A round-up of Sunday editorials from Florida’s leading newspapers:
Tampa Bay Times — Rein in hospitals’ outrageous trauma fees
Doctors take an oath to do no harm. Hospitals should aspire to the same. But in Florida, most hospitals that have trauma centers are exploiting patients at their most vulnerable moment by charging indefensible five-figure trauma center fees. It is a scheme unworthy of the medical profession and highlights the duplicity that occurs when an industry operates without transparency in pricing. Florida legislators, who write the regulations that allow trauma centers to exist, should stop the abuse. Trauma center response fees should reflect the cost of maintaining the centers, not pad profit margins.
As Letitia Stein and Alexandra Zayas reported in today’s Tampa Bay Times, the 25 hospitals in Florida that provide trauma care charge trauma patients an average of more than $10,800 just to come in the door. But the unluckiest of trauma patients are ferried by paramedics to trauma centers that charge closer to $33,000. Just how greedy have hospitals gotten? Seven years ago, the average trauma center response fee in Florida was $2,555.
There is no justification for these high prices. Hospital officials acknowledged to the Times that they raised prices when they saw competing hospitals charging more; others acknowledged actual costs weren’t considered in setting the prices. One hospital — UF Health Shands in Gainesville — actually reduced its $10,000 charge to $4,000 when the Times started asking questions, acknowledging it was out of whack with actual costs.
The impact of such egregious policy is clear: Since 2010, the Times found at least 7,200 patients were charged the fee to access a center for “life-threatening injuries” even though they spent less than 24 hours in the hospital. For another 3,500 patients, the response fee eclipsed the actual medical charges on their bill.
The Bradenton Herald — Florida juvenile justice system rightly under microscope
Florida’s juvenile justice system is poised for a transformation this legislative session. While the reasons behind reform appear less than altruistic, the results will be laudable if passed into law.
The system is simply too expensive — both in terms of money and young lives.
The Legislature is considering measures to emphasize crime prevention and offender diversion and rehabilitation.
The rising state costs of juvenile detention and allegations of abuse and lax oversight against a for-profit prison company that operates private juvenile centers provide strong motivation for reform.
But that matters not as county budgets and nonviolent offenders would come out winners.
The Daytona Beach News-Journal — Beginning a new adventure, charting a familiar course
Hello, News-Journal readers. I’m your new opinion page editor. If we disagree at times, we’ll get along just fine.
First, some brief background. I spent the last eight years as the editorial page editor of The News Herald in Panama City, which like The News-Journal is owned by Halifax Media Group. I’m a native of Missouri and a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism (M-I-Z! Z-O-U!).
I have been married 22 years to my wife, Penny, an elementary school teacher. We have two sons: Ryan, 18, a freshman at Florida State, and Sean, 15, a freshman in high school. They will finish out the school year and then join me down here, where we plan to live in DeLand.
You’ll notice this column is titled “My View.” Admittedly, it’s not the punchiest moniker. It’s a beige invitation to read what I hope will be more colorful prose. Unfortunately, I was told my first choice, “Hey, Willie,” was already taken.
Nevertheless, “My View” serves to differentiate this column, which is my personal opinion, from the editorial “Our View,” which represents the institutional opinion of The News-Journal as crafted by its editorial board, of which I am a member.
That’s not to say that the views expressed in this column will radically depart from the governing philosophy of The News-Journal. The opinion page editor does not set the ideological course of a newspaper, he shares it and articulates it. He can influence decisions of the editorial board on various issues, but in the end they must reflect the newspaper’s values.
Those were never expressed better than by my predecessor, Mac Thrower.
The Florida Times-Union — Forceful action required at FSCJ
In a welcome move, the new president of Florida State College at Jacksonville wasted no time in grappling with the scandalous financial problems left for her.
It is refreshing to observe the directness and candor with which Cynthia Bioteau is taking steps to reform administration of financial aid grants, including holding supervisors accountable even to the point of ending their employment.
After being on the job for less than two months, Bioteau announced the outsourcing of the troubled program to consultants with expertise to fix the problems and prescribe appropriate procedures.
Cleaning house was appropriate. These programs had wrongfully awarded grants and cost the college millions in fines and repayments.
At least 12 of the financial aid department’s 39 employees will lose their jobs as the functions are outsourced for up to two years.
The Gainesville Sun – Florida’s drinking problem
Florida has a drinking problem.
The problem isn’t with alcohol, it’s with water. The state has for too long used groundwater as if it was a limitless resource.
That water has allowed residents to keep their lawns lush, farmers to irrigate fields of thirsty crops and large corporations to fill plastic bottles sold at a significant profit. But the issuance of endless permits to pump that water has led to falling levels in the Floridan Aquifer.
As our natural springs dramatically drop in flow, the problem is becoming as clear as the water in those springs used to be. Yet state regulators have long failed to acknowledge the extent of the problem.
The acknowledgment seemed to finally be coming in the form of minimum flows and levels, or MFLs. The standards guide the issuance of groundwater permits by setting the point at which withdrawals cause significant harm.
More than 30 years after state lawmakers approved MFLs, they are at last being set for our region’s water bodies and springs. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection recently circulated draft MFLs for the lower Santa Fe and Ichetucknee rivers and the springs feeding them.
Unfortunately, the standards assume the basin has a deficit of 11 million gallons a day — less than half the figure that water managers initially discussed. They also give a pass to existing users until the completion of a groundwater study of North Florida and Southeast Georgia.
The Lakeland Ledger — Lakeland Police Scandals: Avoid Backdoor Meetings
When a city manager holds meetings individually with city commissioners one-on-one information may flow in one direction only.
That would be from city manager to city commissioner.
An example would be for the manager to explain a proposal coming before the commission. Another would be for the manager to answer questions from an individual commissioner about the proposal.
Information may not flow in the other direction — from city commissioner to city manager.
In particular, the manager may not solicit approval one-by-one from commissioners to reach a conclusion — to have a de facto meeting on the issue. In such a series of informal meetings that amounts to an actual meeting, all discussion is in private, and neither votes nor minutes are recorded.
That’s what some Lakeland city commissioners say happened when City Manager Doug Thomas held one-on-one meetings with them last summer about hiring a public relations firm in connection with the Police Department sex scandal.
Thomas hired the firm after meeting with the city commissioners and the mayor individually, but without bringing the issue before the whole commission in a public meeting.
The Miami Herald — The unkindest cut
Among the most urgent tasks facing South Florida’s legislative delegation in Tallahassee is fixing an ill-considered law that diverts millions of federal dollars destined for Miami-Dade hospitals and sends them elsewhere in the state.
South Florida is used to being shortchanged when it comes to state funding. Remember the DCD, the school-funding formula that was changed to deny Miami-Dade cost-of-living dollars when allocating money for public schools? This is the same thing — the total loss for Miami-Dade County is $218 million — yet worse.
The DCD involved a state formula for the state’s own public school money. Lawmakers changed the criteria and — presto! — the money went elsewhere.
In this instance, however, it’s not the state’s own funding, but rather federal money that South Florida has earned by putting local public dollars into healthcare providers like Jackson Health System, Broward Health and Memorial Healthcare System. The federal government rewards communities willing to make a financial sacrifice to strengthen the safety net by providing matching grants on Medicaid funding.
The Orlando Sentinel — In granting tax rebates, let best teams win
The Orlando City Lions are moving up to Major League Soccer next year, and Mayor Buddy Dyer and the team want a rebate on state sales taxes to help bankroll a better stadium. That’s not an unreasonable request, considering such breaks have been approved in the past for venues housing eight of the state’s professional sports teams.
A proposal before the Florida Legislature would require that Orlando and any other public or private entity seeking a rebate compete for it by demonstrating that taxpayers would get a good return on their investment. If approved, this proposal would mark a welcome break from the state’s history of handing out untold millions of dollars in tax breaks that didn’t deliver on their economic promises.
We think Orlando can and should show that a downtown soccer stadium will be a net plus for taxpayers, even after a rebate. And we think Orlando’s venue — to be owned and operated by the city, not the team — will make the cut if lawmakers give it the chance to compete.
This year’s legislative proposal is similar to one drafted last year by Sen. Andy Gardiner, an Orlando Republican. To his credit, Gardiner has been taking the lead in Tallahassee in demanding more accountability and taxpayer protections before the state approves more tax breaks.
The Ocala StarBanner — A failed scheme, a new opportunity
Whether its reasons were practical, political or just plain logical, the Department of Environmental Protection made the right decision by stopping the sale of conservation lands as a way to fund the Florida Forever program.
The Legislature had proposed the sale last year as a means of raising $50 million to finance new purchases of environmentally sensitive lands.
What the DEP discovered, in compiling a list of properties for possible sale, was that the vast majority of land set aside through Florida Forever and other state programs remains vitally important not only for public recreation but for the protection of wildlife and water resources.
So, instead of selling conservation lands, the DEP now plans to fund Florida Forever through the sale of other, less-sensitive state-owned properties such as unused hospitals and prisons.
Sales like that make more sense than selling the state’s conservation lands, which include park areas, wildlife refuges and wetlands. While Florida owns more than 3 million acres of such lands, most were purchased through a rigorous process that identified only the most environmentally sensitive areas.
The DEP learned as much last year in compiling its list. The initial list of 169 sites comprised roughly 5,300 acres in state parks and watersheds. This drew criticism from conservationists and local governments alike and was later cut to 77 parcels of 3,405 acres.
But 2,638 of those acres were within the Hilochee Wildlife Management Area, also known as the Green Swamp, which contains the headwaters of four rivers. The Polk County Commission ultimately asked that the Green Swamp be removed, leaving the DEP with little choice but to abandon the process.
The Pensacola News-Journal — Helping our homeless
We appreciate the Pensacola City Council and its council executive, Lila Cox, for organizing Wednesday’s forum on homelessness.
The event will be conducted by Robert Marbut Jr., who has more than three decades of experience working on homeless issues. He was a member of the City Council in San Antonio, Texas, and then as president and chief executive officer of a homeless service agency, his consulting firm’s website says.
During that time, he has developed “The Seven Guiding Principles of Transformation – Moving from Enablement to Engagement.” They include:
• Engaging the homeless, not enabling them. “For moral and fiscal reasons, homelessness must become an unacceptable condition that is not tolerated in the USA,” Marbut’s website says.
• Rewarding positive behavior in shelters: “Privileges such as higher quality sleeping arrangements, more privacy and elective learning opportunities should be used as rewards. It is important that these rewards be used as tools to approximate the real world in order to increase sustainable reintegration into society.”
The Palm Beach Post —DuBois for Lake Park mayor
Lake Park is full of small-town charm but troubled by high property taxes, low home values, botched or stalled waterfront projects and far too little civic participation. To help steer it into better times, it needs a mayor who is engaged and clear-eyed about the challenges ahead. In the election Tuesday, The Post recommends the incumbent, James DuBois.
DuBois was elected in 2011 to replace his wife, who died during her term. Before that, he was involved in civic affairs for years as a member of the planning and zoning board and the marina board. He is well-versed in the town’s struggles, pointing out that it has reduced staff by more than a third since the recession. As the economy recovers, much of the town’s efforts will be spent maintaining infrastructure and completing long-delayed projects. “There’s an awful lot of catching up to do,” he says.
The Panama City News-Herald — Politics, power and Gov. Scott
Gov. Rick Scott welcomed the Florida Legislature into session this week with a State of the State speech touting the improved economy and reminding listeners that things were worse under Charlie Crist, the previous governor who wants to be the next governor. His talk was as much political as it was policy-oriented, but that was to be expected from Scott, who will face Crist in November.
Our only quibble was that the speech bestowed upon the governor’s office more power, authority and influence than it really has.
For instance, Gov. Scott said that when he took office in 2011, “Florida was in a hole. Unemployment was above 11 percent, more than 1 million people were unemployed. Our debt ballooned to more than $28 billion.”
In fact, 2011 was bad news just about everywhere. The U.S. economy had been on the brink of collapse in late 2008 and was still gasping. In Northwest Florida, businesses were reeling from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill just the year before. Neither of these was the fault of Charlie Crist.
Today, Gov. Scott said, “we’ve added almost half a million jobs in three years.” He cited tax cuts and the elimination of nearly 3,000 regulations during his watch. “Now,” he said, “we are on the rise.”
All of that is true, but most of America is on the rise, climbing out of the depths of the Great Recession. Rick Scott is lucky to be governor as the economy heals itself.
The Tallahassee Democrat – Staying competitive
With an improving national economy along with a governor who can’t utter a sentence without using the words “work,” “jobs” or “business,” you might expect that things would be looking up for Florida’s economy. You’d be right.
Gov. Rick Scott, in Tuesday’s State of the State address, proudly pointed to an unemployment rate that has fallen to 6.3 percent (from over 11 percent in 2010, and now below the national rate) and the addition of more than 460,000 private-sector jobs since 2010.
Gov. Scott’s strategy has been to lower taxes, reduce regulations and generally make Florida more business-friendly. The strategy has helped attract a number of major companies, and last week Enterprise Florida — a public-private partnership focused on economic development — announced that Florida for the first time earned a top-10 ranking in Site Selection magazine’s Governor’s Cup. The magazine, which reports on corporate real estate strategies, ranks the states by looking at new and expanded corporate facilities.
The Tampa Tribune — A glance in rating mirror shows success and stress
Living in what local boosters tell us is the best metropolis of the nation’s best state, it’s easy to get complacent, especially this time of year, when visitors from Minnesota are raving about the sunshine.
Not everyone agrees, of course, with our high opinion of home. The city and state do get their share of unfavorable ratings. Recognizing these imperfections is important, even if immediate solutions are beyond reach.
Among meany measurable factors, residents of Florida are less content than many of our tourists from colder climes. Accessibility to health care in Florida rates low, and roads in Tampa continue to be among the most congested of U.S. cities.
This community is growing fast because of available jobs and amenities. Livability.com ranks Tampa 20th nationwide and the second best place to live in Florida behind only Miami Beach. And most of us wouldn’t consider living in another state.
But welcoming growth and celebrating past success won’t fix our flaws at any level.
Florida, despite having excellent hospitals and medical services, ranks embarrassingly low in public health.
As for overall happiness, Florida ranks a woeful 30th among the states, according to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. The five happiest states are North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota and Montana.
