Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

A Doctor at Cigna Said Her Bosses Pressured Her to Review Patients’ Cases Too Quickly

I first caught up with this article on MedPage Today, “Doc Blows Whistle on Cigna.” I also read the ProPublic report. Both are reporting on denial of claims before and after treatment and the productivity of claims reviewers. Additionally, the report discusses the use of labor (nurses, etc.) outside of the US to evaluate claims […]

Coronavirus dashboard, 4 years into the pandemic: all-time low in hospitalizations, deaths likely to follow

 – by New Deal democrat The Bonddad Blog On Friday the CDC updated its COVID death statistics through March 31, which means that we now have 4 full years of data. It also updated its hospitalization data through April 20, and to cut to the chase, last week saw a record low hospitalizations for COVID […]

Nestlé adds sugar to baby food in low-income countries, report finds . . .

SWI swissinfo.ch An interesting story coming out of Switzerland about Nestlé. In 2017 Nestlé adds sugar to baby food in low-income countries, report finds . . . made the following plan: Between 2017 and 2020 we want to reduce the added sugar in our products by a further 5%. In 2017 alone, Nestlé Switzerland withdrew […]

Where Does Traditional Medicare Go: Profit-Driven Chaos or Patient-Centered Community?

by Matthew Cunnigham – Cook The problems with Medicare Advantage is coding and pricing for care. And Fee for Service participants pay for the MA costs even though they do not use MA. “When accounting for favorable selection of enrollees in MA and higher MA coding intensity, we estimate Medicare spends approximately 22 percent more […]

The preemption stakes in Idaho vs. U.S.

A high court decision in favor of Idaho puts at risk the federal government’s ability to set national environmental, labor and consumer protection standards. by Merrill Goozner Angry Bear can not add to Merrill’s remarks on Idaho’s stance banning abortion in almost all circumstances and their claims to preempt the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and […]

Trump vs. Biden: Who Got More Done for Veterans?

by Suzanne Gordon and Steve Early Washington Monthly Trump has mocked veterans and privatized their health care. Biden honors them but hasn’t challenged Trump’s privatization policies. Currently, they are moving more and more veterans to commercial healthcare. This rather than restoring VA healthcare to a better place for veterans to be and at a lower […]

Sovereign citizens

Visiting writer’s commentary on Sovereign Citizens by Infidel753 from his own Blog of similar name. Readers may be unfamiliar with the “sovereign citizen” movement, a fringe ideological belief system which asserts (for complex, fatuous, and extremely boring reasons) that certain everyday laws either do not exist, are not real laws, or at least don’t apply […]