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Flagler, Florida and Beyond
FlaglerLive | January 26, 2012
Florida, the state with the largest per-capita population over age 65, invests zero dollars in Alzheimer’s research, though one in 40 Floridian has the disease–and half do over age 85. Nancy Smith argues the indifference is short-sighted on many levels.
FlaglerLive | January 24, 2012
As administrative director JoAnne King oversaw Florida Hospital Flagler’s expansion into hospice care across county lines last year, a first for a Florida Hospital. She was promoted to vice president for ancillary services, overseeing a half dozen departments, including hospice.
FlaglerLive | January 22, 2012
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is promising a legal challenge to federal rules requiring health insurers to provide women with a range of preventive health services, including birth control, without charging a co-payment, co-insurance or deductible.
FlaglerLive | January 6, 2012
Gov. Rick Scott is proposing further deep cuts in Medicaid payments to hospitals, while lawmakers have filed bills that would help shield emergency-room doctors and workers from costly malpractice lawsuits.
FlaglerLive | December 16, 2011
Autopsies are conducted on just 5 percent of patients who die in hospitals, letting common diagnostic errors go undiscovered, allowing physicians to practice on other patients with a false sense of security, and short-shrifting understanding of the effectiveness of medical treatments and the progression of diseases.
FlaglerLive | December 8, 2011
Despite Scott’s proposed boost, the state would still spend about $210 million less on education under Scott’s plan than it did five years ago, with overall education funding down about $1.6 billion. Hospital advocates call proposed cuts to Medicaid a “tax on the sick.”
FlaglerLive | December 7, 2011
More than 660,000 of those currently covered by Medicaid are children, and could be booted off the rolls if their parents have to pay $10 a month in premiums, as the Florida Legislature is proposing.
FlaglerLive | December 5, 2011
A bike accident sent Michael Millenson’s wife to three hospitals. It led him to offer a unique perspective on the health care system and how to reduce hospital errors that kill 44,000 to 98,000 people each year.
FlaglerLive | November 19, 2011
Florida regulators are finally getting around to stopping doctors from over-prescribing drugs, some of them risky, to Medicaid patients, and at times to the wrong patients, after enabling the practice despite signs of misconduct.
FlaglerLive | November 13, 2011
Florida’s Health Information Exchange, a national pioneer, replaces paper with electronic records, speeding up patient care and information exchanges between health providers. Rick Scott opposes it, claiming it doesn’t save money and breaches privacy.
FlaglerLive | November 9, 2011
Walmart wants to become by “the largest provider of primary healthcare services in the nation,” according to a request for information from potential partners sent the same week Walmart–the nation’s largest private employer–scaled back its health coverage for employees.
FlaglerLive | November 7, 2011
The Flagler County Free Clinic in Bunnell has been a commitment of grit and conviction by cancer survivor Faith Coleman and Dr. John Canakaris for the past six years. Now Coleman’s cancer is back, and like all her patients, she has no insurance.
FlaglerLive | October 14, 2011
The Obama administration determined the CLASS Act program could not simultaneously meet three important criteria: be self-sustaining, financially sound for 75 years and affordable to consumers.
FlaglerLive | October 10, 2011
Florida’s Marco Rubio-created insurance exchanges aren’t open to individuals, provide no subsidies or tax credits, and no essential health benefits, as federal plans do. The exchanges have not been popular.
FlaglerLive | October 9, 2011
In the past 3 years, costs related to hunger rose 62 percent in Florida. In 2010, the state’s hunger bill was $11.7 billion, or six times more than the $1.75 billion in budget cuts Gov. Rick Scott proposed for public schools.
FlaglerLive | September 28, 2011
Florida Attorney general Pam Bondi led 26 states’ call to the US Supreme Court to take on Obama’s health care law. So did the Obama administration, as the court prepares to convene for its new term on Monday.
FlaglerLive | September 28, 2011
The 34,000 square foot medical plaza in Cobblestone Village near Walmart will give Florida Hospital Flagler an imprint on the northern side of town and add between 15 and 25 jobs by next summer.
FlaglerLive | September 27, 2011
Health insurance premium costs rose 9 percent for families in 2011, reversing four years of slower premium increases and again raising questions about long-term health costs.
FlaglerLive | September 4, 2011
Federal COBRA subsidies for laid-off workers covered 65 percent of premium costs for 15 months, as part of the Obama administration’s 2009 stimulus package. GOP lawmakers blocked an extension.
FlaglerLive | August 14, 2011
Full text of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals’ 2-1 ruling on Aug. 12, 2011 overturning parts of the Obama administration’s health care reform law, in a case from Florida.
FlaglerLive | August 12, 2011
A divided panel of the conservative 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, in a case from Florida, ruled health reform unconstitutional, saying it is “unprecedented, lacks cognizable limits and imperils our federalist structure.”
FlaglerLive | August 11, 2011
University of Florida researchers have used laboratory-based methods to objectively measure the amount of energy older adults use up as they go about their daily activities. Activity means less senility.
FlaglerLive | August 4, 2011
The Jacksonville Business Journal’s fifth annual Ultimate CEO Award drew some 40 nominations from northeast Florida. Ottati, Florida Hospital Flagler’s CEO for the past five years, was among 13 winners.
FlaglerLive | July 28, 2011
U.S. Health spending will grow by an average of 5.8 percent a year through 2020, compared to 5.7 percent without the health overhaul. With that growth, the nation is expected to spend $4.6 trillion on health care in 2020, nearly double the $2.6 trillion spent last year.
FlaglerLive | July 23, 2011
Florida Hospital Flagler won HIMSS Analytics’s Stage 6 designation, on a scale of eight IT-related stages, signaling advantages over competitors for patient safety, clinician support, clinician recruitment and competitive marketing.
FlaglerLive | July 5, 2011
Florida just rejected a federal grant that would have allowed elderly patients to get care at home instead of in nursing homes, where staffing levels may begin to drop this month, thanks to a new Florida law.
FlaglerLive | June 29, 2011
The $700,000-a-year federal grant would open a community health center focused on the uninsured and providing the sort of care people seek out more expensively in emergency rooms.
FlaglerLive | June 18, 2011
Nationwide, hospitals performed double scans on 5.4 percent of Medicare patients who received chest CTs, but 618 hospitals performed the tests on at least 10 percent of Medicare patients, though experts say the double scans are unnecessary.
Pierre Tristam | June 4, 2011
Medicare’s demise is overblown. Modest fixes, eliminations of tax favors and a small rise in the Medicare tax can preserve America’s best and fairest government-run single-payer insurance system.
Pierre Tristam | May 19, 2011
David Ottati, Florida Hospital Flagler’s CEO, is investing, building, innovating, and taking risks despite–and because of–a sputtering economy and health care’s jaggedly changing landscape. So far, it’s paying off.
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