Medical marijuana patients bemoan costs, rigid regulations
Medical marijuana patients bemoan costs, rigid regulations
Even as they celebrate the availability of medical marijuana, patients say the state program is deeply flawed, cumbersome, and expensive. With cannabis still illegal under federal standards, health insurance plans don’t cover doctor visits or the medication itself. Patients said some of the roughly 1,900 approved doctors in Florida seem to regard medical marijuana patients as a main profit source. [Source: News Chief]
See also:
» Medical marijuana patients have praise for pot
» Medical-marijuana ruling put on hold by Florida appeals court
» Florida’s marijuana forecast: Hazy, with chances for growth high
Florida confirms state’s first case of AFM, a rare, polio-like illness
State and federal health officials confirmed Florida’s first case of Acute Flaccid Myelitis in 2018 on Saturday, adding to what has become a record year of cases for the rare but serious polio-like illness that affects the nervous system, causing sudden onset of arm or leg weakness and loss of muscle tone and reflexes. [Source: Miami Herald]
DeSantis panel says health innovation needed
Health-care executive Alan Levine, who is helping lead a committee set up by the DeSantis transition team to examine health care, said that the state should consider creating an incubator that would help link research at the state’s universities with the buying power of Florida’s $26 billion Medicaid program. [Source: Orlando Sentinel]
Why is Florida bucking the trend? Obamacare signups are up, not down.
The number of Floridians signing up for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act increased this year despite nationwide declines and repeated efforts in Congress and the courts to undercut the program, according to a final enrollment count this week. More from the Tampa Bay Times and WLRN.
Nursing homes get more time for generators
About 300 nursing homes across the state have been given another six months to meet a state mandate that they have generators and fuel that can help keep buildings cool. Agency for Health Care Administration spokeswoman Mallory McManus said that before agreeing to temporarily waive the requirement, the state reviewed the nursing homes to ensure that they had “made every effort to attain compliance.” [Source: Ocala Star Banner]
› Hillsborough residents push for mental health funding [Health News Florida]
After two suicides by first responders last week, Hillsborough county residents are pushing lawmakers to focus on mental health this upcoming session. Hillsborough county residents stressed the need for more funding for mental health at a county legislative delegation meeting.
› Ardent selling damaged Florida hospital to Ascension [Nashville Post]
Ardent Health Services and Ascension Health have signed a letter of intent for Ardent to sell its majority interest in a 323-bed Florida Panhandle hospital to Ascension, including physician clinic operations in Panama City and Bay County, Florida.
› Lee Memorial loses in "special law" dispute [WUSF]
Siding with an insurer in a case stemming from the treatment of an auto-accident victim, the Florida Supreme Court said last week that a 2000 state law focused on Southwest Florida’s Lee Memorial Health System is unconstitutional.
› UM health system reports its ‘best financial year ever’ as cancer care and surgeries grow [Miami Herald]
The 560-bed hospital that once threatened to hang like a dead albatross around the neck of the University of Miami Health System has begun to show signs of a financial turnaround — inspiring talk of “a new day” from the chief executive for UHealth, the UM network of hospitals, clinics and doctors that make up the region’s only academic medical center.