Florida Lawmakers Load Wish List For Health Care Money

 

 

Health care costs in Florida are under a microscope as House Speaker Jose Oliva pushes an ambitious goal of scaling back state health spending.

But Oliva’s promises to lower health-care costs have not prevented House and Senate members from requesting money for everything from hospital construction projects to increased access to medication-assisted treatment for opioid addiction to providing care to survivors of human trafficking.

Lawmakers have submitted hundreds of millions of dollars in funding requests for health-care related projects during the legislative session that starts March 5. The proposals are filed for communities across the state and target programs for poor, elderly and disabled Floridians and people with substance-abuse disorders and mental-health needs.

One proposal, for example, would provide $10 million to UF Health Jacksonville hospital to help renovate its trauma center, while other proposals would send $1.6 million to Doctors Memorial Hospital in Bonifay for a rural health clinic and $4.2 million to Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach to redesign space to accommodate four additional generators.

The News Service of Florida reviewed hundreds of funding requests that were submitted by lawmakers and labeled as being for health and human services. House and Senate committees and budget negotiators ultimately will decide during the session whether the proposals will be funded in the 2019-2020 budget.

As of Monday, more than $223 million had been requested by senators for 178 different proposals, according to a tally maintained by Senate budget staff.

Sen. Aaron Bean, a Fernandina Beach Republican who chairs the Senate Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee, said the number of requests will continue to climb.

“I think it’s going to be a huge number,” Bean said .

Bean said he’s been warning members that they could be disappointed given the state’s latest financial outlook.

“It’s going to be a challenge to meet the needs of everything for health care,” he said.

State economists met last week to analyze Medicaid enrollment and spending and to develop estimates that lawmakers will use in drafting the budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1.

Economists concluded that continuing to run Medicaid at current levels will cost $28.1 billion in the upcoming fiscal year. That means lawmakers would need to come up with $164.2 million more in state money than what they currently are spending if they want to avoid cutting programs.

The most-current projections were higher than what was originally estimated. Economists attributed the difference to an increase in the number of patients being served in Medicaid program and to higher-than-anticipated payments for the Medicaid managed-care program and community mental-health services.

The requests for more funding also come as House leaders focus on driving down overall health-care costs. Oliva wants to lower costs by increasing the numbers of providers who can offer care and giving patients alternatives to hospitals.

During public appearances, Oliva often bemoans the amount of state health-care pending. He says that 48 percent of the state’s overall budget will be spent on health care, a broad collection of costs that include everything from state employee health-insurance to prison health to Medicaid.

Bryan Cherry is a lobbyist for Doctors Memorial Hospital, which has put in two requests for funding this year. Cherry said he is aware of Oliva’s concerns about health care spending but said he hopes he can win over skeptical legislators.

“From everything I’ve been told, the speaker views rural hospitals in a different category, if you will,” he said.

One of the requests from Doctors Memorial Hospital is $1.6 million to help construct a 6,000-square-foot medical office facility to serve pediatric cardiologist specialists’ needs in Holmes County.

“It is a critical access rural hospital,” he said. “There’s a critical need for it.”

Lobbyist Paul Hawkes, who is trying to get money for UF Health Jacksonville, is also cognizant of the speaker’s sentiment and acknowledged it could cast a shadow during the session. Hawkes job is to convince the Legislature to sign off on proposals that, if approved, could mean $43 million in increased Medicaid funding for the hospital without additional state funds.

Noting that the facility has thin operating margins and provides large amounts of Medicaid and charity care, Hawkes said he’s confident he can make a persuasive argument for the increased spending authority, which involves using local and federal money but shows up in the state budget.

“The speaker has never said he’s opposed to important health care sending or quality health care spending,” said Hawkes, a former lawmaker. “He said he was opposed to more wasteful health care spending.”

Sprinkled along with requests for money dedicated to hospitals and opioid treatment is a request to help pay for the Ms. Senior Florida pageant. The pageant is for women 60 and older of “good moral character,” according to a website promoting the event. The contestants must compete in a talent competition and agree to don evening wear.

“It’s an activity for the older people in this community,” Sen. Oscar Braynon, D-Miami Gardens, said of his $500,000 funding request .

“It’s not about the actual beauty pageant,” he said. “it’s about giving these elderly people something to do.”

 

Source: News4Jax

/by

AdventHealth To Expand Downtown Emergency Department

 

AdventHealth has plans to further expand on its main downtown Orlando hospital campus with additional emergency department space.

The health care provider filed documents to build a 45,000-square-foot expansion of the Ginsburg Tower’s emergency department. The expansion will include 21 adult emergency bays, a resuscitation room and three isolation rooms, AdventHealth spokesman David Breen told Orlando Business Journal.

The cost of the project and a construction timeline were not immediately available.

The move follows the health care provider announcing a 13,200-square-foot expansion to its cardiovascular institute back in October. That expansion, dubbed the Center for Living, includes a genomic center focused on cardiovascular issues. Construction is expected to start in first-quarter 2019 and be completed by the end of 2020.

The Alan Ginsburg Family Foundation donated $3 million for the facility. The foundation, named after area real estate developer Alan Ginsburg, previously donated $20 million in 2007 toward the $255 million, 440-bed Ginsburg Tower.

AdventHealth’s parent company, Adventist Health System, is the second-largest employer in the area with more than 83,000 employees for 2018. The health care system operates nearly 50 hospital campuses and hundreds of care sites across the U.S. in almost a dozen states and serves more than 5 million patients each year.

Founded in 1908, the $3.36 billion nonprofit AdventHealth’s holdings in the area include:

  • 10 local hospitals in downtown Orlando, Altamonte Springs, Winter Park, east Orlando, Celebration, Kissimmee, Longwood and Apopka
  • The freestanding emergency room in Winter Garden, which now has a 72,000-square-foot, three-story medical office building and plans to build a 100-bed inpatient hospital tower there.
  • 24 Centra Care (urgent care) centers and 2 Kids Urgent Care centers
  • 24 imaging and diagnostic centers
  • 15 Lab Care locations
  • 18 Sports Medicine & Rehab locations2,500-plus doctors in 123 medical specialties

 

Source: OBJ

/by

Miami Plans Possible $125 Million Project To Build STEM Facilities

Miami University is currently seeking builders and designers to plan two potential new buildings: a health sciences facility and a STEM/innovation building. The project is estimated to cost Miami a total of $125 million.

These facilities would provide opportunities for research and collaboration between scientific disciplines. In planning these projects, Miami hopes to expand its nursing, technology and engineering programs, among others.

The plan is a result of Miami’s Boldly Creative Initiative, which was announced by President Greg Crawford in 2018. The initiative “will emphasize data, analytics and programs that span traditional disciplines to create engaged citizens and workplace leaders to benefit the Ohio economy,” according to a report by the Cincinnati Business Courier.

David Creamer, vice president for finance and business services at Miami, said that the $125 million price tag is not definite.

“The estimate is just to convey the size and scope that the project would entail,” Creamer said.

Construction of these facilities would most likely cause an increase in student enrollment at Miami due to demand for these expanded programs, Creamer said. However, he does not anticipate a need for additional student housing to accommodate this possibility.

The new facilities would be designed with sustainability in mind, as all new construction at Miami is held to a minimum standard of LEED Silver certification, Creamer said.

According to the U.S. Green Building Council, a building that earns at least 50 points in rating categories such as water efficiency, indoor environmental quality and innovation is certified Silver. However, whether or not these buildings are significantly more sustainable than regular ones is up for debate. Some environmentalists argue that a Silver certification is easily reached through simple feature modifications.

Jamie Kent, a senior zoology major with a pre-medical studies co-major, is involved in undergraduate research at Miami through the Broadening Undergraduate Research Participation (BURP) program. Kent said it was difficult to find a research opportunity on campus, but that her experience has helped her explore the different career possibilities available to her as a STEM major.

“Having facilities that present more research opportunities would allow more students to gain valuable research experience,” Kent said.

The possibility of collaborative research across multiple disciplines also piqued Kent’s interest. She said that working within a broader variety of subjects would allow students to more easily discover their passions.

“Lots of students feel confined to their majors, so interdisciplinary research would be a great opportunity for them to break out of their usual studies,” Kent said.

While the university has not yet determined whether it wants to go forward with these projects, it is actively soliciting applications through a request for qualifications.

“The university dedicating funds to facilities such as these demonstrates its commitment to undergraduate research,” Kent said.

Source: The Miami Student

/by

USF Takes Shine Off Its New Water Street Tampa Med Shool Building After Glare Hits Pilots

The new University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine and Heart Institute at Water Street Tampa was meant to be eye-catching, but not like this.
In early January, the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority got word that glass on the unfinished 13-story building was reflecting glare at planes using Peter O. Knight Airport on Davis Islands.
Since then, USF Health has worked with its design-build team on the project, Skanska USA and HOK. Skanska said in a statement that it applied a temporary film to reduce reflection during construction and will “continue to work closely with USF and Peter O. Knight Airport to monitor for any reflection issues.” Skanska also plans to install sun shades on the building that are expected to reduce reflected sunlight.
Adding the non-reflective film is not expected to increase the $172 million cost for the medical school, which is expected to be an anchor project at the $3 billion Water Street Tampa development when USF’s showpiece opens late this year.

“We are confident our contractors are using appropriate measures to address the issue,” USF spokeswoman Althea Paul said in an email to the Tampa Bay Times. “The airport has informed us that they’re no longer receiving any complaints.”

Before construction began in 2017, USF Health got a waiver for the building’s 293-foot height (305 feet when you measure from sea level), because the medical school was about 1.7 miles north of the airport. The Aviation Authority has to approve height waivers for tall buildings that are near enough to the airport to cause potential problems for pilots.
When the authority approves such waivers — as it has for the new 309-foot-tall JW Marriott hotel at Water Street, a 314-foot-tall apartment tower at Water Street and the planned 393-foot-tall Elevé 61 condo tower in the Channel District — it typically requires red aircraft warning lights on top of the buildings and requires developers to agree to address any glare or glint problems to its satisfaction during construction.

“We’re aware that there were glare issues,” airport spokeswoman Janet Scherberger said. “We’ve worked with the developer, and they were mitigated.”

Source: Tampa Bay Times
/by

Aventura Medical Tower Obtains Certificate Of Occupancy, Marks Milestone For Aventura’s Newest Medical Office Condo

The Faith Group is proud to announce that Aventura Medical Tower (pictured left-click on the image to enlarge), Aventura’s first medical office and condo project, located In the Aventura Hospital Distict at 2801 NE 213th Street in Aventura, obtained its Certificate of Occupancy (CO).

Obtaining the CO marks The Faith Group’s tremendous success in moving the project to completion.

The ‘medical condominium ‘designed by doctors for doctors’ totals twelve floors comprised of 7 parking levels with 472 spaces and 5 floors of office suites, housing approximately 105,000 square feet. The project also features just over 5,000 square feet of premium ground floor retail/clinical service space.

Suites are being delivered as gray shell, and, Faith Development, the development arm of The Faith Group, is offering build-to-suit options for buyers.

“The health care sector is a major component of Faith Development’s commercial portfolio and we’re extremely proud to bring this project to fruition,” commented Faith Development Senior Vice President Richard Faith.

The tower broke ground in June 2016 and more than 250 physicians, staff, community members, volunteers and elected officials including Enid Weisman, Mayor of the City of Aventura, helped commemorate the topping off event.

“We worked closely with the city of Aventura throughout the development process, along with the entire community, all of whom were very receptive,” added Roderick Faith, also a Senior Vice President with Faith Development. “All other occupancy opportunities in the Aventura area are mixed-use with limited parking and no physician referral capability. Owning your own medical office space makes sense now and will be even more imperative to secure your independent practice future. We are proud to have the best medical groups onsite.”

The tower is being marketed to doctors and other healthcare providers – tenants that can enjoy and take full advantage of the building’s amenities which include:

Private outdoor patios for some of the 8th floor Doctor’s suites
-On site surgical center being planned
-Collegial medical environment
-Tranquil outdoor waiting level
-Peaceful employee break location
-Energy efficient impact resistant glass
-ADA compliant
-Full service valet
-State-of-the-art energy-efficient building
-Parking provided in excess of local code requirements
-7 levels of covered parking with reserved spaces

/by