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Southwest Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowships

News

Last 50 News Postings

(Most recent listed first. Click on title to be directed to the manuscript.)

CMS Proposes Increased Reimbursement for Hospitals but a Decrease for
   Physicians in 2025
California Bill Would Tighten Oversight on Private Equity Hospital Purchases
Private Equity-Backed Steward Healthcare Files for Bankruptcy
Former US Surgeon General Criticizing $5,000 Emergency Room Bill
Nurses Launch Billboard Campaign Against Renewal of Desert Regional
   Medical Center Lease
$1 Billion Donation Eliminates Tuition at Albert Einstein Medical School
Kern County Hospital Authority Accused of Overpaying for Executive
   Services
SWJPCCS Associate Editor has Essay on Reining in Air Pollution Published
   in NY Times
Amazon Launches New Messaged-Based Virtual Healthcare Service
Hospitals Say They Lose Money on Medicare Patients but Make Millions
   Trust in Science Now Deeply Polarized
SWJPCC Associate Editor Featured in Albuquerque Journal
   Poisoning by Hand Sanitizers
Healthcare Layoffs During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Practice Fusion Admits to Opioid Kickback Scheme
Arizona Medical Schools Offer Free Tuition for Primary Care Commitment
Determining if Drug Price Increases are Justified
Court Overturns CMS' Site-Neutral Payment Policy
Pulmonary Disease Linked to Vaping
CEO Compensation-One Reason Healthcare Costs So Much
Doctor or Money Shortage in California?
FDA Commissioner Gottlieb Resigns
Physicians Generate an Average $2.4 Million a Year Per Hospital
Drug Prices Continue to Rise
New Center for Physician Rights
CMS Decreases Clinic Visit Payments to Hospital-Employed Physicians
   and Expands Decreases in Drug Payments 340B Cuts
Big Pharma Gives Millions to Congress
Gilbert Hospital and Florence Hospital at Anthem Closed
CMS’ Star Ratings Miscalculated
VA Announces Aggressive New Approach to Produce Rapid Improvements
   in VA Medical Centers
Healthcare Payments Under the Budget Deal: Mostly Good News
   for Physicians
Hospitals Plan to Start Their Own Generic Drug Company
Flu Season and Trehalose
MedPAC Votes to Scrap MIPS
CMS Announces New Payment Model
Varenicline (Chantix®) Associated with Increased Cardiovascular Events
Tax Cuts Could Threaten Physicians
Trump Nominates Former Pharmaceutical Executive as HHS Secretary
Arizona Averages Over 25 Opioid Overdoses Per Day
Maryvale Hospital to Close
California Enacts Drug Pricing Transparency Bill
Senate Health Bill Lacks 50 Votes Needed to Proceed
Medi-Cal Blamed for Poor Care in Lawsuit
Senate Republican Leadership Releases Revised ACA Repeal and Replace Bill
Mortality Rate Will Likely Increase Under Senate Healthcare Bill
University of Arizona-Phoenix Receives Full Accreditation
Limited Choice of Obamacare Insurers in Some Parts of the Southwest
Gottlieb, the FDA and Dumbing Down Medicine
Salary Surveys Report Declines in Pulmonologist, Allergist and Nurse
   Incomes
CDC Releases Ventilator-Associated Events Criteria

 

 

For complete news listings click here.

The Southwest Journal of Pulmonary, Critical Care & Sleep periodically publishes news articles relevant to  pulmonary, critical care or sleep medicine which are not covered by major medical journals.

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Entries in Cares Act (1)

Sunday
Oct302022

Hospitals Say They Lose Money on Medicare Patients but Make Millions

The VA patient waiting scandal in Phoenix is well documented. What is also well documented is that at least 70% of VA medical centers were engaged in similar schemes. Now a report prepared for the North Carolina State Treasurer’s Office revealed that many state hospitals and lobbyists are also guilty of misrepresentation.  The hospitals did not lose billions of dollars on Medicare patients as they previously claimed, but in fact made large profits from 2015 to 2020 (1).

“What we’re seeing is the biggest transfer of wealth in my lifetime in North Carolina,” North Carolina state Treasurer Dale Folwell said at a press conference on Oct. 25. “It’s a transfer of wealth especially from lower fixed-income people to these big multibillion-dollar corporations who disguise themselves as nonprofits”(2). “North Carolina hospital lobbyists claimed they lost $3.1 billion on Medicare in 2020—the same year hospitals reaped $87 million in Medicare profits,” North Carolina State Health Plan (NCSHP) stated (2). NCHSP said North Carolina hospitals charge privately insured patients 280 percent of Medicare, which forces patients and employers to pay thousands of dollars more for medical care. A range of 55 to 66 percent of more than 100 hospitals profited off Medicare from 2015 through 2020 in North Carolina, the report stated. “While many hospitals’ margins fluctuated, only 15 hospitals consistently lost money on Medicare, and 35 hospitals posted profits over all six years,” the report said (1). North Carolina ranked sixth overall in the states with the most profitable Medicare margins for five of those years, averaging between -0.3 percent and 2.5 percent Medicare margins, the report stated. Arizona ranked 13th.

“This raises serious concerns over hospitals’ commitment to their patients and their charitable mission, and the steep costs passed on to nearly 740,000 members of the State Health Plan,” the state treasurer’s office said in a press release (2). “The hospital cartel is overcharging you because they can, not because they need to,” Folwell said, adding that hospitals have been hiding behind Medicare, claiming huge losses to justify “kneecapping” their patients (2). “This is the Wild West,” Folwell said. “Nobody’s watching it. Nobody’s holding them accountable. We need a commitment from the cartel to get back to their original mission and to stop putting profits over patients.”

Despite this statement, many researchers have found that billions have poured into hospitals through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. The CARES act created the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement plan that allowed for hospitals that adhered to protocols for treating COVID-19 to reap up to $500,000 per patient, beginning with a positive COVID-19 test, the use of a National Institutes of Health-approved antiviral drug called remdesivir, putting the patient on a ventilator, and ending with the hospital listing COVID-19 as the cause of death on a death certificate. According to a report from TN Liberty Network, an independent think tank comprising 28 researchers, hospitals have taken lucrative payoffs from the federal government throughout the last several years (3).

In addition to the CARES Act, the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act provided another $178 billion in relief funds to health care providers and hospitals, with more relief funds siphoned to states from the American Rescue Plan Act beginning in March of 2021, $8.5 billion of which went to health care providers.

The North Carolina Healthcare Association (NCHA) responded to the report, stating that “Instead of bringing transparency and clarity to the public, Treasurer Folwell has created an incomplete and complicated report that fails to address how he will provide more affordable healthcare to state employees and retirees,” NCHA said. “North Carolinians deserve truthful and transparent information. This report fails to deliver it.” (2).

References

  1. North Carolina State Health Plan For Teachers And State Employees, Rice University’s Baker Institute For Public Policy, and the University Of Southern California’s Sol Price School Of Public Policy. Overcharged North Carolina Hospitals Profit on Medicare. 2022. Available at: https://www.shpnc.org/media/3011/download?attachment (accessed 10/29/22).
  2. McGregor M. North Carolina Treasurer’s Office Says Hospitals Reaping Billions from Medicare Despite Claiming Otherwise. Epoch Times. October 28, 2022. Available at: https://www.theepochtimes.com/north-carolina-treasurers-office-says-hospitals-reaping-billions-from-medicare-despite-claiming-otherwise_4824332.html (accessed 10/29/22).
  3. DePriest AJ. Blood Money in U.S. Healthcare. Financial Incentives: The Use of “Covered Countermeasures”. TN Liberty Network. August 8, 2022. Available at: https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/review?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:a22410b7-3189-4a4a-b59a-50bdfb023de9 (accessed 10/29/22).
Cite as: Robbins RA. Hospitals Say They Lose Money on Medicare Patients but Make Millions. Southwest J Pulm Crit Care Sleep. 2022;25(4):59-60. doi: https://doi.org/10.13175/swjpccs050-22 PDF