Recent History of Public Healthcare in Lee County, Florida

Last week, this blog reviewed the origins of the public Lee Memorial Hospital. After its formation by the government, as the municipal Hospital System exerted its authority over healthcare in Lee County, the Federal Trade Commission brought an Anti-Trust action against it for creating a monopoly. Lee Memorial was represented by the Jones, Day law firm in […]

The Political History Of Lee County’s Public Hospitals

LMH was created by Special Act of the State Legislature in 1961, requiring a local vote for the charter to become effective. That vote failed in 1963. Without any changes to the Special Act, the State instead just passed another special bill establishing the Hospital Board. There appears never to have been a public vote […]

Socialized Medicine in Lee County, Florida

The Lee Memorial Health System is a Florida Municipal District, authorized by Government Charter to operate hospital services in Lee County, Florida. It is now the only provider of hospital services in Lee County, Florida – owning each and every one of the hospitals currently operating here. In addition, LMHS aggressively pursued the rest of […]

Quality Fraud Drives Medical and Insurance Costs Up

In 1999, HHS announced 371 criminal indictments for health care billing fraud, up 61% from the previous year[1]. DOJ convicted 396 Defendants for health care fraud, filed 2,278 civil matters relating to health care fraud and excluded 2,976 providers from billing Federal programs like Medicare and Medicaid as a result of fraud[2]. These cases included […]

Some Child Left Behind

Five-year-old Abby Muszynski was born with a brain malformation that causes seizures and respiratory failure. http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/28/health/health-care-refugees-part-1/  Abby’s family is leaving Florida to get her proper health care. The Muszynskis’ older high school aged children will be left behind. Why are they doing this? Because Florida’s Medicaid program will not pay for Abby’s treatment. This dates […]