Jackie Marsan, Ambassador Nancy Brinker, State Senator Lori Berman, Amy Young, State Representative Kelly Skidmore

August 19, 2026 – Promise Fund announced that it has received a $300,000 state appropriation from Florida’s General Revenue Fund to support and expand its patient navigation program for women throughout Palm Beach County.

Promise Fund commemorated the funding with a check presentation and photo opportunity on July 27 at Genesis Community Health’s Boynton Beach Medical Center. The presentation brought together Promise Fund leadership, elected officials, community partners and advocates to celebrate the appropriation and highlight the lifesaving impact of patient navigation.

Participants included Ambassador Nancy G. Brinker, founder of Promise Fund; State Senator Lori Berman; State Representative Kelly Skidmore; Promise Fund Executive Director Jacqueline Marsan, MPA; Promise Fund Board Member Amy Young, a partner at Ballard Partners; and Genesis Community Health CEO DeAnna Warren, who welcomed attendees to the health center.

During the presentation, Senator Berman reflected on her own breast cancer diagnosis and shared how integral a patient navigator was to her care and recovery. Her experience underscored the critical role navigators play in helping patients understand their diagnoses, coordinate appointments, access treatment and receive support throughout an often-overwhelming healthcare journey.

The event was held at a Genesis Community Health location where Promise Fund has helped expand access to breast and cervical cancer screening services, including the addition of mammography equipment. The partnership demonstrates how healthcare providers, community organizations and patient navigators can work together to bring lifesaving services directly to women in underserved communities.

The funding was included in Florida’s Fiscal Year 2026–2027 General Appropriations Act, recently signed by Governor Ron DeSantis. The appropriation will support Promise Fund Navigators who help uninsured and underinsured women overcome barriers that can prevent them from receiving timely breast and cervical cancer screenings, diagnostic services and treatment.

The appropriation was secured with the support of Senator Berman and Representative Skidmore, along with the guidance and advocacy of Young.

“We are profoundly grateful to Senator Lori Berman and Representative Kelly Skidmore for recognizing that access to early detection and treatment can mean the difference between life and death,” said Ambassador Brinker. “This appropriation represents far more than funding—it represents hope, dignity and a pathway to care for women who might otherwise fall through the cracks of our healthcare system.”

Promise Fund Navigators serve as trusted, personal guides for women facing barriers to healthcare. The program is especially focused on reaching low-income, uninsured and underinsured women, including residents of rural and historically underserved communities such as the Glades. Promise Fund works collaboratively with community organizations, federally qualified health centers, hospitals and other healthcare providers to bring screening and navigation services closer to the women who need them.

About Promise Fund

Promise Fund is a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing survivorship from breast and cervical cancer by providing guided support and access to screenings, as well as early detection, treatment, and beyond. Promise Fund’s model gives every woman the opportunity to attain health care, regardless of who she is, where she lives, or her level of income. Promise Fund currently serves communities across Palm Beach, Broward and Martin counties.

For more information, visit thepromisefund.org.



SMH employees celebrate another perfect 5-star rating from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. 

Aug. 19, 2027 – Sarasota Memorial Health Care System (SMH) has once again been recognized as one of the best employers in Florida, earning a spot on Forbes’ 2026 list of America’s Best-in-State Employers.

The recognition marks the seventh consecutive year Sarasota Memorial has made the prestigious list, underscoring the community-owned health system’s longstanding commitment to creating a workplace where employees feel valued, supported and empowered to succeed.

Compiled in partnership with market research firm Statista, the 8th annual Forbes ranking identifies employers that stand out in each state based on survey responses of more than 245,000 people working for U.S. companies with at least 500 employees. Participants evaluated their employers on factors that included wages and benefits, management, workplace culture, flexibility and opportunities for career advancement. Of 1,365 employers recognized nationwide, SMH was the second-highest rated healthcare organization in the state and #17 across all industries and Florida companies recognized.

As the Suncoast region’s largest employer and one of the nation’s largest public health systems, Sarasota Memorial has more than 11,000 employees in its growing network of hospitals, specialty care centers and outpatient services.

SMH CEO David Verinder said the recognition is especially meaningful because it reflects the experiences and opinions of employees.

“This recognition belongs to every member of our team and reflects the extraordinary skill, compassion and dedication they bring to their work and to the people who depend on us,” he said. “They are our greatest strength, and the reason Sarasota Memorial is an exceptional place to work.”

The Forbes honor is the latest in a series of national workplace awards for SMH. Earlier this month, Forbes ranked SMH the No. 1 employer for women in Florida. The health system also received Gallup’s Exceptional Workplace Award in 2025 and has been repeatedly recognized by Newsweek and other independent organizations for workplace excellence.

For information about the Forbes recognition, visit: forbes.com/lists/best-employers-by-state/

About Sarasota Memorial Health Care System (smh.com)

Sarasota Memorial Health Care System is a regional medical center offering Southwest Florida’s greatest breadth and depth of care, with about 2,500 physicians and advanced practice providers, 11,000 employees and 2 million patient visits a year across its network of care. Sarasota County’s largest employer, the community-owned health system includes two full-service hospitals in Sarasota and Venice (and third under construction in North Port), freestanding ERs in North Port and Lakewood Ranch, a rehabilitation hospital, skilled nursing facility and comprehensive network of outpatient centers, urgent care clinics and SMH First Physicians Group primary and specialty care practices. Founded in 1925, SMH’s flagship Sarasota campus also is home to the Brian D. Jellison Cancer Institute, Cornell Behavioral Health Pavilion and Kolschowsky Research and Education Institute. Both Sarasota Memorial Hospital-Sarasota and Sarasota Memorial Hospital-Venice have earned the highest 5-Star quality ratings from the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). SMH-Sarasota is the only Florida hospital – and one of just 11 in the nation – to earn a perfect 5-Star rating from CMS every year since the federal rating program began in 2016.



AUGUST 17, 2026 – CHICAGO — The American Medical Association (AMA) today welcomed updated guidance from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) that strengthens enforcement of federal prior authorization transparency requirements, addressing concerns the AMA raised about how health plans were making required information available to patients and physicians.

The AMA alerted CMS to widespread problems with health plans’ public disclosures of prior authorization requirements and outcomes. Rather than making information readily accessible, many plans posted disclosures that were difficult to find, hard to comprehend or incomplete. CMS’ updated guidance addresses several of these concerns and provides greater clarity for patients seeking information about health plans’ prior authorization policies.

“Patients should not need a portal password, a billing manual or medical training to find and understand a health plan’s prior authorization practices,” said AMA President Willie Underwood III, MD, MSc, MPH.

“Yet that is what we found when we examined how plans were implementing these transparency requirements. One plan posted an 832-page list of billing codes without a word of plain English. Others buried required information behind portals. Another published numbers that didn’t add up — and acknowledged that its data should ‘not be relied upon.’ In other words, thank you for reading this. The information may or may not be true.”

The AMA documented these practices, brought them to CMS, and the agency acted. The AMA is grateful for the updated guidance.

Earlier this year, the AMA examined how 15 Medicare Advantage contracts were implementing the transparency provisions of CMS’s 2024 Interoperability and Prior Authorization final rule, which requires payers to publicly post prior authorization requirements and outcomes.

The AMA’s review revealed a consistent pattern: On the surface, many plans appeared to comply with the rule while presenting disclosures in places and formats that made them difficult or impossible to find or use. Plans posted hundreds of pages of billing codes without plain-language descriptions, buried required disclosures behind physician or member portals and deep within plan websites, reported mathematically impossible statistics and turnaround times without units, and omitted entire categories of care — including behavioral health and post-acute services — from public reporting.

The AMA documented these problems and recommended specific corrective actions in a May 22 letter (PDF) to CMS, followed by additional comments (PDF).

CMS has now incorporated several of the AMA’s recommendations into its guidance.

Specifically, the guidance: 

  • Defines what it means for prior authorization information to be publicly accessible. CMS makes clear that disclosures are not publicly accessible if they are available only through password-protected portals or cannot be reached through ordinary navigation from a payer’s public-facing website.
  • Clarifies disclosure of all medical items and services subject to prior authorization. CMS specifies that plans must publicly identify all medical items and services requiring prior authorization, addressing the omission of entire categories of care from plan disclosures.
  • Clarifies that prior authorization disclosures must be understandable. CMS explicitly says lists of procedure codes without plain-language descriptions do not satisfy the requirement and recommends a single, comprehensive list organized by uniform service categories, with CPT codes, plain-language descriptions and a machine-readable format.
  • Improves accuracy and reliability of reported data. CMS clarifies that every turnaround-time metric must include a unit of time and requires median turnaround times of less than one day to be reported in hours rather than rounded to “0 days.” The agency also recommended that payers explain any data quality issues in their reporting.

“CMS has taken an important step toward making prior authorization information more transparent and usable,” Underwood said. “But the work is not finished. Patients and physicians need information that is accurate, accessible, understandable and comparable across health plans. You shouldn’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out what the insurance companies are doing. The AMA will continue working with CMS to make sure transparency requirements actually deliver transparency.”

The AMA is urging CMS to build on the new guidance by addressing several remaining gaps in the federal transparency framework:

  • Define prior authorization broadly enough to capture rebranded practices. CMS should define prior authorization based on how the process functions, regardless of whether a payer calls it “prior authorization,” “precertification,” or “advance notice,” or delegates the process to a third-party utilization management vendor.
  • Make prior authorization information available at the point of enrollment. CMS should link directly from plan pages on Medicare Plan Finder and HealthCare.gov to their prior authorization requirements and performance metrics, and should require states to include the same links in Medicaid and CHIP plan-comparison and enrollment tools.This would give consumers the information they need to compare plans before choosing coverage.
  • Standardize prior authorization reporting. CMS should require standardized templates for prior authorization service lists and performance metrics, rather than merely recommending standardized reporting. Consistent formats would make information easier for patients and physicians to understand and compare across plans.

Patients and physicians can share their experiences with care delays and denials at FixPriorAuth.org.



AUGUST 18, 2026 — The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) through the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) today added new peer support programs to the Title-IV Prevention Services Clearinghouse, for which all states can now claim federal reimbursement. The expansion advances the Trump Administration’s Great American Recovery and A Home for Every Child initiatives by equipping states with evidence-based resources to help parents overcome addiction, thereby strengthening families and reducing the number of children entering foster care.

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., White House Senior Advisor for Addiction Recovery and Co-Chair of the Great American Recovery Initiative Kathryn Burgum, and ACF Assistant Secretary Alex J. Adams joined Governor Kim Reynolds in Des Moines to make the announcement.

“Addiction tears families apart. Recovery brings parents home and keeps children with the families who love them,” said HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. “Under President Trump’s Great American Recovery, we are expanding proven peer support that helps parents overcome addiction, strengthens families, and keeps children out of foster care.”

“Iowa is proud to be first in the nation to adopt new peer-support interventions,” said Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds. “By responding to addiction and supporting struggling families, we’re building a stronger America: one where recovery is real, every child has a home, and hope is never out of reach for anyone.”

Iowa is the first state to adopt one of the new programs that feature peer support interventions, having already updated its state prevention plan with ACF’s pre-reviewed model language to include these evidence-based approaches that help families affected by the chronic disease of addiction.

In January 2026, President Donald Trump launched the Great American Recovery to help struggling Americans find treatment faster, stay connected to recovery support, and rebuild their lives with dignity, purpose, and community through a coordinated, evidence-based approach.

“Peer support specialists are living proof that recovery is possible. Their lived experience is a powerful source of hope, connection and guidance for families working to overcome the chronic disease of addiction,” said White House Senior Advisor for Addiction Recovery and Co-Chair of the Great American Recovery Kathryn Burgum. “Peer support is a high priority for the Great American Recovery because it remains one of the biggest gaps in our recovery system. Iowa is the first state to take this important step, expanding access to these services to help parents and strengthen families. We encourage states across the country to follow Iowa’s lead as we advance President Trump’s vision for a recovery system that leaves no American behind.”

ACF’s A Home for Every Child aims to improve the ratio of foster homes to the number of children in foster care. Prevention efforts anchor this initiative to help strengthen families and reduce foster care entries in the first place, which is why ACF continues to add new services to the Title IV-E Prevention Services Clearinghouse.

“Parental substance use disorder is a leading cause of child entry into foster care. The Trump Administration has already strengthened the suite of services available to both prevent and treat this disease, and today’s action doubles down on evidence-based prevention by unlocking federal matching funds for proven programs that integrate peer support,” said Alex Adams, Assistant Secretary for ACF.

ACF has determined that two new peer support interventions meet the evidence standards to be included in the Title IV-E Prevention Services Clearinghouse, enabling states to claim federal matching funds when delivering these services:

  • Family-Based Recovery – Supported. This is an intensive in-home clinical treatment to support parents of children ages 0-5 with the chronic disease of addiction and allows a parent to receive the help they need, including a weekly peer support meeting, while ensuring children develop in a safe, substance-free, and stable home with their parents.
  • Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP) – Supported. WRAP is a facilitated peer group program, delivered by trained peer facilitators, designed to support individuals in the areas of mental health and the chronic disease of addiction. The program coaches individuals through recovery concepts and helps participants respond to and recover from crises.

Family-Based Recovery and WRAP join two other programs that feature peer support already included in the Clearinghouse with a Supported rating, Sobriety Treatment and Recovery Teams (START) and Parents Anonymous.

“Addressing addiction requires more than treatment alone — it requires investing in people, families, and the communities that support recovery,” said Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Chief of Staff Tim Westlake. “Moving from a pill culture to a purpose culture means recognizing that recovery is strengthened through relationships, belonging, meaning, and purpose. Providing new federal funding pathways for evidence-based peer support puts that principle into practice, connecting individuals and families with people who understand the journey of recovery and can offer hope, encouragement, and the support.”

Now that Family-Based Recovery and WRAP have been added to the Clearinghouse, other states now have an opportunity to follow Iowa’s lead and update their state prevention plans to claim federal reimbursement for peer support interventions. Today, ACF’s Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) also issued a public call for additional recommendations for peer support programs and services that can be systematically reviewed for future inclusion in the Clearinghouse.

Today’s announcements are HHS’ latest actions to advance the Great American Recovery. Learn more here.



In partnership with Tampa General Hospital, the 6,100 square-foot facility will provide essential healthcare focusing on pediatrics and family medicine.

July 18, 2026 – Babcock Ranch continues its commitment to health and wellness with the opening of its second onsite healthcare facility, TGMG Babcock Ranch, in partnership with Tampa General Hospital (TGH). Opening August 18 in The Shoppes at Yellow Pine, TGMG Babcock Ranch will provide preventative care, adult and pediatric primary care, and on-site lab services to all residents.

“When we set out to build Babcock Ranch, we wanted a town where healthcare for all ages was conveniently available in the community,” said Syd Kitson, founder and visionary of Babcock Ranch. “TGMG Babcock Ranch is that promise coming to life, and one more reason families choose Babcock Ranch as their home.”

Led by TGH provider, Kelly Babbie, an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN), this comprehensive medical center provides residents with everything they will need under one roof from a routine check-up to a wellness exam or lab work. The lab will accept outside lab orders addressing local gaps.

As the third milestone in Babcock Ranch’s partnership with TGH, one of the nation’s leading academic health systems, the center completes the vision to bring a total of 12,500 square feet of expert medical care to the community.

Additional cutting-edge healthcare services include:
● TGH Urgent Care Powered by Fast Track: this 6,500-square-foot facility treats common illnesses and minor injuries, bringing high-quality, efficient care close to home and available seven days a week.
● TGH Innovation Hub: offers personalized care navigation for TGH patients including appointment scheduling, specialist referrals both inside and outside of the TGH network and connections to vital community health resources and support.

“Introducing this facility marks the culmination of a powerful shared vision,” said Adam Smith, executive vice president and chief ambulatory care officer at Tampa General Hospital. “We are proud to help champion Babcock Ranch’s investment in health by delivering this vital piece of our on-site care network to bring expert medical care directly to residents.”

Located in The Shoppes at Yellow Pine at 42040 Cypress Parkway, Suite 3, Punta Gorda, FL 33982, the primary clinic will be open Monday-Friday 7:30 am-5:00 pm and the lab will be open Monday-Friday 7:30 am-3:00 pm. Residents can call to make an appointment at 941-389-6001. For more information, visit  www.TGMG.org/BabcockRanch.