Tag: Medicare

Medicare to cover obesity drugs, but not for weight loss

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)
Source

Medicare to cover obesity drugs, but not for weight loss

“CMS has issued guidance to Medicare Part D plans stating that anti-obesity medications (AOMs) that receive FDA approval for an additional medically accepted indication can be considered a Part D drug for that specific use,” the spokesperson added, specifying that drugs that are FDA-approved for only weight loss do not fall under this consideration.

Wegovy, Rybelsus, and Ozempic, are the different brand names for Semaglutide. They have a black box warning for Medullary thyroid cancer.* 🤦🏼‍♀️

Related:

Wegovy side effects: What you should know

*Obesity and Cancer

Hospitals, doctors drop private Medicare plans over payment disputes

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

One large health system with hospitals in Virginia and Ohio this year cut off in-network access to consumers enrolled in some Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield Medicare and Medicaid health insurance plans.

Hospitals, doctors drop private Medicare plans over payment disputes

Related:

Vanderbilt Health to drop some Medicare Advantage plans

H/T: Christopher Westfall | Senior Savings Network (this is not an endorsement)

[2022] The Dark History of Medicare Privatization

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Medicare Advantage was supposed to be a money-saver. It’s now become a costly, unaccountable cash cow for private insurance companies that is swallowing traditional Medicare.

The Dark History of Medicare Privatization

Related:

Medicare goes “woke”?! 😉

CMS Unveils ACO REACH: What you Need to Know

The Geo Direct Contracting model is scrapped, and ACO REACH is replacing GPDC…

A new incentive will help to address health equity.

Blue Cross Blue Shield Association

Blue Cross and Blue Shield insurance companies are licensees, independent of the association and traditionally of each other, offering insurance plans within defined regions under one or both of the association’s brands. Blue Cross Blue Shield insurers offer some form of health insurance coverage in every U.S. state. They also act as administrators of Medicare in many states or regions of the U.S.

What Mobile Clinics in Dollar General Parking Lots Say About Health Care in Rural America

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Yves here. Having lowest of low end retailers take a flier with mobile clinics is yet another proof of the poor state of health care in the US. I would be curious to learn how countries in Europe encourage/incentivize doctors to practice out in the boonies. One can envision remedies, like scholarships for doctors who agree to practice in designated areas for at least five years, but dreaming up solutions and getting them implemented are in two different universes.

Needless to say, giving the poverty of local alternatives, some of the users of this service are fans. But your humble blogger is not comfortable with a purely profit-motivated party so remote from the health care industry providing treatments.

What Mobile Clinics in Dollar General Parking Lots Say About Health Care in Rural America

Welfare Queens and Welfare Fraud

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

The Rise and Reign of the Welfare Queen

Researcher links government assistance program to much earlier origins of welfare stereotypes

How Bill Clinton’s Welfare Reform Changed America

But based on several studies of TANF and its beneficiaries, “it barely reaches even the poorest Americans, and has all but ceased doing the work of lifting people out of poverty,” according to the Atlantic. “‘Welfare reform’ didn’t fix welfare so much as destroy it, and if similar changes were applied to Medicaid and food stamps, they would likely do the same.”

Americans believe benefits fraud is common for SNAP

Experts say that deliberate SNAP fraud is uncommon because of the rigorous application process and multi-step eligibility review. In 2016, the Congressional Research Service determined that for every 10,000 households participating in SNAP, about 14 contained a recipient who was investigated and determined to have committed fraud.

The Truth About Food Stamps

Who Is Really Responsible for Welfare Fraud?

In other words, don’t take a single example or casual observation of welfare fraud and claim it represents the tens of millions of poor who receive welfare benefits.

…

While welfare fraud committed by the poor appears to be low, the federal government has long recognized businesses being the true criminals.

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While these are some of the better known examples of large scale welfare fraud, they are not the only ones. The above cases alone represent over $25 Billion in welfare fraud recovery. The criminals having the greatest impact committing welfare fraud against the government are not the poor, but the privately owned businesses that take advantage of them.

Brett Favre Is The Welfare Queen Republicans Warned Us About

Updates:

Biggest Perpetrators of Welfare Fraud Are Private Companies, Not ‘Welfare Queens’

NY Times Blames SOCIAL SPENDING for Debt Crisis—Ignores Endless War

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

This is a clip from our show SYSTEM UPDATE, now airing every weeknight at 7pm ET on Rumble. You can watch the full episode for FREE here: How Endless War Bankrupted the US While Inflicting Mass Suffering at Home. Plus: Macron Threatens Internet Shutdown & Update on US Govt’s Private Data Purchases | SYSTEM UPDATE #111

NY Times Blames SOCIAL SPENDING for Debt Crisis—Ignores Endless War via Glenn Greenwald

Related:

America Is Living on Borrowed Money

America’s Wars and the US Debt Crisis

Jeffrey Sachs: Bipartisan Support of War, from Iraq to Ukraine, Is Helping Fuel U.S. Debt Crisis

All aboard the gravy train: an independent audit of US funding for Ukraine

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

In the absence of official scrutiny of Washington’s spending spree on Ukraine, The Grayzone conducted an independent audit of US funding for the country. We discovered a series of wasteful, highly unusual expenditures the Biden administration has yet to explain.

All aboard the gravy train: an independent audit of US funding for Ukraine

Threats to international peace and security – Security Council, 9364th meeting