Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Health Informatics News

Health Informatics News

Over-billing: just FL culture?

Posted:

By Cynthia Washam
2/16/2010 © Health News Florida
Brevard County’s largest medical group is close to settling a complaint that it overbilled Medicare $8 million by giving cancer patients more expensive treatments than they needed. Is this a case of fraud, as the Justice Department maintains, or an example of Florida's overheated style of medical treatment?

$8.5M to aid in records conversion

Posted:

2/16/2010 © South Florida Sun-Sentinel
The federal stimulus award will help South Florida doctors convert paper files to electronic records. It's part of $1 billion in federal health IT awards, as CQ Healthbeat explains. And the Herald Tribune says TaxWatch accuses Florida agencies of failing to go after the state's proper share of federal dollars.

Blues sued over pay rates outside network

Posted:

2/16/2010 © Palm Beach Post
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida intentionally sets unrealistically low limits on "usual and customary" payments for medical treatment outside its network, leaving patients owing an unfair share of the bill, according to a lawsuit.

Big layoffs expected at Jackson

Posted:

2/16/2010 © Miami Herald
Word about plans for widespread layoffs in the troubled Jackson Health System is expected today, says a Web site of a union that represents Jackson healthcare professionals.

Anti-fraud rule said to be hurting some elderly

Posted:

2/16/2010 © South Florida Sun-Sentinel
The new rule, enacted to stop rampant fraud, caps how much home-care companies can make from Medicare patients who need more than one visit a day. Some say it's shutting off services to the neediest seniors.

United's threat worries hospitals

Posted:

1/24/2010 New York Times
United Healthcare has told hospitals it will cut their pay in half if they fail to notify the insurer within 24 hours of admission of a United customer. Florida's hospital association has asked state insurance regulators to monitor the situation; some states are intervening.

Rescued dog is now 'victim's advocate'

Posted:

1/23/2010 © St. Petersburg Times
Little Horatio was seriously injured while protecting his elderly owner from the abuse of her son. After being rescued, he became a therapy dog, visiting hospice patients and giving them hope for recovery.

Red tape cut for docs, kids in Haiti

Posted:

1/22/2010 © Orlando Sentinel
After badgering Obama administration officials for a week to make it easier to fly injured Haitian children to Florida hospitals for treatment, Sen. Bill Nelson prevailed Thursday. Doctors on the ground in Haiti will now be given broad authority to send the children to the United States for treatment. In Miami, a couple in Haiti wonder if a child pulled from the rubble and being treated at a Miami hospital is their missing daughter.

Premature babies suffer vision loss

Posted:

1/22/2010 © St. Petersburg Time
Cynthia Romero Torres, 18 months, was born at 25 weeks' gestation, weighing 1 pound. Her eyes were so underdeveloped, she's had seven surgeries. While survival rates of extremely preterm babies are rising, so is the incidence of vision problems, including blindness. Doctors fear they won't be able to handle it.

Kidney failure puts man's life in limbo

Posted:

1/22/2010 © Daytona Beach News-Journal
Matt Payne has never been hospitalized in his life, so why is his kidney functioning at a level just 13 percent above shutdown, putting him in stage five of kidney failure and needing a kidney transplant? His doctors don't know.

As records go digital, cultures clash

Posted:

By Sammy Mack
1/21/2010 © Health News Florida
The switch to electronic medical records has been rocky for doctors in Broward who refused to pay what they called unwarranted charges and were turned over to collections. More disputes are arising as midcareer physicians bump up against the world of high-tech software sales.

Future of health overhaul in doubt

Posted:

1/20/2010 © Kaiser Health News
As Republicans celebrated a Senate victory in Massachusetts that they say means the death of Pres. Obama’s health-overhaul, experts weigh in on the reasons for the public's disenchantment. Meanwhile in Florida, a former Senate majority leader warned that if the effort collapses, it won't be revived for a decade. Earlier in the day, Atty. Gen. Bill McCollum  released a memo listing reasons why the health bills are unconstitutional.

FL docs play key roles in Haiti

Posted:

1/18/2010 © Miami Herald
U-Miami neurosurgeon Barth Green is coordinating international medical relief in Haiti and will run a field hospital set up under tents at the airport in Port-au-Prince. Meanwhile the Gainesville Sun reports that a UF forensic scientist is in Port-au-Prince setting up a portable mortuary. And some doctors say the biggest threat to Haitians' health may be yet to come, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports.

Team rescues Florida woman

Posted:

1/18/2010 © South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Mireille Dittmer's family in Pembroke Pines rejoiced when a rescue team from South Florida pulled her from a collapsed market in Port-au-Prince. Meanwhile, the Fort Myers News-Press describes the struggles of a medical team from Naples, struggling to save lives in the chaos.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)