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Trump Cuts Off States From Skimming Medicaid Payments For Big Labor

The Trump administration finalized a rule Thursday scrapping a 2014 Medicaid regulation allowing states to divert payments meant for caretakers to unions.

The Obama administration issued a regulation that protected a state practice that had, by that time, been practiced for decades. Since the 1990s, states have accepted Medicaidmoney from the federal government meant for home health service providers, often the family or friends of the Medicaid-assistance recipient, according to the conservative think tank Freedom Foundation.

In distributing checks to the health providers, some states had begun skimming money and diverting it to unions and other interest groups in the form of dues, even though home health providers may not be members. The Center for Medicaid Services will begin cracking down on the process in July. (RELATED: Trump Is Cutting Off Big Labor From Skimming Americans’ Medicaid Payments And Unions Are Furious)

“Repealing this illegal regulation is a major victory for caregivers and

workers have suggested leaving severely disabled people at homeless shelters

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/10/27/1791112/ind-parents-told-drop-disabled.html

My heart goes out to these families.
There is no place for them to turn.


INDIANAPOLIS Indiana's budget crunch has become so severe that some state workers have suggested leaving severely disabled people at homeless shelters if they can't be cared for at home, parents and advocates said.

They said workers at Indiana's Bureau of Developmental Disabilities Services have told parents that's one option they have when families can no longer care for children at home and haven't received Medicaid waivers that pay for services that support disabled people living independently

Walgreens: no new Medicaid patients as of April 16

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2011367936_walgreens18m.html



Effective April 16, Walgreens drugstores across the state won't take any new Medicaid patients, saying that filling their prescriptions is a money-losing proposition — the latest development in an ongoing dispute over Medicaid reimbursement.

The company, which operates 121 stores in the state, will continue filling Medicaid prescriptions for current patients.

In a news release, Walgreens said its decision to not take new Medicaid patients stemmed from a "continued reduction in reimbursement" under the state's Medicaid program, which reimburses it at less than the break-even point for 95 percent of brand-name medications dispensed to Medicaid patents.

Walgreens follows Bartell Drugs, which stopped taking new Medicaid patients last month at all 57 of its stores in Washington, though it still fills Medicaid prescriptions for existing customers at all but 15 of those stores.

Doug Porter, the state's director of Medicaid, said Medicaid recipients should be able to readily find another pharmacy because "we have many more pharmacy providers in our network than we need" for the state's 1 million Medicaid clients.

He said those who can't can contact the state's Medical Assistance Customer Service Center at 1-800-562-3022 for help in locating one.

Healthcare reform

http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/2088-Wheres-The-Morphine.html

Sometimes there can be no miracle and the inevitable must be accepted. For the sake of our nation this issue must be addressed for exactly what it is. Financial responsibility, because hope can't fix everything, even though we wish it could.


FLINT, Mich. — Carol Y. Vliet’s cancer returned with a fury last summer, the tumors metastasizing to her brain, liver, kidneys and throat.

That's very bad, by the way.

As she began a punishing regimen of chemotherapy and radiation, Mrs. Vliet found a measure of comfort in her monthly appointments with her primary care physician, Dr. Saed J. Sahouri, who had been monitoring her health for nearly two years.

She was devastated, therefore, when Dr. Sahouri informed her a few months later that he could no longer see her because, like a growing number of doctors, he had stopped taking patients with Medicaid.

For what purpose was she being put through Chemo and Radiation "therapy"?

Look, I don't mean to sound callous, but there are times we must be objective. This is one of them.

More Toddlers, Young Children Given Antipsychotics

http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/634536.html

What are we allowing here, just because medicaid will pay for it?


The rate of children aged 2 to 5 who are given antipsychotic medications has doubled in recent years, a new study has found.

Yet little is known about either the effectiveness or the safety of these powerful psychiatric medications in children this age, said researchers from Columbia University and Rutgers University, who looked at data on more than 1 million children with private health insurance.

"It is a worrisome trend, partly because very little is known about the short-term, let alone the long-term, safety of these drugs in this age group," said study author Dr. Mark Olfson, a professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University in New York City.

Prescribing antipsychotics to children in the upper range of that age span -- ages 4 and 5 -- is justifiable only in rare, intractable situations in which all other treatments, including family and psychological therapy, have been tried and are not working, Olfson said.

Swine flu vaccine supplier has to pay back millions

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/11/swine-flu-vaccine-baxter


US pharmaceutical giant Baxter accused of overcharging Medicaid programmes