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Volume 17 • Issue 7 • $5.00 January 2021
THE REGION’S MONTHLY NEWSPAPER FOR HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS & PHYSICIANS

2021: COVID-19
A Look Ahead COVID-19 Vaccine:

The Key to Ending the Pandemic

BY AURELIO M. FERNANDEZ, III, FACHE

It might have seemed like a typical Monday morning as
the FedEx truck rolled into a warehouse district in
Miramar, but it wasn’t.
As the driver unloaded the precious cargo and Memorial
Healthcare System pharmacy professionals prepared to Marius J. Ged
distribute its contents to those who had been on the
COVID-19 front lines for more than nine months, it was
clear this could be the turning point in the war against the Ged Lawyers:
coronavirus. It was, in the words of one who witnessed it,
a “once-in-a-lifetime transaction.”
Dr. Steven Ullmann The Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine had arrived in South Aurelio M. Fernandez, III Helping
Florida.
It was an occasion we had spent months preparing for, and anticipating longer than
What Now? that. Specialty sub-zero freezer equipment had been purchased and installed, staff had Healthcare
been trained, and the logistics of inoculating what can ultimately be 1,100 people per Providers Collect
BY STEVEN G. ULLMANN, PHD day worked out.
If this was to be our moment in public health history, we were ready. PIP Payments
Come January 20, we will have a new Continued on page 11
President and Vice President, President
Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala
Harris. And along with these changes in Broward Health North’s Frontline BY DANIEL CASCIATO
also will have a new Secretary of Health
and Human Services, a new Director of the Healthcare Workers Receive Florida’s No-Fault Personal Injury
Centers for Disease Control and Pre - Protection (PIP) law can sometimes be
vention and a new Surgeon General quite confusing and frustrating for health-
among other significant staffing changes. COVID-19 Vaccinations care providers. At Boca Raton, FL-based
So what may this mean for our health care Ged Lawyers, LLP, they can help you nav-
sector going forward into 2021 and Broward Health igate this complex process, with the goal
beyond? I would suggest to you, in con- North began inoculat- of obtaining fair and quick compensation.
struct, probably not that much. How ing its team of front- For instance, Ged can help with the
could that be? Well let’s see. line caregivers with recovery of forgotten PIP receivable
For the next year, much of the country’s the Pfizer COVID-19 accounts through a retrospective audit.
attention will continue to be focused on vaccine on Monday, Under the Florida statute, they can go
the Pandemic and, given the significant December 21, 2020. back five years and audit unpaid bills
logistics associated with the production James McCrae, because the claim is based on a breach of
and dispensing of essentially over 450 mil- R.N., and nurse man- contract. Identifying and pursuing unpaid
lion doses of the vaccines, this is an awe- ager of the Critical and underpaid PIP claims for patients
inspiring undertaking. Why 450 million Care Unit, was the treated may result in the recovery of signif-
plus doses? The numbers being put out by first frontline health- icant revenue.
public health experts is that one needs at care worker at “We can conduct an audit for hospitals
least 70 percent of the population to be Broward Health North or physician groups and find out where
adherent to the vaccination program. In to be vaccinated. the money is through their EMR,” says
other words, for the vaccine to be effective McCrae, a veteran Marius J. Ged, one of the partners with
nationally, one needs to have a minimum who dutifully served Ged Lawyers. “We’ve been successful in
of approximately 231 million people inoc- in the United States recovering lost revenue for current claims.
ulated. Given that the current vaccines are Army, has worked at Today, we have the ability to do this
a two-dose regimen, one will need 462 Broward Health North remotely which is a huge advantage for
million doses. This exercise will take us for more than 20 both us and for the clients. There’s a signif-
well into the year to accomplish. The years, having worked icant amount of money in these dead files
process involves convincing a skeptical his way up the ranks ICU Nurse Roseitta Da Silva, RN, administers the first Pfizer or zero balance review cases.”
population of adhering to the advice of to now oversee his COVID-19 vaccine at Broward Health North to her Ged acknowledges that while larger
public health specialists regarding taking unit. He was vaccinat- nursing manager, James McCrae, RN. clients have an EMR set up, most smaller
the vaccine in the first place, the follow up ed by longtime co- clients do not.
of the second dose, as well as the signifi- worker Rosietta Da Silva, an ICU nurse. “In these cases, we can convert them
cant logistics associated with transporting McCrae wanted to be the first to receive the vaccine to show his team they had from a manual audit to a remote audit,”
“the last mile.” It is easier to transport to a nothing to fear and that being vaccinated better protects frontline workers and the says Ged. “We can educate them about
Continued on page 20 community. Continued on page 23