Miami No. 1 in Nation for Healthcare Costs, Study Finds

A day after President Barack Obama told the nation that the ”crushing cost of healthcare” must be brought under control, a study released Wednesday reports that Miami is the most expensive place for healthcare in the country, with its costs rising much faster than the national average over a 15-year period.  ”The growth of costs is just unbelievable in Miami,” said Elliott Fisher, the lead investigator in the study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study shows that the average Medicare patient’s cost in the Miami area increased by 4.99 percent a year from 1992 through 2006 — to $16,351 a year — twice the national average of $8,304. That ranked Miami No. 1 for healthcare costs among the 307 metropolitan areas surveyed. The Fort Lauderdale area did slightly better — ranking 23rd — with an average cost per senior of $9,816 a year. Nationally, costs climbed 3.5 percent annually over the 15 years. In Miami, the increase was 5 percent. That put Miami No. 27 of the 307 cities for growth rate. Broward costs increased much more modestly — 3.19 percent. That ranked the area 221 for growth.

Please click on the link below to read the complete Miami Herald article:

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/5min/story/922005.html

The Citron Law Firm, P.A. (www.citronlegal.com) is a civil trial practice law firm that specializes in professional liability and injury cases, commercial and real estate litigation and family law matters.  The Citron Law Firm is located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida at 707 S.E. Third Avenue, Sixth Floor – (954) 712-1686.

Police Use Excessive Force, Emergency Room Doctors Say

In a survey of a random sample of U.S. emergency physicians, virtually all said they believed that law enforcement officers use excessive force to arrest and detain suspects. The sample included 315 respondents. While 99.8 percent believed excessive force is used, almost as many (97.8 percent) reported that they had managed cases that they suspected or that the patient stated had involved excessive use of force by law enforcement officers. Nearly two thirds (65.3 percent) estimated that they had treated two or more cases of suspected excessive use of force per year among their patients, according to a report of the survey published in the January 2009 issue of the Emergency Medicine Journal.

Please click on the link below to read the complete Reuters article:

http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE4BN39F20081224?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews

The Citron Law Firm, P.A. (www.citronlegal.com) is a civil trial practice law firm that specializes in professional liability and injury cases, commercial and real estate litigation and family law matters.  The Citron Law Firm is located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida at 707 S.E. Third Avenue, Sixth Floor – (954) 712-1686.

Florida Hospitals Reluctant to Pay for Specialist

Palm Beach County’s hospitals are balking at paying a collective $1.1 million a year to ensure that residents seeking help at an emergency room have 24-hour access to a neurosurgeon. Hospital officials say they should not have to bear most of the burden of providing the emergency coverage. Instead, funding also should come from sources such as county taxpayers, urgent care centers and nursing homes. “If the community wants it, they should pay for it,” Robert Hill, CEO of Bethesda Memorial Hospital in Boynton Beach, said Wednesday. “The price of full coverage should not be put on the backs of hospitals.” Hill was one of eight hospital CEOs meeting Wednesday night with leaders of the Health Care District of Palm Beach County. Hospitals have struggled for five years to get specialists such as neurosurgeons, hand surgeons and gastroenterologists to handle emergencies. Some Palm Beach County emergency patients have had to be transferred to hospitals as far away as Gainesville and Miami because of the lack of local specialists. The taxpayer-funded district last month put forward a financial plan to ensure emergency neurosurgery coverage countywide. For a total of $1.1 million, the county could guarantee that neurosurgeons would be on call in a local hospital for emergencies. The district’s financial formula was based on its estimate of a $2,250 daily rate to pay a neurosurgeon to be on call for 24 hours, plus $822 a day for the doctor’s medical malpractice insurance. One hospital would serve as the primary “safety net” for neurosurgery emergencies. Other hospitals would pay to support neurosurgery based on their needs and emergency-room volume. The district would kick in $145,000 a year toward the $1.1 million tab. Hospitals needing the coverage would pay between $100,000 to $300,000. Health Care District CEO Dwight Chenette said some hospitals would save money with the plan because it would lower the amount they pay neurosurgeons to be on call. None of the hospital CEOs endorsed the funding plan on Wednesday. JFK Medical Center CEO Gina Melby, for instance, said the Health Care District should pay a higher proportion. They did agree to give the district more data to study the problem  Hospital and health district officials and the Palm each County Medical Society have been working on the issue since 2004. Though most county hospitals are dealing with declining admissions and rising amounts of bad debt from an increase in uninsured patients, funding for other, unrelated projects has been available. Bethesda, JFK Medical Center in Atlantis, Wellington Regional and Boca Raton Community Hospital have spent more than $150 million in just the past year to expand services. Still, hospital officials say since they are reluctant to pay for a neurosurgery safety-net system that could attract residents of neighboring counties. “Hospitals would feel more comfortable if some of the revenue was generated from other sources – urgent care centers, traffic fines, tolls, nursing homes,” said Wellington Regional CEO Kevin DiLallo. “There should be three legs on this funding stool, not two.” St. Mary’s Medical Center CEO Davide Carbone said that although he’d like to see other sources of funding for the ER plan, he doubts taxing urgent care centers is a realistic alternative.  But DiLallo said other sources of funding are still needed. “Hospitals are already doing their fair share,” he said.

Please click on the link below to read the complete The Palm Beach Post article:

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/pbcsouth/content/business/epaper/2009/01/15/0115hospital.html

The Citron Law Firm, P.A. (www.citronlegal.com) is a civil trial practice law firm that specializes in professional liability and injury cases, commercial and real estate litigation and family law matters.  The Citron Law Firm is located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida at 707 S.E. Third Avenue, Sixth Floor – (954) 712-1686.