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Phoning It In – Florida’s Brand New Telemedicine Law
By:
Jackie Bain
Until recently, the State of Florida has successfully avoided regulating telemedicine to account for advancements in technology. In 2003, the State issued standards for telemedicine prescribing practice for medical doctors and doctors of osteopathy, but has not formally revisited its position in light of increasingly common telemedicine practice in several states – until now.
Florida’s forestalling has officially come to an end. The State recently enacted new physician standards for telemedicine practice, and the State legislature is presently considering further regulation. These new standards do not impinge upon the prior standards for telemedicine prescribing practice, but are issued in conjunction to it.
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What the Shutdown Revealed About the Economic Divides in U.S. Politics
Tea Party America doesn’t look much like the base of the big-business Republican Party
This is a disturbing study of our fellow Americans. There are all sorts of people on the edges of the bell curve of life. While I have no love for the leaders of the Tea Party, whom I believe purposely and maliciously lie to their constituents and mislead them, the Americans who want smaller, less wasteful, and less intrusive government, are honest and sincere in their beliefs. They are wrong, but that’s another discussion. The study, on the other hand, in the vein of lies, damn lies, and statistics, paints them as less creative (and by implication less intelligent.
See on www.theatlanticcities.com
See other articles on Scoop.it – Changing Healthcare for the Better
Fighting Lies and Ignorance to Keep the Democratic Process Democratic
The health care crisis and how to solve it has become one of the defining issues of our time. There is much debate over the right course of action. The debate should be principled and intelligent, but we have come to a point in American politics where lying or being stupid or both have become a perfectly acceptable way to debate an issue.
If one assumes that Romney, Ryan, Rand Paul, Cruz, Rubio, Bachmann, Palin, Rick Scott, Pam Bondi, and many other outspoken opponents of Obamacare are intelligent people (an assumption that may be a stretch in some cases), then they must be liars. Other than their being ignorant beyond comprehension (which could be the case for some of the named individuals), lying is the only explanation for what they have been saying about Obamacare.
Honest, intelligent people make sure of their facts before making public statements about this complicated, important legislation.
An open and honest debate, where ideas are discussed and criticized and improved upon, is what is needed desperately in this country. It is the way things are supposed to be done in America.
Americans of good intentions must be educated to fight the campaign of misinformation that has been waged against the President’s plan for health care reform.
Obamacare Facts is one place to get a detailed and unbiased description of what the law does and doesn’t do. Go there, learn, so that, regardless of your position, you will know what’s true and what’s false and who is lying and who is telling the truth. Perhaps, you can even help educate those whose ignorance is keeping them in the dark.
Florida Cares About Healthcare … Not
I have been very remiss about posting for the last several weeks.
Being a Floridian is very depressing. Florida’s elected and administrative leaders have done everything they can to misinform Floridians about Obamacare, to keep the needy from accessing care, to prevent the uninsured from being able to purchase affordable health insurance, and to force healthcare providers to provide unreimbursed care.
Earlier today, Health News Florida reported on how politics over healthcare reform has become more important than either healthcare or meaningful reform.
- The New York Times reported on Tuesday that “Gov. Rick Scott and the Republican-dominated [Florida] Legislature have made it more difficult for Floridians to obtain the cheapest insurance rates under the exchange and to get help from specially trained outreach counselors.”
- The Miami Herald reported also on Tuesday that HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, stated that Florida officials are “keeping information from people” in a political effort to foil the effort to enroll Floridians for health insurance.
- Florida AG Pam Bondi and CFO Jeff Atwater have also joined in the campaign of misinformation and deceit.
The list of wasted Florida tax dollars and loss of Federal funding in trying to impede Obamacare was reported by Health News Florida earlier this week. Florida’s list of shame includes the following:
- Leading the court challenge on the constitutionality of Obamacare in 2010 soon after it was signed into law. Attorney General Pam Bondi made it one of her high-profile issues, becoming a regular guest on Fox News to attack it.
- After the Supreme Court ruled the law was constitutional, the Florida Legislature told state agencies not to implement it because lawmakers felt sure the Republican party Presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, would win the election in 2012 and repeal the law.
- After Romney lost the election, governor and legislature pressured the agencies not to apply for grants related to the law; some agencies had to give back grants they had already been awarded.
- The Legislature this year voted against Florida having its own electronic marketplace for health-plan shopping, even though the state had already spent five years and several million dollars building an online shopping site, Florida Health Choices, that has yet to be used.
- After months of hearings and negotiations, the Florida Senate came up with a compromise plan on Medicaid expansion that would accomplish several things — reduce the number of uninsured Floridians by about 1 million by using federal funds, save millions of state dollars now being spent on the uninsured, and continue privatization of the Medicaid program, already well under way. But the House said no.
- The Legislature voted to strip the Insurance Commissioner’s authority to regulate health premiums for two years.
- Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty issued a report that predicted health premiums in Florida’s individual market would soar 30 to 40 percent, thereby producing scandalous headlines. Later, others would note that the figure failed to make adjustments for the tax credits most of those shopping in that market would qualify for. He also failed to mention that the sector he was describing accounts for only 5 percent of policies.
It’s all really quite pathetic and disgusting. It’s time to vote the bastards out.
Cutting Off Your Nose to Spite Your Face
Honest, rational, intelligent Americans must stand-up to the new nit-wit movement of some fringe members of the Republican Party to defund ObamaCare, at whatever cost, including shutting down the United States government.
Most people who oppose ObamaCare refuse to understand it, and politicians shamelessly promote and take advantage of that ignorance.
Let’s try to be honest. ObamaCare is an historic first step at fixing an out of control and hopelessly broken healthcare system. The Deloitte 2013 survey of U.S. physicians found that most physicians “believe that the performance of the U.S. health care system is suboptimal, but the Affordable Care Act [i.e., ObamaCare] is a good start to addressing issues of access and cost.” ObamaCare is already making positive changes in healthcare, and millions of middle-class Americans are currently being helped by ObamaCare. No more pre-exiting conditions and arbitrary lifetime caps. By requiring healthcare insurance to contain minimum benefits that are needed by most Americans, we can purchase a policy and know what is covered and what is not and not fear denials later when we need to use our coverage. There are many examples of how ObamaCare is helping patients and providers.
ObamaCare’s goal is improved access to affordable healthcare — for the life of me, I cannot understand why that causes such irrational responses? Of course, ObamaCare is flawed and costly, requires too much regulation, and is full of special interest tinkerings (like all legislation these days unfortunately), and it can be (and deserves to be) much improved. To defund it or repeal it and start from scratch will leave us with the same uninsured population, spiraling out of control costs, and no hope for improvement.
Shame on Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, and all the other members of the Congressional flatworld caucus. Improving healthcare in America, including making the necessary changes to ObamaCare, is a job for smart, dedicated people, not petty, stupid ones. This is a time for more conversation and less baying at the moon.
Bill Would Let Texas Doctors Get Data From Driver’s Licenses
Health care providers in Texas could soon collect or verify patient information by swiping that patient’s driver’s license.
The measure allowing such data collection is one of a handful that the Texas Medical Association is pushing this legislative session to help modernize medical practices. The association is also backing bills that would standardize preauthorization forms used by health plans for prescription drugs and health care services.
Of course, this is why we have electronic medical records.
See on www.nytimes.com
Overcoming Obstacles to Better Health Care
Transforming the American health care system could include offering safe harbor from malpractice suits for doctors who demonstrate high-quality care. See on www.nytimes.com
Meaningful healthcare reform needs tort reform so that healthcare providers can spend less time (and less insurer’s money) on defensive medicine and more time (and arguably less insurer’s money) on preventive medicine and thereby achieve more accountable medicine.
Akerman’s Health Law Rx Blog
I am pleased to announce my firm’s new health law blog, Health Law Rx Blog.
Akerman’s Health Law Rx Blog provides timely updates on the latest health law issues, keeping the firm’s clients, friends, and readers up to date on pertinent legal developments. Akerman attorneys regularly update the blog with changes in the law and other relevant news. As this is meant to be an interactive site, your comments and contributions are appreciated. I am one of the contributors, so I hope you will visit the blog often and participate in any discussions that interest you. I plan to shadow post articles from the blog that I think you will find interesting.
Content on Akerman’s Health Law Rx Blog is intended to inform you about legal developments, including recent decisions of various courts and administrative bodies. It should not be construed as legal advice or a legal opinion, and you should not act upon the information without seeking the advice of legal counsel.
With more than 550 lawyers and government affairs professionals and a network of 19 offices, Akerman is ranked among the top 100 law firms in the U.S. by The National Law Journal NLJ 250 (2012). The firm’s Healthcare Practice Group includes over twenty attorneys and professionals representing health systems, physicians, health insurers, and other clients in all aspects of healthcare law across Florida and throughout the United States.
Immigration reform could add millions of people under Obama health law – The Hill’s Healthwatch
Comprehensive immigration reform could make millions of people suddenly eligible for assistance under President Obama’s healthcare law, assuming a final deal paves the way for undocumented immigrants to receive papers.
Illegal aliens are now prohibited from purchasing coverage through the Affordable Care Act’s insurance exchanges, which will launch next year.
They are also ineligible for Medicaid under most circumstances, making the law’s expansion of the program fruitless for people without documents.
The landscape could change completely if Hispanic lawmakers get their wish — an overhaul of U. S. immigration policy that includes a path to legalization.
Helping people get and stay healthy, illegal immigrants or not, has to be cheaper in the long run. Sort of like Stephen Covey’s “sharpening the saw” — it takes time and resources to sharpen the saw, but once done, the work goes easier.
See on thehill.com
Modern Healthcare Survey: Continued Anger over Obamacare
In an internet survey conducted after the presidential election, Modern Healthcare found that there remains “a deep vein of anger over the effects of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.”
Of the 829 people who responded to the survey, 67% said the reform law would have a negative impact on the bottom lines of their healthcare business. Only 33% said the law would have a positive impact.
Respondents listed the following issues as important ones that need to be addressed by Congress and the President:
- Medicare sustainable growth-rate payment formula
- Improving overall clarity around the schedule for implementing the law’s various goals
- Need for more primary care physicians to manage the added population of patients
Joseph Rugg's Health Law Blog 