Tag Archives: health care

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Tampa Bay Times: Chronic pain sufferers plead for a nuanced approach to opioids (w/video)

By Justine Griffin

 


Will Michele Jacobovitz get out of bed today?

That depends on how many painkillers she has left in her monthly prescription, which sometimes she’s forced to ration. Some mornings are harder than others.

Jacobovitz, 56, has suffered from chronic pain since a 1987 car accident. The Pasco County resident has had 73 surgeries since, from her neck to her ankles, and she has the scars to prove it. In December, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

She says it’s impossible to function without popping a highly addictive painkiller with Acetaminophen and Oxycodone components, in the morning. Without it, she says, there are days she can’t get up at all. Or get to the bathroom in time. It can be humiliating.

Jacobovitz says she’s not addicted to painkillers, just absolutely dependent on them.

“It comes down to quality of life,” she said. “I’m not using these drugs to get high. I’m using them so I can have some kind of life. So I can get out of bed. They don’t take my pain away. But they mask it so I can function.”

She is one of many Floridians who suffer from chronic pain and are worried about a government crackdown that would make it even harder to get the prescription drugs they need every day.

Gov. Rick Scott has proposed legislation that aims to put a dent in the opioid epidemic by prohibiting doctors from prescribing more than three days’ worth of opioids — or seven days if doctors can explain why that’s medically necessary.

Under the measure, Florida would share a database of opioid prescriptions with other states and require doctors to routinely check it. Doctors also would be trained on proper prescribing techniques.

“When people think of opioids, they think of addicts and criminals,” Jacobovitz said. “That’s not us.”

Read more here.

 

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Tampa Bay Times: At Moffitt, a push to ease cancer’s toll in the workplace

By Justine Griffin

Cathy Bishop, a retired teacher and assistant principal in Hillsborough County, is in remission after treating stage IV colon cancer at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa. The disease affected key decisions about her career and retirement. [Photo courtesy of Moffitt Cancer Center]

Cathy Bishop worked as a teacher and assistant principal at Hillsborough County schools for nearly 35 years when she found out she had colon cancer.

Diagnosed after a routine colonoscopy, she had to make a tough decision about how she was going to let the disease impact her career. She would rely on the health insurance offered to her through the school district to pay for medical bills that stacked up because of chemotherapy and surgery. But ultimately, Bishop chose to work through her diagnosis and treatment plan instead of taking medical leave.

“My retirement is a teacher’s pension, which is half a salary. Basically, not much,” Bishop said. “I have two sons, and one of them was in law school at the time. I had to make a decision that was best for my family.”

Bishop told her story Monday to a room full of professionals from some of the Tampa Bay region’s largest employers. Tech Data, Port Tampa Bay, the YMCA and the city of Orlando government were just a few of the organizations in the audience at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa. Moffitt hosted its first ever “Employer Forum,” where doctors and administrators shed light on the cost of cancer and its huge impact on the workforce. They also proposed a new way of collaborating with insurers to make treatments more affordable for patients like Bishop.

“It’s a topic that’s hardly ever mentioned in the workplace, but the employer plays a big role in terms of support for the patient and their family,” said Dr. Louis Harrison, chief partnership officer at Moffitt and one of several physicians who shared stories about how difficult it can be for patients to balance work and cancer.

“Just recently I was treating a patient with neck and head cancer who was worried a test was going to take too long,” he said. “He told me he had to get back to work or else they were going to be angry with him. What a predicament.”

Read more here.

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Tampa Bay Times: Free clinics respond as more people head to the ER with dental problems

By Justine Griffin

Charles Lee had been dealing with an excruciating toothache for days.

The pain made it hard to eat or sleep or focus on work. But Lee, 54, didn’t have dental insurance. His job as a delivery truck driver offered only a supplemental policy that was too expensive. He feared he needed a root canal, which he knew could cost hundreds of dollars even with insurance.

The Department of Health in Pinellas County referred Lee to a free dental clinic in Clearwater, just blocks from his home, where a volunteer dentist found the cause of his issue and replaced two fillings for the price of a donation.

“I had nowhere to go. I had no affordable health care. I went into a Walgreens to see what they could do, and walked out with my tooth still killing me because they wanted $119 just to see me,” said Lee, one of the 27 percent of U.S. adults ages 20 to 64 who, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, are living with untreated dental issues.

Most adults who don’t have dental insurance end up in emergency rooms because of tooth or gum problems. The number of patients who go to the ER with dental-related issues surged from 1.1 million in 2000 to 2.1 million in 2010, and continues to rise, according to the American Dental Association. The organization says that up to 1.65 million ER visits a year could be better handled at dental clinics.

While the Affordable Care Act and low-income insurance programs like Medicare and Medicaid have improved Americans’ access to health care, barriers still remain for adult dental care.

Local health departments, including in Pinellas, Hillsborough and Pasco counties, offer some low-income dental plans to residents who qualify. And children’s dental care is covered nearly in full through Medicaid, the federal Children’s Health Insurance Program and the ACA.

But Florida Medicaid plans for adults provide dental-related reimbursements only to participants who need emergency services to alleviate pain or infection or denture-related procedures, according the Agency for Health Care Administration.

At the Community Dental Clinic in Clearwater, dentists and hygienists convinced Charles Lee to come back for several follow up appointments, which helped get his dental care on track. And Lee didn’t have to worry about how much he was paying for the continuing service.

Read more here.

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Tampa Bay Times: Whatever happened to the Zika epidemic?

By Justine Griffin

Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are responsible for transmitting Zika. Cases of the virus are down dramatically in Florida. Associated Press

Remember Zika?

The last time Gov. Rick Scott warned Floridians about the potential threat of the mosquito-borne virus was in July, when he urged residents to still be vigilant against bug bites and standing water. At the time, doctors and researchers were bracing for what was supposed to be another active summer season for the virus. Some expected it to be even worse than last year, when 1,100 travel-related cases were reported statewide and Zika spread into pockets of South Florida.

But it’s been quiet on the outbreak front ever since, as Zika cases have dropped dramatically this year.

The state Health Department counts only 180 Zika infections in Florida so far in 2017, on track to come in well below the 1,456 cases reported all of last year. The vast majority are travel-related cases brought to Florida by people who came from somewhere else, like Zika hotbed areas in Central and South America or the Caribbean, already infected with the virus. The rest, about 40, were cases where officials could not determine exactly where the patients contracted the virus or instances where people acquired it locally last year but weren’t tested until 2017.

Officials say they have determined one thing for sure: This year, there are no reported areas in Florida with active, ongoing local transmission of Zika, which means no known instances of mosquitoes carrying the virus.

Another piece of good news is that the number of pregnant women with the virus appears to be declining. With only 101 cases reported so far this year, it would be difficult to match last year’s total of 299 cases.

Read more here.