Patient-Dumping, Care-Denying Kaiser Permanente to Administer Buy-In Medicare Plan?

Kaiser Permanente (KP) would appear to be the frontrunner to head up the government-administered Medicare buy-in plan devised by Senate Democrats, especially since the company was ranked as the number one Medicare plan in November. In addition, KP–in compliance with the Obama agenda to have all medical records electronic by 2014–has heavily invested in electronic medical records (EMR) and has even linked two of the largest electronic medical record systems in the country—allowing doctors and nurses at Kaiser and VA hospitals and clinics in San Diego county to access certain information about patients who receive care from both health systems. KP’s merging of the two systems also can be thought of as the flagship model for EMR convergence, leading to an EMR platform under a single-payer, universal health system.

With this type of progress and plan ratings, KP would be a natural fit and even help facilitate the transition to a single-payer system. Even the Democrats in the Senate seem to think that, after demonizing the insurance companies, they could overlook the insurance industry’s greed and other flaws and have them run their new compromise “non-public” option plan.

Furthermore, KP’s chairman and CEO George Halvorson, who took the helm in 2002, has met with Obama and has had several meetings with key figures in the health care debate, including:

March 27–Meeting with Keith Fontenot, who manages the financial resources of government agencies related to health. He oversees funds for Medicare, Medicaid, all U.S. public health agencies, and the entire Health and Human Services Department, from the Food and Drug Administration to the National Institutes of Health.

June 5–Meeting with Peter Orszag, director of the CBO.

July 23–Meeting with Kathleen Sibelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS)

July 24–Meeting with Sarah Fenn, who is a $36,000-a-year White House assistant. Fenn is an attorney and also served as the state legal Voter Protection Director for the Obama campaign in Indiana, Kentucky, and New Hampshire, as well as campaign field staff in Iowa, Idaho, Texas, and Florida.

Halvorson was the only insurance executive to meet with Sebelius.

(more…)

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Tags: Bayer, electronic medical records, EMR, George Halvorson, GlaxoSmithKline
Posted Dec 14th 2009 at 11:58 am in Congress, Healthcare, News, Obama, Politics | 4581443 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/sahiller/2009/12/14/patient-dumping-care-denying-kaiser-permanente-to-administer-buy-in-medicare-plan/Patient-Dumping%2C+Care-Denying+Kaiser+Permanente+to+Administer+Buy-In+Medicare+Plan%3F2009-12-14+19%3A58%3A59SusanAnne+++Hiller

Pork Report October 27, 2009: Paying Dead People Edition

Medicaid paid for prescriptions written for 1,800 dead patients and 1,200 prescriptions “written” by dead physicians

Medicare paid up to $92 million for medical services ordered by dead doctors, some of whom had been dead for more than 10 years

Social Security Administration sent out $250 stimulus checks to 10,000 people who are deceased, some of which have been dead for several decades

U.S. Department of Agriculture distributed $1.1 billion in federal farm aid to the estates or companies of deceased farmers

San Francisco receives federal funding for AIDS patients who died decades ago

Dallas Housing Authority spent federal funds to subsidize housing for 45 deceased clients

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Tags: AIDS funding, Department of Agriculture, federal stimulus, Housing Authority, Medicaid
Posted Oct 27th 2009 at 1:45 pm in Congress | 2161811 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/porkreport/2009/10/27/pork-report-october-27-2009-paying-dead-people-edition/Pork+Report+October+27%2C+2009%3A+Paying+Dead+People+Edition2009-10-27+20%3A45%3A41The+Pork+Report

Senate Finance Dems: 10% Error Rate in Medicaid is Just Fine

Yesterday, Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee torpedoed efforts to require Mediciad applicants to show IDs. We noted that, with fraud running at around $100 billion in Medicaid and Medicare, this might not have been the wisest vote. Well, it turns out Democrats on the Senate Committee are perfectly fine with a 10% fraud rate.

Today, the Committee voted on an amendment from Sen. Cornyn which would have delayed expansions in Medicaid until steps had been taken to get its error/fraud rate down to 3.9%, the average of all government programs. Details below:

Cornyn Amendment #C30 to America’s Healthy Future Act of 2009

Short Title: Reducing waste, fraud, and abuse in the Medicaid program.

Description of Amendment: Prior to implementing the mandatory Medicaid program expansions in the Chairman’s Mark, the Secretary of Health and Human Services must certify that states have implemented program integrity and quality improvement measures specified in the Chairman’s Mark and that the Medicaid program’s average Payment Error Rate Measurement is less than 3.9 percent.

Offset: No offset needed.

 Republicans

CHUCK GRASSLEY -yes, ORRIN G. HATCH -yes, OLYMPIA J. SNOWE -yes, JON KYL -yes, JIM BUNNING -yes, MIKE CRAPO -yes, PAT ROBERTS -yes, JOHN ENSIGN -yes, MIKE ENZI -yes, JOHN CORNYN -yes

Democrats

MAX BAUCUS -no, JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER -no, KENT CONRAD -no, JEFF BINGAMAN -no, JOHN F. KERRY -no, BLANCHE L. LINCOLN -no, RON WYDEN -no, CHARLES E. SCHUMER – no, DEBBIE STABENOW -no, MARIA CANTWELL -no, BILL NELSON -no, ROBERT MENENDEZ – no, THOMAS CARPER -no

Not Agreed to (10-13)

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Tags: Health and Human Services, Medicaid, medicaid fraud, Medicare, Sen. Ben Nelson
Posted Oct 1st 2009 at 2:50 pm in Congress, Healthcare, Politics | 1127081 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/capitolconfidential/2009/10/01/senate-finance-dems-10-error-rate-in-medicaid-is-just-fine/Senate+Finance+Dems%3A+10%25+Error+Rate+in+Medicaid+is+Just+Fine2009-10-01+21%3A50%3A32Capitol++Confidential

IDs For Everything–Except Government Benefits

You need an ID to board an airplane, cash a check, use a credit card and, even, enter many downtown office building. However, you don’t need an ID to apply for Medicaid and potentially receive thousands of dollars in government benefits. And it doesn’t look like you’ll have to show an ID anytime in the near future, either:

Grassley Amendment #C8

Purpose:

An amendment to require presentation of identification in applying for Medicaid benefits

Description of Amendment:

The amendment amends Title 19 of the Social Security Act to require an applicant (or the parent or guardian in the case of a child under the age of 18) to present at the time of application for Medicaid or CHIP benefits government-issued photo identification and that identification must be authenticated with the issuing agency.

Republicans

CHUCK GRASSLEY – yes, ORRIN G. HATCH – yes, OLYMPIA J. SNOWE – yes, JON KYL – yes, JIM BUNNING – yes, MIKE CRAPO – yes, PAT ROBERTS – yes, JOHN ENSIGN – yes, MIKE ENZI – yes, JOHN CORNYN – yes

Democrats

MAX BAUCUS – no, JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER – no, KENT CONRAD – no, JEFF BINGAMAN – no, JOHN F. KERRY – no, BLANCHE L. LINCOLN – no, RON WYDEN – no, CHARLES E. SCHUMER – no, DEBBIE STABENOW -(no vote) MARIA CANTWELL – no, BILL NELSON – no, ROBERT MENENDEZ – no, THOMAS CARPER – no,

Not Agreed to (10-13)

Fraud in Medicaid and Medicare is estimated at around $100 billion a year. Actually proving that someone is who they say they are when applying for benefits would surely trim at least some of that.

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Tags: Baucus, Bingaman, Bunning, Cantwell, Carper
Posted Sep 30th 2009 at 1:45 pm in Congress, Healthcare, Politics | 1050655 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/capitolconfidential/2009/09/30/ids-for-everything-except-government-benefits/IDs+For+Everything--Except+Government+Benefits+2009-09-30+20%3A45%3A36Capitol++Confidential