Data breach may affect millions of patients in Florida, other states

| 7/11/2023

Data breach may affect millions of patients in Florida, other states

As many as 11 million people may be affected by a data breach through HCA Healthcare, which has hospitals and clinics throughout Florida and in 19 other states. HCA announced Monday that personal patient information was put on an online forum recently. The company believes the data was stolen from an external storage location used to automate email messages.More from Click Orlando and the Tampa Bay Times.

Florida is one of two states declining federal waivers to help with Medicaid unwinding

Federal health officials are urging states like Florida to make it easier for people to renew their Medicaid coverage as a mass unwinding following the COVID-19 public health emergency continues. Thousands of Floridians have been disenrolled from Medicaid since the state began redetermining eligibility in May, after a federal directive that states suspend such efforts during the pandemic was lifted. Florida began its process earlier than some others, but committed to spreading out renewals over the course of a year. [Source: WUSF]

Florida hospitals will now ask about your immigration status

Hospitals ask patients a lot of personal questions. Medical history? Medications? Preexisting conditions? Smoke, drink or do drugs? Now there's another: What’s your immigration status? Florida hospitals that accept Medicaid will be required to query patients about that, although a person can decline to answer. The measure is just one of many in a new bill, SB 1718, approved by the Florida Legislature and signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in May to crack down on the flow of illegal immigration into the state. [Source: Miami Herald]

See also:
» Tampa Bay hospitals say immigration status won’t affect patient care

Florida Supreme Court to hear abortion case in September

The Florida Supreme Court on Friday said it will hear arguments Sept. 8 in a case that could play a major role in the future of abortion rights in the state. The court issued an order scheduling a hearing in a challenge to a 2022 law that prevented abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The outcome of the case also will affect a law passed this year that would bar abortions after six weeks of pregnancy — and could determine whether a privacy clause in the Florida Constitution will protect abortion rights. [Source: Helath Neews Florida]

Transgender Floridians remain in limbo as legal fight over gender-affirming care continues

Six weeks after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill that places restrictions and bans on gender-affirming care, many transgender Floridians feel uncertainty and dread about their future in the state. SB 254, signed into law May 17, has been criticized for its broad restrictions on health care for the estimated 94,900 transgender people who live in Florida. Under the law, a ban is placed on all gender-affirming care for minors. and further limits are put into place on how transgender adults can receive care. [Source: WGCU]

ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:

› As malaria cases tick up in Florida, a doctor treating patients describes their symptoms [NBC News]
Florida health officials reported two additional cases of malaria on Thursday. Both were identified last week and neither was linked to travel outside the country. That brings the total number of locally acquired malaria infections in the U.S. to seven since May. All but one case has been in Sarasota County, Florida. The other case, which was not connected to the Florida ones, was a Texas man who was working for the National Guard along the Rio Grande.

› HCA Florida Healthcare buys Arlington land for stand-alone emergency room [Jacksonville Daily Record ]
HCA Florida Healthcare is exploring development of a free-standing emergency center in Arlington. Memorial Healthcare Group Inc., part of HCA, applied to the St. Johns River Water Management District to review an application for an environmental resource permit for a center on 3.99 acres that the health care system bought May 26. Memorial Healthcare Group Inc., based at HCA Healthcare headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee, paid $1.111 million for the property.

› Pinellas, Hillsborough, Hernando offer free back-to-school health clinics [Tampa Bay Times]
Three counties are helping kids get physicals and immunizations to go back to school. The Florida Department of Health in Pinellas County is offering its annual summer Back to School clinic services to students, kindergarten through 12th grade. Project LINK’s Back-2-School Health Clinics are now open for registration for children attending public or charter schools in Hillsborough County. The Florida Department of Health in Hernando County is holding free after-hours back-to-school immunization clinics.

› More puppy love is headed to a South Florida children's hospital [WLRN]
A children’s hospital in Hollywood is growing its pack with a new therapy dog. The new golden retriever puppy will join six current therapy dogs with Memorial Healthcare System in offering patients comfort, encouragement and love as part of their animal-assisted therapy program. Tracy Meltzer, the administrative director of the program, said the dogs are used in a multitude of ways at Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital. If a patient is undergoing a painful treatment, the dogs can serve as a distraction.

Tags: Health Care eNews

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