It's getting even worse for State employees, thanks to Ricky paying back political favors. What's funny (or not) is his proclamations against ObamaCare during the campaign that it would take away the patient's choice of a doctor.
Hello!As he was gearing up to run for governor of Florida, Republican Rick Scott emerged as one of the most vocal opponents of what he and others began referring to as "Obamacare."
Scott created, chaired and bankrolled a group called Conservatives for Patients' Rights that spent millions of dollars on TV commercials attacking health care reform, especially a proposal calling for the federal government to create a public health insurance option to compete with private insurers.
In one ad, the narrator said the votes of a few key senators could determine whether or not Americans would be able to keep their own doctors and their own health insurance plans. The implication was clear -- people would lose the ability to choose their own doctors if health reform passed.
Trouble was, it wasn't true. The public option considered by the Senate at that time would have affected relatively few Americans--just three to four million, according to the Congressional Budget Office--and it would have negotiated rates with doctors exactly as private plans do. It would have been nothing more than an additional option for some people. It would not have reduced choice for anyone.
But to hear Scott and his group tell it, it would have led to the demise of choice and competition in health care.
Well, guess what. A few days ago, Scott, now governor of Florida, said he had decided to reduce choice and competition that state workers have enjoyed for years.
Florida state employees, who currently can choose among two or more competing HMOs, are being told that all but one of their HMO choices are being eliminated and that bureaucrats in Scott's Department of Management Services (DMS) have already decided which HMO they will be enrolled in come January 1, 2012.
The big winner of the four appears to be AvMed, which DMS selected as the sole HMO provider for 38 of Florida's 67 counties. UnitedHealth, which says it currently provides HMO coverage to 47,000 state workers in 66 of those 67 counties, appears to be the big loser. As you can imagine, it is not at all happy with the prospect of making less money off of Florida taxpayers. It filed a formal protest with the state a few days ago, claiming that, despite what DMS says, Florida taxpayers would have saved more money had the state allowed it to continue competing for state workers' business.
AvMed's big win has led to some raised eyebrows and suspicions. In a column headlined, "Rick Scott Lets His Pals Run a Monopoly on State Employees' Health Care Coverage," the Broward-Palm Beach New Times' Matthew Hendley wrote that AvMed "happened to be very friendly to Scott on the campaign trail."
Hendley noted that, as first reported by Health News Florida, Scott last year received $5,000 in campaign contributions "from people associated with AvMed" and that the company itself donated $10,000 to help pay for Scott's inauguration party earlier this year." Hendley says there are no records indicating that any UnitedHealth executive contributed to Scott's campaign.
Landing so much of the state's business could indeed be a windfall for AvMed, a relatively small Florida-based company that, according to its Web site, currently has only 320,000 people enrolled in its health plans, including state employees and their dependents. (UnitedHealth, on the other hand, has more than 30 million enrollees in Florida and elsewhere. It is the nation's biggest health insurer in terms of revenue and profits.)
Side note: When I worked for the state, I had AvMed until I got in the VA system. Terrible, terrible! High deductibles, never got to see a doctor (only a PA), most tests, etc., were disapproved, and meds were as expensive as paying outright.
When I worked in the business, billing AvMed was even worse. They either never paid (seriously, never!) or took up to two years or longer to pay.
Oh.
Wait.
Guess they really need the
income! Miami, FL: A class action filed in Florida seeks redress for AvMed Health Plans allowing millions of its customers' personal medical data to be compromised. AvMed acknowledged earlier that it left laptop computers, containing millions of its members' confidential medical records, unattended. These laptops were subsequently stolen and AvMed's members' personal records were compromised. The records contained AvMed members' names, home addresses, phone numbers, Social Security Numbers, as well as other highly sensitive medical history data such as diagnosis information, medical procedure and prescription information.
Compounding the damage to its members, AvMed repeatedly underestimated the gravity of the theft and had to make subsequent admissions about the vast quantity of data stolen. Initially, AvMed contacted only 280,000 members to warn them of the dangers that accompanied the data loss. However, AvMed made numerous subsequent revisions and finally estimated that approximately 1.2 million of its members' private health records had been breached.
A lawyer representing the plaintiffs says this is easily one of the largest medical record breaches in history, and the disastrous consequences may plague those affected for their lifetimes. Further, they believe that AvMed did not follow government-mandated HIPPA protocols. Merely taking the time to encrypt their laptops, likely would have obviated any harm done by this theft.
