Tag Archives: Department of Health and Human Services

‘Staggering’: Watchdog Finds Medicare Advantage Plans Deny Necessary Care

“These plans are designed to maximize profits for corporations, NOT to provide high-quality healthcare,” said Social Security Works.

By Jessica Corbett Published 4-28-2022 by Common Dreams

A government watchdog revealed Thursday that Medicare Advantage plans—which are offered by private companies but required to follow rules set by the government healthcare program—deny medically necessary care to tens of thousands of enrollees each year.

The revelation came in a report released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG), which examined a random sample of 250 prior authorization denials and 250 payment denials issued by 15 of the largest Medicare Advantage Organizations (MAOs) during the first week of June in 2019. Continue reading →

‘Good News for Seniors’: Becerra Orders Medicare to Reassess Premium Hike

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“It is unconscionable,” said one advocate welcoming the announcement, “for Medicare premiums to increase this dramatically because of one corporation’s greed.”

By Brett Wilkins. Pubished 1-10-2022 by Common Dreams

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra announced on January 10, 2022 that he was ordering a review of a planned 15% hike in the Medicare Part B premium. Photo: Gage Skidmore/flickr/CC

As the head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced Monday that he was ordering a review of a planned 15% hike in the Medicare Part B premium for 2022, healthcare reform advocates stressed the need for Congress to pass a Build Back Better bill with a provision allowing the federal government to negotiate the price of prescription drugs.

HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said that he was instructing the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) “to reassess the recommendation for the 2022 Medicare Part B premium”—a hike that progressive critics said was largely the result of the pharmaceutical industry’s outrageous profiteering. Continue reading →

‘Weapon of War’: Cori Bush Decries Unregulated Use of Tear Gas on US Civilians

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“The current design of our law enforcement is militarized,” said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

By Julia Conley, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 10-14-2021

Tear gas in front of Oakland Museum – Occupy Oakland January 2012. Photo: Steve Rhodes/flickr/CC

Following a call by Rep. Cori Bush to investigate the use of tear gas on civilians by law enforcement, the House Oversight Committee on Thursday released a memo showing that the federal government has never determined the unregulated chemical to be safe for use on humans—despite the fact that manufacturers earn millions of dollars per year providing tear gas to police departments across the country.

Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) and Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), who chair the Oversight Committee’s panels on economic and consumer policy and civil rights liberties, respectively, released the memo decrying “a complete void in the regulation of tear gas, a weapon that is banned in war yet commonly used against U.S. citizens.” Continue reading →

Promised Vaccine Stockpile Doesn’t Even Exist? Governors Demand Trump ‘Answer Immediately for This Deception’

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States “thought they were getting more doses and they planned for more doses and opened up to 65 and up, thinking they were getting more.”

By Kenny Stancil, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 1-15-2021

Photo: U.S. Secretary of Defense/flickr

Earlier this week, the White House said the federal government would soon release coronavirus vaccine doses stored for second shots, but governors expecting increased shipments discovered Friday that no national stockpile exists, and now they are demanding that President Donald Trump’s administration be held accountable for deceiving the American public.

“Governors were told repeatedly by [the Department of Health and Human Services] there was a strategic reserve of vaccines, and this week, the American people were told it’d be released to increase supply of vaccine,” tweeted Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) on Friday. “It appears now that no reserve exists. The Trump admin. must answer immediately for this deception.” Continue reading →

‘Vote These Monsters Out’: Trump Officials Weigh Deep Funding Cuts to Covid-19 Relief, Newborn Screenings in Democrat-Led Cities

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“Besides shameless graft, Trump’s central agenda is tormenting the people who didn’t vote for him.”

By Jake Johnson, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 10-21-2020

Screenshot: ABC news go

Documents obtained by Politico reveal that the Trump White House is weighing millions of dollars in federal funding cuts to Covid-19 relief, newborn screenings, and other crucial healthcare programs in Democrat-led cities, a move critics decried as politically motivated “retribution” that could have a devastating impact on poor and sick Americans amid the ongoing pandemic.

Politico reported late Tuesday that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has “identified federal grants covering… nearly 200 health programs that could be in line for cuts as part of a sweeping government-wide directive the administration is advancing during the final weeks of the presidential campaign and amid an intensifying pandemic Trump has downplayed.” Continue reading →

Emails Show How Trump Official at HHS Tried to Get Fauci to Downplay Covid-19 Threat to School Children

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“This sort of story will be recalled years from now as an example of the government interfering with science, with predictably disastrous results.”

By Andrea Germanos, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 9-9-2020

Screenshot: ABC News

Reporting from Politico Wednesday revealed that a Trump-allied official within the Department of Health and Human Services tried to censor Dr. Anthony Fauci from communicating to the press dangers the coronavirus may pose to school children.

According to Politico, the messaging directives came from Paul Alexander, a Trump administration appointee at the Department of Health and Human Services. Alexander is a senior adviser to Michael Caputo, a Trump ally and assistant HHS secretary for public affairs. Continue reading →

After Spending Months Denying Need for Testing, Trump Moves to Gut FDA’s Oversight Process for Coronavirus Tests

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A former FDA official compared the move to “letting the Wild West be the Wild West.”

By Julia Conley, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 8-21-2020

Screenshot: ABC

Public health experts on Friday raised alarm over a new policy unveiled by the Health and Human Services Department blocking the Food and Drug Administration from regulating a number of laboratory tests including those that test for Covid-19.

The administration announced on the HHS website that it wants many tests for the coronavirus and other diseases to reach the market without the regulatory process which ensures the tests are accurate and not fraudulent. Continue reading →

Democrats Demand Trump Reverse ‘Irresponsible’ Order as States Lose Access to Crucial Covid-19 Data

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“The Trump administration’s mismanagement of the Covid-19 response and refusal to heed public health expertise continue to put the country in a dangerous position.”

By Jake Johnson, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 7-19-2020

TMD testing for COVID-19 on 6-15-2020. Photo: TMD

Democratic lawmakers in the House and Senate are demanding that the Trump administration immediately reverse an order requiring hospitals to send Covid-19 patient information directly to a Health and Human Services database instead of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a change that threw the data-collection process into chaos as states struggle to cope with soaring infections.

NPR reported Friday that “hospital data in Kansas and Missouri is suddenly incomplete or missing” following the Trump administration’s directive, which took effect on July 15 to the dismay of experts and local officials who previously relied on the CDC system to track the coronavirus and allocate resources. Continue reading →

Defying ‘Logic and the Law,’ HHS Inspector General Allows Trump’s Vaccine Czar to Maintain Big Pharma Investments

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“The IG has given a green light for Slaoui to use his public office for self-enrichment, a practice that has become frighteningly common within the Trump administration.”

By Julia Conley, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 7-15-2020

Screenshot: YouTube

Ethics watchdogs on Wednesday slammed a ruling by the Health and Human Services Department’s inspector general, who decided this week that Moncef Slaoui, a former pharmaceutical executive now heading the Trump administration’s coronavirus vaccine task force, does not have to disclose or divest his investments in the industry.

As the co-director of Operation Warp Speed, a public-private partnership aimed at finding a vaccine for Covid-19 by the end of 2020, Slaoui is in the position to award contracts to pharmaceutical companies researching potential vaccines and treatments. Continue reading →

Federal Court Strikes Down Trump’s ACA Rule Amounting to ‘Intentional, Targeted Attack on Abortion Access’

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“It would have created a logistical nightmare for health insurers and individual enrollees and pushed abortion even further out of reach in the midst of a global pandemic that has upended our economy.”

By Julia Conley, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 7-11-2020

Photo: Charlotte Cooper/flickr/CC

A federal court late Friday struck down the Trump administration’s attempt to erect new barriers to abortion care, this time using the for-profit insurance industry.

US District Judge Catherine Blake in Maryland blocked the administration from implementing the so-called Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Exchange Program Integrity rule, after Planned Parenthood of Maryland joined several individual plaintiffs in suing the Department of Health and Human Services over the regulation. Continue reading →

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The Movement Continues – Globally

Tag Archives: Department of Health and Human Services

Promised Vaccine Stockpile Doesn’t Even Exist? Governors Demand Trump ‘Answer Immediately for This Deception’

States “thought they were getting more doses and they planned for more doses and opened up to 65 and up, thinking they were getting more.”

Emails Show How Trump Official at HHS Tried to Get Fauci to Downplay Covid-19 Threat to School Children

“This sort of story will be recalled years from now as an example of the government interfering with science, with predictably disastrous results.”

After Spending Months Denying Need for Testing, Trump Moves to Gut FDA’s Oversight Process for Coronavirus Tests

A former FDA official compared the move to “letting the Wild West be the Wild West.”

Federal Court Strikes Down Trump’s ACA Rule Amounting to ‘Intentional, Targeted Attack on Abortion Access’

“It would have created a logistical nightmare for health insurers and individual enrollees and pushed abortion even further out of reach in the midst of a global pandemic that has upended our economy.”