Health Informatics News |
| Doctor working for hospital may cost more Posted: 5/5/2009 © Daytona Beach News-Journal With malpractice insurance and other rates rising, many doctors are opting to become direct employees of hospitals, instead of private practitioners. That can mean unexpected extra charges for patients. | ||
| Softball player, 15, in induced coma Posted: 4/17/2009 © Orlando Sentinel A softball player who suffered a seizure that caused her heart to stop after a game on Wednesday was revived with an external defibrillator. She's in an induced coma at West Boca Medical Center, where doctors plan to begin reviving her over the weekend. | ||
| Lawmaker has personal ties to hospital Posted: Rep. Janet Adkins' fight to save Northeast Florida State Hospital from privatization is complicated and personal. Her husband owns an assisted living facility that receives state funding to house patients from the hospital. | ||
| Posted: A bill called “the most important mental health bill” in 30 years passed a House panel on Monday and will come before a key Senate committee on Wednesday. The bill would divert many of the state’s 70,000 mental patients from prisons to treatment. Its only opposition is the cash-strapped budget. | ||
| Posted: 4/14/2009 © Miami Herald Long notorious for its high healthcare costs, Miami has been chosen as one of 14 communities for a Medicare pilot project seeking to eliminate unnecessary hospital readmissions and reduce Medicare costs. | ||
| Internet pharmacy customer testifies Posted: 4/14/2009 © Daytona Beach News-Journal Mary Krieff of Tampa testified she ordered diet pills over the Internet without ever seeing a doctor through Jive Network, a now-defunct business in Daytona Beach. Owner Jude LaCour, three doctors and a pharmacist are on trial. | ||
| Doctor: Accused molester insane Posted: 4/14/2009 © Bradenton Herald Thomas Oliver, a convicted sex predator accused of molesting a patient at Manatee Glens Hospital, can't be tried because he is insane, according to doctors who examined him. | ||
| Estimate: 50,000 FL kids homeless Posted: 4/13/2009 © Sun-Sentinel A national center says children in homeless families worry and get sick more often than other kids and are at greater risk of dropping out of school. Meanwhile, the St. Petersburg Times reports, emergency doctors say uninsured children are coming in with illnesses that should have been treated sooner. | ||
| Primary care: low pay, long hours Posted: 4/13/2009 © Naples Daily News Why aren't there enough primary care doctors? They earn about half as much as specialists a year, because the reimbursement system devised by Medicare assumes that what they do is less complex than specialists' care. | ||
| Doc speeds up lab reports on Internet Posted: 4/12/2009 © Palm Beach Post Mark Widick, an ear, nose and throat doctor in Boca Raton, has developed a Web-based business that offers doctors and patients a much quicker answer on their throat cultures than the standard lab report. Curtailing overprescribing of antibiotics would help everyone, he notes. | ||
| 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.) | ||
| 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. | ||
| 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. | ||
| Fairness to doctors or 'gag order' on patients? Posted: 2/13/2009 © Florida Health News Some Florida doctors now require patients to sign an agreement promising not to post Internet comments about them without permission. Some say it's "an attempt to steal the consumer's right to free speech," but doctors say it's a matter of fairness. |
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