Earlier this month, Florida Gov. Rick Scott used his line-item veto authority to remove $1.775 million from the state budget that would have funded telemedicine initiatives at three of the state's health system.
The original state budget had included $1 million for a telemedicine initiative at Tallahassee (Fla.) Memorial Healthcare, $500,000 for a telemedicine intensive care unit at St. Vincent's HealthCare in Jacksonville and $275,000 for a telemedicine ICU at Baptist Health South Florida in Miami.
Moody Chisholm, CEO of St. Vincent's HealthCare, told the Jacksonville Business Journal while a lack of state funding would not stop the health system's telemedicine efforts, the veto was "a disappointment."
"We still will [expand its use], but it slows us down," Mr. Chisholm said in the report. "These days, capital is tight at hospitals."
The line-item vetoes follow a prolonged battle in the state legislature over the appropriate uses of, and restrictions to, telemedicine services. In May, the legislative session ended without the two chambers reconciling their versions of an omnibus telemedicine bill.
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