Free Republic

Her work is so appreciated by medical staff that many consider her a critical volunteerA London woman who survived breast cancer isn’t faring so well against city bylaw officers who fined her $2,260 for providing a service to patients that medical staff say is invaluable. For more than three years, the woman has been a regular at an outpatient clinic at St. Joseph’s Hospital, providing rides to and from the clinic to patients who aren’t allowed to drive after being sedated for procedures such as endoscopies and colonoscopies. She refused tips, at first charged only $10 round trip, an amount...

Health insurance premiums in California are expected to rise nearly 18 percent in 2019 as a result of federal policy changes enacted by Congress and the Trump administration, according to an analysis released Monday by the Urban Institute left-leaning think tank.

The largest financial institution in the world – the U.S. government – issued its financial statement just a few days ago, and nobody in Washington seems to care that the deficit is almost twice as large as they once thought. snip In substance-free Washington, the release of the annual financial statements of the U.S. government isn’t a big deal, but it should be. The statements demonstrate that we have gone backward, not forward, with Republicans in charge of all branches of government. According to the annual financial report of the U.S. government published by the Treasury Department, the real deficit...

President Trump took a thinly veiled swipe at cancer-stricken Sen. John McCain Friday during a speech at an annual gathering of conservatives — without mentioning him by name. Trump, touting his tax reform bill that also killed the ObamaCare individual mandate that required people to buy health insurance, lamented the Affordable Health Care Act would have been repealed in its entirety if the 81-year-old Arizona Republican had not voted against repeal. “We’re having tremendous plans coming out now, health care plans, at a fraction of the cost that are much better than ObamaCare. And except for one senator, who came...

Two More Blatant Health Scams: Where Are Indictments? How blatant do you need to be in stealing billions before someone goes to prison? Let's start with this one: A Texas woman took a urine drug test after back surgery and was hit with a $17,850 lab bill, according to a Kaiser Health News report. This was for a set of tests that her health insurer says are worth $100.92 -- but since she was out-of-network she was billed 176 times as much. Did someone do 176 times as much work? Did they do any additional work? Was she told about...

Norma Diaz and her husband, Joseph Garcia, have dedicated their careers to running a nonprofit health insurer that covers some of California’s neediest residents. For three decades, they have worked for a Medicaid managed-care plan, Community Health Group, serving nearly 300,000 poor and disabled patients in San Diego County under a state contract funded entirely by taxpayers. They’ve earned above-average ratings for patient care. And in the process, they’ve made millions of dollars. Together, Diaz and Garcia made $1.1 million in 2016 and received more than $5 million since 2012. Diaz’s compensation as CEO exceeded the pay of several peers...

Consolidation throughout the healthcare industry is increasing costs and driving more care through hospitals, the Physicians Advocacy Institute warned in a letter to Congress. Healthcare organizations have been joining forces to try to get ahead of the industry's shifting landscape. The number of physicians employed by hospitals and health systems grew by nearly 50% from 2012 to 2015, with a corresponding decline in the number of independently practicing physicians, according to the letter—supported with research from consultancy Avalere Health—sent to the House Energy & Commerce Committee's oversight and investigations subcommittee. The decline of the independent medical practice and lack of...

Electronic health records were supposed to lower administrative costs, but they may not be getting the job done, according to a new study published this week in JAMA. Administrative costs made up as much as a quarter of professional revenue for some patient encounters, according to the study, which focused on a single academic medical center. Researchers attribute much of the high cost to varying contracts between the hospital and health plans and payer as well as varying price schedules. "After investing more than $30 billion in health IT, we haven't improved the administrative efficiency," said Dr. Kevin Schulman, one...

When British Prime Minister Theresa May gave her traditional New Year's speech on December 31, one line -- actually, just one word -- jumped out at me. May spoke of the importance of “taking a balanced approach to government spending, so we get our debt falling but can also invest in the things that matter -- our schools, our police and our precious NHS.” Yes, “precious.” She actually described the National Health Service as precious! Now, one might easily forgive her for describing, say, Britain's finest doctors and nurses as -- oh, I don't know -- how about “treasured”? Or...

Kentucky became the first state with a work requirement for Medicaid, and now it has to do something arguably more daring: Build a mobile-friendly website that works. The state will require people who get taxpayer-funded health insurance to work or volunteer. It's the kind of government program that often draws disdain from small-government Republicans, but GOP Gov. Matt Bevin has embraced it as "a more efficient use of resources." Government-run websites are notorious for glitches. Kentucky had problems in 2016 when "Benefind" — meant to consolidate all assistance programs — caused chaos. Kentucky officials say this time will be different....

The maker of the powerful painkiller OxyContin said it will stop marketing opioid drugs to doctors, bowing to a key demand of lawsuits that blame the company for helping trigger the current drug abuse epidemic. Purdue's statement said it eliminated more than half its sales staff this week and will no longer send sales representatives to doctors' offices to discuss opioid drugs. Its remaining sales staff of about 200 will focus on other medications. The company announced its surprise reversal on Saturday. OxyContin has long been the world's top-selling opioid painkiller, bringing in billions in sales for privately-held Purdue, which...

Heather Holland, a second-grade teacher at Ikard Elementary School with the Weatherford Independent School District died over the weekend, the Weatherford Democrat reports. Holland got sick about a week ago and took medication, but delayed picking up the prescription due to the $116 copay, according to the newspaper. By Friday night, Holland's condition worsened and she was taken to the hospital. Her husband Frank Holland told the Weatherford Democrat that she died Sunday morning. "She loved helping people, helping the kids, and the kids loved her," Holland's husband told the Weatherford Democrat. Charlotte LaGrone, a spokeswoman for Weatherford ISD, told...

Donald Trump tweeted that Britain's National Health Service is "broke and not working." All too true: expenses have forced 40% of walk-in health centers to close, all elective surgery in January to be cancelled, and primary care has been decimated, it's not surprising that problems have surfaced. It is just as predictable that the usual call for "more money" echoes around the UK. All this is the result of economic laws that have been completely ignored since the days of Aneurin Bevan, the father of the UK NHS. The first is the Law of Rationing. In short, "Everything is...

My pediatric practice is one that harkens back to days long ago when physicians knew their patients and pertinent medical histories by heart. My 81-year-old father and I were in practice together for the past 16 years; he still used the very sophisticated "hunt and peck" to compose emails. The task of transitioning to an electronic record system seemed insurmountable, so we remain on paper. Our medical record system has not changed in almost five decades. I would not have it any other way. This past spring, he walked into my office shaking his head in disbelief after thumbing through...

Donald Trump's habit of testing the US relationship with Britain took a new turn Monday when he attacked the UK's National Health Service, claiming it is "going broke and not working." The US President hit out on Twitter minutes after a segment aired on Fox News that highlighted winter strains on the UK health care system. Trump accused Democrats of pushing a similar universal health care system for the US." The Democrats are pushing for Universal HealthCare while thousands of people are marching in the UK because their U system is going broke and not working. Dems want to greatly...

President Trump tweets criticising the NHS: The Democrats are pushing for Universal HealthCare while thousands of people are marching in the UK because their U system is going broke and not working. Dems want to greatly raise taxes for really bad and non-personal medical care. No thanks!Jeremy Hunt hits back: I may disagree with claims made on that march but not ONE of them wants to live in a system where 28m people have no cover. NHS may have challenges but I’m proud to be from the country that invented universal coverage - where all get care no matter the...

Nine states are considering laws that would require their residents to purchase health insurance, the The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday. The proposals come less than two months after Republicans, as part of a sweeping tax code overhaul, voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act's (ACA) mandate requiring individuals to have health insurance.  Lawmakers in Maryland are considering a law requiring residents to buy health insurance. California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Minnesota, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington, as well as the District of Columbia, are also considering similar proposals, according to the Journal report.  The ACA's individual mandate was implemented...

"The number of immigrants and their U.S.-born children (under 18) on Medicaid grew twice as fast as the number of natives and their children on Medicaid from 2011 to 2013 — 11 percent vs. 5 percent. About two-thirds of the growth in Medicaid associated with immigrants was among immigrants themselves, rather than the U.S.-born children of immigrants. The increase in Medicaid enrollment among immigrants and their children can be roughly estimated as costing $4.6 billion annually. By 2013, 25 percent of immigrants and their children were on Medicaid, compared to 16 percent of natives and their children.”

A group of campaigners, including Prof Stephen Hawking, has been given permission to challenge a government health policy in the High Court. They will pursue a judicial review against Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt and NHS England over plans to create accountable care organisations (ACOs). These are to act as partnership bodies incorporating hospitals, community services and councils. Campaigners say it risks privatisation, but this is denied by ministers. 'Radical changes' NHS England wants hospitals and other trusts to work closely with GPs and social care services to look after more patients in their communities rather than in hospital. In some...

Health care costs are "a hungry tapeworm on the American economy," Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett says, and now his firm is teaming up with Amazon and JPMorgan Chase to create a new company with the goal of providing high quality health care for their employees at a lower cost. The new company will be "free from profit-making incentives and constraints" as it tries to find ways to cut costs and boost satisfaction with the health care plan for employees of Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase. The trio unveiled their new venture in a news release. "The...