hospitals

A student sought counseling help after panicking over a tuition bill. A weeklong stay in a psychiatric hospital followed — along with a $3,413 bill. The hospital soft-pedaled its charity care policy.

Those hospitals, which include several in Florida and some of the nation’s marquee medical centers, will lose 1% of their Medicare payments over 12 months.

The new ICU is part of the hospital’s $347 million expansion. Later this year, Lee Health plans to bring over its trauma center from Lee Memorial.

The hospital system is reviewing elective surgeries requiring an ICU stay after the procedure. "We want to make sure we have our bed availability for our sickest patients,” a spokesman says.

Gov. Ron DeSantis said his decision to buck original federal guidelines ultimately proved correct, although concerns remain from hospital officials around the state about the vaccine supply.

While bed shortages have happened in pockets throughout the country since the spring, the pressure on hospitals is widespread now — reaching into urban and rural communities at an alarming pace.

Many front-line health workers who have faced a perpetual lack of PPE and inconsistent safety measures believe the government and their employers have failed to protect them from COVID-19.

Hospitals need more staff at bedsides and to distribute vaccines and community partners to help, says Florida Hospital Association president and CEO Mary Mayhew.

A new federal health care rule requires hospitals to publicly post prices for every service they offer and break down those prices by component and procedure.

In this interview, Dr. Michael Koren of the Jacksonville Center for Clinical Research discusses the latest vaccine news as the FDA prepares to give emergency use authorization.