Florida Officials Get a Jump on Hurricane Ike

Officials in Florida are taking no chances as Hurricane Ike may very well likely pay the Sunshine State a visit this week.

After setting its sights on Cuba, Ike is on course to possibly skirt the Florida Keys sometime on Tuesday as it heads for the Gulf of Mexico.

On Sunday in Key West, evacuation orders became mandatory for both tourists and city's 25,000 residents. Traffic along the only highway off the island was steady but not jammed, with some people planning to ride it out unless the storm turns.

The National Hurricane Center reported that Ike came ashore in eastern Cuba Sunday night, smashing into Holguin province at 9:45 p.m. EDT as a Category 3 storm. The hurricane weakened to a Category 2 storm early Monday as it headed over Cuba, with wind speeds still approximately 100 mph.

Ike is likely to make landfall late in the week, falling somewhere between the Florida panhandle and the Texas coast.

Meantime, in an effort to help Florida consumers who may be impacted by Hurricane Ike, Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty has issued two emergency orders to all health insurers and health maintenance organizations (HMOs).

To assist consumers who may need to evacuate their homes, the first order instructs health insurers and HMOs to waive time restrictions on prescription medication refills to enable consumers to refill prescriptions in advance, if there are authorized refills remaining. The second order requires insurers and HMOs to extend by 15 days the open enrollment period for one-life groups, as prescribed by the Employee Health Care Access Act.

The order to waive the time restriction on prescription refills also requires the regulated entities to suspend the electronic “refill too soon” notices that appear on pharmacy computer systems, and to authorize payment to pharmacies for at least a 30-day supply of any prescription medication, regardless of the date upon which the prescription had most recently been filled by a pharmacist. The order does not expand the total number of refills allowed.

The Employee Health Care Access Act offers guaranteed enrollment for self-employed individuals into a health insurer’s standard or basic plan. The open enrollment period runs annually from Aug. 1 to Aug. 31, but as a result of the potential impact of Hurricane Ike, the enrollment period is being extended to run through Sept. 30.

These orders shall remain in effect for the duration of Gov. Crist’s Executive Order of Sept. 5 declaring a state of emergency for all of Florida. That order is in effect for 60 days, unless extended.