Reeva on the road to ruin

Newly released security footage shows a beaming Reeva Steenkamp driving into Oscar Pistorius’ apartment complex hours before she was shot and killed by the legless Olympian on Valentine’s Day.

In the last known picture of Steenkamp alive, the South African model is seen smiling as she rolls her Mini Cooper toward the home of the world-famous “Blade Runner” just before 6 p.m.

She appears to banter with a security guard as he allows her into the complex 10 minutes before Pistorius arrives.

The pictures were revealed as news surfaced that the 29-year-old blond beauty had not planned to spend the night with her beau.

M.NET

DOOMED: Reeva Steenkamp pulls into his complex in footage taped hours before her shooting.

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Reeva Steenkamp, above with beau Oscar Pistorius

She originally wanted to return to the home of Cecil Myers, the father of her best friend, Kim.

But hours before she was killed, Steenkamp sent out a text message.

“ ‘Hi guys, I’m too tired. It’s too far to drive. I’m sleeping at Oscar’s tonight. See you tomorrow,’ ” Myers told South Africa’s City Press newspaper.

Pistorius, 26, later gunned down Steenkamp as she cowered in a bathroom, prosecutors allege.

The Olympian has maintained that he mistook her for a burglar.

Cecil Myers said Pistorius was trouble from Day One.

“He kept pestering her, phoning and phoning and phoning her. Oscar was hasty and impatient and very moody,” Myers said. “She told me he pushed her a bit into a corner.”

Meanwhile, Steenkamp’s parents, Barry and June, told the TV show “Carte Blanche” that they have been watching their daughter’s posthumous appearances on the reality-TV show “Tropika Island of Treasure” just so they could “see her laughing” once more.

Separately, Kenny Oldwage, an attorney for Pistorius’ older brother, Carl, confirmed his client has been charged with vehicular manslaughter stemming from a 2008 car crash with a female motorcyclist.

“Blood tests conducted by the police at the time proved that he had not been under the influence of alcohol, confirming that it was a tragic road accident after the deceased collided with Carl’s car,” he said.

Carl’s trial had been scheduled for last week, but has been postponed until next month.

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Miami medicine goes digital

About 10 years ago, Dr. Fleur Sack quit her practice as a family physician to become a hospital department head. Spurring her decision was the need to switch from paper records to electronic ones to keep her private practice profitable. “At that time, it would have cost about $50,000,” Dr. Sack recalled. “It was too expensive and it was too overwhelming.”

But times and technologies changed, and last year, Dr. Sack left her hospital job to restart her medical practice with an affordable system for managing electronic patient records. She agreed to a $5,000 setup fee and a subscription fee of $500 per month for the system. Her investment also qualified her for subsidy money, which the federal government pays in installments, and to date, her subsidy income has paid for the setup fee and about two years of monthly fees. “So far, I’ve got my check for $18,000,” she said. “There’s a total of $44,000 that I can get.”

That kind of cash flow is one reason why so-called EHR software systems for electronic health records have been among the hottest-selling commercial products in the world of information technology. EHR system development is a growth industry in South Florida, too. Life sciences and biotechnology are among the high growth-potential sectors identified by the Beacon Council-led One Community One Goal economic development initiative unveiled in 2012; already, the University of Miami has opened a Health Science Technology Park while Florida International University has launched a program in its graduate school of business oriented toward biotechnology businesses.

For many young businesses in the area’s IT industry, government incentives are paving the way. The federal government is pushing doctors and hospitals to use electronic health records to cut wasteful spending and improve patient care while protecting patient privacy — sending digital information via encrypted systems, for example, rather than regular email.

Under a 2009 federal law known as the HITECH Act, maximum incentive payments for buying such systems range up to $44,000 for doctors with Medicare patients and up to $63,750 for doctors with Medicaid patients. Hospitals are eligible for larger incentive payments for becoming more paperless. The subsidy program isn’t permanent; eligible professionals must begin receiving payments by 2016. But by then, the federal government will be penalizing doctors and hospitals that take Medicare or Medicaid money without making meaningful use of electronic health records.

“What the government did is, they incentivized, and now they’re going to penalize,” said Andrew Carricarte, president and CEO of IOS Health Systems in Miami, one of the largest South Florida-based vendors of online software service for physician practices. He said insurance companies also may start penalizing physicians for failing to adopt electronic health records because “the commercial payers always follow Medicare and Medicaid.”

It’s all part of the growth story at IOS Health Systems, which has more than 2,000 physicians across the nation using its online EHR system. Carricarte said many of the company’s customers buy their second EHR system from IOS after their first one flopped. “Almost 40 percent of our sales come from customers who had systems and are now switching over to something else,” he said.

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Miami Dolphins hopeful on stadium referendum date

The Miami Dolphins are hopeful the Miami-Dade County Commission will approve a May 14 date for a referendum on the $400 rehabilitation of their stadium, time enough to get South Florida in play for Super Bowl 50, a Dolphins spokesman said Saturday.

Spokesman Ric Katz said the language of the proposed referendum has yet to be decided, and ultimately the commission decides the date.

But, he said, “we’d be very happy with” May 14 because “that gives us a week to communicate to the NFL before they make the important decision of Super Bowl 50.”

NFL owners are slated to meet on May 22 to pick the site of the 2016 Super Bowl — seen as a tourist revenue prize for whichever host city gets the 50th anniversary contest.

Mayor Carlos Gimenez met Friday with Dolphins owner Stephen Ross and CEO Mike Dee to discuss the proposed stadium rehabilitation.

From the mayor’s side, there has been no agreement on a date and Gimenez does not plan to bring the proposed May 14 referendum to the commission at this time, said spokeswoman Suzy Trutie.

Friday’s was a “first meeting” at which “many things were discussed,” including the Dolphin’s preference for May 14.

But, “We continue negotiating with the Dolphins with regards to finances.”

One proposed financing plan would increase the bed tax in mainland Miami-Dade by 1 percent and increase the sales tax rebate the team already gets at the stadium in Miami Gardens. Ross had initially offered to pay at least $201 million in his financing plan. But Katz, a Miami publicist representing the team in the stadium campaign, said the two sides were still in negotiation on what the mayor would ask the commission to put to taxpayers in a referendum.

Trutie said the proposed referendum would gauge public opinion on increasing hotel taxes from 6 to 7 percent to fund the stadium renovations.

Of the commission, Katz said, “We do not take them for granted. They have the prerogative.”

Attorney Kendall Coffey did not return calls asking whether the Dolphins had hired him to write the ballot language.

Dolphins lobbyist Marcelo Llorente had said in recent weeks that the team was considering May 7 and 14 as possible referendum dates.

Any activity by the Florida Legislature would likely have to be undertaken before then. The regular session is slated to end May 3.

Miami Herald staff writers Patricia Mazzei and Doug Hanks contributed to this report.

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Independent Spirit Award Winners 2013

The 2013 Film Independent Spirits Awards were handed out in Santa Monica, CA today and lots of Oscar frontrunners cemented their status by dominating in their categories once more.

Check out all the winners below:

Best Feature

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Bernie

Keep the Lights On

Moonrise Kingdom

Silver Linings Playbook

BEST FEMALE LEAD

Linda Cardellini, Return

Emayatzy Corinealdi, Middle of Nowhere

Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook

Quvenzhane Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild

Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Smashed

BEST MALE LEAD

Jack Black, Bernie

Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook

John Hawkes, The Sessions

Thure Lindhardt, Keep the Lights On

Matthew McConaughey, Killer Joe

Wendell Pierce, Four

BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE

Rosemarie DeWitt, Your Sister's Sister

Ann Dowd, Compliance

Helen Hunt, The Sessions

Brit Marling, Sound of My Voice

Lorraine Toussaint, Middle of Nowhere

BEST SUPPORTING MALE

Matthew McConaughey, Magic Mike

David Oyelowo, Middle of Nowhere

Michael Pena, End of Watch

Sam Rockwell, Seven Psychopaths

Bruce Willis, Moonrise Kingdom

BEST DIRECTOR

Wes Anderson, Moonrise Kingdom

Julia Loktev, The Loneliest Planet

David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook

Ira Sachs, Keep the Lights On

Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild

BEST SCREENPLAY

Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola, Moonrise Kingdom

Zoe Kazan, Ruby Sparks

Martin McDonagh, Seven Psychopaths

David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook

Ira Sachs, Keep the Lights On

For the full list of winners, click here.

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Oscar Pistorius's brother Carl faces homicide charges in 2010 car crash: report

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Carl Pistorius, older brother of tarnished athlete Oscar, faces homicide charges in a 2010 car crash, according to reports.

Oscar Pistorius’s older brother Carl also faces homicide charges in South Africa over a 2010 car crash, it was reported today.

Carl Pistorius allegedly struck and killed a female biker in the daytime crash, his lawyer told eNCA news, a South African TV channel.

Prosecutors accused Carl Pistorius of driving recklessly in the accident.

But his lawyer, Kenneth Oldwage, denies the charges and told the TV channel that Carl Pistorius was not drunk.

Oldwage says the woman died because she drove into Carl Pistorius’s car.

Carl Pistorius is charged with culpable homicide, a lesser charge than the premeditated murder case against his brother.

The charge carries a possible 15-year prison term.

Carl’s trial was supposed to begin on Thursday, the same day his Olympian brother was freed on bail.

But the case was postponed until next month.

Word of another Pistorius homicide case shocked South Africa.

“Looks like Carl & Oscar will keep each company in jail,” tweeted Johannesburg resident Rebecca Chiedza Goba.

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The faces of Florida’s Medicaid system

MEDICAID

MiamiHerald.com/healthcare

The tea party governor now says he wants to expand Medicaid. The Republican Legislature isn’t so sure.

Hanging in the balance?

Access to healthcare for 1 million or more poor Floridians.

Billions of dollars in federal money.

The state budget, which already pumps $21 billion a year into care.

Florida’s Medicaid system today serves more than 3 million people, about one in every six Floridians. The decision whether to expand the system by a full third will be made by men and women in suits in Tallahassee’s mural-filled chambers this spring.

But the impact is elsewhere, in children’s hospitals in Tampa and Miami, in doctors’ offices in New Port Richey and in the home of a woman who recently lost her full-time teaching job.

The Suddenly uninsured

This was not how she envisioned her 60s.

Jean Vincent dreamed of turning her five-bedroom home into a bed and breakfast. She painted murals on walls, created mosaics on floors and let her imagination guide the interior decorating. There is a “garden” room, a “bamboo” room and a “canopy” room.

In 2010, Vincent lost her full-time job teaching in Citra north of Ocala. Her mother became sick with cancer and needed around-the-clock care before dying in August. Then, doctors began prescribing Vincent costly medications to treat osteoporosis and early-onset diabetes.

“I started getting a little behind with my mortgage,” said Vincent, 61. “All of a sudden, I found out I had to have an emergency retina eye surgery.”

Today, Vincent is searching for roommates to move into her home and help pay the bills. She begs Gainesville’s Sante Fe Community College and City College to schedule her for as many classes as she can handle as an adjunct geography professor; this semester’s four is the most she’s ever had.

But her biggest worry? Not having comprehensive healthcare.

Vincent — who is too young for Medicare — is enrolled in CHOICES, a health services program the Alachua County government created for the uninsured. It covers preventative care like her flu shots and helps with her drug therapy. But if Vincent ever got so sick she needed to go to the hospital, she’d be on her own.

Under current Florida law, adults with no dependents are not eligible to participate in Medicaid no matter how little they make. Vincent’s four children are all grown, which means even as her income has dwindled she can’t become eligible for the health insurance program run jointly by the federal and state governments.

If Florida decides to expand the Medicaid system, people in Vincent’s position for the first time could be covered.

The expansion would allow any single adult making about $16,000 a year eligible for Medicaid.

On the matter, Vincent has become an activist. She joined with patient rights group Florida CHAIN and traveled to Tallahassee to lobby lawmakers.

“When I gave my testimony, that’s all I wanted them to do was see there were people out there that weren’t just trying to take advantage of the system,” she said.

This summer, she expects to only be assigned one class at Sante Fe. That will provide about $2,000 for her to live on for three months. Meanwhile, her retirement dreams are put on hold.

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Miami police union challenges officer’s firing for fatal shooting

The Fraternal Order of Police filed a lawsuit against the city of Miami on Friday, asserting that an officer who fatally shot an unarmed motorist in 2011 was improperly fired from the police department.

Officer Reynaldo Goyos shot and killed Travis McNeil as he sat in a car at a Little Haiti intersection. It was one of a string of seven deadly shootings of black men in the inner city by Miami police officers in 2010 and 2011.

Goyos was cleared of criminal wrongdoing by prosecutors in 2012. But he was terminated last month after the department’s Firearms Review Board concluded that the shooting was unjustified.

The police union lawsuit claims that the board violated state open-government laws by failing to open its meetings to the public.

Goyos “was improperly terminated by the city of Miami Police Department by a review board that violates the law,” union President Javier Ortiz wrote in a statement.

The lawsuit contends that Goyos should be reinstated.

City Attorney Julie O. Bru declined to discuss the specifics of the case. “We reviewed the allegations, and the city maintains that the board has operated consistent with the requirements of law,” she said.

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Diogo Morgado as Jesus in 'The Bible'

Producer Mark Burnett and his wife Roma Downey are bringing The Bible to television with an epic, 10-hour, five-part miniseries, and ET's Nancy O'Dell is with the man who portrays Jesus, Diogo Morgado, and the actor who embodies St. Peter, Darwin Shaw.

Pics: Adorable Tots: Celebs and Their Cute Kids!

"Jesus is definitely the most complete and complex figure of mankind; he's just someone who belongs to millions and billions of families all around the world," says Portuguese star Morgado, a religious man himself. "Just [given] the chance [to play him], I'm like, 'Okay, I'm going to try to just give an example of my Jesus.'"

Premiering Sunday, March 3 at 8 p.m. on History, The Bible brings to life some of the more well-known tales from the ancient tome from Genesis through Revelation, including David and Goliath, Noah's Ark, the Exodus, Daniel in the Lion's Den and the crucifixion/resurrection of Jesus. Shot in Morocco, the series is narrated by Emmy winner Keith David with a musical score by Oscar winner Hans Zimmer, also stars Downey as Mother Mary and includes Paul Brightwell, Greg Hicks, Sebastian Knapp, Amber Rose Revah, Greg Hicks and Simon Kunz.

Related: First Look at Russell Crowe as 'Noah' 

Watch the video for the actors' take on tackling such iconic figures – and see the amusing moment after Nancy sneezes in front of Morgado!

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Confessions of an Oscar voter

A prominent Hollywood director unleashed a colorful, blistering assessment of tomorrow’s Oscar contenders — dismissing actress Jennifer Lawrence as “mean-spirited,” deeming “Silver Linings Playbook” as “blah” and pronouncing “Zero Dark Thirty” “amazing.”

The veteran member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences anonymously roasted and toasted everyone from Sally Field to Quentin Tarantino and Steven Spielberg as he went through his picks for the Hollywood Reporter, gleefully explaining each checkmark.

“I don’t think it deserves to win and am annoyed it is on track to win,” the director said of Best Picture front-runner “Argo,” whose screenplay he dismissed as “a whole lot of nothing.”

AP

Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln

“It’s a very engaging story but with nothing particularly clever in the writing,” said the director, although he did back Ben Affleck for a Best Director nomination.

He rejected Best Picture nominee “Les Miserables” as “the most disappointing film in many years” and said “Amour” is “just a woman dying, and there’s no real story, and it made me feel like s--t. There’s only so much diaper-changing that I can tolerate . . . I’m just pissed off at that film.”

“Django Unchained” got points for being “fun,” even though it’s “basically just Quentin Tarantino masturbating for three hours.”

“He’s made the same film eight times,” the director said.

“Silver Linings Playbook” actor Bradley Cooper got high marks, but the movie itself “is just a ‘blah’ film,” the director said.

“Life of Pi” — which garnered the director’s vote for Best Adapted Screenplay — was “unique” and well done “until its irritating ending,” and “Lincoln” was “a bore . . . but well-meaning and important,” the director said.

He gave “Zero Dark Thirty” his vote for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay, calling Mark Boal’s script “amazing, with very good moments and great tension.”

“Knowing that it’s not gonna win Best Picture, part of me just wants to try to push through an award for it as an ‘I’m sorry,’ ” the director said.

He gave “Lincoln” his Best Production Design and Best Director votes, explaining, “Spielberg deserves an Oscar every 10 years or so out of respect.”

The acerbic critic didn’t hold back when it came to the Oscar-nominated actresses and actors.

Best Actress favorite Jennifer Lawrence lost the director’s vote when she bashed her rivals in a recent “Saturday Night Live” skit.

“I thought it was mean-spirited and shows a lack of maturity on her part,” he said.

And Quvenzhané Wallis, the 9-year-old star of “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” lost him at hello.

“Her parents really put her in a hole by giving her that name . . . I don’t vote for anyone whose name I can’t pronounce,” he said.

He cast his vote for “Amour” leading lady Emmanuelle Riva, who turns 86 Sunday, even though he didn’t like the movie itself.

“Riva was extraordinary in it,” he said. “She might not even live through Oscar night, so . . .”

The “charming” Anne Hathaway got his vote for supporting actress, while Sally Field was ripped as “undeserving” of her best-supporting nomination in “Lincoln.”

“She’s playing an annoying character, and she is rather annoying, plus she’s about 20 years too old for the role,” the director said.

He predicted Daniel Day-Lewis would get the majority of votes for Best Actor but cast his ballot for Joaquin Phoenix, “who gives a performance for the ages” in “The Master.”

The director had little good to say about the supporting-actor nominees.

“Alan Arkin in ‘Argo’? I’m shocked he’s even nominated. Robert De Niro was just Robert De Niro; he had one crying scene, but crying is not enough,” he sniffed.

“Tommy Lee Jones has been such a bitter guy — all that scowling at the Golden Globes? I’m telling you, people don’t like the guy.”

Only Philip Seymour Hoffman escaped scorn with his “sublime” performance in “The Master.”

“It’s a very original performance,” the director said.

Meanwhile, when it comes to music, it’s “a no-brainer” for “Skyfall” as Best Original Song.

“Adele is f--king brilliant,’’ the director said.

“Plus, I think it’s about time that a James Bond song won best song. This is my F-you for not giving it to ‘Live and Let Die’ back in 1973.”

jeane.macintosh@nypost.com

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South Florida hospitals could lose $368 million from sequestration

A detailed survey shows that South Florida hospitals could lose $368 million over 10 years in federal budget cuts starting next Friday, if the sequestration program kicks in as scheduled.

The Florida Hospital Association, using data from the American Hospital Association, estimates that over the next decade, sequestration would cause Miami-Dade hospitals to lose $223.9 million and Broward facilities $144.4 million under the Congress-mandated budget cuts that hit virtually all federal programs unless Republicans and Democrats can work out a compromise.

The New York Times and other national news organizations are reporting that sequestration, unlike the New Year’s fiscal cliff, seems virtually certain to take place.

The law requires across-the-board spending cuts in domestic and defense programs, with certain exceptions. Because healthcare represents more than one in five dollars of the federal budget, it will be a huge target for cuts.

For hospitals and doctors, the major impact will be felt in Medicare cuts, which according to the budget law are limited to 2 percent of Medicare payments. Medicaid, food stamps and Social Security are exempted from cuts, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.

The FHA study calculates that over 10 years, Jackson Memorial Hospital stands to lose $30.6 million, Mount Sinai Medical Center on Miami Beach $27.3 million, Holy Cross in Fort Lauderdale $23.8 million and Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood $21.4 million.

“The problem with sequestration is that it just makes broad cuts across the board,” said Linda Quick, president of the South Florida Hospital and Healthcare Association. “The Affordable Care Act is looking at all sorts of intelligent ways to reduce costs,” including coordinated care that will stop duplicated tests and reduce hospital readmissions. “But sequestration takes an ax, and that doesn’t make any sense.”

FierceHealthcare, which produces trade publications, says sequestration cuts over the next decade will include $591 million from prescription drug benefits for seniors, $318 million from the Food and Drug Administration, $2.5 billion from the National Institutes of Health, $490 million from the Centers for Disease Control and $365 million from Indian Health Services.

The National Association of Community Health Centers estimates that 900,000 of its patients nationwide could lose care because of the cuts. The group said the cuts were “penny wise and pound foolish” because they would mean less preventive care while more and sicker patients would end up in emergency rooms.

Like the fiscal cliff, Republicans and Democrats agreed on a sequestration strategy, with the idea that the drastic measure would force the two sides to reach agreement on more deliberative budget adjustments. That hasn’t happened.

The White House reports that the law will mean that nondefense programs will be cut by 5 percent, defense programs by 8 percent. But since the first year’s cuts must be done over seven months, that means in 2013, nondefense programs need to be cut by 9 percent, defense programs by 13 percent.

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