The Overdue Selection of Stuff from My In-Box. Some days are good at Angry Bear. Getting a background in how to run a Blog by myself at this time. Sometimes run out of ideas. Fortunately, I have good influx of articles hitting my In-Box daily. I recently cleaned out a couple of thousand emails going back a couple of years. Hoping Dan will get better and can join me. He was the brains and is the owner of Angry Bear. I just write or C&P . . ....
Read More »States Denying Medicaid Coverage after the April 1st Cutoff
This is a nice writeup on what is occurring in states which have enrolled multiples of their citizens into Medicaid due to various initiatives and the ACA. There has been a rollback of ACA insurance levels with the Silver plan having an actuary of 94%. People making up to 200% FPL pay little or nothing. Mediciad eligibility was increased to 150% FPL. This was a good initiative by the Biden administration and the correct action to take during a...
Read More »Since January 6, How Far Has America Come?
April 3, 2023, Letters from an American, Prof. Heather Cox Richardson. On Saturday, April 1, the emergency measures Congress put in place to extend medical coverage at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic expired. This means that states can end Medicaid coverage for people who do not meet the pre-pandemic eligibility requirements, which are based primarily on income. As many as 15 million of the 85 million people covered by Medicaid could lose...
Read More »Medicare Advantage Giants Over-coding, Stock Buy Backs, and Salaries
I have been hitting the issues with FFS Medicare vs Medicare Advantage hard. Primarily, Medicare Advantage is draining Medicare funding due to the $billions being spent due to over-coding. Twelve $billion of over-coding charges in 2020. Another $15 billion of over-coding charges in 2021. CEOs are raking in higher salaries due to the preferential treatment the Medicare Advantage plans receive from Congress and CMS. Over-coding is just one of the...
Read More »CMS Delays a Full Crackdown on Medicare Advantage Plans
It has taken years for the Feds, CMS, MedPac, Congress to catch up with the thieving practice of these healthcare plans. They have mislead the people they sell these plans too with come-ons such as health club ss, etc. Then when it comes time for care, it is delayed or denied. This comes after the plans already have received funding. It is about time Congress did something other than bicker. NYT could have been tougher . . . Medicare Delays...
Read More »Social Security Trustees’ Report Is Out So Is CRFB’s Analysis
Social Security Trustees’ Report Is Out So Is CRFB’s Analysis by Dale Coberly Look, I don’t like CRFB. They claim to be the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), but in the years I have been watching them they have looked more like the Committee to Cut Social Security. Today my inbox presented me with a note from CRFB on this year’s Trustees Report. As far as I can tell CRFB is telling the truth here, strictly speaking. ...
Read More »UK National Health Service Failures Due to Privatization & Funding Cuts
What we are seeing in the UK is an example of giving commercial healthcare too much latitude in providing healthcare. Private equity became involved with care for older people and care became chargeable and means-tested, long-stay hospitals were closed. and the government gave over the building of new facilities to private interests. Th US is just starting to experience the growth of mega-healthcare corporations having tenacles in the lowest...
Read More »Minnesota’s Sanford-Fairview Hospital merger is a symptom of a larger problem
Sanford-Fairview merger is a symptom of a larger problem, MinnPost, Kip Sullivan. Minnesota has a hospital merger problem. But it didn’t begin last fall when Sanford Health and Fairview Health Services announced their intention to merge. It began in the 1980s and accelerated in the 1990s in response to mergers of unprecedented size among health insurance companies. By the early 2000s, Minnesota’s hospital sector had been transformed into a few...
Read More »Plans to Cut Billions in Medicare Fraud Ignites Lobbying Frenzy
Have Medicare Advantage plans been over coding? According the MedPac 2022 report for year 2020 they have been. The funds of which come out of Medicare funding. The amount of which was an ~$12 billion for 2020 alone. But it is not just 2020, “Medicare Advantage has Overcharged FFS Medicare by Billions for Years,” Angry Bear. “Aggregate Medicare payments to Medicare Advantage plans” have never been lower than FFS Medicare spending. MedPac 2022 Chapter...
Read More »What 8th Grade Schooler’s Can Figure Out and Congress Can’t
This is a story or at least I tried to make it into more like one. The longer version can be found at the Propublica link. I took parts of it linking them together using mostly their wording and blending it with mine. Money and Corporate influence still wins . . . The U.S. Never Banned Asbestos. These Workers Are Paying the Price, ProPublica, Kathleen McGrory and Neil Bedi A few miles up from Niagara Falls was the OxyChem’ facility. The plant’s...
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