What We're Reading: Florida Uncompensated Care; Preventing Diabetic Amputations; Yellow Fever Vaccine

Administration to Provide Florida With Uncompensated Care Funding

The federal government has agreed to provide additional funding to Florida’s low-income pool to help offset the costs of uncompensated care, or the expenses incurred by hospitals when treating uninsured patients, according to the New York Times. The Obama administration had withheld additional uncompensated care funding for states that had not expanded Medicaid, as it said expansion could alleviate some of the burden on hospitals. Governor Rick Scott said it was “refreshing to now have a federal government that treats us fairly and does not attempt to coerce us into expanding Medicaid.”

Avoiding Diabetic Amputations Through Prevention, Early Intervention

The Los Angeles Times reported on an innovative local clinic that aims to prevent amputations in low-income patients with diabetes. It focuses on the prevention and early treatment of wounds and infections before amputations become necessary, as well as helping patients better manage their disease. The mission is especially important in West Los Angeles, where the diabetic amputation rate is 8-fold higher compared with California’s wealthier areas.

Yellow Fever Vaccine Supply Will Be Depleted by Mid-2017

In this week’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the CDC warned that the nation's supply of the yellow fever vaccine will likely run out by mid-year due to manufacturing problems experienced by Sanofi Pasteur, which makes the only such vaccine licensed in the United States. International travelers will have to visit certain vaccination clinics partaking in an expanded access investigational new drug protocol using an imported vaccine until the supply is replenished next year.