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The Obama administration proposed a sharp increase in spending at the agency that runs Medicare and Medicaid – and the reason why might surprise you. Monday’s budget calls for spending $4.82 billion on administrative costs at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for fiscal 2013, a 25.9% increase in the previous year’s estimated budget of $3.83 billion. That doesn’t include the much larger sums the agency spends on its actual programs, which provide insurance to seniors, the disabled and the poor. A chunk of Baby Boomers will turn age 65 this year and become eligible for Medicare, but that...

DALLAS - No one would say being a single mom is easy. Especially being a single, teenage mother. But the State of Texas appears to be encouraging teenage girls to become pregnant so they can receive free dental care under Medicaid. Our investigation last year found hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money spent for free braces on kids' teeth under Medicaid. That spurred a federal investigation, because cosmetic braces aren't supposed to be paid for under Medicaid. If that is an example of good intentions gone bad, Latricia Banks and her mom, Patricia Jones, may exemplify a good...

We are 23 days into the 2012 session of the Virginia General Assembly, and things are moving fast! Over the past few days, we've had some really awful legislation pass committees, including HB62. HB62 is an attempt to repeal Medicaid funding for abortion for women whose pregnancies have been diagnosed with severe fetal abnormalities. These cases are rare and often these pregnancies are very wanted by the families. HB62 will punish the poorest women of Virginia by adding a crippling financial impact to a devastating diagnosis. Please take action and let your Delegate know you OPPOSE HB62!

There's a lot of debate about the future of labor in America: Will manufacturing ever come back? Will automation be a job destroyer? Will we all be freelancers working from home, shifting from gig to gig every 6 months?It's all interesting to think about, but if you want to place one solid bet on the future of jobs in America, this chart would be a pretty simple place to start.Regardless of where the economic cycle is, health care jobs just keep going up in a straight line. Image: https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?id=CES6562000101 The chart is even more impressive when you look at healthcare...

It’s a perennial complaint from Texas Gov. Rick Perry: The federal government places far too many restrictions on how states can run Medicaid, the entitlement program that provides health care to low-income Americans. “We know for a fact that, given that freedom, the states can do a better job of delivering health care,” Perry said in a Republican debate last month. He’s endorsed turning the entitlement program into a block grant and flirted with having Texas drop out of it altogether. But back in Texas, Perry is actually pursuing a highly technocratic and pragmatic attempt at Medicaid reform that doesn’t...

While there was no surprise over the Supreme Court’s decision Monday to review the 2010 health-care act’s insurance mandate, supporters of the law are reeling over the justices’ announcement that they will also consider a long-shot challenge to what many consider an even more central provision of the statute. That provision is the extension of Medicaid to cover a greater number of the poor. Twenty-six states say the expansion amounts to an unconstitutional coercion of state governments, which provide part of Medicaid’s funding. “The decision on this issue is probably the most important the Supreme Court will be making on...

If you're a parent who accepts Medicaid payments from the State of Michigan to help support your mentally-disabled adult children, you qualify as a state employee for the purposes of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). They can now claim and receive a portion of your Medicaid in the form of union dues. Robert and Patricia Haynes live in Michigan with their two adult children, who have cerebral palsy. The state government provides the family with insurance through Medicaid, but also treats them as caregivers. For the SEIU, this makes them public employees and thus members of the union, which...

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) made clear on Thursday that when it comes to a deficit reduction deal, his position hasn’t changed: Tax increases are out, but new revenues could be in. The question of taxes and revenue has bedeviled congressional and administration negotiators for months, and they were at the center of the dispute between Boehner and President Obama when their talks for a possible “grand bargain” on the budget fell apart over the summer. As the clock ticks down on the deficit supercommittee to find at least $1.2 trillion in savings, the size and scope of new revenues...

The British medical journal Lancet reported last month that 32% of elderly American patients undergo surgery in the year before they die, a statistic culled from Medicare data. In an accompanying editorial, Dr. Amy Kelley of Mount Sinai School of Medicine labeled the 32% figure a "call to action"—to reduce costly surgeries, intensive-care stays and other high-intensity care for the elderly. Her call was parroted in hundreds of media outlets nationwide. But advocates for limiting health-care spending on the elderly are distorting science to make their argument. Don't be bamboozled: The Lancet investigators looked only at patients who died...

As a country whose laws show little respect for life at its most vulnerable stages, from the unborn to the elderly and disabled, it should come as no surprise that the government, in efforts to control costs, will begin to limit hospital stays for those covered by Medicaid. Indeed, with Medicaid increasing its roll significantly with the economic downturn, anyone should be able to see that this is merely the beginning of Obamacare. Under the new healthcare law, competition for health insurance will be finite as the government takes control of the market. Private insurance companies will be forced to...

California plans to reduce payments to many Medi-Cal providers by 10%. The federal government's approval of the budget-cutting measure raises concerns from doctors and others. The Obama administration will allow California to cut hundreds of millions of dollars from Medi-Cal, a move doctors and experts say will make it harder for the poor to get medical treatment. California plans to reduce rates by 10% to many providers, including physicians, dentists, clinics, pharmacies and most nursing homes, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced Thursday.

Infused with billions of extra Medicaid dollars from President Obama’s economic stimulus package, states have largely burned through the aid and are scrounging for a way to support programs bloated by the sluggish economy. The majority of states have cut provider payments as they try to make up the lost funding and grapple with budget imbalances in fragile economies, according to an annual study of state Medicaid programs released Thursday by the Kaiser Family Foundation. It’s a double-whammy this year. On July 1, states lost the extra federal funding that reached $100 billion over three years and helped them pay...

Washington faces two pressing tasks — getting a handle on escalating federal debt and addressing the country's unemployment crisis. Unfortunately, the White House, thanks to its usual ideological blinders, has come up with a plan that will actually cost jobs — even as it achieves only trifling savings. The proposal, which Team Obama has now forwarded to the supercommittee charged with coming up with $1.6 trillion in savings over the next decade, is to extend Medicaid-style manufacturers' rebates to part of the Medicare Part D program. The proposal affects the so-called "dual eligibles," those eligible for Medicaid but who obtain...

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico, October 12, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - An undercover audio investigation has been released in which a New Mexico abortion clinic worker tells a potential client that an $8-9,000 elective abortion at 27 weeks gestation would be fully covered by taxpayer Medicaid dollars. As debate over tax funding of abortions in Obamacare is scheduled in Washington, D.C. for Thursday, Operation Rescue and Project Defending Life say their investigation shows that millions of state tax dollars are already paying for abortions each year. Operation Rescue released a short video containing excerpts from an undercover recording showing that Medicaid not only...

Is the drive for universal health coverage actually making people worse off? Advocates for universal health coverage frequently claim that they’re out to improve health and save lives. Just one problem: Despite the trillions of dollars we’ve spent on public health insurance programs, there’s very little strong evidence to suggest that subsidized health insurance actually improves health. Indeed, the push for universal coverage may be preventing other, more effective health measures. So here’s the question: Is the drive for universal health insurance actually making people worse off? That’s the alarming possibility raised by Michael Cannon, the health policy director at...

A frail but feisty, partially paralyzed wheelchair-bound Vietnam vet scored a $15 million whistelblower’s reward after uncovering a massive Medicaid fraud scheme -- with the help of his trusty calculator. “From my wheelchair, on a ventilator and oxygen, I have spent the last seven years in this fight. Sometimes, the good guy wins,’’ said plucky Richard West, 63, of Tuckerton, NJ. The savvy senior said he first smelled a rat when he went to the dentist in 2004 -- and was told his Medicaid benefits had maxed out. West returned home and scoured his own, meticulously kept records, discovering that...

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) spoke to a crowd gathered in Washington, D.C., outside of the Capitol and said, "We need some of you probably getting arrested for doing things you shouldn't be doing" to save Medicaid. Also, Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vermont), who is a self-avowed socialist, told MRCTV he was at the rally to 'save' Medicaid and that Republicans care more about representing the 'wealthiest people in the country', large campaign contributors and 'hedge fund people' than working and low-income families.

For more than a year, as conservative states have battled President Obama's sweeping healthcare law, California was supposed to be a model that showed the law's promise. But the state is emerging as one of the biggest headaches for the White House in its bid to help states bring millions of Americans into the healthcare system starting in 2014. Many doctors have already closed their doors to Medicaid patients. Other providers are following suit. In June, Sharp Coronado Hospital in San Diego County stopped taking new patients at its facility providing long-term life support. "I'm afraid no one is going...

There's hope for states that accept structural change, but pain for those that won't. Are you listening, Illinois and California? For most states, fiscal 2012 is shaping up as a brutal year. They've already had to close a collective gap of more than $100 billion between their projected revenues and previously budgeted expenses, mostly due to anemic sales taxes and personal and corporate-income levies. And all this comes after three years of large budget shortfalls, during which most of the low-hanging fruit in expenses had been plucked and rainy-day funds and other reserves had been plundered. Likewise, just about all...

A Salem, Oregon woman’s desperate efforts to raise funds to treat her bone cancer were stifled by City officials. Jan Cline had been holding weekly yard sales trading her possessions for the cash she needs to pay medical bills. City rules limit the number of yard sales per address to three per year. Harden Callas, spokesman for the City’s Community Development Department urged people “to not lose sight of the bigger picture here. We know a lot of people are going to feel sympathetic toward Ms. Cline. But we can’t let her or anyone else put their own personal needs...

Buried in a web of new rules issued on Friday, the Department of Health and Human Services acknowledged that the national health care law's definition of Medicaid elgibility would impose higher costs on states."The Administration is concerned and is exploring options to address it," according to HHS.The problem arises because not only will the health care law expand Medicaid by raising the income threshold to qualify for the program, but it will exclude Social Security benefits from the calculation to determine elgibility. As the Associated Press has reported, this would mean a couple with annual income of $64,000 could qualify...

For Raymond Johnson it was bad enough being diagnosed with cancer when he was just 26 and with no health insurance, but his shock was only aggravated when he was denied Medicaid, because rules say men are not covered for breast cancer. Johnson, a construction worker from Charleston, S.C., is one of the roughly 2,000 men who develop breast cancer each year -- just 1 percent of all breast cancer cases. But doctors say even though the numbers of cases may be small compared to the number of women who get the disease, what male breast cancer patients suffer is...

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Free cell phones for the needy drawing both cheers and jeersBy Rachel Weaver, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW Monday, August 1, 2011 Sharron Walters could not afford one more monthly bill. But without a phone, it would be difficult for Walters, who relies on a wheelchair, to secure rides to and from her daily errands. She also could not keep in touch with her son, who lives out of town. Three months ago, Walters, 48, of Swissvale started using Assurance Wireless, a program of Sprint subsidiary Virgin Mobile that provides free cell phones and 250 monthly minutes to people receiving government support such...

WASHINGTON — When it comes to Medicare and Medicaid, the debt deal raises more questions than it answers.

Reductions to nursing facilities also take a bite out of REITs. Planned cuts in Medicare payments to skilled-nursing facilities hit the entire hospital sector in Monday trading, including real-estate investment trusts, and one nursing stock lost more than half its value. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said Friday that it planned to reduce payments to skilled-nursing facilities by 11.1% for fiscal 2012, cutting $3.87 billion out of the spending plan. ... General-care hospitals also felt the pain, after a rough week in which prospective Medicaid cuts took a bite out of their shares.

Baby boomers -- those born between 1946 and 1964 -- have been described as "the pig in the python" and the "sandwich generation." They lived well, grew up in relative abundance and, some say, expected their Social Security, health care and government support to be there as they grew old. Now, as the future of the country's economy is up in the air, is this group of 80 million aging Americans -- many of whom are sprinting toward retirement age -- the ones to blame for the nation's shaky economic system? (snip) Thomas Firey, a senior editor at the conservative...

On July 28, 2011, former Green Jobs Czar Van Jones attended the Rebuild the Dream rally held outside the Capitol Building in Washington D.C. and said the GOP is putting "a gun to the head of 310 million people" and using "hostage taking tactics" in regards to the current debate on the debt limit. Jones told MRCTV: "Any faction in America that would put a gun to the head of 310 million people and say 'If you don't do it our way, we will blow your dreams away, we will blow a hold in the American economy', that is un-American....

James O’Keefe, founder of Project Veritas today released the fifth in a series of undercover investigations into Medicaid fraud. Citizen journalists have uncovered widespread Medicaid fraud in state offices across the country. In the latest video, an undercover reporter attempts to apply for Medicaid benefits in two different offices in Gary, Indiana. The reporter indicates that he is a drug dealer who receives “shipment in floorboard.” He continues by saying that he has “50 people who work for us.” The Medicaid case worker says “We don’t want to know that.” The undercover reporter in the second office tells about Rolex...

Gov. Bob McDonnell is asking Virginia State Police to review a video released this week that appears to be hidden-camera footage of an exchange in a Richmond Medicaid office in which a staffer advises a man not to disclose a drug and prostitution business on a Medicaid application. The 9 minute, 29 second video was posted on the website of Project Veritas as the fourth in a series of "undercover investigations into Medicaid fraud." On Friday, Richmond officials announced that the city will join forces with the Virginia attorney general's office to review the matter. The attorney general's office has...

This is the fourth installment of James O’Keefe’s Medicaid sting and there is no end in sight. This one takes place in Virginia, and as we saw in Ohio, the Carolinas, and NYC the Medicaid workers there are more than willing to help wealthy criminals grab a hunk of government cheese. As always, this is a must-watch that will leave you shaking your head in disbelief. By now I am convinced it is darn-near impossible to actually get turned away for any reason when walking into a Medicaid office. You could say “I have a stack of corpses in my...

James O’Keefe, founder of Project Veritas today released the fourth in a series of undercover investigations into Medicaid fraud. Citizen journalists have uncovered widespread Medicaid fraud in state offices across the country. In the latest video, an undercover reporter attempts to apply for Medicaid benefits in Richmond, Virginia and several other offices in the Commonwealth. The reporter indicates that he is a drug dealer who traffics in “Bob Marley pharmaceuticals.” "But we won't get in trouble for running the drug business or like illegal prostitution?" asks man posing as drug dealer and owner of an $800,000 vehicle. The worker in...

Liberal governor's request for Medicaid cuts puts Democrats in tough spotBy Julian Pecquet - 07/20/11 06:00 AM ET President Obama and congressional Democrats have been put in a tough spot by California Gov. Jerry Brown’s (D) request to cut Medicaid spending by 10 percent. Brown says he needs to make the cuts to the state Medicaid program, known as Medi-Cal, to ease his state’s severe budget woes. But advocates say cuts of that size would be devastating to California’s most vulnerable residents. The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) — and, by extension, the White House — must...

Conservative filmmaker James O’Keefe released the third installment in his Medicaid fraud video investigation Wednesday. The new footage shows a government employee in New York City assisting a fictitiously named man, “Mario,” with a Medicaid application. In the video, the man said he’s an out-of-work plumber who has “some stuff” he does “on the side.” Mario begins explaining to the Medicaid worker in New York that he sells “mushrooms.” “I don’t want to raise any red flags in terms of what I’m doing,” Mario said. “I don’t know how to put it down exactly.” The Medicaid worker interrupts Mario. “Don’t,...

Conservative activist James O'Keefe traded in his pimp hat for a Russian accent during his latest undercover sting operation, in which he pretends to be an affluent European drug dealer attempting to obtain Medicaid benefits from an Ohio government office. Once again, the con apparently worked. Government employees are shown on video assisting O'Keefe in applying for medical assistance, after he tells them that he sells drugs, pimps out his underage sister and recently purchased an $800,000 car: In response, Ohio employees tasked with disbursing federal Medicaid dollars are shown coaching the men through the process of applying for benefits. "If...

For the first installment of the Project Veritas Medicaid fraud investigation that took place in a Ohio, click here. Today, a second video has been released. In this video, 25 members of Irish Republican Army get medicaid assistance in South and North Carolina. An employee tells one of the actors "I don't know anything" and "I don't want to go jail."

OK, let me set the background. You are a public sector employee for the state of Ohio; this probably means that you are a Democrat. You are probably aware, however vaguely and dimly, that there is a group out there who went around a few years ago and got ACORN defunded by pretending to be a prostitute and her pimp who wished to get tax help for the former’s prostitution, not to mention tax help for their underaged El Salavadoran hooker enterprise. This was largely considered ‘bad.’ So, you’re working one day, and in walk two men with bad Russian...

Conservative filmmaker James O’Keefe released the first installment in a new video investigation Monday morning, this one focused on Medicaid fraud. The first video in the series shows government employees in Ohio assisting two men who have described themselves as Russian drug smugglers with applications for Medicaid. In the video, the men explain to Ohio Medicaid workers that they are Russian immigrants who sell illegal drugs, drive a modified McLaren F1 sports car with a gold-coated engine, and use their underage sisters to perform sexual favors in exchange for drugs. In response, Ohio employees tasked with disbursing federal Medicaid dollars...

Washington, D.C.—James O’Keefe, founder of Project Veritas today released its latest undercover investigation. Citizen journalists have uncovered widespread Medicaid fraud in state offices across the country. The first investigation released focuses on four Medicaid offices in Ohio. The undercover reporters intimate that they are drug dealers, drive expensive cars, and are not U.S citizens. At no time did the case workers ask the reporters to leave. Even though the reporters admit to making their living through drug dealing or facilitating child prostitution, the case workers never called the police, Child Protective Services or the Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In fact,...

Two men posing as wealthy Russian Drug Smugglers get told not to put their exotic sports cars on the Medicaid application, to classify their drug business as "babysitting," and to get abortions for their underage sisters who perform sex in exchange for drugs.

BELTWAY CONFIDENTIAL The CEO of IBM offered the Obama administration a free software program that would have cut Medicare and Medicaid fraud by almost a trillion dollars, but he was turned down – twice. By Barbara Hollingsworth – Washington Examiner, February 23, 2011 “We could have improved the quality and reduced the cost of the health-care system by $900 billion…I said we would do it for free to prove that it works. They turned us down, “IBM chairman and CEO Samuel Palmisano said during a Sept. 14, 2010 taping of the Wall Street Journal’s Viewpoints program. FOX News confirmed that...

Oregon's Verdict on MedicaidThe facts come out. Americans may be surprised to learn that little solid evidence exists to support the claim that expanding health insurance will improve the health and financial security of the uninsured; that some research calls into question whether broad coverage expansions improve health at all; and that some research even suggests that the overall benefits of such expansions may not be worth the cost. We lack definitive evidence because no developed nation has ever conducted a study that randomly assigns people to receive health insurance in order to control for other factors that might affect...

Months after Florida lawmaker Daphne Campbell promised to crack down on Medicaid fraud, state agents are now carrying out her pledge by focusing on an unexpected target: Campbell’s own health-care business. The state attorney general’s office is tracing hundreds of thousands in payments by the state to group home companies that were run by Campbell and her husband, according to sources close to the investigation. (snip) Neither Campbell, 54, a Democrat whose House district covers northeast Miami-Dade, or Hubert Campbell, 46, who was convicted in a mortgage fraud case in 2007, would respond to interview requests

Dr. Susan Rutten Wasson sits on the corner of a bed in the cramped bedroom of Alice Johnson, a 91-year-old Osakis resident everyone calls "Grandma Alice." She's examining Johnson's arm, which is swollen, she's determined, because of a tight sleeve cuff. Also in the room are Alice's daughter, Ione, and granddaughter, Anne, who lives downstairs in the farmhouse Johnson has occupied for decades. A Rottweiler mix as big as a Shetland licks the face of 18-month-old Sarah, Rutten Wasson's daughter, who sits on the doctor's lap. It's more a scene from the days of frontier medicine than from the modern...

A federal judge in Indianapolis on Friday blocked part of an Indiana law that cut off public funding for the state’s Planned Parenthood outlets because they provide abortions, the Associated Press reported. U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt, who was appointed in 2010 by President Barack Obama, granted the family planning organization an injunction that voids the portion of the Indiana law, recently signed by Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels. The Indiana law, which accounted for about $1.4 million and was challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood, would have been the first to deny Medicaid funds to...

Colorado will end coverage for routine circumcisions under Medicaid next month, adding to what's become a national debate over the once widely-accepted procedure. The change will take effect July 1. Lawmakers agreed to end funding as part of a package of cuts to balance the budget.

CBO, Pelosi unclear on Obamacare’s Medicaid glitch costsMatthew Boyle - The Daily Caller – Tue Jun 21, 8:12 pm ET As details about the new-found Obamacare glitch, that allows for more than 3 million middle-class Americans to qualify Medicaid surface, the Obama administration and key members of Congress are mum on several points. Was it intentional? According to the Associated Press, it was a negative result of a “well-meaning effort.” Obama administration officials and senior congressional Democrats, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi haven’t answered this question, and Pelosi’s office hasn’t responded to requests from The Daily Caller seeking comment....

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama's health care law would let several million middle-class people get nearly free insurance meant for the poor, a twist government number crunchers say they discovered only after the complex bill was signed. The change would affect early retirees: A married couple could have an annual income of about $64,000 and still get Medicaid, said officials who make long-range cost estimates for the Health and Human Services department. After initially downplaying any concern, the Obama administration said late Tuesday it would look for a fix. Up to 3 million more people could qualify for Medicaid in...

President Barack Obama's health care law would let several million middle-class people get nearly free insurance meant for the poor, a twist government number crunchers say they discovered only after the complex bill was signed. The change would affect early retirees: A married couple could have an annual income of about $64,000 and still get Medicaid, said officials who make long-range cost estimates for the Health and Human Services department....

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR, Associated Press – 8 mins ago WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama's health care law would let several million middle-class people get nearly free insurance meant for the poor, a twist government number crunchers say they discovered only after the complex bill was signed. The change would affect early retirees: A married couple could have an annual income of about $64,000 and still get Medicaid, said officials who make long-range cost estimates for the Health and Human Services department.