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Florida's Latest NewsThe FDA's decision on Canada drug imports to Florida faces a delay past OctoberFlorida likely will have to wait a little longer to find out if it will be able to import cheaper prescription drugs from Canada. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration had been expected to issue a decision by the end of October about the proposed program, which the state has been pursuing since 2019 and has spawned two lawsuits. But a court document filed this week said a back-and-forth between state and federal officials about details of the proposal will prevent a decision this month. The document, filed Monday by attorneys for the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, said the state submitted a revised proposal Friday to try to address additional questions raised by the FDA. “Given the delay while plaintiffs (the state) had to compile materials to address the changing requirements, plaintiffs understand the FDA is unlikely to be able to issue a decision by their previously stated date of October 31, 2023,” the document said. 12 companies are competing for billions in Florida Medicaid contractsThe state has announced the names of the 12 vendors that submitted responses to the state’s multiyear Medicaid managed care invitation to negotiate (ITN). While many of the respondents have contracts with the state, two of the respondents do not: Sentara Care Alliance (formerly Optima Health) and ImagineCare, a provider service network and joint venture between CareSource and Spark Pediatrics. Spark Pediatrics is the largest provider of prescribed pediatric extended care in the state, according to its homepage. The other respondents are Sunshine Health, Aetna Better Health of Florida, Molina Healthcare of Florida, United Healthcare of Florida, Simply Healthcare Plans, South Florida Community Care Network d/b/a Community Care Plan, Florida Community Care, Humana Medical Plan, and AmeriHealth Caritas of Florida. About a dozen people went to the Agency for Health Care Administration’s (AHCA) Tallahassee office where the responses were opened. According to the ITN, the agency tentatively plans on making the names of the 12 vendors available Oct. 27. U.S. Supreme Court lifts stay on Florida sports betting caseThe U.S. Supreme Court is giving a green light to a $2.5 billion gambling deal between Florida and the state’s Seminole Tribe. Chief Justice John Roberts, who oversees emergency requests from the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., earlier this month issued an administrative stay in the case while the full court considered a request for a long-term stay made by lawyers representing Florida casino operators. In a two-page decision released on Wednesday, the court stated that it
had denied the stay request and vacated the administrative hold put in place by Roberts. But the ruling also included a statement by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who raised questions about whether the 2021 gambling legislation pushed by Gov. Ron DeSantis “raises serious equal protection issues.” Florida is adopting Safe System Approach to improve safety, reduce traffic deaths and severe injuriesTraffic fatalities in Florida over the past few years have been highest in Miami-Dade County, Broward, Hillsborough, and Orange counties. Three main scenarios have proven deadly in Hillsborough County: Cars going off the roads, crashes involving pedestrian, and bike riders and crashes at intersections. Pei-Sung Lin, of The Center for Urban Transportation Research at USF,said Florida is altering the way it thinks of traffic in changing to the Safe System Approach. It has filtered down through the Federal Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Lin said there are five components of a safe transportation system and these must all work together:
But the main thrust of this approach is that death or serious injury are unacceptable.  |
