Hepatitis A Declared A Public Health Emergency In Florida
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After more than 2,000 cases of reported hepatitis A cases in Florida this year, state
Surgeon
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Dr. Scott Rivkees
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General Scott Rivkees declared a public health emergency Thursday.
"I am declaring this
Public Health Emergency as a proactive step to appropriately alert the public to this serious illness and prevent further spread of Hepatitis A in our state," Rivkees said in a prepared statement issued to the media.
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The physician who became a chronic pain patient in seconds
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Linda Girgis, MD | KevinMD
It took me decades of studying, training, hard work, and sleepless nights to become a doctor. In approximately five years, I became a successful writer, editor, columnist, and a whole array of other titles assigned to that type of work. In under 3 seconds, I became a chronic pain patient for the rest of my life. Around this time last year, I was taking my two dogs outdoors when they spotted a squirrel and took off after it. I was pulled off the porch at the end of a leash with my body fully extended in a superman pose and landed on the hard ground in a way that caused a displaced, comminuted proximal humerus (shoulder) fracture. I admit this was the worst pain I ever experienced in my life. My previous notion of 10 out of 10 pain on a pain scale was disrupted and caused me to doubt our whole system for evaluating it. I learned much about acute pain in the next few days and about the shoulder joint.
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Inside
FloridaHealthIndustry.com
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DOJ Intervenes in FCA Lawsuit Filed Against Medical Device Maker
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The U.S. Department of Justice has intervened in a whistleblower lawsuit filed against medical device maker Life Spine Inc., along with the company's founder and its  VP for Business Development. The lawsuit alleges that the company paid millions of dollars in kickbacks to surgeons in exchange for using its spinal implants, equipment and other devices. It's alleged the surgeons who received these payments accounted for approximately half of Life Spine's total domestic sales of spinal products from 2012 through 2018. The original qui tam lawsuit was filed under seal in 2018 by BNHT LLC under the False Claims Act. The Relators were identified as four former Life Spine employees. The False Claims Act allows those who discover fraud to sue on behalf of the government. The government can choose to intervene, as it did in this case, or allow the case to move forward privately. The Relators, in turn, can receive a percentage of what is recovered.
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Florida Behind in Cancer Prevention, Treatment, Report Says
Julio Ochoa
| Health News Florida
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Florida is not doing enough to prevent the cancer or care for those who get it, according to a new report from the advocacy arm of the
American Cancer Society. The
Cancer Action Network's annual report says the state was not proficient in any of the group's eight benchmarks, placing Florida among the worst in the nation at implementing policies and laws to prevent and treat cancer.
"One hundred and thirty-one thousand people this year in Florida are going to be diagnosed with cancer," said
Matt Jordan, spokesman for the Cancer Action Network. "We need to do everything we can in the state to prevent more people from being diagnosed and to treat and cure the ones that are being diagnosed."
The state received some of its lowest marks for not expanding access to
Medicaid, Jordan said. Allowing more people to enroll in Medicaid would provide more access to early cancer screenings, prevention and treatment. The state also falls behind in funding for cancer research, according to Jordan. Florida is the third most populous state but it's not in the top 10 in terms of research funding and clinical trials.
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