News

Indigent-Care Spending Draws Differing Views

1/24/2010
BARTOW | Renewed financial stability means new challenges for Polk County's indigent-care spending.

Enrollment Rises In HealthCare Plan

11/26/2009
BARTOW | Enrollment is inching up in Polk County's tax-supported plan to provide health coverage for some of its uninsured residents.

3 Health Care Organizations Honored

11/18/2009
LAKE WALES | Three local organizations were recognized Thursday for their dedication to providing health care services for people in Polk County who wouldn't otherwise have access to those services.

Grant Money Boosts Agency's Help for Poor

10/17/2009
LAKELAND | We Care, a local program that links needy patients with doctors willing to provide specialty care, worked hard this year to find grant funds.

Safety-Net Clinics Eye Health Care Debate

10/12/2009
LAKELAND | Amid the furor over a more humane and equitable health care system that every citizen can afford to access, Mike Murphy opens wide, inviting his dental hygienist to explore for signs of decay.

County Should Help Fill Clinic's Shortfall, Panel Recommends

9/19/2009
BARTOW | Central Florida Health Care should get $225,000 from county indigent-care funds to partially offset a shortfall at its Lakeland Primary Care Clinic, a volunteer oversight panel decided Friday.

Commissioners Increase Physician Reimbursement

9/16/2009
BARTOW | County commissioners voted 4-1 today to restore physician reimbursement under the Polk Indigent Health Care Plan from 90 percent to 100 percent of Medicare.

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.