The federal agency that regulates nursing homes and other long-term care facilities not only has cracked down on them with tough new requirements for coronavirus testing of their staff. The Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services also has flogged its plan to provide facilities with testing equipment and sample tests. While owners and operators have….
Continue ReadingArchives for October 2020
Infection doesn’t deter President from tub-thumping for yet another unproven drug
Well, there he goes again (as President Reagan used to say): President Trump, whose White House has become a coronavirus hot spot and who has clearly played a role in a super spreader event, is hyping yet another medical treatment for Covid-19. He has referred to his own viral infection as “a blessing from God,”….
Continue ReadingProsecutors, pandemic or no, crack down on billions in health care frauds
With the Covid-19 pandemic ensuring that even more dollars are flooding into health care than ever, nefarious parties — including doctors, nurses, and other licensed professionals — have targeted ordinary Americans and the federal government in big-time scams. U.S. prosecutors have punched back with a nationwide fraud crackdown. They announced that they have charged 345….
Continue ReadingHouse Democrats rip Big Pharma execs over prescription drug price-gouging
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee are pounding Big Pharma executives for price gouging, publishing an 18-month investigation of the soaring costs of select prescription medications and grilling high-paid corporate leaders on whether those meds’ spiking prices were all too prevalent in the profit-ravenous drug industry. The prescription medications targeted by the lawmakers included “Celgene….
Continue ReadingGovernment indicts malpractice lawyer for allegedly trying to extort millions from Baltimore hospital
A Maryland attorney has been indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice for an alleged scheme seeking a multi-million dollar payoff by the University of Maryland Medical System. Attorney Stephen Snyder is alleged by the government to have proposed a sham “consulting agreement” with the hospital, which would pay him $25 million, in order to….
Continue ReadingMaryland adds testing and leads area in allowing nursing homes to re-open
Maryland will take the lead among states in the area in re-opening nursing homes and other long-term care facilities from months of coronavirus-related closures to family members, guests, and other visitors. Gov. Larry Hogan (shown, right) acted as the state, for the first time in months, reported that October started with zero Covid-19 fatalities and….
Continue ReadingMcConnell push for immunity from lawsuits would protect big insurers, not small businesses
Taxpayers have put billions of dollars into long-term care rescue. Congress and the White House have deadlocked over further assistance, with a key stumbling block — as expressed by the foot-dragging Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell — focused on demands for greater protections for health care workers and enterprises, as well as business in general,….
Continue ReadingUnchecked Covid-19 pandemic gives U.S. a new reason to hold its breath
Falsehoods, even when loudly repeated, do not magically become true. The Covid-19 pandemic rages across the United States, and the facts do not support in any way the myth that the nation is “rounding a corner” in seeing the disease diminish its destructive course or magically disappearing. The toll of the coronavirus is ripping toward….
Continue ReadingIn the midst of a crisis, Trump administration throws billions at giveaways to favored political targets
Taxpayers and lawmakers have ensured that the federal Health and Human Services agency operates with roughly $2 trillion in discretionary and mandatory funding. This means the agency can employ about 80,000 staffers, many of them top experts in medical science, health care policy, and public health. This concentration of expertise and experience, however, may mean….
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