The Miami Herald
Posted on Thu, Sep. 12, 2013
State tells ‘navigators’ to stay away from county health departments

BY CAROL GENTRY, PATRICIA BORNS AND KATHLEEN McGRORY
Herald/Times Tallahassee bureau

The outreach workers known as navigators won’t be allowed to help people
sign up for health insurance on the grounds of county health
departments, according to a memo from the Florida Department of Health.

The order from Deputy Health Secretary C. Meade Grigg went out late
Monday to the 60 local health department directors across the state.

Grigg declined to comment on the directive. But health department
spokeswoman Ashley Carr said there was a need for “clarity” and “a
consistent message” across the agency.

“Navigators are not acting on behalf of the Department of Health and
this program has raised privacy concerns due to the consumer information
that will be gathered for use in a federal database,” Carr wrote in a
statement.

Health and Human Services Department spokesman Fabien Levy called the
Florida directive “another blatant and shameful attempt to intimidate
groups who will be working to inform Americans about their new health
insurance options and help them enroll in coverage, just like Medicare
counselors have been doing for years.”

He added that “despite the state’s attempts, we are confident that
navigators will still be able to help Floridians enroll” in health
insurance plans.

The move represents the latest hurdle to the new health insurance
marketplace, which opens in Florida on Oct. 1. Earlier in the year,
state lawmakers declined to expand Medicaid, and passed a proposal
prohibiting the state insurance commissioner from regulating insurance
premiums.

The prohibition on navigators in county health departments drew
criticism Wednesday.

Retired Pasco County Health Director Marc Yacht said the move would
“significantly compromise a multitude of needy Floridians from getting
critical health care.” He called it “cruel and irresponsible.”

Jeremy Funk of Americans United for Change, a national group supporting
the Affordable Care Act, said Grigg compromised the mission of the state
health department “when he banished from the Florida health department
premises the people who have been tapped by the federal government to
help uninsured Floridians navigate the new health law and the benefits
available to them.”

“Grigg should know better than most that thousands of people die every
year because they didn’t have insurance, so why is he standing in the
way of Floridians enrolling in a plan?” he added.

Both the Miami-Dade and Broward health departments declined to comment.

The navigator program in Florida is being funded by $7.8 million in
federal grants, of which $4.2 million went to the Covering Kids &
Families Program at the University of South Florida. The university will
be disbursing the money to 10 organizations around the state that will
hire, train and supervise the outreach workers.

Judy Clauser, of the Epilepsy Foundation of Florida, a Doral-based group
that received a $637,686 federal navigator grant, said she was surprised
to learn outreach workers would be kept out of county health departments.

“I don’t think it will keep us from doing our work,” she said. “We’re
partnering with community organizations like Catalyst Miami and Sant La
in Little Haiti to reach the uninsured where they live.”

Even if state officials were making it easy, the navigators face a huge
challenge in Florida, where 3.8 million people are uninsured. Navigators
are still being hired and trained. They must pass an exam, and then go
through state-required criminal background checks.

The outreach workers have less than a month until the federally operated
online marketplace for Florida is scheduled to open. The marketplace was
created to provide comparison shopping and subsidized coverage for
uninsured people who don’t receive it in the workplace or from another
source. Some states elected to create and run their own marketplace.

The plans and prices that will be available in Florida have not yet been
made public. Coverage could go into effect as soon as Jan. 1.

Carol Gentry is founder and editor of Health News Florida. Miami Herald
staff writer Daniel Chang contributed to this report. This story was
produced in partnership with Kaiser Health News, an editorially
independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, a
nonprofit, nonpartisan health policy research and communication
organization not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.”


© 2013 Miami Herald Media Company. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.miamiherald.com

Read more he
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/09/1...#storylink=cpy


- - -



3.8 million people in Florida without health insurance, and a felon for
a governor and a state legislature populated with RepubliThugs.

In article , says...

The Miami Herald
Posted on Thu, Sep. 12, 2013
State tells ?navigators? to stay away from county health departments

BY CAROL GENTRY, PATRICIA BORNS AND KATHLEEN McGRORY
Herald/Times Tallahassee bureau

The outreach workers known as navigators won?t be allowed to help people
sign up for health insurance on the grounds of county health
departments, according to a memo from the Florida Department of Health.

The order from Deputy Health Secretary C. Meade Grigg went out late
Monday to the 60 local health department directors across the state.

Grigg declined to comment on the directive. But health department
spokeswoman Ashley Carr said there was a need for ?clarity? and ?a
consistent message? across the agency.

?Navigators are not acting on behalf of the Department of Health and
this program has raised privacy concerns due to the consumer information
that will be gathered for use in a federal database,? Carr wrote in a
statement.

Health and Human Services Department spokesman Fabien Levy called the
Florida directive ?another blatant and shameful attempt to intimidate
groups who will be working to inform Americans about their new health
insurance options and help them enroll in coverage, just like Medicare
counselors have been doing for years.?

He added that ?despite the state?s attempts, we are confident that
navigators will still be able to help Floridians enroll? in health
insurance plans.

The move represents the latest hurdle to the new health insurance
marketplace, which opens in Florida on Oct. 1. Earlier in the year,
state lawmakers declined to expand Medicaid, and passed a proposal
prohibiting the state insurance commissioner from regulating insurance
premiums.

The prohibition on navigators in county health departments drew
criticism Wednesday.

Retired Pasco County Health Director Marc Yacht said the move would
?significantly compromise a multitude of needy Floridians from getting
critical health care.? He called it ?cruel and irresponsible.?

Jeremy Funk of Americans United for Change, a national group supporting
the Affordable Care Act, said Grigg compromised the mission of the state
health department ?when he banished from the Florida health department
premises the people who have been tapped by the federal government to
help uninsured Floridians navigate the new health law and the benefits
available to them.?

?Grigg should know better than most that thousands of people die every
year because they didn?t have insurance, so why is he standing in the
way of Floridians enrolling in a plan?? he added.

Both the Miami-Dade and Broward health departments declined to comment.

The navigator program in Florida is being funded by $7.8 million in
federal grants, of which $4.2 million went to the Covering Kids &
Families Program at the University of South Florida. The university will
be disbursing the money to 10 organizations around the state that will
hire, train and supervise the outreach workers.

Judy Clauser, of the Epilepsy Foundation of Florida, a Doral-based group
that received a $637,686 federal navigator grant, said she was surprised
to learn outreach workers would be kept out of county health departments.

?I don?t think it will keep us from doing our work,? she said. ?We?re
partnering with community organizations like Catalyst Miami and Sant La
in Little Haiti to reach the uninsured where they live.?

Even if state officials were making it easy, the navigators face a huge
challenge in Florida, where 3.8 million people are uninsured. Navigators
are still being hired and trained. They must pass an exam, and then go
through state-required criminal background checks.

The outreach workers have less than a month until the federally operated
online marketplace for Florida is scheduled to open. The marketplace was
created to provide comparison shopping and subsidized coverage for
uninsured people who don?t receive it in the workplace or from another
source. Some states elected to create and run their own marketplace.

The plans and prices that will be available in Florida have not yet been
made public. Coverage could go into effect as soon as Jan. 1.

Carol Gentry is founder and editor of Health News Florida. Miami Herald
staff writer Daniel Chang contributed to this report. This story was
produced in partnership with Kaiser Health News, an editorially
independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, a
nonprofit, nonpartisan health policy research and communication
organization not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.?


© 2013 Miami Herald Media Company. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.miamiherald.com

Read more he
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/09/1...#storylink=cpy


- - -



3.8 million people in Florida without health insurance, and a felon for
a governor and a state legislature populated with RepubliThugs.

How many of these "navigators" are felons and identity theives?

On 9/14/13 12:58 PM, wrote:
On Sat, 14 Sep 2013 11:39:37 -0400, "F.O.A.D." wrote:

John Birch Society politics, nothing more.

Did you just read a John Birch Society article or what?

It seems to be your mantra this week.

BTW these days John Birch might be a moderate.


No, but I was quite familiar with that group of nutcases in the 1960's,
and Bartram's politics remind me of the Birchers...hate-filled, crazy
right-wing extremism.

On 9/14/13 4:28 PM, wrote:
On Sat, 14 Sep 2013 14:12:23 -0400, "F.O.A.D." wrote:

On 9/14/13 12:58 PM, wrote:
On Sat, 14 Sep 2013 11:39:37 -0400, "F.O.A.D." wrote:

John Birch Society politics, nothing more.

Did you just read a John Birch Society article or what?

It seems to be your mantra this week.

BTW these days John Birch might be a moderate.


No, but I was quite familiar with that group of nutcases in the 1960's,
and Bartram's politics remind me of the Birchers...hate-filled, crazy
right-wing extremism.

You really need to calm down a little. If there is anything that is
consistent with our political system it is that things really don't
change much. The same 400 people still run the world and they let us
play around with meaningless things like guns and abortion to keep us
occupied.
Have you really seen any vast differences in our foreign, financial or
trade policies in the last 25 years?
As long as money is free speech, it is not going to change.



Sorry, but I'm not interested in John Birch Society politics, which is
the major reason I ****canned Bert**** Robbins.

On 9/14/13 6:01 PM, wrote:
On Sat, 14 Sep 2013 16:38:48 -0400, "F.O.A.D." wrote:

On 9/14/13 4:28 PM, wrote:
On Sat, 14 Sep 2013 14:12:23 -0400, "F.O.A.D." wrote:

On 9/14/13 12:58 PM, wrote:
On Sat, 14 Sep 2013 11:39:37 -0400, "F.O.A.D." wrote:

John Birch Society politics, nothing more.

Did you just read a John Birch Society article or what?

It seems to be your mantra this week.

BTW these days John Birch might be a moderate.


No, but I was quite familiar with that group of nutcases in the 1960's,
and Bartram's politics remind me of the Birchers...hate-filled, crazy
right-wing extremism.

You really need to calm down a little. If there is anything that is
consistent with our political system it is that things really don't
change much. The same 400 people still run the world and they let us
play around with meaningless things like guns and abortion to keep us
occupied.
Have you really seen any vast differences in our foreign, financial or
trade policies in the last 25 years?
As long as money is free speech, it is not going to change.



Sorry, but I'm not interested in John Birch Society politics, which is
the major reason I ****canned Bert**** Robbins.

Is there even a John Birch society anymore?
It must be a half dozen 80 year old guys talking about the communist
menace in the back room of the Black Walton lodge.



They're still around, and I've read of cross pollination with some
factions/members of the Tea Party. I wonder if fluoridation of water is
still an issue with them. You could ask BAR.

On 9/14/2013 8:10 PM, wrote:
On Sat, 14 Sep 2013 18:08:54 -0400, "F.O.A.D." wrote:


Is there even a John Birch society anymore?
It must be a half dozen 80 year old guys talking about the communist
menace in the back room of the Black Walton lodge.



They're still around, and I've read of cross pollination with some
factions/members of the Tea Party.


Oh, bull****...



I wonder if fluoridation of water is
still an issue with them. You could ask BAR.

Actually science has caught up with them and there are some recognized
groups saying fluoridation might not be the best idea in the world.
Scientific American had an article about it a while ago.

On 9/14/13 8:44 PM, skin a cat wrote:
On 9/14/2013 8:10 PM, wrote:
On Sat, 14 Sep 2013 18:08:54 -0400, "F.O.A.D." wrote:


Is there even a John Birch society anymore?
It must be a half dozen 80 year old guys talking about the communist
menace in the back room of the Black Walton lodge.



They're still around, and I've read of cross pollination with some
factions/members of the Tea Party.


Oh, bull****...


Easy enough to find many articles showing the links, PsychoBagger.