States, counties, and cities within weeks could start to receive desperately needed money to battle the deadly opioid abuse and overdose crisis as part of a newly finalized, $26 billion settlement with the largest distributors of prescription medications and a onetime maker of powerful painkillers. Janssen, one of the distributors, and the pharmaceutical giant Johnson….
Continue ReadingBANKRUPTCY
What’s really bankrupt? The newest liability dodge by Big Pharma
Big Pharma is blazing a legal trail that wealthy corporations are racing to follow. The corporatists are using a new approach to crush patients and other consumers who seek justice in the civil system with claims that drug makers and other big businesses harmed them with defective and dangerous products or demonstrable misbehavior. The U.S…..
Continue ReadingPatients can’t escape reminders of U.S. health care’s brutal costs
Soaring medical costs crush the finances of far too many patients, as the public was reminded by the release of an annual report on the high toll of cancer-care spending and a surprising congressional reverse aimed at reining in runaway prescription drug prices — or at least attempting to. Leading organizations dealing with cancer treatment….
Continue Reading$140 billion in medical debt slams patients, especially the poor and uninsured
A scandal of the U.S. health system may be far worse than imagined, with the medical debt sold to collection agencies alone amounting to a staggering $140 billion. The $140 billion estimate came from researchers who published in a medical journal and found that such unpaid sums had increased significantly from an $84 billion calculation….
Continue ReadingHospitals gouge poor and uninsured patients with top prices, cost data show
Cash is king. That truism may hold for thrifty savers and businesses and individuals buffeted by economic uncertainty. But this realistic view also may be turned on its head for poorer, uninsured patients trying to cope with bankrupting medical bills. That’s because hospitals — a leading driver of health care costs — gouge with their….
Continue ReadingU.S. advances key new protections for patients from ‘surprise’ medical bills
Federal regulators have taken a welcome initial step to bar insurers and health care providers from holding patients hostage in their all-too-common fee fights, with draft rules out now to crush “surprise” medical bills. The politically riven, do-nothing Congress shocked critics by ending 2020 with an actual new law, included in legislation dealing with the….
Continue ReadingHospitals look mighty craven in deep digs into their draconian debt collection
While medical debt menaces far too many patients, especially those who already struggle because they are poor, sick, and injured, big hospitals are too willing to exploit the legal system with aggressive collection efforts that generate little revenue but lots of grief for patients. Those are some of the takeaways from a raft of articles….
Continue ReadingUVA health system will curb decades of hounding patients over medical bills
The University of Virginia health system has decided to end decades of draconian bill collection, giving a reprieve to tens of thousands of patients and their families who faced harsh legal actions to recover crushing medical debt. The taxpayer-supported institution proclaimed itself “proud” that it will stop aggressively suing its own employees, university students, and….
Continue ReadingInsurers and employers could save $352 billion if hospitals stuck to Medicare rates
Who wouldn’t want $352 billion in health care savings in 2021? Insurers — and more importantly employers — could see that hypothetical big chunk of change staying in their pockets, if somehow they could persuade hospitals to forgo their sky-high and ever-increasing prices, tying those charges instead to rates established and paid in the federal….
Continue Reading$1.9 trillion pandemic relief bill also carries big boost for health care coverage
With millions of Americans now eligible to seek affordable health insurance on Obamacare exchanges newly re-opened to them, even more consumers will want to see if Congress’ impending action on the $1.9 trillion coronavirus pandemic response plan pushed by President Biden further expands coverage options. The Democrats in Congress have made clear that they hope….
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