'Band-Aid on a Tumor': Critics Blast Biden Rebrand of Trump's Medicare Privatization Scheme

[CousinIT]

"Changing the name doesn't change the fact that the Direct Contracting program is backdoor privatization of Medicare," said one progressive advocate.

JAKE JOHNSON

February 25, 2022

Rejecting pressure to terminate the program in its entirety, the Biden administration on Thursday announced it is redesigning a Trump-era experiment that physicians and progressive lawmakers have criticized as a scheme to fully privatize Medicare.

"This dangerous experiment must be stopped before it further harms the health of vulnerable seniors."

Instead of ending what's known as the Direct Contracting model, which the Trump administration officially launched in 2020, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) gave the program a new name: ACO REACH, which stands for Accountable Care Organization Realizing Equity, Access, and Community Health.

In addition to the name change and fresh veneer—a step in line with the healthcare industry's call for a "rebranding"—CMS said the program will now span four years instead of eight and will include requirements aimed at ensuring "transparency" and "equity."

The changes are slated to take effect on January 1, 2023.

Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), a doctor-led group that has spearheaded the opposition to Direct Contracting, was far from satisfied with the Biden administration's changes, which the organization argued are more cosmetic than substantive.

"ACO REACH is Direct Contracting in disguise," said Dr. Susan Rogers, an internal medicine physician and president of PNHP. "This new model doubles down on Direct Contracting's fatal flaws, inserting a profit-seeking middleman between beneficiaries and their providers."

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/02/25/band-aid-tumor-critics-blast-biden-rebrand-trumps-medicare-privatization-scheme

[JohnSJ]

1. Link?

[CousinIT]

4. ADDED!

So sorry I left it out, I've added it to the post.

Here are two more on the issue - the two organizations below are concerned with protecting and preserving traditional Social Security and Medicare:

https://socialsecurityworks.org/dces-fact-sheet/
https://www.ncpssm.org/entitledtoknow/trump-plan-to-privatize-medicare-still-alive-and-well/

[JohnSJ]

5. Thanks

[XanaDUer2]

2. I reject privatization nt

[moose65]

9. Me too, but we already have a great deal of it....

With Medicare Advantage. I have seen like 10,000 commercials for Medicare Advantage plans lately, starring Joe Namath and Jimmie Walker. Those commercials are misleading at best, and they give the impression that they are ads for Medicare itself, which Medicare doesn't actually do.

Medicare Advantage has to be a product of the George W. Bush administration, the same administration that gave us the "prescription drug plan" and the infamous donut hole.

[Celerity]

6. Why is this Trump gambit being kept?

I would like to hear both sides and decide for myself. Perhaps there is a legit reason, perhaps not.

[CousinIT]

7. I wish I knew! I don't get much tweeting at POTUS, Bacerra, CMS, CMSInnovations

Etc.

The one thing I do know is that those making MONEY on this dirty scheme don't want their gravy train shut off.

[KPN]

8. Wrong direction. Plus, this won't garner votes.

Seems like a half-hearted attempt to do at least something while at the same time trying to deal with all the other shit that TFG created during his 4 years in the playground

[area51]

10. Kick. n/t

[Kid Berwyn]

11. Surely, soon there will be universal coverage?

Oh, wait. That was then.

[CousinIT]

12. This scheme was cooked up by UNELECTED Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner

AND WAS DESIGNED BY AND SPECIFICALLY BENEFITS HIS FORMER COLLEGE BUDDY.

December 14 2021, 7:46 a.m.

IN THE FINAL stretch of the Trump administration, government attorneys expressed ethics concerns about a Medicare privatization scheme being set up by Adam Boehler, a former dorm-mate of Jared Kushner’s who was made director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, also known as CMMI or the Innovation Center.

In January 2019, ahead of the launch of a new direct contracting model, the Office of the General Counsel for the Health and Human Services Department warned, in comments on a draft of the proposal, that it appeared as if the new project was being set up to benefit specific companies.

“We are concerned based on [Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services]’s regular references to organizations like Chen Med, Oak Street Health, and Verily in the comments and otherwise, that this model has been designed with specific private sector entities in mind. If accurate, this could create ethics concerns, as the creation of this model would give those entities a leg up in the market,” read the guidance, a copy of which was obtained by The Intercept.

The direct contracting model was announced publicly in April 2019 and began its implementation phase in October 2020. The project pays private companies a predetermined but individualized amount per year, per patient, regardless of what the company spends on care, and has persisted and grown under the Biden administration.

Boehler, prior to working in the Trump administration, ran a startup called Landmark Health, which was backed by venture capital money, including the firm Oxeon. Multiple Oxeon-funded health companies, such as Oak Street Health, were directly referenced in the documents setting up the new project, which drew scrutiny from the Office of the General Counsel. Under Boehler, CMMI contracted with Oxeon to recruit the noncareer staff for CMMI, who then went on to design the program. Once the project was set up, Landmark Health announced it would be contracting with CMMI to become a direct contracting entity — meaning Boehler’s model was shoveling money to the firm he had left. Boehler is now CEO of Rubicon Founders, a venture capital and private equity firm operating in the health care industry. (Before taking his position in the administration, he had divested from any Landmark, along with other healthcare-related investments.)

https://theintercept.com/2021/12/14/medicare-privatized-health-care-insurance-direct-contracting-ethics/

[XanaDUer2]

13. Kick nt

[I_UndergroundPanther]

14. Fuck privatization

Scrap all privatization of public services .

Too hell with greedy middlemen and thier godamn greed.

Biden get these parasites out of public health and all forms of public aid.
Just fuckem all.