Vermont for Single Payer

05/07/2025

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/cvs-health-posts-1-8b-profit-in-q1/?origin=BHRE&utm_source=BHRE&utm_medium=email&utm_content=newsletter&oly_enc_id=5766C9953223F2J
Healthcare benefits segment (Aetna): “ $34.8 billion revenue, $2 billion in operating income (a 172.3% increase year over year)

CVS Health recorded a net income of $1.8 billion in the first quarter of 2025, up from $1.1 billion during the same period last year.

05/07/2025

05/05/2025

"Best Healthcare in the World....If You Can Find and Afford It
https://www.northcarolinahealthnews.org/2025/04/27/many-hope-this-nc-countys-hospital-wont-close-its-the-only-one-around/
“Six months ago, Washington Regional Medical Center in Plymouth declared bankruptcy for the second time in five years. Now, hospital leadership hopes that the facility will emerge from this latest financial hardship by late May.
“That’s good news to the 10,713 residents of Washington County who need the hospital to stay in business. It’s the only one around.
“The bad news is that it has never been harder to keep a rural hospital afloat, especially one that’s not connected to a larger health system. In adjacent Martin County, Martin General Hospital closed its doors in 2023. Thirteen more counties in the northeastern region of the state don’t have hospitals at all.”

Washington Regional Medical Center in rural Plymouth is a lifeline in a barren health landscape. But financial problems could threaten that.

05/04/2025

https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/nonprofit-hospitals-chase-down-patients-eligible-for-free-care/
There'd Be No Need for This in a Single Payer System
“Although America's approximately 3,000 nonprofit hospitals are required by law to provide free or discounted medical care to those who cannot afford it, a CBS News investigation found hundreds of those hospitals continue to bill the lowest-income Americans.
” In return for caring for the poor, the hospitals are exempt from an estimated $37 billion in state, federal and local taxes every year, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University.
“Yet a CBS analysis of IRS tax data found over 400 nonprofit hospitals attempted to collect more than $800 million dollars in a year from patients who otherwise would qualify for charity care.”

For poorest patients at hundreds of nonprofit hospitals, financial pain follows medical care.

05/03/2025

https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.2024.01204
Private Equity Strikes Again
“…retinal detachment, for which access to timely surgery is necessary to prevent irreversible vision loss and [is reimbursed] below cost for the fee-for-service Medicare population. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we examined changes in the provision of retinal detachment repair by 535 physicians in PE-acquired practices and 1,070 matched controls during the period 2014–22. Relative to matched controls, physicians in PE-acquired practices decreased the number of retinal detachment repairs by 19.6 percent after acquisition.”

Private equity (PE) firms have increased their ownership stake across health care sectors in the US. PE’s focus on short-term profitability may decrease the provision of unprofitable services, reducing access for patients in vulnerable populations. This is a particular concern for certain eye cond...

05/02/2025

Why Do I Have a $1,000+ Bill For a 10-Minute Conversation?
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rumble-strip/id664663777
[At 7 minutes and 27 seconds in]