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By Christine Jordan Sexton
1/8/2009 © Florida Health News
TALLAHASSEE -- Early miscues that bedeviled the Cover Florida kickoff this week were only to be expected in a new program of this magnitude, the governor’s health care point man said in an interview Wednesday. David Foy, policy director for Gov. Charlie Crist, promised a big push in coming weeks to let uninsured Floridians know about the plans and help them get signed up. 
 1/8/2009 © Miami Herald
TALLAHASSEE -- Florida hospitals now face a $137-million reduction that could push the system into crisis and even force some to close, according to the industry and Sen. Durell Peaden, who heads a health budget committee. ''I don't think the hospital system can take any more,'' he said. Medicaid HMOs, nursing homes and other parts of the industry also voice concern about the proposal that comes up for a House vote today. And the Lakeland Ledger reports that lawmakers are hoping for a rescue from Washington.
1/8/2008 © Palm Beach Post
Dr. Claude Earl Fox, founding director of the Florida Public Health Institute in Lantana, is one of just 20 experts serving on the transition team for Health and Human Services, advising former Sen. Tom Daschle, nominated to become the HHS Secretary. Fox, 62, served in the Clinton administration but reportedly is not interested in moving back to Washington.
1/08/2008 © WWSB-TV
Many seniors who visit the Medicare Web site find getting the information they need frustrating, University of Miami researchers report. It's difficult to navigate and the language is too complex, lead researcher Sara J. Czaja said.
1/8/2009 © South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Middle-school principal Mark Kaplan, charged with trying to strangle his wife in a bizarre case linked to a sleep disorder, was released Wednesday and allowed to return to his job after the school board said the arrest had no bearing on his work. Kaplan claims his parasomnia keeps him from being aware that he's attacking his wife in his sleep. A University of Miami researcher cites evidence that bolsters his claim.
1/07/2008 © St. Petersburg Times
Groups are gathering around the state to push for passage of a bill setting up a prescription-drug registry so that abuse of controlled drugs could be detected. Previous bills seeking such a registry have failed three times. But now, according to speakers at a rally at St. Petersburg College, deaths from prescription drugs outnumber deaths from illicit drugs such as cocaine or heroin by a 3-to-1 margin.
1/08/2008 © Miami Herald
A federal judge sentenced Carlos and Jorge de Céspedes to nine years in prison Wednesday despite pleas for leniency from almost 200 South Florida leaders, who cited the brothers' many contributions to charity. The brothers used their company, Pharmed, to bilk Kendall Regional Medical Center out of $5 million in a scam that lasted 14 years.
1/07/2008 © Tampa Tribune
Ronald Carl, who went to a doctor last July to have a boil lanced, ended up dead from the virulent staph infection methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA. His widow has sued Oak Hill Hospital, saying staff and physicians failed to diagnose the problem in time to prevent his death.
1/07/2008 © WTSP-TV
Three years after Edith McQueen was treated at Shands Jacksonville for a stab wound to the neck, an x-ray showed a knife blade still lodged near her spine. McQueen has been suffering from headaches and she can feel the blade through the skin, but she thought it was scar tissue from the wound, her attorney says.
01/07/2008 © St. Petersburg Times
Five years ago a doctor told Steve Franks he had Lou Gehrig's disease and probably had five years to live. Today Franks, 50, is driving around Florida in a black pickup with a trailer stuffed with 150 mannequins to draw attention to what his body -- and others afflicted with the paralyzing ailment -- will become.
1/07/2008 © Palm Beach Post
Diabetes-equipment firm Liberty Medical, one of Port St. Lucie's largest private employers, plans to expand its operations there, creating up to 800 full-time jobs during the next two years. In November, 10.4 percent of the county's workforce was unemployed, up from 6.4 percent the prior year, according to the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation.
By Christine Jordan Sexton and Carol Gentry
1/6/2009 © Florida Health News
TALLAHASSEE -- Florida’s ambitious effort to help lower the state’s number of uninsured has gotten off to a bumpy start. On opening day, Monday, the Cover Florida program Web site had no phone numbers or links to application forms. And in an embarrassing gaffe, Gov. Charlie Crist’s office sent out a press release saying the information was up when it wasn't. By Tuesday, information was beginning to appear, but the delays remained unexplained.
1/07/2008 © St. Petersburg Times
Thousands of nursing home workers are bracing for layoffs, and other health organizations are also moaning about proposed cuts in state funding as lawmakers furiously work at slashing as much as $1 billion from the current state budget. The bulk of the cuts will, however, hit schools, where teachers are already paying for school supplies out of their pockets. Gov. Charlie Crist says his fellow Republicans, who dominate both chambers of the Legislature, are going too far.
 1/07/2008 © Miami Herald
Two officials with Hands on Miami are suspected of embezzling nearly $25,000, even as the well-known volunteer group was laying off four other employees, according to a search warrant filed in Miami-Dade court. It identified them as Bruce Howard Smith, an office manager who was fired in late August, and controller Debbie A. Lightbourn, who resigned a few days later. The organization's volunteers clean beaches, feed the homeless and tutor children.
1/07/2008 © South Florida Sun-Sentinel
A sleep disorder is to blame for Mark Kaplan's attack on his wife, his attorney says. Kaplan, 37, principal of Falcon Cove Middle School, is accused of trying to choke Alyson Kaplan as she slept, police said. Alyson Kaplan said that for the past 18 months her husband has been verbally abusive, poked her, scratched her and threatened to stab her — all at night. She is not pressing charges.
1/06/2008 © Orlando Sentinel
With signs that the state's economy continues to deteriorate, legislators on Monday sharply deepened the third round of spending cuts to the existing budget. They also proposed increasing speeding fines by $25 per violation. Some areas that are likely to be cut as talks resume today: nursing homes, hospices, AIDS care and prevention, and hospital reimbursement.
1/06/2008 © New York Times
Should patients be told of better care elsewhere? They should, according to an article in the journal PLoS Medicine co-authored by cancer surgeon Leonidas G. Koniaris of the Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami. Doctors have an ethical obligation to tell patients if they are more likely to survive, be cured, live longer or avoid complications by going to Hospital A instead of Hospital B, he said.
1/06/2008 © Miami Herald
Capping a four-year investigation, the U.S. attorney's office has indicted two Fort Lauderdale lawyers and the top executives of now-defunct Mutual Benefits, which sold bogus life insurance policies on AIDS patients and the elderly to unwitting investors. Prosecutors allege CEO Joel Steinger hired doctors who falsely said patients were near death so the company could sell low-value policies at a higher price. It was a kind of Ponzi scheme, they said.
1/06/2008 © Miami Herald
Those who work in hospitals' housekeeping departments do important work, but usually don't get rich. One who did was Sylvia Oramas of Kendall Regional Medical Center. On Monday, a federal judge named her as one of the two ringleaders in a $7-million fraud conspiracy involving resold medical supplies. Jorge de Céspedes, the No. 2 official at Pharmed, was named as the other.
1/6/2009 © Jupiter Courier
Robert M. Rozenti, 68, of Port St. Lucie was charged Sunday with neglecting his 90-year-old mother, for whom he had power of attorney. His side of the house they shared was clean while hers was covered in feces, police said. She was emaciated and her shoes had not been removed for so long that they had "grown into her feet," according to the police report. Rozenti said his mother preferred to care for herself.
By Carol Gentry
1/5/2009 © Florida Health News
Enrollment for Cover Florida, the state-sponsored program to make limited coverage available to the state’s millions of uninsured residents, opened on Monday, but at the end of the day the links for applications and phone numbers to call with questions were nowhere to be found on the state's Cover Florida Web site. (Update: Some phone numbers appeared early Tuesday).
 By Carol Gentry
1/4/2009 © Florida Health News
Medicare officials have ordered Citrus Health Care to stop marketing and enrolling new members because of a “pattern of widespread deficiencies in its administration and operations” brought on, in part, by financial problems. One no-no that Citrus committed: dropping some of the sicker, higher-cost "special needs" members from its plans. The Tampa-based company has brought back its former CEO in hopes of a quick fix.
1/3/2009 © Miami Herald
In a dramatic Christmas Eve raid of a Miami maternity clinic, 20 state and federal agents carried off 500 patient records and both frozen and dehydrated placentas for analysis. State health officials accused the clinic of using the tissue to make illegal pills; owner Shari Daniels denied the accusations and called the raid "Big Brother at its worst."
1/5/2009 © St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald
Florida legislators will start the new year in familiar fashion: by cutting aid, borrowing money, skimming cash surpluses and hiking traffic and court fees to patch a $2.3-billion hole in a leaky state budget. Legislators may borrow $600 million from a health care fund.
1/04/2008 © News-Press Capital Bureau
Under a new law that took effect Jan. 1, hospitals must give uninsured Floridians a copy of their charity care policy and a good-faith estimate of the charges for an elective procedure ahead of time, if requested. They must post signs telling patients how to obtain the information. Also, the Agency for Health Care Administration has to develop a list of those hospital charges for 150 common procedures and post them on the Internet.
 1/1/2009 © Miami Herald
The number of Cuban immigrants who have fleeced U.S. taxpayers and then fled back to their home island, beyond the reach of U.S. prosecutors, has now risen to about 60. The latest is Alcides Garcia, charged with submitting $10.7 million in false Medicare claims for powered air mattresses, feeding pumps and other medical equipment that was never provided to patients.
1/5/2009 © Amednews.com
A five-year pilot Medicaid reform begun in Broward and Duval counties during 2006 to improve care access and quality has not yet lived up to its expectations, according to some physicians. The project offers financial rewards to patients who access preventive care, but some physicians are considering dropping out rather than deal with the hassles.
1/1/2009 © St. Petersburg Times
Paula O'Conner and her 15-month-old son Alijah were found strangled in their St. Petersburg home in July 2007 after she sued an Air Force sergeant to prove paternity, receive child support and get military benefits to cover more than $100,000 in medical bills. Sgt. Ralph "Ron" Wright Jr. denied being the father, and police couldn't prove he was. Until he cut himself.
 1/1/2009 © Miami Herald
Miami boasts a sky-high rate of luxury cars, gym memberships, and plastic surgery. Its people were recently voted the nation's best-looking, but among the least friendly. Columnist Daniel Shoer Roth discusses the reasons for and effects of a culture where the "perfect look" is all that matters.
1/05/2009 © Bradenton Herald
Bailey Locklear is legally blind because of optic nerve hypoplasia, a congenital disorder. At present no treatment for the disorder has been okayed in the U.S. So the 8-year-old Lakeland girl and her mom are traveling to Thailand for an experimental protocol using stem-cell injections.
12/30/2008 © South Florida Sun-Sentinel
About 500 medical equipment businesses have lost the right to bill Medicare after inspectors found they failed to meet basic rules, such as having an address, a federal official says. More than 100 medical business operators in South Florida have been jailed for false billings.
1/04/2008 © The Associated Press
MIAMI -- Medicare fraud is so prevalent among medical-equipment suppliers, especially in Florida, that the government has decided to enforce a 12-year-old law requiring them to post a surety bond that would pay the government up to $50,000 if they engage in fraud. The bond will cost each company about $1,500, which the industry warns will be a burden to legitimate companies.
1/04/2009 © Florida Times-Union
Michael Hollahan had good health insurance before AOL closed its Jacksonville call center in 2006, putting him and 1,500 others out of work. Within a year he was homeless. Last week, he found help for a sinus infection at a new clinic for homeless and uninsured people in Jacksonville Beach.
1/04/2009 WPBT-TV
West Palm Beach toddler Michelle Martinez pushed out a window screen and fell three stories and survived. Doctors who checked said she has no broken bones, no serious trauma.
 12/31/2008 © USA Today
Two members of the Florida Board of Pharmacy who were employed by Walgreens took part in a case involving a Walgreens pharmacist in Jacksonville, successfully lowering the fine for failing to catch an error that led to an overdose. The Florida case was one of several that USA Today found in an examination of pharmacy chains' ties to state disciplinary boards that could be construed as conflicts of interest.
By Carol Gentry
12/24/2008 © Florida Health News
A Jacksonville company that processes Medicare hospital claims missed overcharges more than half the time in an audit of high-dollar cases, according to a recent report. The audit of First Coast Service Options Inc., which covered calendar years 2004 and 2005, studied 199 cases in which payments of more than $200,000 were made for treatment of a Medicare patient.
 12/24/2008 © Associated Press
By deciding that state law doesn't consider nursing homes "health care facilities," the Supreme Court on Tuesday exempted them from the Constitutional amendment that gives patients the right to see incident reports on medical errors. The decision came in a case involving the death of Marlene Gagnon, a resident in a West Palm Beach nursing home owned by Tandem Health Care.
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 The blog Medicaid Front Page by health strategist Brady Augustine of Tallahassee has been named to the Health Tech's Blog list of the top 100 health policy blogs. Augustine is a former chief of health systems development for Florida Medicaid and a senior advisor at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Front Page is the only Medicaid blog on the list.
Delay and a long public debate tend to lessen chances of passage for health reform legislation, according to the latest online essay from Drew Altman, president of the Kaiser Family  Foundation. He cited both the Truman and Clinton efforts, which lost steam as debate in Congress dragged on, giving vested interest groups time to spin the debate and raise the fear factor. Current economic problems present a window of opportunity, Altman says, making the public insecure about losing jobs and coverage. To avoid stalemate, Altman suggests, proponents should "move fast" and get something passed. It can be fixed later.
Pres.-elect Barack Obama and his choice to lead the Health and Human Services department, Tom Daschle, asked Americans to host informal gatherings between Dec. 15 and Dec. 31 to brainstorm how to improve the U.S. health system. We want your ideas, as well, for our new Opinions & Analysis page, which will debut soon. Please send them in. -- Carol Gentry, Editor
 If you want to be ready for the big health-reform debate next year, you've got to do your homework. The Kaiser Family Foundation has compiled primers on private insurance and public programs, including new ones on Medicare and Medicaid, at its Web site.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel provides a reminder of the importance of journalism by having toxicologists test 10 common products labeled "microwave-safe." If you read this, you'll never nuke plastic again.
Pinellas insurance broker John Sinibaldi, who helps small employers try to find affordable health coverage, says he laughs at the results on national  surveys of the cost of health insurance. The results don't apply in Florida, he says, where small businesses are the norm. Premium increases for his clients averaged over 20 percent for next year, he said, and deductibles are thousands of dollars. His views are posted at The Health Care Blog.
Next month, at long last, we plan to unveil the newly redesigned and expanded Florida Health News site. We'll introduce Consumer's Corner, a page designed to meet the information needs of those who don't get their paycheck from the health care industry but care passionately about improving access, quality and efficiency. We'll also debut Analysis & Opinion, which will finally give us a place to post editorials, op-ed pieces, columns, and blogs about health issues, along with a daily cartoon. And we'll also have a place to display ads, so please get in touch if your organization wants a good sponsorship spot. Send me an e-mail or call 727-410-3266. -- Carol Gentry, Editor
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