Author Frequently asked questions. 294 items Largest ACO Program Saves Piddling Amounts for Medicare December 22, 2023 A new analysis finds that that MSSP, the oldest and largest Medicare accountable care organization (ACO) program, has lost money for individuals it covers and overall for Medicare saves just 75¢ per $1000. Medicare Advantage Under-Performance December 20, 2023 A commentary on Medicare Advantage in a high-profile medical journal delicately discusses issues with MA performance. We believe the evidence warrants a much more critical stance. We need not accept the inevitability of Medicare capture by under-performing private insurance. Erosion of Job-Based Insurance to Defined Contribution November 22, 2023 An Affordable Care Act mechanism intended to help small companies support ACA health insurance for workers is now being used by large companies to satisfy their ACA obligation to provide insurance to employees, under a Trump-induced loophole. They’re saving money, and selling it as enhancing choice. Excessive Corporate Control in Medicine November 15, 2023 A valuable report lays out the harm due to a corporate takeover of medicine –deleteriously affecting the experience of both providers and patients. The American Medical Association is failing to fight this trend. Regulatory action and physician activism are needed. KFF Highlights the Harms of Insurance Complexity November 4, 2023 Leaders of the Kaiser Family Foundation – a leading tracker of US health care – published a blog in JAMA identifying system complexity as the “enemy of access and affordability”. Exactly right. How can we streamline our way out of complexity? Single payer. Subpar Consumer Experiences with Health Insurance June 27, 2023 Surprise, surprise – our fragmented, profit-driven, gap-permeated health insurance “system” leads to terrible consumer experiences accessing health care. It’s time, finally, to adopt a simple, efficient and generous solution – single payer. Moral Crisis for US Physicians June 22, 2023 The corporate takeover of medicine has forced doctors to deviate from their healing mission to attend to financial optimization for their employers. This is indeed a moral crisis. Harkening back to the huge benefit that Medicare offered seniors 57 years ago reminds us of the universal medical access and health focus we would achieve with Medicare for All. CMS Primary Care Fiddling Instead of Real Reform June 10, 2023 CMS is proposing a 10-year comparison of primary care payment models (fee-for-service and capitation, with support for care delivery systems). At first glance, why not? On closer scrutiny, this is another delay for an experiment in our current flawed system that will yield limited and equivocal results. Let’s focus on real reform. De-Sickening America May 30, 2023 The author of Sickening: How Big Pharma Broke American Health Care and How We Can Repair It trenchantly describes the fiscal and health damage done to the US from the medical-industrial complex. He calls for transcending ideologies and parties to fix the problems. We say, yes, let’s join in a middle way to provide all with health care and fund it collectively. Amazon Primary Care Financializes Health Data & Threatens Privacy May 27, 2023 With the acquisition of One Medical, Amazon becomes a primary care middleman. It wants to access your medical records and sell the data, sacrificing your privacy. Posts navigation 1 2 3 … 30 Older
