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CEC Offers Clients Strategic Advantage with Infographics
In partnership with St. Petersburg-based Extensive Enterprises, CEC is excited to provide clients with a compelling new way to visualize data: infographics.
Infographics allow us to integrate creative content with specific data points, providing clients with a new tool to more effectively educate their target audiences in a much more memorable way (think legislators, or grasstops stakeholders.)
Our first infographic displays the differences in education levels of ophthalmologists and optometrists. We took a complex set of data and made it easier to understand.
Check it out here: FMA Infographic
Florida Medical Association Launches DoctorsForTortReform.com
For Immediate Release
March 17, 2011
Contact: Erin VanSickle
(850) 339-3184
Tallahassee—The Florida Medical Association (FMA) launched a website today that aims to get Florida’s physicians involved in the FMA’s efforts to pass medical liability reform. DoctorsForTortReform.com encourages physicians to support House Bill 479, a substantial medical liability reform bill supported by the FMA. The full site can be viewed at http://www.doctorsfortortreform.com/home/.
“Passing meaningful medical liability this Session is the FMA’s number-one priority,” said Timothy J. Stapleton, Executive Vice President of the FMA. “We launched DoctorsForTortReform.com to educate patients about the effects of Florida’s dangerous medical liability climate, and most importantly, to get physicians across the state involved in our grassroots efforts to pass major reforms.”
The FMA, which represents over 20,000 physicians in Florida, will use the DoctorsForTortReform.com site to educate patients and physicians about House Bill 479, one of the most significant pieces of medical liability reform legislation in Florida in many years. The bill would improve Florida’s out-of-control litigation system by reducing costly and unnecessary testing for defensive purposes and requiring out-of-state expert witnesses to obtain a Florida certificate to prevent fraudulent or deceptive testimony. Additionally, it would ensure equal access to witnesses in medical liability suits, leveling the playing field in these cases, and authorize insurance policies that give physicians control over settlement decisions. This common-sense legislation is key to patient access and economic development opportunities.
“The FMA exists to make Florida a better place to practice medicine,” continued Stapleton. “That is extremely difficult to do when published reports on ‘where to practice medicine’ list Florida among the states to avoid because of our state’s bad litigation climate. DoctorsForTortReform.com is a tool that allows us to highlight Florida physicians’ concerns about the pending access to care crisis in our state, which will occur if we don’t pass medical liability reforms now.”
Additional information about Florida’s medical liability climate:
- Florida ranks among the worst states in the nation for paid malpractice claims and payouts. In 2009, Florida had 770 paid medical malpractice settlements compared to the national average of 180.
- Florida medical liability premiums are by far the highest in the nation. The average primary care physician in Florida pays $41,946 for liability insurance, while the national average is $16,042. The average specialist in Florida pays $171,231 for liability insurance, while the national average is $65,489.
- Florida’s physicians are retiring faster than they are being replaced. In 2009, Florida was ranked 50th among the states for “access to emergency care.”
- Texas passed medical liability reform in 2003. Since then, it has gained more than 21,000 new physicians, an increase of 37 percent, representing many high-risk specialties such as emergency medicine, neurosurgery, pediatric intensive care, and pediatric infectious disease.
Sign the Doctors For Tort Reform petition at: www.DoctorsForTortReform.com
Follow Doctors For Tort Reform on Twitter at: @FloridaMedical
Follow Doctors For Tort Reform on Facebook
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FMA Statement on Governor Scott’s First State of the State Address
For Immediate Release
March 8, 2011
Contact: Erin VanSickle
(850) 339-3184
FMA Statement on Governor Scott’s First State of the State Address
Tallahassee—Florida Medical Association (FMA) President Madelyn Butler, M.D., released the following statement today regarding Governor Rick Scott’s first State of the State Address:
“Governor Scott got it right tonight. He noted that Florida’s current liability system, full of frivolous lawsuits, is bad for the economy, bad for small businesses, and bad for job creation.
“Sky-high liability premiums—by far the highest in the nation—are driving physicians out of the state and discouraging new physicians to locate in Florida.
“The Governor also correctly noted that frivolous lawsuits destroy job opportunities. This year, private practice physicians’ offices will support more than 486,700 jobs statewide, and generate nearly $62 billion in overall economic impact for Florida. Those jobs will depend on our ability to make Florida a better place to practice medicine.
“The FMA applauds Governor Scott for his commitment to passing comprehensive medical liability reform, making it easier for patients to find the care the need and generating new jobs for Floridians.”
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Florida AHEC Network Applauds Governor Scott’s SOTS Remarks on Health Care Innovation
Tallahassee—The Florida AHEC (Area Health Education Centers) Network today applauded Governor Rick Scott’s State of the State Address, which highlighted the need for innovative, more cost-effective health care reform.
“Governor Scott was absolutely correct in his State of the State address when he said that Florida must provide a ‘modern, health care safety net for our low-income and disabled citizens,’” said Andrée Aubrey, President of the AHEC Network. “Governor Scott was also correct in pointing out that the costs of providing these services have spun out of control. The AHEC Network stands ready to assist Governor Scott and the Legislature in cutting red tape, saving taxpayer dollars, and returning a focus to the patient. At the AHEC Network, we do this every day.”
Florida’s AHEC Network provides primary care services directly to patients in Florida’s underserved areas and trains the state’s future health care workforce. Comprised of five Programs and ten community-based Centers across the state, the AHEC Network is the only program in which Florida’s medical schools collaborate to provide direct primary care services to patients in their surrounding communities. The AHEC Network focuses on empowering patients and encouraging them to take more personal responsibility for their own health care, which drives down costs and keeps patients out of expensive emergency rooms.
“The AHEC Network looks forward to working with Governor Scott and the Florida House and Senate to save more taxpayer dollars and treat more patients,” concluded Aubrey. “We can do this through our existing infrastructure of affiliated community clinics and our collaboration with Florida’s Medical Schools, which allows us to deploy health professions students, residents, and faculty to sites across the state to treat patients.”
To learn more about the Florida AHEC Network, visit www.flahec.org.
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