Day: May 22, 2025

United Healthcare In The News (Again)

Can you remember awhile back when the CEO of United Healthcare was shot on the streets of NYC?

Well United Healthcare is not through with being the target of investigation….

It seems that the insurance giant may have committed Medicare fraud….(was this on the list of fraud that Elmo had compiled?)

UnitedHealth Group is facing another government investigation, this one reportedly centered on possible criminal Medicare fraud. Since at least last summer, the Justice Department has been investigating the health insurance company for fraud related to its Medicare Advantage business, reports the Wall Street Journal. Medicare Advantage insurers receive extra payment for covering especially sick patients, meaning there’s an incentive to document patients’ diagnoses. Previous reporting by the Journal revealed “questionable diagnoses by UnitedHealth added billions to taxpayers’ costs,” the outlet notes.

Earlier reports described a DOJ civil fraud investigation related to UnitedHealth’s Medicare billing practices. In a statement, UnitedHealth says it wasn’t informed of the “supposed criminal investigation reported” and stands “by the integrity of our Medicare Advantage program,” per Reuters. It previously disputed the Journal‘s reporting as “inaccurate and biased,” saying Medicare Advantage “provides better health outcomes and more affordable healthcare for millions of seniors” than traditional Medicare. But the criminal probe based in New York presents another headache for a company that has seen its stock fall almost 50% in the last month.

The greedy bastards were not deterred by this investigation and continued abusing the people that depended on them for help….

UnitedHealth Group, the healthcare conglomerate facing a criminal investigation over possible Medicare fraud, secretly paid nursing homes thousands of dollars in bonuses to cut hospital transfers for ailing residents, risking patient health while it saved millions, per a Guardian investigation. The outlet identified numerous cases where nursing home residents needed immediate hospital care but failed to receive it after UnitedHealth’s intervention. In one 2019 case out of Washington state, a nursing home resident was showing textbook symptoms of a stroke, indicating immediate hospitalization was needed. But a remote UnitedHealth employee wanted a less-serious condition ruled out first and asked for an update in, not minutes, but four hours.

In a similar case that year, a remote UnitedHealth employee delayed requesting a hospital transfer for a patient with stroke symptoms, forcing facility nurses to bypass the system. It took an hour and the patient suffered permanent brain damage, per the Guardian. Other UnitedHealth nurses say they faced pressure to persuade Medicare Advantage members to adopt “do not resuscitate” orders—an effort to prevent costly hospital stays—even when the patients had expressed a desire to seek all available treatments.

“A lot of times the [facility] nurses want to send people out and we have to go in and try to stop it,” a UnitedHealth nurse tells the outlet. “And if we don’t … they take us out onto the carpet.” “The sense is: ‘Well, they’re medically frail, and no one lives for ever,'” says another nurse. “No one is truly investigating when a patient suffers harm.” Though internal emails reference “budgets” outlining how many hospital admissions a nursing home had “left,” UnitedHealth denies that its employees prevented hospital transfers or inappropriately pushed patients to change their DNR status. It says nursing homes receive bonuses for preventing unnecessary hospitalizations that are harmful to patients. The company’s shares fell almost 7% Wednesday following the report, per Reuters.

These incidents are disgusting and illustrate just how uncaring these greedy bastards truly are….

Not to worry though the consumer will be protected…..oh wait the Consumer Protection part of government has been mostly shuddered by the Trump administration and DOGE.

What to do now?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Next Pandemic

In the past we have had information to let the people of this country know when diseases were spreading and since we now have a comnplete idiot in charge of HHS and the lack of importance for keeping the public informed we are facing the next pandemic.

I am sure you have read how measles, whooping cough, etc is gaining the upper hand in our society…..and this could be disastrous for the public.

To accomplish its mission of increasing the health security of the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that it “conducts critical science and provides health information” to protect the nation. But since President Trump’s administration assumed power in January, many of the platforms the CDC used to communicate with the public have gone silent, an NPR analysis found.

Many of the CDC’s newsletters have stopped being distributed, workers at the CDC say. Health alerts about disease outbreaks, previously sent to health professionals subscribed to the CDC’s Health Alert Network, haven’t been dispatched since March. The agency’s main social media channels have come under new ownership of the Department of Health and Human Services, emails reviewed by NPR show, and most have gone more than a month without posting their own new content.

“Public health functions best when its experts are allowed to communicate the work that they do in real time, and that’s not happening,” said Kevin Griffis, who served as the director of communications at the CDC until March. “That could put people’s lives at risk.”

Health emergencies have not paused since January. Cases of measles, salmonella, listeria and hepatitis A and C have spread throughout the country. More than 100 million Americans continue to suffer from chronic diseases like diabetes and breast cancer. The decline in the agency’s communication could put people at risk, said four current and former CDC workers, three of whom NPR is allowing to remain anonymous because they are still employed by the CDC and believe they may be punished for speaking out.

https://www.npr.org/2025/05/21/nx-s1-5387723/cdc-communications-cuts-social-media-public-health

How could this happen in a country as advanced as America?

The answer is misinformation and fake analysis…..

Let’s look at why we fall for the bullshit…..

In today’s digital world, people routinely turn to the internet for health or medical information. In addition to actively searching online, they often come across health-related information on social media or receive it through emails or messages from family or friends.

It can be tempting to share such messages with loved ones – often with the best of intentions.

As a global health communication scholar studying the effects of media on health and development, I explore artistic and creative ways to make health information more engaging and accessible, empowering people to make informed decisions.

Although there is a fire hose of health-related content online, not all of it is factual. In fact, much of it is inaccurate or misleading, raising a serious health communication problem: Fake health information – whether shared unknowingly and innocently, or deliberately to mislead or cause harm – can be far more captivating than accurate information.

This makes it difficult for people to know which sources to trust and which content is worthy of sharing.

The allure of fake health information

Fake health information can take many forms. For example, it may be misleading content that distorts facts to frame an issue or individual in a certain context. Or it may be based on false connections, where headlines, visuals or captions don’t align with the content. Despite this variation, such content often shares a few common characteristics that make it seem believable and more shareable than facts.

https://theconversation.com/why-we-fall-for-fake-health-information-and-how-it-spreads-faster-than-facts-250718

It is time for the attacks on our health to STOP!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Coming Syrian Civil War

One of Donny’s clueless sycophants, Rubio made a bold statement the other day….predicting there would soon be a Syrian civil war.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Congress on Tuesday that the US assesses the new al-Qaeda-linked Syrian government could collapse within weeks and that the country could descend into “full-scale civil war.”

Rubio made the comments at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, where he explained the administration’s rationale for engaging with Syria’s new de facto leaders, who the US helped put in power, despite their al-Qaeda roots.

…

“The bad news is that the transitional authority figures, they didn’t pass their background check with the FBI. They’ve got a tough history and one that we understand,” Rubio said.

“If we engage them, it may work out, it may not work out. If we did not engage them, it was guaranteed that it would not work out,” he added. “In fact, it was our assessment that, frankly, the transitional authority, given the challenges they’re facing, are maybe weeks, not many months, away from potential collapse.”

Rubio said that a collapse would lead to “a full-scale civil war of epic proportions. Basically, the country splitting up.”

(antiwar.com)

Two points….first there has been a civil war going on in Syria since about 2011….p0resent day is just a momentary lull in the fighting….second….the country has been split up for years with the Assad government holding the Coast  and the extremists holding most of the east and central parts of the country.

To illustrate my point….just very recently….

While the cooperation between the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) government in Syria and the Kurdish SDF originally made it seem like the violence in northern Syria was on the decline, a new round of fighting between those groups has led to increased tensions and concern that the situation is about to blow up all over again.

Syrian media accused the SDF of trying to infiltrate a pair of army bases in Tal Syriatel, close to the Tishreen Dam. This led to what is being called a “limited” military confrontation between the two sides, though the HTS followed by increasing the number of troops deployed in the area around Tishreen Dam in the name of maintaining security.

This couldn’t have come at a worse time for the two sides, as they are conducting joint operations in neighboring Raqqa Governorate, which is mostly under SDF control. The raids are said to be targeting remnants of the Assad government and “drug dealers,” though locals are bristling at the summary detentions of people on accusations of disloyalty.

(antiwar.com)

Just one incident of the on-going war for dominance in Syria.

Rubio broad statement was clueless and not very accurate….but that is what I expect from someone serving on a cabinet of the least qualified.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”