Health Plan To Challenge Medicaid Contracts With Pensacola Company
June 7, 2018
A decision last week to award Medicaid contracts to two additional managed-care plans, one to a Pensacola firm, could mean more legal challenges for the state Agency for Health Care Administration.
The state announced last that Lighthouse Health Plan would be given a contract in Medicaid Region 1, which includes the western counties of the Panhandle. Lighthouse is affiliated with Pensacola-based Baptist Health Care.
The AHCA also announced that it was awarding additional contracts in Medicaid regions 9 and 11 to Miami Children’s Health Plan, which is affiliated with Nicklaus Children’s Hospital. Region 9 goes from Indian River County south to Palm Beach County and Okeechobee County, while Region 11 is made up of Miami-Dade and Monroe counties.
Attorneys for Molina Healthcare filed a notice with the state Tuesday announcing the HMO’s intention to challenge the agency’s decision last Thursday to award contracts to Miami Children’s Health Plan and Lighthouse Health Plan.
The HMO has 10 days to file a legal petition with the state.
The Agency for Health Care Administration has gone through a lengthy process to award new contracts in the Medicaid system, which requires most beneficiaries to enroll in managed-care plans. In April, the agency announced a decision to award five-year Medicaid contracts, which one official has estimated to be worth upwards of $90 billion in all, with nine HMOs.
That decision drew challenges from a dozen health plans that were not chosen for contracts, including Molina Healthcare.
Under a 2011 law that called for the statewide use of Medicaid managed care, AHCA is awarding contracts in 11 different regions. The number of contracts varies by region.
Molina’s notice filed Tuesday dealt with the additional contract awards.
Miami Children’s Health Plan and Lighthouse Health Plan are what are known as provider-sponsored networks because they are owned and operated by health-care providers. If the contract awards stand, they will provide “managed medical assistance” services, which involve the bulk of Medicaid beneficiaries and range from childhood checkups to surgeries.
Other health plans awarded contracts are expected to provide what AHCA describes as “comprehensive” services. In addition to managed medical assistance services, comprehensive plans would offer long-term care such as skilled nursing services.
by Christine Sexton The News Service of Florida
Escambia Man Gets 30 Years After Apartment Complex Fight
June 7, 2018
An Escambia County man was sentenced to three decades in prison after pulling a gun during a fight at an apartment complex.
Therall Williams, 28, was sentenced by the Judge John Miller to 30 years in state prison as a habitual felony offender and a prison releasee reoffender. He will serve the 30 year sentence day for day because of his status as a prison releasee reoffender.
Williams was convicted by an Escambia County Jury of aggravated battery with a firearm with discharge and great bodily harm and possession of a firearm by convicted felon.
On April 16, 2017, deputies responded to a shooting at Forest Creek Apartments. The victim stated that two people tried to rob him and then shot him. A witness identified the defendant as the shooter. The victim later told law enforcement that Williams and another individual were arguing about a gun before Williams shot him. The victim identified Williams out of a photo line-up. Surveillance video shows three people begin to fight. The fight goes to the ground and fire from a gun is seen, then a male resembling Williams runs toward a camera at another angle.
Williams’s criminal history includes burglary, grand theft and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Williams was last released from prison January 20, 2017,about than three months before the shooting.
Cantonment Diamond Dolls Win 8U All-Star Tournament
June 7, 2018
The Cantonment Diamond Dolls won first place in a recent 8U all-star tournament in Navarre. The team also won a mid-season tournament, the Blue Angel Classic tournament and placed second in two additional tournaments.
The Cantonment Diamond Dolls are Lily Speight, Kenzee Tanner, Miley McMullan, Natalee Sherouse, Cheyenne Paul, Chloe Engle, Addison Wilson, Kaylyn Relstab, Kalleigh Jarman, Tessa Kendrick, Giovanna Barnes and Jamaria Cook. Head coach is Kenny Tanner and assistant coaches are Chris Sherouse, Scott Relstab, Justin McMullan, Joey Paul, Matt Speight and Adam Wilson.
Photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
‘Dumbest Way Possible’ – Local Bank Robber, Still On Probation, Tries To Rob North Carolina Bank
June 7, 2018
A man recently released from prison and still on probation for local bank robberies tried and failed at another bank robbery Wednesday in North Carolina.
The Forest City (NC) Police Department said 38-year old Jerry Hover Tinsley was arrested for the attempted robbery of Fifth Third Bank in Forest City about 12: The Rutherford County (NC) Sheriff’s Office found him hiding in the edge of a wooded area near his home a few hours later. Surveillance photos show the suspect handing the teller a note, but he didn’t get any money before leaving the bank.
At the time of this arrest Wednesday afternoon, Tinsley was wearing a t-shirt that stated, “No, you’re right, let’s do it the dumbest way possible”.
Tinsley, along with a female accomplice, robbed banks in Flomaton, East Brewton and Florala, AL, during a March 2010 crime spree. He was sentenced to six years and five months in federal prison.
During the Flomaton robbery, Tinsley and Jones both presented tellers with demand notes which stated “this is a robbery, place all $100s, $50s, $20s on the counter no alarm no die packs no tracers”, according to federal court documents. A demand note with the same wording was presented during the East Brewton robbery. They did not display a weapon during any of the robberies.
Authorities said Tinsley and Jones picked banks along the state line because they believed Alabama authorities could not pursue them into Florida. Authorities believe in each robbery, the pair fled to Florida immediately after the holdups — including March 8 when they fled into North Escambia following the Flomaton robbery.
The pair was arrested by federal agents and local law enforcement after a short chase from a Motel 6 in Destin, Florida, March 18. The arrest was reportedly the result of a tip phoned into the Florala (Ala.) Police Department concerning a MySpace photo.
Tinsley’s accomplice, Rhianna Marie Jones of California, was sentenced in 2011 to three years and 10 months in prison.
Pictured above: Suspect Jerry Hover Tinsley and the robbery of a North Carolina bank Wednesday. Pictured above: The robbery of United Bank in Flomaton on March 8, 2010. NorthEscambia.com photos and submitted surveillance images, click to enlarge.
Wahoos Beat The Shuckers
June 7, 2018
The Wahoos shook off last night’s rough outing with a solid win 5-1 against the Shuckers Wednesday night at Blue Wahoos Stadium.
Vladimir Gutierrez (W, 2-8) set the tone for the Wahoos from the get-go. Gutierrez, who began the game with a walk on Biloxi’s Corey Ray, picked up the slack and retired the next three batters. In the bottom of the first, Brian O’Grady smashed a triple that scored Shed Long and Nick Longhi. Luis Gonzalez followed with a single that scored O’Grady that gave the Wahoos a quick 3-0 lead.
The Wahoos would score two more runs in the bottom of the sixth inning with an O’Grady solo home run and an Alberti Chavez single that scored Gonzalez to increase the lead at 5-1.
Gutierrez pitched six brilliant innings, with his only blemish being a solo home run surrendered to Jake Gatewood in the fourth. He finished with seven strikeouts, one shy of his season-best. Gutierrez’s walk to Ray was his only free pass of the game on his way to his second win of the year. Carlos Navas (S, 2) was excellent in his relief of Guiterrez. Navas allowed only one hit over three innings of shutout ball for his second save of the year.
The Wahoos will try to get their second consecutive series win against the Shuckers Thursday night. RHP Wyatt Strahan (4-4, 6.70) will get the start for the Wahoos against Biloxi RHP Trey Supak (0-1, 8.00).
Man Killed In I-10 Crash
June 7, 2018
A Mississippi man was killed in a single vehicle accident Wednesday afternoon on I-10 near West Nine Mile Road.
The Florida Highway Patrol said 64-year old Chester Jack Tullos, Jr. of Pearl, MS, was traveling east on I-10 when he lost control and struck a tree.
The crash remains under investigation by the FHP.
Second Arrest Made In Highway 97 Convenience Store Burglary
June 6, 2018
A second person has been arrested in connection with the 2017 burglary of a convenience store in Davisville.
Annie Deloris Frye, 47, was charged with burglary of an unoccupied business, criminal mischief property damage and grand theft. She was released from the Escambia County Jail on a $12,500 bond.
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office said Frye and 23-year old Desmond Deshawn Grubbs broke the glass out of the front door of the convenience store at the corner of Highway 97 and Nokomis Road, entered the business and stole cigarettes and beer valued at $800. The damage to the door was estimated at $500 during the September 11, 2017, burglary.
Grubbs was charged with the burglary earlier in May. [Previous story...] Both were identified by fingerprints, according to arrest report.
Road Closures: North Palafox, Fowler Avenue
June 6, 2018
Escambia County has issued the following road closure notices:
North Palafox/Chauncery Street
Beginning Friday, June 8 at 8 p.m. Chauncey Street at North Palafox Street will be closed to through traffic. Traffic will be detoured along Palafox Street to East Nine Mile Road and East Nine 1/2 Mile Road. Construction will consist of the
upgrading and installation of new pipe.
The roadway closure is expected to remain in effect for approximately four days and every effort will be made to expedite construction efforts to reopen the road before Monday, June 11 at 5 p.m.
The closure is part of the Highway 29 widening project.
Fowler Avenue
Beginning Wednesday, June 6 at 7 a.m. Fowler Avenue between West Nine Mile Road and McKinnon Lane will be closed to through traffic. Traffic will be detoured along Cove Avenue, Nine 1/2 mile Road and Highway 29. Construction will consist of the installation of sewers and connecting existing sanitary sewers to the newly installed sewers.
The roadway closure is expected to remain in effect for approximately three days and every effort will be made to expedite construction efforts to reopen the road before Saturday, June 9.
Taiko Drums At Century, Molino Libraries For Summer Reading Program
June 6, 2018
The Summer Reading Program is underway at the Molino and Century branch libraries with a youth program this week.
Tampa Taiko is back this summer with a dynamic, interactive show featuring Japanese Taiko drums. The schedule is as follows:
- Wednesday, June 6, 11 a.m. – Century Branch Library
- Wednesday, June 6, 4 p.m. – Pensacola Library
- Thursday, June 7, 11 a.m. – Molino Branch Library
- Friday, June 8, 11 a.m. – Tryon Branch Library
Youth ages 0-17 will get reading logs to keep track of every 15 minutes they read. After 12.5 hours of reading, they get a free book and a bonus reading log to be entered for additional prizes.
Youth prizes include books, ukuleles, tablets, Bluetooth speakers, bongo drums, otamatones, karaoke machines, musical instrument sets, light-up gloves and disco ball, voice-changing microphones and firetruck rides to school for a few lucky students.
Escambia County residents 18-years old and above can pick up a Summer Reading Club log bookmark at any WFPL location. Fill in the bookmark with the titles of books that you read or listen to via audiobook during the summer and return the filled-in bookmarks to any location. During the first week in August, partially filled in bookmarks will be accepted.
Drawings will take place during the first week of August. Winners will be notified by Tuesday, Aug. 7. At the halfway mark, youth and adult Summer Reading Club participants will be entered in a drawing for six chickens and a coop. The winner of the chicken coop must complete Chicken Keeping 101 class held at Pensacola Library.
There will also be a top prize drawing for a keyboard at the end of Summer Reading Club, which is open to youth and adult participants.
Adults will have a separate Summer Reading Club with prizes including ukuleles, tablets, Adirondack chairs and gift cards.
Pictured: Taiko drumming last year at the Molino Branch Library. NorthEscambia.com file photos, click to enlarge.
Judge Seeks To Clear Way For Smoking Marijuana
June 6, 2018
A Tallahassee judge on Tuesday lifted a hold on her order finding that Florida patients should be allowed to smoke medical marijuana if their doctors approve it.
Leon County Circuit Judge Karen Gievers lifted the stay on her May 25 order a day after hearing arguments in the case, initiated by Orlando trial attorney John Morgan after the Legislature included a ban on smoking in a 2017 law carrying out a constitutional amendment that broadly legalized medical marijuana.
Gievers last month agreed with Morgan and the plaintiffs, who argued that the text of the constitutional amendment allows patients to use any form of marijuana as their treatment. Morgan largely bankrolled what was known as Amendment 2, overwhelmingly approved by voters in 2016.
The state appealed Gievers’ decision striking down the smoking prohibition. The appeal put her ruling on hold, but the plaintiffs then went back to Gievers and asked her to lift the stay.
In Tuesday’s order, Gievers wrote that plaintiffs Cathy Jordan, a Lou Gehrig’s disease patient who credits smoking marijuana with saving her life, and Diana Dodson, who has neuralgia associated with HIV, would suffer without having access to smokable marijuana.
“Individual patients Jordan and Dodson are exposed to irreparable harm on two fronts. First, they cannot legally access the treatment recommended for them. Second, they face potential criminal prosecution for possession and use of the medicinal substance,” the judge wrote.
On the other hand, “there is no evidence the defendants (the state) will suffer harm if the stay is vacated,” the judge wrote.
“Lifting the stay preserves the status quo by returning the law to its previous state as it existed following the 2016 adoption of the constitutional medical marijuana rights” and before the 2017 law went into effect, she added.
In siding with the plaintiffs, Gievers also found that “there is no likelihood of success on the merits by the defendants.”
Gievers gave seven days before her order goes into effect, a delay requested by the state to give its lawyers more time to prepare an appeal and to eliminate what they said would be confusion if the judge were to remove the hold on her earlier order.
A spokesman for the Department of Health said the agency is reviewing the ruling.
“The use of medical marijuana is outlined in state law, which was passed by an overwhelmingly bipartisan majority of the Florida Legislature. DOH is working every day to implement the law. To be clear — patients in Florida have access to this treatment in many forms outlined in state law,” agency spokesman Devin Galetta said in an email.
Gov. Rick Scott, who is running against U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson in what is already a heated race, controls the health department, which critics have slammed for a lackluster approach to implementing the amendment approved by more than 71 percent of voters in 2016.
Morgan, a political rainmaker who backed Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential race, continued to make smokable medical marijuana a wedge issue in the Nelson-Scott race in an interview with The News Service of Florida late Tuesday afternoon.
Last week, Morgan called on Scott to drop the appeal in the smokable marijuana case, warning that he risked losing support from veterans, independents and moderate Republicans in the battle against Nelson.
Pointing to language in the May 25 ruling in which Gievers equated breaking the Florida law with being able to breathe, Morgan quickly shifted to blaming the Republican governor and his administration for dragging their fee regarding medical marijuana.
“Rick Scott voted with the 28 percent that lost. From day one, they have done everything to stop the implementation. The Department of Health is so inept that it has to be intentional and it had to come from the top. And now here we are, years later, and Rick Scott is still denying the will of the people and allowing this appeal to go on and on. It is conscionable. It is cruel. It is mean. And he will lose the Senate race over all of this,” Morgan told the News Service.
On a less political note, lawyer Jon Mills, who represents the plaintiffs and was a chief architect of the 2016 amendment, said it would be easy for health officials and the state’s licensed medical marijuana operators to quickly make the smokable product available to patients.
Floridians shouldn’t have to choose between violating the law and getting the medicine they need, Mills told the News Service after Gievers’ ruling came out Tuesday.
“At the moment, we have an industry that exists and patients that exist, and we could solve the problem,” he said.
Lawyers for the Department of Health have maintained that the amendment does not expressly permit smoking and that the state has the authority to approve regulations to implement the law and to protect the public from the negative side effects of smoking.
In Monday’s hearing, Mills argued that hundreds of thousands of Floridians who are eligible for medical marijuana, including veterans who are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, would benefit from smoking their medicine.
“It would seem that, taking the facts as a whole, and that is the irreparable harm to the parties and to the citizens of Florida, it’s hard to imagine more a compelling circumstance,” said Mills, a former state House speaker and former dean of the University of Florida law school.
But Assistant Attorney General Karen Brodeen argued that there was no hurry for Gievers to lift the stay, in part because of a lengthy state rulemaking process. Smokable pot “won’t be available for a long time,” if the courts ultimately decide that it is legal, Brodeen said.
“There’s no irreparable harm here. Nobody, at this time, can go to a medical-marijuana treatment center and purchase smokable marijuana. That’s going to take several months down the road, after an order that requires it to be available,” she said.
by Dara Kam, The News Service of Florida