Florida’s Agency for Healthcare Administrations has cited the Calhoun-Liberty County Hospital with 10 deficiencies in an audit following the death of a Blountstown woman. The agency is ordering the hospital to fix the problems or lose its Medicaid funding.
Medicaid reimbursements make up about a third of the funding for the rural Calhoun-Liberty County Hospital. To be suspended from the program would be a major financial blow to a hospital still reeling from a million dollar fraud scheme under the former CFO, and the more recent death of Barbara Dawson.
Dawson died in the hospital’s parking lot after being forcibly removed in December. She had a blood clot in her lungs, and came to the hospital hours earlier complaining of shortness of breath.
The Agency for Healthcare Administration says the hospital didn’t follow its own policies after Dawson complained. AHCA Secretary Liz Dudek calls the findings “egregious”. The hospital has to submit a correction plan by February 19, and if problems aren’t fixed by March first, Calhoun-Liberty Hospital could be suspended from the state’s Medicaid program.
