Opioid epidemic is driving thousands of Florida children into foster care

| 1/9/2018

Opioid epidemic is driving thousands of Florida children into foster care

Add another negative consequence to the opioid epidemic’s far-reaching impact: Prescription drug abuse is driving more children into Florida’s foster care system, according to a new study from the University of South Florida. In the study, researchers analyzed the association between the rate of opioid prescriptions in Florida and the number of children removed from their homes due to parental neglect. See the study here. Also read more at the Tampa Bay Times.

Gov. Scott's battle to lower health care costs in question

The Republican governor and former health-care executive wants legislators to spend $925,000 this year for a statewide database of insurance claims that can be used to provide the average costs of care at facilities and doctors’ offices across the state. [Source: Orlando Sentinel]

Flu season worst to hit Florida in years, doctors say

Doctors usually see the spike in flu cases January, February, even into March, but this year’s spike began in mid-December. ”We're not clear whether it's going to be the largest flu season we've seen in the last decade, but already it's one of the largest,” Dr. Scott Brady with Florida Hospital Centra Care. [Source: WFTV ]

Medical marijuana due back in court in 2018

Orlando Attorney John Morgan is the face of the medicinal cannabis movement, who largely bankrolled the 2016 ballot initiative. After succeeding in getting the original bill on the ballot and on the books, Morgan is now embroiled in another lawsuit, over what form the medical marijuana should be taken. Full story from WUWF, here.

Florida phishing attack exposes data for 30,000 Medicaid recipients

Large-scale medical hacks are horrible in themselves, but sometimes it's the ease of the hacks that's scary -- and Florida knows this first-hand. The state's Agency for Health Care Administration has warned that a phishing attack compromised data for as many as 30,000 Medicaid recipients. More from Engadget and the AP.

ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:

› Fed up with traditional health insurance, South Florida company tries something radical [WLRN]
There is a card in Joost Sajet’s wallet that looks like any other health insurance card—plan name, policyholder, group number, a hotline number for providers—but what Sajet presents to his doctors is not normal insurance. That’s because Sajet is fed up with normal insurance.

› Northeast Florida hospitals seek prescription to blunt potential nursing shortage [Florida Times-Union]
The nurses shortage is barely noticeable in Northeast Florida as yet, but chief nursing officers at the region’s hospitals are working to prevent the situation from developing into a problem affecting patient care.

› Tenet inks deal to build surgery center near South Florida hospital [South Florida Business Journal]
Tenet Healthcare Corp. has signed a deal with the Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) in New York to build an outpatient orthopedic care and surgery center near Tenet’s Good Samaritan Hospital in West Palm Beach.

› State approves nursing home license transfer [Health News Florida]
The state Agency for Health Care Administration approved the transfer of a nursing-home license between two long-term care companies but is requiring as part of the deal that the new facility in Marion County accept Medicaid patients.

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