The week in healthcare reform
“‘Upcoding’ is the name of the game. The secret to high profits is to exploit the diagnostic coding system set up to adjust for differences in clinical severity (and costs) between traditional fee-for-service Medicare and Medicare Advantage.”
Medicare Advantage & DCEs: How Corporate Investors Deplete Medicare
Health Justice Monitor | James G. Kahn, MD/MPH | September 30, 2021
“Many companies profit off the flow of drugs, but pharmaceutical companies retain a vast majority of the money.”
The U.S. is the Drug Industry’s Gold Mine
Axios | Bob Herman | September 30, 2021
“…consolidation has resulted in the possession and exercise of health insurer monopoly power — the ability to raise and maintain premiums above competitive levels — instead of passing any benefits obtained through to consumers.”
AMA: 73% of Health Insurance Markets are Highly Concentrated
Fierce Healthcare | Paige Minemyer | September 28, 2021
“…low vaccine uptake may be looked at … as the predictable outcome of a campaign subject to entrenched social forces that have diminished American health and life expectancy since the 1980s.”
How the US Vaccine Effort Derailed and Why We Shouldn’t Be Surprised
The Guardian | Jessica Glenza | September 27, 2021
“The atmosphere we work in is becoming increasingly corporate…. Are the companies we work for any different from Amazon or Microsoft, whose primary objective is profit?”
Fired COVID Whistleblower: Profit Motive Isn’t Working in Healthcare
MedPage Today | Kristina Fiore | September 27, 2021
“[Public health] can also serve as a long-term, overarching framework to reframe our politics….”
A Prescription for Saving Democracy: Is Public Health Key to Beating Back Fascism?
Salon | Paul Rosenberg | September 26, 2021
“…some low-income people may move from very generous silver plans with deductibles under $200, to bronze plans with deductibles of about $7,000 — more than 30 times higher.”
How Marketplace Costs and Premiums Will Change if Rescue Plan Subsidies Expire
Kaiser Family Foundation | Cynthia Cox, Karen Pollitz, Giorlando Ramirez | September 24, 2021
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