Free Republic

“Ohio-based coin shop owner took to social media this week to inform the world that his regional bank, where he has been a customer in good standing for many years, shut down all six of his business and personal bank accounts…”

With new rules requiring IRS disclosure for all sales over $600, and in view of the fact that eBay dealers were specifically mentioned, does anyone have any idea of what buyers and sellers are doing for sales over $600 privately? How about a seller to a jewelry store or gold dealer?

Americans who have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 will be able to visit the European Union this summer, Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said in an interview with The New York Times on Sunday. "The Americans, as far as I can see, use European Medicines Agency-approved vaccines," von der Leyen said,

I’ve seen fact checks that said that the overall state of WI did not have more votes with eligible voters. But that’s not the question. We want to know the voting districts with more votes than voters. Milwaukee would be likely.

HHS Secretary Alex Azar on Tuesday hinted at further pushes from CMS on value-based care, including population health benefits like those newly allowed in Medicare Advantage and per-member per-month payments for a patient's total cost of care. Speaking at the Milken Institute Future of Health Summit in Washington, Azar gave the example of paying a provider $14,000 a year for all of a person's health costs — regardless of how much care is actually required.

Based on the precedent of the tobacco settlement, I expect the following are most likely to happen. First, some lawyers will enrich themselves with millions of dollars. Second, state and local governments will use the bulk of the money to supplement their various non-health-related budgets. Third, what little what is left will (hopefully) be used to help the addicts for whom most of the money was intended in the first place. I sincerely hope I am wrong with this prediction and most money will indeed go to help these sick individuals and to prevent further drug-related crises. We shall see.

Of the 2916 people who died in Massachusetts between 2013-2015 (and had complete toxicology reports): 1789 (61%) had heroin detected. 1322 (45%) had fentanyl detected. Only 39 (1.3%) of the decedents who had a prescription opioid detected in their body had an active (legal) prescription for that opioid on the day they died. In other words, 98.7% of the people who died and had a prescription drug in their body obtained that drug illegally (not by prescription). This confirms that it is (and has been) the abuse, not the use of opioids that is killing people. Properly managed pain patients...

The DEA has failed miserably in keeping illicit fentanyl and its analogs out of this country (3) so the agency, like lawmakers, has doubled down on pills, even as more and more evidence emerges that pills are not only not the primary (or even close) culprit in causing overdose deaths, but there is a real inverse relationship between the number of prescriptions and overdoses, something I have written about numerous times in the past.

Administrative complexity and failures of pricing, anywhere from 54% to 66% … And while physicians are the most easily squeezed, the waste that they are responsible for is not nearly as high as the waste from market failures, both pharmaceutical and administratively.

It is estimated that 10,000 baby boomers enter Medicare every day. With Medicare six years from insolvency, seniors need the freedom to opt out of Medicare and into private coverage without losing their Social Security benefits.

The continuing exodus of healthcare providers out of pain management is especially obnoxious in light of the fact that no less an authority than the American Medical Association has repudiated the central logic of the 2016 CDC Guidelines, used widely as an excuse for restricting patient access. We must also recognize that America’s opioid and suicide crises are much larger than just prescribing or even street drugs. The factors which cause people to be increasingly vulnerable to addiction and suicide are largely socio-economic.

Highly rigorous and respected Cochrane systematic studies in 2010 and 2012 of chronic pain patients found addiction rates in the 1 percent range, and a report on over 568,000 patients in the Aetna database who were prescribed opioids for acute postoperative pain between 2008 and 2016 found a total “misuse” rate of 0.6 percent. The continued clampdown by the DEA also shows a complete lack of understanding about the nature of addiction.

“Rooting out and prosecuting abuses within our health care system is a top priority for my office,” Craig Carpenito, U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, said. “In New Jersey, these illegal activities run the gamut from over-prescribing dangerous opioids, to running pharmacies improperly, to mis-prescribing unnecessary medications, to tricking patients – often the elderly or vulnerable – into seeking expensive genetic testing or compounded prescriptions they don’t need. Today’s message should be clear: We are dedicated to combatting all forms of illegal activity in the health care arena. If you put patients’ health at risk with criminal intent,...

Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division announced today an expansive health care fraud enforcement operation across the Gulf Coast, involving charges against a total of 11 individuals across four federal districts for their alleged involvement in various schemes to defraud Medicare, Medicaid and TRICARE and to obtain oxycodone and other controlled substances by fraud. The conduct allegedly resulted in more than $515 million in fraudulent billings. Those charged included physicians, licensed social workers, as well as other medical and business professionals. In addition, in the state of Louisiana, 22 defendants, including 19 certified mental...

The Justice Department announced today a significant health care fraud enforcement operation across Florida and Georgia, involving charges against a total of 67 individuals across four federal districts for their alleged involvement in various schemes to defraud Medicare and Medicaid. The conduct allegedly resulted in more than $160 million in fraudulent billings. Those charged included physicians as well as other medical and business professionals. In addition, in the state of Florida, 16 defendants, including one licensed mental health professionals, have been charged with defrauding the Medicaid program out of over $1.2 million. Florida’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) investigated these...

“The UPI would facilitate the vast data-sharing permitted without consent under HIPAA,” said Twila Brase, president and co-founder of CCHF. “This national patient ID would enable government and other third parties to link every piece of data in every medical record of every patient into one longitudinal digital dossier, leaving patients with no options for keeping their data, their personal lives, and their medical conditions confidential. As troubling as the privacy implications, this federal ID card would also become mandatory for patient access to care. In short -- no card, no care.”

Federal narcotics agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration raided several Kaiser Permanente pharmacies along the West Coast Sept. 18, according to The Oregonian. The inquiry is part of a Los Angeles-based investigation. Federal narcotic officers from the agency's diversion control office used administrative inspection warrants to search records to determine if legitimately made controlled substances were being diverted for illicit drug use. "We are fully cooperating with the DEA to provide the agency with the information they are seeking. As always, we are committed to complying with all state and federal regulations and ensuring the safety of our patients and...

Wrongful death case. Opioids and alcohol. “The motion hinged on the defendant's contention that law enforcement had failed to preserve bottles of alcohol, pill bottles and pills, and cash, and had failed to properly test F.E. for the presence of alcohol before determining the cause of his death.”

After a seven-day trial, Chad A. Scott, 51, of Covington, Louisiana, was found guilty of two counts of perjury, three counts of obstruction of justice and two counts of falsifying government records. U.S. District Judge Jane Triche Milazzo of the Eastern District of Louisiana, who presided over the trial, has scheduled sentencing for Dec. 4, 2019.

"This settlement framework avoids wasting hundreds of millions of dollars and years on protracted litigation and instead will provide billions of dollars and critical resources to communities across the country trying to cope with the opioid crisis"