Both speakers offer opening remarks – Barley’s lasting 6 minutes and Lewis’ 11 minutes.
This is followed by 33-minutes of answers to questions asked by the forum moderator and attendees.

Below, please note that the Heard in Central Florida webpage offers you relevant and helpful links to content regarding issues addressed by each speaker…as well as still pictures of the event included in an on-line slide show.

This forum was held Thursday evening, February 17, 2011 at the Sanford-Lake Mary campus of Seminole State College. The event drew about 25 league members and members of the public.

Key Participants

Harold W. Barley Executive director, MetroPlan website | bio

John M. Lewis, Jr. Chief executive officer, Lynx website | bio

Additional Participants

Deana Schott President, League of Women Voters of Seminole County website

Alexandra Colvin Seminole State College of Florida student moderator website

Pictures

After you launch the slideshow below, click “Next” and “Previous” to rotate through the photos.

Helpful Content Links

• MetroPlan’s long range transportation plan
• MetroPlan’s board of directors
• Lynx board of directors
• Lynx transit development plan

Dr. Liberman is Professor of Health Services Administration at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. A more detailed resume of his career and credentials may be found on our website.
Feature Length — 58:58

After introductions, Dr. Liberman’s presentation runs 40 minutes. It is followed by 12-minutes of answers to audience questions. The remainder of the program addresses issues unique to the attending league members.

Please note that the Heard in Central Florida webpage offers you relevant and helpful and links to on-line content regarding issues addressed by Dr. Liberman. Additionally, there are still pictures of the event included in an on-line slide show.

Known as the League’s Hot Topic Luncheon – this event was held Thursday, January 27, 2011at Sergio’s Italian Restaurant in Sanford, Florida. The event drew more than 30 league members and members of the public.

Key Participants

Dr. Aaron Liberman Professor of Health Services Administration, University of Central Florida in Orlando. website | bio

Deana Schott President, League of Women Voters of Seminole County website

Helpful Content Links

• History of Medicare
• Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)
• Professional Standards Review Organization (PSRO) 1972
• Utilization Review
• Health Maintenance Organization and Pre-certification
• National Health Planning and Resources Development Act of 1974 (established Certificates of Need)
• Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA)
• Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act of 1985 (anti-dumping statute arose from this)
• Health Care Quality Improvement Act of 1987 (created the National Health Practioner Data Bank)
• Resource Based Relative Value Scale (Harvard University)
• Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPA) privacy protection
• Ambulatory Payment Classification Medicare Part D
• Present on Admission Standards (POA)
• Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (known as Health Care Reform) 2009
• Health Enforcement Action Team (HEAT – IRS, OIG, DOJ to alleviate Medicare fraud)

Additional Text

Dr. Liberman gave a brief history of Health Care in the United States. Medicare was established in 1966. A social insurance program it wasn’t perfect when it started. Health Care Reform as it exists today has many problems that need to be worked out – it will be a process. Currently $2 ½ trillion is spent on health care. It is taking over all of the other items in our budget.

Health Care insurance started with coverage for Ford employees in 1946. It was the beginning of an employer-based insurance system. The number of employers currently supplying health insurance is shrinking – the employers cannot afford it. We have to look at other sources for health care insurance. If the employer-based system continues as it has, the cost to insure each employer will jump to $25,000 per employee.

Health Care Reform will not stem the high costs of health care in this country. However 32 million currently uninsured would now be covered by health insurance. The need is there. Health Care is no longer just health care but a political issue.

The New Patient Act and Affordable Care Act includes the following:

1. Pre-existing conditions – eliminates discrimination based on health states or gender.
2. Creates insurance exchanges – individual can shop for insurance.
3. Individual Mandate – there is a requirement for adults to have health insurance.
4. Equity access – now only the insured have access to health care
5. Medicaid expansion.

There are 4 emerging realities without having health care reform:

1. Health care costs will skyrocket.
2. Can no longer rely on employers to absorb employee insurance costs. Most can no longer afford to provide coverage to their employees.
3. The reality of health care costs will cripple our economy.
4. This bill will not cure all ills. It still needs work.

The President has appointed a Health Care Task Force consisting of IRS, Office of the Executive General and the Department of Justice (FBI). Their charge is to investigate fraud and eliminate it. They will work on unnecessary charges, provider errors, and emphasize preventive care. Fraud elimination would save hundreds of millions of dollars in health care costs.

Additional Event Pictures

After you launch the slideshow below, click “Next” and “Previous” to rotate through the photos.

Links to other podcasts produced by CMF Public Media featuring issues related to the Health Care

• Oviedo’s Hospital Future?
• Run Up: Legislature 2011
• Commentary: Health Care Services for the Homeless
• Health Clinic: Coping with the Economy in Seminole County

CMF Public Media presents this 3-minute commentary by a voice that matters on an issue that voice believes matters.

CMF Public Media encourages you to post your own reaction to this commentary. Below, you will find useful links related to the commentary, including a transcript, biographical information and related pictures.

Should you wish to be considered for a commentary segment on CMF Public Media, please click on the “contact” link to send us an email which should include adequate information for us to understand your issue. And please include a daytime telephone number where we may reach you.

Bios

Dr. Donald W. Sweeting President, Reformed Theological Seminary, Oviedo campus website | bio | transcript

Pictures

Seminole County public schools provide many programs to assist and encourage Hispanic students and parents to improve academic achievement. Learning a new academic language as well as adjusting to a new cultural environment often leaves Hispanic students feeling isolated and disparaged.

In this feature we meet Kenneth Rivera and Orianna Aristizabel two strong Hispanic students who have benefited from these programs. Kenneth Rivera is a junior at Lake Howell High School enrolled in honors courses. He attended the Youth Leadership Conference which one of the programs sponsored by the ESOL department of Seminole County Public Schools. The conference brings together students from different schools and different cultural/language backgrounds to receive training and encouragement to step into leadership roles in their schools.

Orianna Aristizabel also attended the Youth Leadership conference. Even though she has been in the United States for only a year and a half Orianna has a 4.1 grade point average in honors classes and is eager to join the International Baccalaureate program offered at Seminole High School.

Minnie Cardona is Coordinator of the ESOL and World Languages Department for Seminole County public schools. She directs programs to support students and their families as they adapt to academic life. These programs supported by federal and state grants as well as money from the school budget, include the Family Immigrant Connection Center in Lake Mary, summer programs and training for ESOL teachers to better serve the growing Hispanic student population. Ms. Cardona says great teachers and tireless volunteers have raised the achievement scores for Hispanics and helped lower the dropout rate in Seminole County.

Extended Interview & Pictures

	Minnie Cardona extended interview (length 08:09)
	Kenneth Rivera extended interview (length 10:40)
	Orianna Aristizabal extended interview (length 07:06)

Additional feature Information

• ESOL and World Languages Department SCPS
• Family Immigrant Connection Center
• Hispanic Girls
• Hispanic High School Dropouts (Pew Center)

To more effectively address the issue of homelessness in Seminole County Florida, the community services department of county government convened the second in a series of meetings of providers of services to the homeless community. CMF public media sat in to record the conversations that took place.

Michelle Saunders is the director of the department responsible for the event. She calls these gatherings “community conversations,” with her definition of “community” being those who provide services to the homeless in Seminole County.

The conversation was recorded on Friday, March 4, 2011 in Altamonte Springs, Florida. Principal voices we hear are Michelle Saunders, director of the county’s department of community services and Dr. Thomas Bryer, an assistant professor in the Department of Public Administration at the University of Central Florida who co-facilitated the event.

This gathering helps Saunders’ achieve her goal of developing a broad and inclusive strategy by which county government and her department may better measure, manage and financially support the needs of the non-profit service providers in their quest to reduce the homeless population in the county. It’s a goal many sources tell CMF that has not been comprehensively or collectively attempted in recent years.

Knowledgeable homeless service providers state that in 2010 between 700 and 900 chronically homeless people are on the streets in Seminole County. That number does not include the near homeless, the recovering homeless or public school students of homeless parents.

In the Orlando metro area – largely defined as the counties of Seminole, Orange and Osceola, Seminole represents approximately 20 percent of the overall homeless population, yet only 4 percent of the beds accommodating and sheltering such homeless people are located in Seminole County.

With 45 participants present in a large conference room on the morning of Friday, March 4, 2011, the discussion is led by Michelle Saunders who sets the stage for a half day “conversation” featuring group dialog and discovery. She reviews the results of the first such gathering in November 2010 and she establishes the goals for this forum.

To facilitate the day’s pending dialog between service providers, Saunders calls on the help of Dr. Thomas Bryer, an assistant professor in the Department of Public Administration at the University of Central Florida. Bryer’s credentials and experience in teaching and research focuses on public participation with government agencies, citizen engagement and cross-sector collaboration.

Bryer instructs the providers regarding the small group dialog which will occupy most of the day. It will form the basis of identifying what he calls the “paths” homeless clients take on entering the care of providers. Identifying and understanding these paths, or lack of ones, will become one of the key elements of Seminole County Government’s long term strategy for management and financial support for the homeless population in the county

In this feature, CMF condenses more than an hour and half of provider discussions in a brief aural montage related to 5-previously identified groups within the homeless population as they enter and are or are not processed through a path or a continuum of care. The population groups are defined as 1) a family or couple with kids, 2) single females, 3) single females with children, 4) single males, and 5) military veterans.

Dr. Thomas Bryer who facilitated this discussion and path-describing exercise is also involved on a non-paid basis to assist Seminole County’s Michelle Saunders and others in designing, implementing, interpreting and reporting the results of the survey. When available, those results and the development of strategy recommendations will be the source for another CMF feature on the homeless issue.

With a nod toward the inevitable fact of limited funding coupled with a compelling need for a shared vision and strategy, Seminole County Government’s director of community services, Michelle Saunders closes this second community conversation.

Bios

Michelle Saunders Director, Community Services, Seminole County Government bio | website

Thomas A. Bryer, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Department of Public Administration, University of Central Florida bio

Pictures

Links to other podcasts produced by CMF Public Media featuring issues related to homelessness

• Homeless Forum Followup (12/9/2010)
• On Being… Homeless in Seminole County: The Problem & the Players
• On Being… Homeless in Seminole County: The People
• On Being… Homeless in Seminole County: The Possibilities
• Kids of HOPE
• Coping with the Economy in Seminole County: Health Clinic
• Homeless Students in Seminole County
• Commentary: Feeding the Hungry
• Commentary: Homelessness
• Commentary: Ending Homelessness
• Commentary: Health Care Services

The Florida Legislature is half way through the 2011 legislative session. This update on the progress of the session features four members of the Seminole County legislative delegation, Senator David Simmons and Representatives Chris Dorworth, Scott Plakon and Jason Brodeur. They comment from Tallahassee on the critical issues facing lawmakers as they struggle to close a $4 billion budget shortfall and address problems such as transportation funding, internet gambling and tort reform for child protective service providers.

Feature #1

Senator David Simmons comments on education funding, pension contributions and changes in class size requirements. (length 10:26)

Senator David Simmons (R/Dist. #22) Website

Feature #2

State Representative Chris Dorworth comments on the budget crisis, education funding, pension contributions, reforms in the DROP program, and sales tax loopholes. (length 12:11)

State Representative Chris Dorworth (R/Dist #34) Website

Feature #3

Representative Scott Plakon discusses his bill to fight the proliferation of internet gambling and to protect child protective service providers in community based care networks from damaging lawsuits. (length 11:51)

Representative Scott Plakon (R/Dist #37) Website

Feature #4

Representative Jason Brodeur addresses the proposal to close the budget gap with Transportation Trust Fund dollars, his bill involving guns and pediatricians and reforms in juvenile justice. (length 11:55)

Representative Jason Brodeur (R/Dist #33) Website

Pictures

Links to other podcasts produced by CMF Public Media featuring issues related to the Florida Legislature:

• Run Up: Legislature 2011
• 2010 Florida Legislative Session Review
• Legislative Appreciation Luncheon