Article by Paul Y. Song, MD Over the past two years, there have been countless tragic stories about the separate and unequal nature of Medi-Cal (California’s Medicaid system). These reports have highlighted numerous disadvantages, overall difficulties, financial hardships, and outrageous delays that far too many Californians and especially those from communites of color face. From […]
By: DAVID LAZARUS Ridiculous, seemingly arbitrary price markups are a defining characteristic of the $4-trillion U.S. healthcare system — and a key reason Americans pay more for treatment than anyone else in the world. But to see price hikes of as much as 675% being imposed in real time, automatically, by a hospital’s computer system
Shining a light on murky hospital markups Read More »
A ventilator on display. California built a stockpile of ventilators and other medical equipment in preparation for an emergency, such as a pandemic, but dismantled it years ago.(Mark Lennihan / Associated Press)
California once had mobile hospitals and a ventilator stockpile. But it dismantled them. Read More »
Billing tactics are inflicting financial harm on patients—and sometimes health-care companies aren’t even aware of their own practices.
Medical Debt Is Crushing Black Americans Read More »
BY DAVID LAZARUSBUSINESS COLUMNIST NOV. 16, 2021 6 AM PT Stephanie Noonan Drachkovitch recently broke her foot while horseback riding. She got treated at a UCLA-affiliated orthopedic facility in Thousand Oaks and has no complaints about the quality of care. “My doctors were fantastic,” Drachkovitch told me. “This isn’t about them.” What this is about,
She was billed $809 for a boot for her broken foot. Amazon charges $80 Read More »
Christopher Rowland Yesterday at 5:41 p.m. EDT Jamie Azar left a rehab hospital in Tennessee this week with the help of a walker after spending the entire month of August in the ICU and on a ventilator. She had received a shot of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in mid-July but tested positive for the coronavirus
Facing Thousands of Dollars in Medical Expense Read More »
Over 100 Democratic lawmakers last week introduced legislation to lower the Medicare eligibility age to 60. There is one small problem that needs fixing, though: so-called “Medicare Advantage.”
It’s time to end the Medicare Advantage scam Read More »
Medicare Advantage organizations…have some incentive to improperly inflate their enrollees’ capitation rates, if these organizations fall prey to greed.
The government lawsuit against Kaiser points to an immense fraud problem in Medicare Read More »
By Jay Hancock, Kaiser Health News Updated 8:15 AM ET, Sat July 17, 2021 (KHN) The care was ordinary. A hospital in Modesto, California, treated a 30-year-old man for shoulder and back pain after a car accident. He went home in less than three hours. The bill was extraordinary. Sutter Health Memorial Medical Center
Hospitals charge huge ‘trauma’ fees to treat people with minor injuries Read More »
