DL Open Thread: Saturday, August 6, 2022
Indiana Governor First To Sign Abortion Ban Post-Roe. Time for a serious economic boycott of All Things Indiana:
The law’s passage came just three days after voters in Kansas, another conservative Midwestern state, overwhelmingly rejected an amendment that would have stripped abortion rights protections from their State Constitution, a result seen nationally as a sign of unease with abortion bans. And it came despite some Indiana Republicans opposing the measure for going too far, and others voting no because of its exceptions.
The ‘Medicare Advantage’ Scam. A must-read, especially if, like me, you enjoy watching those old shows on MeTV. If you want the Full Monty, here it is. BTW, guess what? As a state pensioner, I was just notified that Delaware will be switching us to a, wait for it, Medicare Advantage plan starting in January. The same Part C stuff that Joe Namath and JJ Walker incessantly hawk on Perry Mason. Maybe someone from the State of Delaware, like, perhaps, the Insurance Commissioner, should do a little reading this weekend? At least in order to avoid being scammed? Or preventing us from being scammed?
Memo To Chris Coons: The Photo Op Should Have Been Just The Beginning. Yes, I’m talking about the Coons-Flake Bro-Fest that preceded the blatant non-investigation into Judge Kavanaugh. Coons took oodles of credit for ‘negotiating’ this bipartisan breakthrough. A ‘special moment’. It would be pointless to ask why the fuck he stopped there. The photo ops are and have been the point all along. Give Susan Collins and her, wait for it, ‘ilk’, the cover they needed. Following through? Up to the journalists, I guess. Which doesn’t much matter when someone is ensconced on the Supreme Court for life.
Who Invented Bitcoin? Is it Satoshi Nakamoto? Is it Craig Wright? Are they the same person? Is it–someone else, perhaps Q? Nobody knows. The fascinating particulars:
The Crypto Open Patent Alliance (Copa), a non-profit that supports cryptocurrencies, is seeking a high court declaration that Wright is not the author of the white paper. Its case claims that Wright forged evidence produced to support his assertion that he is Satoshi. Wright, who denies Copa’s claims, failed in an attempt to have the case struck out last year.
The case was closely watched in the expectation that if Wright lost he would have had to move those bitcoins – seen as the sword-in-the-stone test that would prove Satoshi’s true identity. Those coins are now worth $25bn (£21bn) at the current price of about $23,000 and sit on the bitcoin blockchain, a decentralised ledger that records all bitcoin transactions.
What do you want to talk about?
Medicare Advantage is yet another Republican “privitization” scam, they pay the doctors less to make a profit, just for fun ask your doctor what they think of Medicare Advantage. Assuming they don’t drop you first. That the state is in on this game makes me think many “campaign contributions” have flowed to the states criminal congress.
Almost Forgot! I’m a huge fan of national boycotts, we can start with Texas and Florida and take it from there. Boycotts work, and in particular will scare the excrement out of a states business community.
Further reporting on the absolute shit-head Jerry Heisler and how he’s being fucking owned by Madinah every day.
(First heard on The Highlands Bunker podcast, fyi, consider a patronage & so forth.)
https://baytobaynews.com/stories/manufactured-housing-meeting-leads-to-feud-in-newark,85426
You know, a lot of folks could learn from Madinah here.
A special “thank you” to Representative Madinah Wilson-Anton for standing her ground against the “special interest” legislation that Jerry Heisler and the other wealthy landowners in the manufactured housing communities seek to impose. During my 16-year career as a legislator and as a member of the House Manufactured Housing Committee I have witnessed many of the landowners in these communities enjoy uninterrupted advantages over the homeowners that rent from them. Most attempts to create fairer conditions and circumstances for the poorer homeowners, many of whom are on fixed incomes, have been met with an intense lobbying effort by the wealthy landowners such as Mr. Heisler and the Reybold corporation. These efforts are marked by direct and indirect threats to the homeowners and substantial contributions to the coffers of some legislators. These tactics of intimidation, coercion and reward for policy makers have resulted in a further erosion of the rights of the homeowners who are already at a significant disadvantage. They face soaring and uncontrolled rent increases and consistent neglect of basic maintenance in some of these communities. They also face the threat and reality of park closures and selling of these parks to developers which leave these homeowners with no alternatives to any affordable housing accommodations. Mr. Heisler it is you who should be apologizing. You and those legislators who ally themselves against the basic needs and rights of the manufactured homeowner communities should be seeking ways to work for the “public’s interest” not the “special interest” of wealthy landowners who readily send a campaign contribution to ensure the support of elected officials.
Furthermore, Mr. Heisler, your attitude and arrogance in this matter is highlighted in your willingness to try and influence voters by placing those signs impugning the reputation of one of the most intelligent and thoughtful legislators, Rep. Wilson-Anton. Your consistent and persistent attempts to bully/intimidate duly elected public servants and interfere with their decision-making responsibilities further highlights your ignorance and total lack of respect for the rights of those homeowners who have made you and your company wealthy. I am respectfully asking that you apologize, unconditionally, to Representative Wilson-Anton and try to recover some of your own self-respect.
Representative John Kowalko (25th District)
I work in a medical office and in particular with billing, coding, and insurance. If you have questions about stuff, I love answering them!
The Advantage plans are so interesting. I am pulled in both directions. On a macro level, they are awful, and cost Medicare billions of dollars from overcharging — that’s a fine DailyKos article, and NPR has been covering it for years seen https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/07/16/740964958/records-show-medicare-advantage-plans-overbill-taxpayers-by-billions-annually and https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/11/11/1054281885/medicare-advantage-overcharges-exploding — and yes, the classic denials of coverage, menacing authorization processes, and surprise bills that patients often see long after the fact.
But for our office? They, paradoxically, are great. As a primary care group, we earn tens of thousands of dollars in bonuses from their companies for providing extra data and information — their called HEDIS measures you can read here: https://www.ncqa.org/hedis/ — and chart review and, frankly, our office just kills it when it comes to this stuff. The number crunching and reporting of special codes is easy and they are just throwing money at us all the time in order for them to cut costs or justify other preventive programs. I know it’s saving them millions and they pay out in thousands, but we’re in bed with this devil so you have to take what you can get.
I’m conflicted every day about them. I’ve just accepted that they are here and are only growing every year.
They are growing every year because they are fooling people into thinking they have Medicare. This is…what’s that word again? Oh yeah, dishonest.
I’ll call it mostly dishonest, partially honest. They DO technically still have Medicare, as their eligibility is still active. That commercial plan is just billed instead. If the patient ever goes on Hospice care, you have to bill their traditional Medicare plan again, even if they have an Advantage plan. So, wonky, but proof they still have it.
But, I know what you mean.
Oh, and for what it’s worth, no, they don’t pay us at any lower rates than any other insurances. Now, we’re a PCP, so that’s probably not the same for specialists or those performing complicated procedures or surgeries, or counseling and psychiatric care, etc. The allowed amounts are virtually the same, and in fact you can thank the Delaware Legislature for that with the handful of insurance bills they have passed in the last 5 years that guarantee appropriate payments to primary care providers no matter what the insurance company is.
Again, I can’t speak for other medical specialties, though.