Pharmacists across Florida are facing tough times. The reasons are complex
Pharmacists across Florida are facing tough times, whether due to lower profits on the drugs they dispense or more patients ordering prescriptions online. Independent pharmacists are worried about staying in business. Harsh Patel owns Care Rx Pharmacy in Tallahassee. He used to manage a pharmacy for a big chain but says he loves his freedom. “This is my seventh year running,” he says, “and I’m proud to take care of my patients and try to do anything and everything to take care of them.” But Patel says he loses money on many of the prescriptions he fills. [Source: Health News Florida]
Number of abortions in Florida surged ahead of six-week ban
Women rushed to get abortions before Florida’s new six-week restriction went into effect, new state data suggests. More than 9,600 abortions were reported to the state in May, well above the 7,000 monthly average recorded throughout 2023. The data does not list the date of the procedure but it likely includes terminations that took place in the run-up to May 1 when Florida’s new ban went into effect [Source: Tampa Bay Times]
Opinion: Legionnaires’ disease is rising in Florida health care facilities
A recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has revealed a disturbing trend of waterborne disease outbreaks caused by pathogens in drinking water over a six-year period. Data from 2015 through 2020 shows a growing threat to the water of America’s health care facilities and the people who use it to shower, wash and make ice. [Source: Tampa Bay Times]
Florida Board of Medicine to craft new licensure path for foreign-trained physicians
Florida lawmakers passed a measure this year allowing physicians trained in other countries to be licensed in Florida without completing a residency, and the Florida Board of Medicine is starting to grapple with the change. Under the “Live Healthy” initiative Senate President Kathleen Passidomo spearheaded during this year’s legislative session, foreign-trained physicians with active licenses in the countries in which they studied will soon have a new path to practicing medicine in Florida. A committee of the Florida Board of Medicine voted on Thursday afternoon to start crafting a rule implementing the law. [Source: Florida Phoenix]
U.S., Florida overdose fatalities fall but deaths still at ‘historical high’
A surge in overdoses and deaths from drugs laced with fentanyl over the past decade has been dubbed the “fourth wave” of the nation’s opioid epidemic. But for the first time since 2018, the number of overdose deaths across the U.S. last year fell. Overdose deaths in Florida dropped by 8% the same year, the CDC data shows, but that still left the state’s death toll at more than 7,300. Experts warn that fentanyl use remains a crisis that needs more resources. [Source: Tampa Bay Times]
ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:
› USF chosen as international headquarters of Global Virus Network
The University of South Florida (USF) has been selected as host of the international headquarters of the Global Virus Network (GVN). This designation will allow USF scientists to have greater access to research across the globe. The GVN is a coalition of virologists spanning 80 Centers of Excellence and Affiliates in over 40 countries to advance surrounding knowledge on pandemic viruses and pathogens.
› St. Lucie 1st in Florida to cap cost of inmate medical care; will Martin, Indian River follow?
A new state law that caps the amount St. Lucie County pays when jail inmates receive medical care at outside hospitals could become a model for other counties across the state, county commissioners said this week. The law — shepherded through the Legislature by state Rep. Dana Trabulsy, R-Fort Pierce, and signed last month by Gov. Ron DeSantis — sets the cap on those costs at 110% of what Medicare allows, with some exceptions where costs may reach 125%. Those rates are similar to what state prisons already pay.
› Experts rethink mental healthcare as stigma and scarcity of doctors impede access in rural Big Bend
In rural areas of the Big Bend, mental healthcare is hard to come by. In Leon County, there were 36 psychiatrists practicing as of last year, according to the 2023 Physician Workforce Annual Report released by the Florida Department of Health. But in rural counties, it’s a very different picture.
› Florida Supreme Court weighs in on UF campus COVID shutdown case
In one of numerous similar lawsuits in Florida and across the country, the state Supreme Court on Wednesday weighed whether a University of Florida graduate student could seek to require the school to refund money for services that were not provided during a COVID-19 campus shutdown in 2020. Attorneys for student Anthony Rojas went to the Supreme Court after a divided panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal rejected a potential class-action lawsuit stemming from fees that students paid for services such as transportation, health care and athletics.