaries, caregivers, and family members can compare details about the 2008 Medicare prescription drug plan and health plans online through the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan Finder at www.medicare.gov. The deadline for enrolling in a drug plan is December 31.

Why do we sneeze? Where does pee come from?

If your child is given to asking such questions, here's where to turn: Nemours KidsHealth.org. The Orlando-based pediatric health system has launched a new feature for kids, "How the Body Works," with talking noses and dancing dogs. It's actually fun!

 

From the newsroom, Part 2: Finding faces

The hardest thing about covering the health system isn’t necessarily the ordeal of figuring out how it works.

Nohlgren

It’s finding the patients – real people – who are affected by its quirks. Recently, St. Petersburg Times’ Stephen Nohlgren, one of the best health reporters in the business, put faces on several parts of Medicaid that the Legislature was considering for cuts, in a story published April 19. He had only four days to pull it off.  We asked him to explain how he did it; here's his account.

 

Check out whether nursing homes have been in trouble

Floridians have a new source for checking the quality of nursing homes. The Medicare Nursing Home Compare Web site now offers a note under the name of any facility with a history of poor performance. Site visitors can search the Special Focus Facility list by name, state, county, city or zip code. 

 

SCHIP hikes increase Florida's uninsured children

Posted 10/10/07
Raising monthly premiums from $15 to $20 for low-income families in Florida's State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) caused them to drop coverage almost three years earlier, according to a new University of Florida study.
A family of four with a household income of $18,000 to $27,000 spent approximately 53 months enrolled in KidCare before the $5-premium hike in 2003. After the increase, families sent an average of 21 months in the program, according to the study, published in Health Services Research. For more, read UF’s press release.

FSU studies early signs of autism

Posted 10/8/07 
Florida State University researchers will be working to determine the prevalence of autism in children under the age of four, thanks to a $1.4 million from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Researchers will work with FIRST WORDS Project, an early identification program that screens 16,000 North Florida children for autism spectrum disorder.  Autism has no known “biological marker” yet, but the study’s leading researcher says that by screening children younger, it may be possible to understand its earlier signs. Read more here.

Medicare, which already pays plans more in Miami-Dade, to give 13% boost

Those who say taxpayers overspend on private Medicare health plans may want to scrutinize the 13 percent hike in the 2009 benchmark rate for Miami-Dade, which will rise to $1,238 per member per month. Miami-Dade already has one of the highest pay rates in the nation. Don't miss this account by Florida Health News' Washington correspondent, Susan Jaffe, and a chart that shows the rates for all the counties in Florida. -- Carol Gentry, editor