April 18, 2012
By Sammy Mack – Gov. Rick Scott signed Florida’s budget Tuesday – and more than three dozen health-related programs across the state were casualties of the governor’s veto pen. Health programs represented more than a quarter of Scott’s $142 million in line-item vetoes to the $70 billion state budget. Among the cuts: medical school projects, rape crisis centers, devices for people with epilepsy and childhood vaccination programs.
November 18, 2011
By Kimberly Vlach – Small business owners know all too well the extraordinary costs of providing health insurance benefits to their employees. They know even more how excruciating it can be when annual renewal is near, and they’re faced with choices like staying with their current plan or making a switch. Either scenario requires that employer to do their homework. Through a directive of the Affordable Care Act, the Department of Health and Human Services has launched an online comparison shopper for small business owners.
November 16, 2011
By Dalia Colón – Attention, shoppers: The store that sells everything from Barbie dolls to barbecue grills is looking to possibly expand its services – into health care. What exactly Walmart is building remains to be seen. But Matthew Coffina, a Chicago-based equity analyst for Morningstar, doesn’t expect Walmart to become the Goliath of the health care industry.
November 14, 2011
By Kimberly Vlach – Health care workers at Community Hospital and Oak Hill Hospital, both HCA-affiliated hospitals (Hospital Corporation of America), may soon be striking, after salary negotiations broke down last Thursday. “The employer isn’t willing to budge and [union] members are standing up and speaking out that it’s not acceptable,” says 1199SEIU spokeswoman Leah Barber-Heinz. Strikes could happen as early as late November or early December. Meetings are planned this week to determine a course of action.
October 20, 2011
[VIDEO] By Kimberly Vlach – If you’re thinking about changing your Medicare plan, now’s the time to do it. The open enrollment period for Medicare ends Dec. 7. While that may feel like a eons from now, it’s best to start investigating and comparing sooner rather than later. “I recommend to people to think about what their medicals needs were for the prior year,” says Dr. Scott Latimer, market president for Humana Insurance, Florida.
October 18, 2011
By Kimberly Vlach – Excessive alcohol consumption cost the U.S. economy $223.5 billion in 2006, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nearly 3/4 of those costs are due to binge drinking. The bulk of that $223 billion figure stems from losses in workplace productivity, about 72% of the total bill, according to the study conducted by the CDC and The Lewin Group.
September 28, 2011
By Janelle Irwin – Wendell Potter, the health insurance VP turned health insurance whistleblower, took a leap of faith. He told audience members at a talk in Clearwater Tuesday he was tired of being a tool, in more ways than one. In 2007, Potter witnessed a mobile free clinic in rural Virginia near his hometown. What he saw – people being treated on the ground and even in barns – appalled him. He started to think maybe health insurance wasn’t the right place for him. It wasn’t until 2008 that he made the decision to quit his cushy corporate job. The last straw came when his company refused an organ transplant for a young girl. They eventually approved the procedure, but it was too late.
September 20, 2011
By Dalia Colón – Tampa Bay’s University Community Health is now officially part of the Adventist Health System. Hospital executives announced Tuesday that UCH has joined the faith-based hospital system, which operates in the Sunshine State as Florida Hospital.
September 2, 2011
By Farah Dosani – Consumers in Florida will now have more insight on why their health insurance rates have spiked – and whether those spikes are reasonable. The regulations, which went into effect Thursday under the Affordable Care Act, require health insurers to submit a request to the state when seeking to increase their premium rates by 10% or more.
August 24, 2011
By Kimberly Vlach – No, health care infrastructure technology doesn’t have the sex appeal of remote robotic surgery, but it does have the potential to be just as transformative. It can transform the delivery, outcomes and costs of medical care, experts say, if providers shared patients’ electronic health records with each other. Sounds like a solution, right? Well, when patients are viewed as revenue, the challenge has been finding providers willing to relinquish patient data with other providers. But hospitals are beginning to see the advantage in coordination.
June 1, 2011
By Farah Dosani – The federal government announced Tuesday it is slashing premiums by as much as 40% for its new high-risk insurance plan. It hopes these changes will help Americans with pre-existing conditions, struggling to get affordable health insurance. “It’s just been frustrating trying to find something. It doesn’t look like I have that many options out there,” said 62-year-old Donna Poulos of Cape Coral. She lost her COBRA benefits in July 2010 and has been fighting to find insurance. The government hopes to help people like Poulos, setting aside $5 billion to fund the plan, but so far, only about 18,000 people have signed up.
May 29, 2011
By Kimberly Vlach – Gov. Rick Scott vetoed $615 million in special-interest earmarks when he signed the 2011-2012 state budget Thursday, including tens of millions for health related earmarks. The state of Florida will have $69.1 billion to work with in the next fiscal year, about the same as last year. “I commend the Legislature for sending me a budget that reduces the size and cost of government and provides tax relief to individuals and business,” said Gov. Scott, in a statement.
May 15, 2011
By Euna Lhee – While the Alzheimer’s Association estimates the costs of treating Alzheimer’s to rise five-fold to $1.08 trillion by 2050, some researchers believe these costs can be lowered if people behaved healthier. “What’s good for your brain is good for your heart, and vice versa,” said Alzheimer’s expert Huntington Potter of the University of South Florida. “Cardiovascular disease works with Alzheimer’s disease to cause even worse dementia.” Meanwhile, Mark Underwood, a researcher for Quincy Bioscience, suggests people can be more proactive in safeguarding their health.
April 20, 2011
By Kimberly Vlach – Consumer spending on medication rose 2.3% in 2010 to $307 billion – lower than the 5.1% growth recorded in 2009, according to the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics. Since 2007, dollars spent on medications has slowed – a reflection of increased purchasing of generic drugs, the loss of patent protection of major brands and less investment on new drugs, the report shows. While this may be good for the consumer’s wallet, pharmaceutical companies could end up cutting back on new drug development.
April 14, 2011
By Kimberly Vlach – Stuck between a rock and a hard place is how many health insurance agents describe their situations as health care reform is underway. At least technically health care reform is underway. Many states, including Florida, are refusing to implement the law with the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate in question. There are whispers that the Supreme Court will hear the case as early as this fall. “It’s a roll of the dice on what the ultimate outcome will be,” said Janet Trautwein, executive vice president and CEO of the National Association of Health Underwriters. Trautwein spoke Thursday to Tampa Bay health insurance agents on the impact of health care reform to their businesses and addressed some of their …
April 12, 2011
[BLOG] By Sammy Mack – When Al Hammond talks about health in developing nations, he’s just as likely to bring up the inequity of childhood diarrhea as he is to refer to people living in abject poverty in terms of untapped market share. And so it only makes sense that the CEO and founder of Healthpoint Services - a startup health care provider in developing countries – is making waves as a social entrepreneur.
March 25, 2011
By Kimberly Vlach – Many small business owners will tell you employee health benefits are the second largest cost to their businesses – the first, payroll. So when Anton Gunn, southeastern regional director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, addressed Tampa Bay women small business owners Thursday in Tampa, he was met with some deep fears over soaring health insurance premiums and a challenging economy.
March 22, 2011
By Kimberly Vlach – Imagine getting daily health checkups – all from the comfort of your own home. Humana Cares, a division of health insurer Humana Inc., is teaming up with Care Innovations, a joint venture between Intel and GE. They’re placing health-monitoring technology in the homes of 2,000 Humana Cares members who have congestive heart failure. The goal is to help people monitor their health in their homes to prevent trips to the hospital.
February 22, 2011
[BLOG] By Sammy Mack – Jackson Health System has an unsolicited bidder. Boston-based Steward Health Care System has expressed interest in acquiring South Florida’s financially troubled public hospital.
February 21, 2011
By Euna Lhee – What can fit into a hospital room these days? Try colorful LED lights, a large-screen interactive TV, several computer screens, refrigerator, safe, rocking armchair, sofa and patient bed. Sounds ultra high-tech, doesn’t it? That’s what Nemours Children’s Hospital in Orlando featured, when it opened its preview center Thursday.