News

Official: Fiscal Woes In Past for Polk HealthCare Health Plan

8/21/2009
BARTOW | Mike Kushner was much happier Friday, when he and his staff presented Polk County's proposed indigent-care budget for 2009-10, than he was one year ago.

Need Outpaces Funds for Indigent Care

7/27/2009
BARTOW | Demand is up at Lakeland Primary Care, the first of what could be as many as five centers Polk County helps establish through the county's half-cent indigent care sales tax.

Have Diabetes? Are You Sure?

5/30/2009
DUNDEE | Vonsheila Sapp wasn't worried about high blood sugar when she sat down for a blood-glucose screening at a health fair this month at the Dundee Community Center.

Health Fair In Dundee Draws Crowd

5/15/2009
Free blood glucose and cholesterol screenings drew a small but steady crowd Thursday when the Polk County Health Department and Polk County's Polk HealthCare Plan combined forces at a health fair in Dundee. Testing for HIV and sexually transmitted diseases also was available. Others provided information on such things as adult day care, the We Care program for volunteer specialty medical treatment, debt counseling and Heart of Florida Regional Medical Center.

Health Screenings To Be Offered

5/11/2009
The Polk County Board of County Commissioners, its Polk HealthCare Plan and the Polk County Health Department are hosting free health screenings and information expo from 3-6 p.m. on Thursday at the Dundee Community Center.

Polk HealthCare Plan Prepares for Growth

4/17/2009
BARTOW | With the Polk HealthCare Plan debt closer to being paid off, county officials are talking more about how many uninsured residents it can help in 2009-10.

Polk HealthCare Plan Gets Director

4/8/2009
BARTOW | A doctor joining the Polk HealthCare Plan this month will guide that tax-funded program through changes intended to let it function more efficiently.

Medical Director Approved for Polk HealthCare Plan

4/8/2009
BARTOW | The Polk HealthCare Plan, where money from the local indigent-care sales tax gets spent, is adding a part-time medical director.

Polk Plan May Get Medical Consultant

2/27/2009
BARTOW | How soon the Polk HealthCare Plan needs a medical director became a hotly disputed topic Friday.

Polk Health Plan Cuts Hit Haven Ministry Hard

1/31/2009
WINTER HAVEN | A brief window of opportunity for uninsured patients opened and rapidly closed in January at The Haley Center.

Polk Healthcare Plan Aims for Efficiency

1/23/2009
BARTOW | The Polk HealthCare Plan is being redesigned to make it more efficient while providing "quality, affordable, preventive health care."

Healthcare Plan's Overrun at $12.5 Million

11/21/2008
BARTOW | The latest figures put last year’s cost overruns in the Polk HealthCare Plan at $12.5 million.

Florida KidCare Gives Option to Strapped Parents

11/21/2008
BARTOW | With unemployment claims the highest they've been in 16 years, health insurance is a major concern. Polk County's safety net coverage for adults - the Polk HealthCare Plan - has scaled back drastically on the number of people it can cover...

Despite Tough Economy, Health Clinic Will Open

10/21/2008
WINTER HAVEN | A new Winter Haven primary care clinic run by Central Florida Health Care remains on the calendar for 2009, despite cutbacks in the county's Polk HealthCare Plan for low-income residents. So does establishing a pharmacy at Central...

Polk HealthCare Plan Loses More Members

10/18/2008
BARTOW | As unemployment rates in Polk County keep increasing, the number of people enrolled in the countys tax-funded Polk HealthCare Plan keeps shrinking.

Polk Health Care Plan Loses 1,075 Members

10/17/2008
BARTOW | As unemployment rates in Polk County keep increasing, the number of people enrolled in the county's tax-funded Polk HealthCare Plan keeps shrinking. Between Sept. 15 and Wednesday, the number went from 4,186 to 3,111, a loss of 1,075. By...

Less Is More for HealthCare

9/20/2008
BARTOW | Lower numbers are better than higher ones in the sobering restructuring of the Polk HealthCare Plan that's now taking place. The sales-tax-supported health plan for Polk County's uninsured had 4,186 people enrolled as of Sept. 15, less than...

County Commission OKs Health Plan Changes for Poor

9/10/2008
BARTOW | Polk County commissioners voted unanimously Wednesday to approve revisions in the Polk HealthCare Plan. The vote follows the recommendations of the Citizens Healthcare Oversight Committee, which were approved in response to a financial...

HealthCare Cutback Crowds Clinic

9/6/2008
LAKELAND | Add Talbot House Ministries to the list of groups affected by the enrollment freeze and eligibility cutbacks in Polk County's health care plan for uninsured county residents. As Polk HealthCare has cut back dramatically, some of its...

Deficit Worries Polk Health Care Providers

8/27/2008
BARTOW | The projected $15.3 million deficit in Polk County's sales-tax-funded health programs for the uninsured will have ramifications far beyond the people whose jobs will be cut and the thousands enrolled in the Polk Health Care Plan who are...

Committee Accepts Cuts To County's Indigent Care Program

8/25/2008
BARTOW | When the moneys not there, the moneys not there. The Citizens Oversight Committee a volunteer panel that monitors funds raised by Polk Countys half-cent indigent sales tax found itself with little choice Monday but to accept County...

Polk Committee Cuts $15 Million From Health Care Spending

8/25/2008
The Citizens Oversight Committee -- a volunteer panel that monitors money raised by the local half-cent indigent care sales tax -- found itself with little choice Monday but to accept County Manager Mike Herr's proposed cutbacks in how the money is...

Polk HealthCare Cuts Patients

8/19/2008
Many people calling to re-enroll are being told they can't stay with the plan. Not only is its income eligibility shrinking to 100 percent or less of federal poverty guidelines, employees are having to deny re-enrollment to some whose income is that...

County's Health Care Plan $14 Million In Hole

8/14/2008
HIGHLAND CITY | Polk Countys sales-tax-funded program for providing health care to the uninsured has a deficit of $14 million and doesnt have money in reserve to cover it. The county will need to loan the program money from a loan pool it has access...

Polk Health Program Short $14M

8/14/2008
HIGHLAND CITY | Polk County's program for providing health care to the uninsured has a deficit of about $14 million, and it doesn't have money in reserve to cover it. That will mean a reduction of more than 80 percent in the number of people...

Polk Gets Grant to Improve Health Care for the Uninsured

7/30/2008
BARTOW | The Polk County Health Department is one of 11 health programs statewide chosen to receive grant money from the state Low Income Pool program nearly $1.1 million over three years...

Polk Indigent Care Plan Faces Deep Cuts

7/30/2008
BARTOW | Finances aren't looking good for the Polk HealthCare Plan, which provides health care to uninsured people using money from a half-cent sales tax local voters approved in 2004...

Polk County to Receive $1.1 Million Health Care Grant

7/25/2008
BARTOW | The Polk County Health Department is one of 11 health programs statewide chosen to receive grant money from the state Low Income Pool program - nearly $1.1 million over three years. The three annual payments from the state of $360,100 will...

Demand Grows at Free Medical Center in Winter Haven

7/21/2008
People began forming a line at 4:30 p.m. outside the Haley Center in downtown Winter Haven, desperate to get one of 16 Tuesday night slots available for free medical care...

Polk Offering Free Prescription-Discount Card

7/19/2008
BARTOW | Many Polk County residents who are uninsured or underinsured can get some financial relief on prescription medicines bought at local pharmacies through a discount drug card endorsed by the county.

Panel Votes to Deny Tax Funding For Inmate Health Care Coverage

6/25/2008
BARTOW | None of Polk County's half-cent indigent sales tax should be spent on health care for jail inmates, even if they were in the plan before going to jail, members of the Citizens HealthCare Oversight Committee voted last week. They didn't...

Health-Care Panel Joins Effort for Grant

6/25/2008
BARTOW | Who could argue with getting extra money to do the things you planned to do and more besides? Certainly not the Citizens HealthCare Oversight Committee, which monitors money raised for indigent care by Polk County's half-cent sales tax. Its...

Polk Officials Apply for Health Grant

6/16/2008
BARTOW | Patients with chronic diseases like diabetes and high blood pressure often need more than medicine and doctors' appointments to keep their illnesses under control. They need someone to coordinate their care, encourage them to make healthy...

No More Room in Polk's Low-Income Health Plan

6/14/2008
BARTOW | Polk County's health plan for uninsured, low-income residents is at full capacity, with an enrollment freeze in effect. Twenty people who got in at the end can count themselves lucky. Nineteen thousand and twenty patients, slightly over the...

Board Votes to Limit Eligibility for Polk Health Care Plan

4/19/2008
BARTOW | After emotional, sometimes confrontational discussion, the advisory board that oversees Polk County's indigent health care spending voted, 7-2, Friday to approve a budget that would further shrink eligibility for the Polk HealthCare Plan...

Eligibility Keeps Tightening in Face of Declines

4/18/2008
BARTOW | Declining sales-tax revenue may force even tighter eligibility guidelines for people seeking medical assistance from the county's Polk HealthCare Plan. County officials are recommending lowering the top income limit allowed to 125 percent...

Fewer to Be Eligible for Polk HealthCare Plan

4/18/2008
BARTOW | After emotional, sometimes confrontational discussion, the advisory board that oversees Polk Countys indigent health care spending voted 7-2 today to approve a preliminary budget that would further shrink eligibility guidelines for the Polk...

Lack of Money Behind Cutbacks to Indigent Care

3/18/2008
BARTOW | The Polk HealthCare Plan, Polk County's primary program to provide medical care for uninsured county residents, made a strong effort to enroll qualified people. Advertisements and health fairs brought it to people's attention. Eligibility...

Help For Those Residents Who Lack Health Care Insurance

3/16/2008
The local half-cent, indigent-care sales tax is letting Polk County expand services for the uninsured at a time when programs in other counties fear budget cuts. People without insurance can try these sources for care: CENTRAL FLORIDA HEALTH...

Tight TImes May Tighten Health Plan

3/11/2008
BARTOW | Increased enrollment in Polk County's health plan for its uninsured residents, combined with less sales tax money, may force the county to impose tighter eligibility limits on who qualifies for help. Hard decisions on how to keep that plan...

Two Sites Considered for New Clinic in Haven

2/17/2008
WINTER HAVEN | Central Florida Health Care is studying two sites for the primary care clinic it expects to open in Winter Haven. One is about one-fifth of a mile from Winter Haven Hospital and faces Lake Silver. Another is in the Florence Villa...

Indigent Health-Care Faces Cost-Cutting

2/16/2008
BARTOW | Polk County's tax-funded program to provide uninsured residents with health care is close to having too much of a good thing. Most of the money held in reserve as the program got started has been spent or is budgeted to be spent. And...

"Many Worked Toward New Medical Facility"

1/2/2008

"Lakeland Primary Care is Gaining Patients"

11/25/2007

Florida’s First Surgeon General to Speak with Polk County’s Health Professionals

8/21/2007
On September 27th at the Nora Mayo Center in Winter Haven, Polk County Community Health & Social Services and their partners will hold its 3rd Annual Health Summit. Florida’s first Surgeon General will provide the opening remarks on communities need for preparedness, prevention and personal responsibilities to maintain public health.

Scheduled web site downtime

7/19/2007
This site will be taken offline for a brief period on Friday, July 20 starting at 7 PM. The updates being made could take a few days, but the site will be back up as soon as they are completed.

Scheduled web site downtime

6/26/2007
This site will be taken offline for a brief period on Friday, June 29 starting at 6 PM. The updates being made could take a few days, but the site will be back up as soon as they are completed.

Health Hits the Road

5/29/2007
The Lakeland Ledger - The Polk HealthCare Plan's long, shiny new van drew a small crowd last week when it parked across the street from Talbot House Ministries homeless shelter.

Health Awareness Expo Highlights Services for Polk's Uninsured

5/24/2007
With more than 74,000 uninsured residents in Polk County, the Community Health and Social Services (CHSS) Division, in collaboration with its community partners – the Polk County Health Department and the Polk Health Care Alliance, held its first Health Awareness Expo in conjunction with the national "Cover the Uninsured Week 2007" to increase access to health care.