Florida
Florida challenges a federal health care rule on gender-affirming care
Florida has filed a lawsuit challenging a new federal health-care rule, saying it clashes with the state’s efforts to restrict treatments such as hormone therapy and puberty blockers for transgender people.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in federal court in Tampa, targets a rule that affects programs such as Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which operates as KidCare in Florida.
The rule is designed to help carry out a law that prevents discrimination in health-care programs that receive federal money. The law prevents discrimination based on “sex,” and the rule applies that to include discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation.
The lawsuit contends that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, through the rule, “purports to override the state of Florida’s laws and regulations protecting the health and safety of its residents.”
“HHS further threatens the loss of federal funds for states and insurance issuers that refuse to cover these interventions (such as hormone therapy and puberty blockers),” the lawsuit said. “Plaintiffs bring this action to stop HHS’s interference with the ethical practice of medicine and state police powers.”
But federal health officials said late last month the rule will help strengthen protections against discrimination.
In a statement, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said the rule is a “giant step forward for this country toward a more equitable and inclusive health care system, and means that Americans across the country now have a clear way to act on their rights against discrimination when they go to the doctor, talk with their health plan, or engage with health programs run by HHS.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration and the Republican-controlled Legislature during the past two years have made a series of controversial decisions to prevent treatments for transgender people diagnosed with gender dysphoria.
That has included barring Medicaid coverage for treatments such as hormone therapy and puberty blockers. Also, the state has prevented doctors from providing such treatments to minors and put restrictions on the treatments for adults.
The decisions — which are similar to moves by Republican leaders in other states — have spurred a series of legal battles that continue to play out. The issue also has become high profile politically, with President Joe Biden’s administration pushing back against Republicans.
“(The rule) prohibits health insurance issuers, state Medicaid agencies, and other covered entities from excluding categories of services in a discriminatory way. Coverage must be provided in a neutral and nondiscriminatory manner.”
Information posted on the Department of Health and Human Services website
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, who is helping lead the lawsuit filed Monday, joined Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina last week in filing a case challenging a new Biden administration rule on sex-based discrimination in education programs. That lawsuit alleges, in part, that the Biden administration has overstepped its legal authority in extending regulations to apply to discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed Monday are the state, the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, the Florida Department of Management Services and the Catholic Medical Association. The Agency for Health Care Administration runs the Medicaid program, which is jointly funded by the state and federal governments. The Department of Management Services oversees a massive health-insurance program for state employees and retirees.
The new rule, which is slated to take effect July 5, is designed to carry out part of the federal Affordable Care Act prohibiting discrimination in health-care services. But the state contends federal health officials have overstepped their authority, violating a law known as the Administrative Procedure Act.
“Under the (rule), Florida may not refuse reimbursement or coverage for gender-change interventions on the ground that they are ‘experimental’ and not medically necessary health care treatments,” the lawsuit said. “The (rule) would therefore require covering puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, surgeries and related services to treat gender dysphoria under Florida Medicaid, CHIP (the Children’s Health Insurance Program) and other state programs … contrary to Florida law.”
The lawsuit also said that most medical providers, such as hospitals and clinics, accept federal money through Medicaid and other programs. It said the rule “will therefore force health care providers in Florida to choose between accepting federal funds and complying with Florida law regarding treatments for persons suffering from gender dysphoria.”
But the Department of Health and Human Services said in information posted on its website that the “rule does not require a specific standard of care or course of treatment for any individual, minor or adult. Providers do not have an affirmative obligation to offer any health care, including gender-affirming care, that they do not think is clinically appropriate or if religious freedom and conscience protections apply.”
The department, however, appeared to draw a distinction between decisions involving individual patients and broad policies about treatment.
“The final rule does not require those covered, including state Medicaid agencies, to cover a particular health service for the treatment of gender dysphoria for any individual, minor or adult,” the information on the website said. “Rather, it prohibits health insurance issuers, state Medicaid agencies, and other covered entities from excluding categories of services in a discriminatory way. Coverage must be provided in a neutral and nondiscriminatory manner.”
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Florida
South Florida’s scorching temps make for a weekend record-breaker. Here’s what’s ahead.
A record-breaking heat wave has most of South Florida wilting — and wondering when it will end.
There’s no major cooldown ahead just yet, but temperatures will drop a touch on Monday, said George Rizzuto, a meteorologist at the Miami office of the National Weather Service.
Monday’s heat index will hit around 100 degrees, down from Sunday’s “feels-like” temps of 105 to 110 degrees.
“It will still be hot, but not as oppressively hot as it has been this weekend,” Rizzuto said. “For Tuesday and Wednesday you can expect indices in the upper 90s.”
Next Saturday, the heat index will rise back up to 100 degrees, according to the forecast.
“Not too much of a break in the heat,” Rizzuto said.
Hot and humid conditions continued Sunday, with temperatures hitting to the low- to mid-90s and the peak heat index ranging from 105 to 110 degrees.
Both Broward and Miami-Dade counties were under a heat advisory until 6 p.m. Sunday.
The maximum heat index forecast for Sunday afternoon was 105 degrees in Fort Lauderdale; 106 degrees in West Palm Beach; and 109 degrees in Miami and Homestead.
The heat index is a measure of how hot it really feels when relative humidity is factored in with the actual air temperature.
“If you’re spending any time outside (Sunday), it is imperative that you are hydrating nearly constantly and take breaks from the direct sun,” the National Weather Service warned on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Saturday’s blistering heat was a record-breaker.
“West Palm Beach set a new record with a temp of 97,” Rizzuto said. “Their old record was 94, set in 1922. It beat it by 3 degrees. Fort Lauderdale tied their maximum temperature record of 96. That was set back in 2008.”
The region’s nightly lows did not drop much below 80 degrees Friday night into Saturday morning, Rizzuto said.
So now we have new records for minimum lows.
The new record low for West Palm Beach is now 80 degrees. That beat an old record of 78 degrees set back in 2003.
Fort Lauderdale set a new record low of 80 degrees. The previous record low was 77 degrees, set in 2015.
Miami set a new minimum low of 81 degrees. The old record of 79 degrees was set back in 1935.
Strong to severe storms were possible Sunday afternoon, according to meteorologists in Miami.
“Primary hazards will be large hail and damaging wind gusts but a tornado or two can’t be ruled out,” the National Weather Service’s Miami office said in its Sunday advisory.
Showers and thunderstorms might roll into Broward’s eastern metro areas late afternoon Sunday and into the evening, Rizzuto said.
But Palm Beach County’s eastern metro areas and Lake Okeechobee region are at a higher risk for thunderstorms Sunday afternoon and evening.
“I can’t rule out a strong cell for Miami-Dade County and its eastern metro areas,” Rizzuto said.
An isolated tornado might also be in the cards, he added.
“We can’t rule out hail either,” Rizzuto said. “The hail risk is more maximized toward northern Palm Beach County and the Lake Okeechobee area. We have a low pressure system pushing toward the east. That could allow raindrops to stay frozen in the upper atmosphere. But sometimes the hail melts before it gets to the ground.”
Susannah Bryan can be reached at sbryan@sunsentinel.com. Follow me on X @Susannah_Bryan
Florida
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Florida
Florida mother Destiny Byassee killed when fake airbags ‘detonated like a grenade,’ lawsuit alleges
A young Florida mother was killed last year when her car’s counterfeit airbag “detonated like a grenade,” according to a lawsuit.
Destiny Byassee’s used 2020 Chevy Malibu passed through multiple conmen before its fake emergency airbags deployed in a June frontal collision, causing a blast that “shot metal and plastic shrapnel throughout” the car, her family alleges.
“Several fragments from the blast struck Ms. Byassee in the face, head, and neck, ultimately killing her,” stated the complaint, obtained by Law & Crime.
The 22-year-old “was a mother of two young children and had her entire life ahead of her,” attorney John Morgan, who is also representing the family, said in a news release.
According to the lawsuit, Byassee bought the doomed sedan from DriveTime, a national used car company, without being given a full history of the car.
The former Enterprise Rent-A-Car car was involved in a devastating September 2022 crash that caused damage that “was so significant that the vehicle should have been classified as a total loss, issued a salvage title, and removed from service,” the lawsuit alleges.
Rather than scrap the vehicle, Enterprise allegedly sold the car to DriveTime through Manheim Auctions, Inc., which bills itself as the largest wholesale automobile auction company in the world.
It was then repaired at Jumbo Automotive in Hollywood, Florida, the complaint continues, claiming that shop owner Haim Levy “purchased counterfeit and non-compliant airbag components” by a Chinese company to replace the Chevrolet factory airbag “and proceeded to install these components into the subject Chevy Malibu.”
Not only were the dangerous fake bags used, but Levy allegedly repaired the deployed seatbelt pretensioner — the part of a complete system that tightens the belt during a crash — incorrectly, but in a cunning way that made it appear to work properly.
Byassee “had no idea that the vehicle had been improperly and illegally repaired,” her family said.
Both the counterfeit airbag and faulty seatbelt pretensioner “were signaled to deploy” during the June 2023 collision, according to the lawsuit.
“However, because the subject Chevy Malibu’s front driver-side seatbelt pretensioner was inoperable, the pretensioner did not deploy as originally designed,” the lawsuit states. “Worse, because the subject Chevy Malibu’s front driver-side airbag system included counterfeit and non-compliant components, the airbag detonated like a grenade and shot metal and plastic shrapnel throughout the vehicle cabin.”
The filing pointedly said that photographs depicted the “horrifying event,” including one of the “shredded and blood-soaked front driver-side airbag.”
Cathy King, Byassee’s grandmother, filed the lawsuit on behalf of the 6- and 4-year-old children the young woman left behind, as well as her husband and mother.
Byassee “believed she was buying a safe and reliable vehicle, but our lawsuit alleges that several automotive companies worked to skirt the system by repairing what should’ve been a totaled vehicle, all just to make money,” Morgan said in the release.
“Because of that, Ms. Byassee lost her life, and her children will grow up without their mother.”
The lawsuit seeks a jury trial on 14 various counts against the various defendants – including strict liability, negligence and deceptive trade practices.
Neither Enterprise, Manheim, DriveTime nor Jumbo Automotive immediately answered The Post’s request for comment.
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