Scam to privatize Medicare coverage without patients’ consent – National & International News – FRI 15Apr2022

Scam to privatize Medicare coverage without patients’ consent. Russian flagship sinks in Black Sea. Israel: Passover riot at Temple Mount injures 150.

NATIONAL NEWS

Scam to privatize Medicare without patients’ consent

A scam to privatize the administration of Medicare patients’ care without their full knowledge and consent got its start under Trump and is accelerating under Biden.

The Direct Contracting Entity (DCE) program is similar in some ways to private Medicare Advantage programs. Like Medicare Advantage, DCEs may lure in consumers with promises of “advanced” coverage of things like vision and dental care or even gym memberships. But like Medicare Advantage, DCEs are private profit-driven entities. They act as middlemen between Medicare and the doctors and patients in their networks.

Medicare spends 98% of its budget on patient care. In contrast, the average DCE “only spends 60% of our tax dollars on patient care — keeping up to 40% of revenues for their own profit and overhead,” according to Rep. Pramila Jayapal. The way they earn that profit is by denying coverage of care, especially to very sick patients.

Deceptive enrolment

Unlike Medicare Advantage, in which enrollment is voluntary, a patient who prefers traditional Medicare may be enrolled in a DCE without their full knowledge or consent. Jayapal says, “Seniors in Traditional Medicare may be “auto-aligned” to a DCE if any primary care physician they’ve visited in the past two years is affiliated with that DCE. That means Medicare automatically searches two years of seniors’ claims history without their full consent to find any visits with a participating DCE provider as the basis for enrollment”.

Once a patient is in a DCE, it is very difficult to get out of. In many cases, patients have to change their primary care physician to end their enrolment in a DCE. That’s if they realize they’re in a DCE, which many don’t.

Biden’s quiet expansion of DCEs

The DCE program got its start under Trump, but has been quietly expanding under Biden. In February, the Biden administration established the Accountable Care Organization Realizing Equity, Access, and Community Health Model, or ACO REACH program. According to Matthew Cunningham-Cook of Lever News, ACO REACH “allows hospital-led managed care organizations to access the new Medicare privatization scheme, too”. All of this is happening without even a vote in Congress.

Potentially as many as 30 million patients (nearly half of Medicare enrollees) are in danger of being swept up in a DCE without even knowing it. Under the ACO REACH program, that number will grow.

These programs actually cost Medicare and the taxpayers more money than direct coverage. So why is the program expanding? It’s difficult to say for sure. What is certain is that both Biden and the Democratic Party have received massive campaign contributions from people and companies who stand to profit from privatizing Medicare.

Learn more about this

Watch on YouTube (<3 mins): The Medicare Privatization Scheme.

Read: Senior’s Medicare benefits are being privatized without consent (opens in new tab).

Read: The biggest threat to Medicare you’ve never even heard of (opens in new tab).

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Russian flagship sinks in Black Sea. Ukrainians say they sank it, which Moscow denies.

The Russians’ guided-missile cruiser the Moskva has sunk beneath the waters of the Black Sea. The Ukrainians say that they sank the ship with a rocket attack. The Kremlin initially denied the Moskva had sunk at all, saying only it had suffered damage after a fire spread to its munitions compartment.

The Russian Defense Ministry later confirmed that the Moskva did sink. However, they claimed the Moskva sunk in rough weather while under another ship was towing her back to port. Local weather reports indicating calm seas undermine Russia’s claim.

The Pentagon has verified the sinking of the Moskva, but cannot yet confirm the cause.

Click here for the full story (opens in new tab).

Israel: Riot police at Temple Mount injure 150 Palestinians

Earlier this week, Hamas and other Islamic groups had called on Palestinians to “defend” the Al Aqsa Mosque (which Jews call the Temple Mount) as thousands of Jewish pilgrims visited the site today at the start of Passover. Many Palestinians apparently answered the call. Israeli riot police also converged on the site and clashed with the Palestinian protesters, injuring 150. 

The site is sacred to both Jews and Muslims. Israeli officials claim that after their Friday prayers, Palestinians were throwing rocks in the direction of the wailing wall, where Jews were praying. There aren’t any reports of Israeli civilians being injured, although two Israeli policemen were hurt in the clash.

This incident comes amid growing ethnic tensions in recent weeks.

Click here for the full story (opens in new tab).

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