Florida Medicaid Hurts Aids Patients

[J.R.E.]

Florida Medicaid Hurts Aids Patients:

For our Florida members : The following flyer / petition was circulating around my doctors office this morning, so I thought I would share it. I signed it. You may want to see if it is available in your doctors office, so that Florida residents can sign it. You can also go to a website that I will list at the end of this letter, to Governor Crist. I am also going to place this in the "Aids activism Forum"

Dear Governor Crist,

Big changes have been happening in the Florida Medicaid program----All of them bad for Aids patients.

When the state converted to managed care in Duval and Broward County it made promises to Aids patients it hasn't kept.  The state was supposed to have specialized programs for Aids, that have not been implemented.  Meantime, the new federal Medicare Drug Benefit is causing many Aids patients to choose between medicines and paying for food or rent.

Now the state is dismantling a disease management program run by a 20-year old non-profit Aids organization and replacing it with a for-profit corporation with little experience providing care for people living with Aids; a company that does not have the best interest of Aids patients at heart.

GOVERNOR CRIST :  We appeal to you to stop these abuses. Florida has a huge Aids problem----thousands of new infection every year and tens of thousands of people who are positive and don't know it.  The decisions that are being made by your Medicaid Program, are hurting the public health.

Aids Healthcare Foundation (AHF) Positive Healthcare has been serving Aids patients in Florida for eight years.  By your own reports, they have saved the state, tens of millions of dollars.  The patients are extremely satisfied with the AHF's care.  They serve as strong advocates for patients.  It is our belief that Florida Medicaid does not want anyone looking at how they care for Aids patients, and that is why AHF is being dropped. THIS OUTRAGE MUST BE REVERSED

Sincerely,

X_________________________________________________
   Please sign to show your support



For more information, please visit AHF/ positive Healthcare at:

http://www.aidshealth.org/



Thanks Ray

[Jody]

Thanks for posting this important topic Ray and best of luck fighting for our brothers and sisters in Florida...Our society is becoming more and more selfish on a daily basis and the powers that be couldn't care less about people, it's only bottom lines that mean anything to them.  It seems that only the high-end homeowners and those with yachts count in Florida.

Jody   

[J.R.E.]

Florida HIV/AIDS advocates protest provider change for Medicaid clients


Continuation and update :


http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=73640&nfid=al

Florida HIV/AIDS Advocates Protest Provider Change For Medicaid Clients
Main Category: HIV / AIDS News
Article Date: 12 Jun 2007 - 10:00 PDT

 
 


HIV/AIDS advocates and people living with the disease in Miami on Thursday protested a state plan that changes the provider of HIV/AIDS care for Medicaid beneficiaries, the Miami Herald reports. The protest was organized by the not-for-profit AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which filed a contract bid protest with the state's Agency for Health Care Administration after losing its longtime Medicaid contract last month to the for-profit firm Specialty Disease Management Services, the Herald reports.

AHF currently provides 70 disease-management nurses across the state. The foundation in its revised bid for the Medicaid contract proposed using 35 field nurses and at least 15 nurses at a call center. Steve Gutos -- a spokesperson for Jacksonville, Fla.-based Specialty Disease Management -- would not comment on how many nurses his agency plans to employ. However, the Herald obtained a copy of the firm's proposal to the state, which indicates that the agency plans to use up to 24 registered nurses and licensed practical nurses. Seven of those would be based at a Jacksonville call center, according to the document.

Donna Stidham, a registered nurse and chief of managed care with AHF, said the state's plan under the new firm is not workable because HIV/AIDS patients require more personal monitoring. 'If you have diabetes and don't take care of yourself, you will end up in the emergency room and then go see your doctor,' Stidham said, adding, "With HIV, you don't get sick quickly. The medicines are not easy to take. You need someone to monitor you and make sure the right regimen is in place.' Gutos said the comparison between the two plans is inaccurate, adding, 'It's not the same program in terms of what the state requested. [The state] selected us after a very thorough selection process."

Officials with AHCA and Specialty Disease Management said the contract was awarded fairly, the Herald reports. Agency spokesperson Doc Kokol said the state decreased the contract from $9 million to $4.5 million because many of the 8,000 Medicaid beneficiaries statewide receive care through other contractors in Broward and Duval counties. Kokol said, 'We are confident that recipients will receive the care and quality of care that they expect and they deserve," adding, "The services are the same, but I can't get into how those are provided" (Robinson/Caputo, Miami Herald, 6/7).


Ray