Health Informatics News |
| More doctors demand pay up-front Posted: 4/10/2009 © St. Petersburg Times An increasing number of doctors and health care providers are demanding payments up front, even from fully insured patients. Some providers claim it is easier to collect from patients before they leave the office than chase them down later. | ||
| Free ride to end in Medicare plans? Posted: 4/7/2009 © Wall Street Journal Online Federal payments to "Medicare Advantage" plans will fall between 4 and 5 percentage points in the year to come if the Obama administration gets its way. (Effects on the 800,000 Floridians enrolled in such plans should be minor because payments in Florida are so high most members pay no premiums or even get cash back. See explanation: Freebies flow for Medicare patients -- if they're in the right county.) | ||
| Drug reps' notes tell secret of sales Posted: 4/5/2009 © St. Petersburg Times Riveting reading: AstraZeneca sales reps' notes on how they used gourmet chocolates and other freebies to change Florida doctors' prescribing habits. One Tampa neurologist who wouldn't talk to the drug rep at all about Seroquel became a big subscriber and won free trips to Europe. | ||
| Posted: 4/6/2009 From a press release Florida Medicaid patients and those who treat them will soon have access to their full health record online through a partnership between the state and Availity LLC. The company will offer a secure Web portal, state officials say. | ||
| Group turns down North Collier Hospital offer Posted: 4/5/2009 © Fort Myers News-Press NCH Healthcare System in Naples has ended its long-time alliance with local neonatologists and has brought in a group from Miami, causing a flap in Lee and Collier counties. | ||
| Posted: 4/3/2009 © Health News Florida Florida pays managed-care plans $2.5 billion a year to make sure Medicaid patients in the state get proper preventive care and treatment. New data from 2008 show Florida plans' performance fell far below the national average, and near the bottom in care for infants, pregnant women and the mentally ill. | ||
| Surgeon takes flight to cut costs Posted: 4/2/2009 © Health News Florida Some patients travel to get a price break, but how many take their surgeons with them? Last month, Miami-area surgeon Arnon Krongrad flew to Trinidad with one of his prostate cancer patients so that the uninsured man could afford the procedure he wanted. | ||
| New Medicaid pilot in the works? Posted: 3/30/2009 © Florida Health News Medicaid Reform could branch off in a new direction under a proposal that could emerge from a House committee this week. It would set up "medical homes" for patients using community health centers, based on the famed Mayo Clinic model of having a whole team consulting on a patient's needs in one site. | ||
| Doctors still push PSA screening Posted: 3/27/2009 © Palm Beach Post Studies have found little benefit to the PSA blood test used to screen for prostate cancer, yet doctors still push it. Patients, too. | ||
| USF offers free e-coaching for doctors Posted:
A lot of doctors say they can't afford to adopt electronic prescribing. Others need technical help. Today, USF's top doctor Stephen Klasko and Allscripts Inc. announced an end to both barriers with free software and 1-on-1 in-training in doctors' offices in up to 10 counties. | ||
| Coalition: Protect drug access Posted: 3/10/2009 © Florida Health News USF psychiatrist Michael Bengtson advises the Florida Medicaid program on which drugs need to be readily available. But even he can't always get the drugs his patients need, he says, because the process is "murky." Consumer groups agree; they've formed a coalition to keep drugs available at a time of budget cuts. | ||
| Reform could cost hospitals $4B Posted: 2/27/2009 © Florida Health News A former state health official says if Florida’s Medicaid Reform plan is expanded statewide it will cost hospitals nearly $4 billion a year in uninsured emergency-room visits and make it difficult for patients to get immediate treatment. | ||
| Crist wants to merge health agencies Posted: By Christine Jordan Sexton 2/25/2009 © Florida Health News Gov. Charlie Crist is reportedly preparing to recommend a merger of the two largest state health agencies into one, a proposal that would affect thousands of state employees. He also wants to keep Medicaid “Reform” unchanged and increase the fees doctors and HMOs get for treating the poor. | ||
| Local docs now part of drug trials Posted: 2/22/2009 © Palm Beach Post Twenty years ago most drug trials were done in academic medical centers. Today, doctors in the community are getting paid to do the trials, giving patients access to the newest medications. |
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