The US is entering a golden age of corporate medicine
The recent slew of mergers and acquisitions is part of a larger corporate transformation that is remaking American healthcare – for the worse By Adam Gaffney for The Guardian A golden age of corporate medicine may be dawning. A slew of mergers and acquisitions looks set to transform American healthcare, drawing health insurance giants, pharmacy […]
Hospitals Are Leaving Rural America. Rural Americans Are Staying Put.
By Debbie Weingarten for Talk Poverty Kendra Colburn spent a decade uninsured. During those years, she worked as a carpenter near her hometown in rural Vermont, earning just enough that she didn’t qualify for low-income health care, but not enough to afford health insurance on her own. While uninsured, she suffered two major work injuries […]
Why does the U.S. spend so much more on healthcare? It’s the prices
By Harris Meyer for Modern Healthcare “It’s an incredible bureaucratic mess to get anything done for patients,” said Cullen, president-elect of the American Academy of Family Physicians. In contrast, Dr. Trina Larsen Soles’ 12-physician general practice in Golden, British Columbia, has one full-time staffer assigned each day to billing the province’s public medical services plan, […]
The Disappearing Doctor: How Mega-Mergers Are Changing the Business of Medical Care
Big corporations — giant retailers and health insurance companies — are teaming up to become your doctor. By Reed Abelson and Julie Creswell for The New York Times Is the doctor in? In this new medical age of urgent care centers and retail clinics, that’s not a simple question. Nor does it have a simple […]
Whistleblowers Sue City’s Top Health Insurance Providers
By Brigid Bergin for WNYC Three whistleblowers representing New York City employees and retirees are suing the city’s top health insurance providers for defrauding taxpayers of more than a billion dollars. The lawsuit unsealed in New York Supreme Court last month alleges that GHI, along with parent company EmblemHealth and their partner, Empire Blue Cross […]
California launches investigation following stunning admission by Aetna medical director
By Wayne Drash for CNN California’s insurance commissioner has launched an investigation into Aetna after learning a former medical director for the insurer admitted under oath he never looked at patients’ records when deciding whether to approve or deny care. California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones expressed outrage after CNN showed him a transcript of the […]