Payers to CMS: Give us more money or we'll take it out on the members
Plus: New method to 3D print artificial eyeballs
Hello everyone and happy Friday. This is the Friday Pulse Check newsletter from Fulcrum Strategies.
I want to kick off this edition by letting you know about some excited updates coming to the FLATLINING Podcast. Starting next week, we will be featuring physicians on the program regularly. They will be sharing their stories and expertise as we discuss the most important issues facing providers and their patients.
Our first guest is Dr. Damian McHugh, an emergency medicine physician who worked in ERs through the COVID-19 pandemic before becoming an advisor for Curi in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Dr. McHugh, Ron Howrigon, and I had a great discussion on burnout and the effect it is having on our healthcare system. And, because I try to make sure not all our episodes are doom and gloom, we talked about what can be done to fix the issue.
I hope you’ll check out our discussion with Dr. Damian McHugh next week. It will, of course, be available here and in your email (if you’re a www.FLATLINING.net subscriber) and wherever you listen to podcasts.
Subscribe to the FLATLINING Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the iHeartRadio app, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Pandora, TuneIn, and Audible.
In the news:
UHC’s Change Healthcare crippled by ransomware attack - KFF Health News
LIVE UnitedHealth Group stock price: UNH 0.00%↑
Walgreens to accept Medicare Advantage benefits online - BusinessWire
LIVE Walgreens-Boots Alliance stock price: WBA 0.00%↑
BCBS NC and Cigna among payers joining White House food security initiative - WhiteHouse.gov
LIVE Cigna stock price: CI 0.00%↑
New study finds that cancer patients who have a behavioral health disorder are more likely to suffer from complications - Journal of the American College of Surgeons, or read about it in MedicalXpress
Current stop-gap spending bill excludes changes to Medicare fee schedule - Modern Healthcare 🔒
Opinion: Health Care: Right, Privilege, or Neither? - Thomas Buckley at The Point
California Watch: State is trying to force physicians to take implicit bias classes; a new lawsuit says it violates the first amendment - The Los Angeles Times
Payers say they need more money from the federal government
This week on the FLATLINING Podcast, Ron and I discussed a report about a payer-backed lobby group asking Congress to make sure Medicare Advantage payer make more money.
Now, unless you have been living under a rock or haven’t been listening to our podcast, you’ll remember that Medicare Advantage products continue to be the most profitable products for the payers. They are so profitable that it caused Humana (HUM 0.00%↑) to focus solely on government products and forgoing the commercial market.
The Berkley Research Group (linked above) study was not available to us when we recorded our podcast this week, but it goes to bolster this argument that CMS cuts are going to harms the payers.
This study demonstrates that instead of taking a hit to their own profits, the payers are going to take it out on their members and remove benefits that many seniors have come to rely on.
Of course, Ron and I think the whole situation is a bit laughable given that Congress has cut the Medicare physician fee schedule every year (and even allowed a more than 3% cut this year). But it demonstrates one of the broken factors of our healthcare system: physicians and patients are thought about last.
For more, check out this week’s episode of the FLATLINING Podcast from Fulcrum Strategies by clicking the link below or searching for it where ever you listen to podcasts.
Subscribe to the FLATLINING Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the iHeartRadio app, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Pandora, TuneIn, and Audible.
Finally…
I wanted to share an interesting technological advancement story that some of my ophthalmology friends might appreciate. Scientists have developed a way to 3D print artificial eyeballs in a more efficient, accurate, and (in our healthcare system most importantly) a cheaper way. Read more in MedicalXpress.
Have a good weekend,
Matthew