Private Equity Revisited in the Senate & Maternal Care Issues Abound
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Healthcare Held Hostage to Private Equity
If a friend of yours was in trouble you’d do whatever you could to help. Those of us who do not have EDD (Empathy Deficit Disorder) would do that.
Senator Markey of Maine is doing that. He is a member of the US Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee (HELP). He held hearings yesterday in Boston on how for profit ventures are negatively affecting healthcare. Here is a link to a description of those hearings.
Recent studies find that the quality of patient care in hospitals and nursing homes goes down when PE enters the picture. Patients have a right to know who owns their health provider, especially if the owners don’t care about their health. Communities are often left to pick up the pieces after PE has stripped local hospitals and other facilities of resources, leaving them struggling to keep their doors open and provide the care that families depend on. The failures of Steward Health in Massachusetts, formerly owned by PE firm Cerberus Capital, and Prospect Medical in Rhode Island and Pennsylvania, owned by PE firm Leonard Green, show that legislation is urgently needed to give the government the tools to hold PE firms and other bad for-profit actors accountable for looting health providers and weakening America's health care system.Â
Recent studies have also shown that nursing homes that become owned by PE have a 10% increase in death rate and start to sedate patients. Hospital adverse events (falls, infectious etc) went up by 25% when purchased by private equity. You can find links to those studies in this previous Healthcare Advocacy newsletter.
Senator Markey has drafted legislation to address the problem. It is called Health Over Wealth. It incorporates the transparency portions of HR 1754, Healthcare Ownership Transparency Act (Jayapal). that exists in the House of Representatives but forces corporations to protect the public by setting aside funds to protect the facility from failure for 5 years.
Here is a link to a summary of the proposed Senate legislation. Here is a link to the text thus far.
Summary of the Bill
Require transparency of ownership of healthcare entities including debt, income from fees, sales/leaseback of properties, health quality statistics, etc.
Risk mitigation for PE owned facilities would include establishing an escrow account to cover 5 years of operating expense in the event of failure.
Access and maintenance of services - public notification and community input prior to hospital closures or service reductions. This requires hospitals that receive Medicare payments to notify the Secretary of HHS at least 180 days prior to the discontinuation of services or a full hospital closure.
There are also enforcement mechanisms and serious fines for non compliance with reporting responsibilities.
ACTION - Due by May 3rd 2024
Senator Markey wants to hear from everyone about his bill. We can submit comments to HealthOverWealth@Markey.Senate.Gov This will open your default email and open a message for you to send. Or just send an email to HealthOverWealth@Markey.Senate.Gov with your comments. He needs them by May 3rd, 2024.
If you like the bill I know he and his staff would appreciate a note saying so.
Contraception News - Opill
CVS Caremark, the pharmacy benefit management subsidiary of CVS Health Corp will add Perrigo's birth control pill to its preventive services oral contraceptives list and make it available at no cost for many plan sponsors, according to a pharmacy update on March 28. The U.S. FDA in July approved over-the-counter use of Perrigo's drug Opill, making it the first oral contraceptive in the country which can be purchased without prescription. (Reuters)
Empathy Treatment Needed in Maternal Care
As the U.S. grapples with a maternal health crisis, a new study shows more than 1 out of 8 new moms are shouted at, scolded or ignored by a healthcare provider during their deliveries. The study published in JAMA Network Open Thursday used data from the 2020 Postpartum Assessment of Health Survey, a large-scale data collection effort on the health and well-being of postpartum people conducted by Columbia University.
The experiences of 4,458 post-partum people were used for the study. Out of the survey respondents, about 13 percent reported being mistreated in some way during their delivery. Â
The study results parallel with findings from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published last year on the mistreatment of expecting mothers during their pregnancies. That data found one out of five expecting mothers experiences mistreatment during their pregnancy and that those moms are more likely to be Black or Hispanic. (The Hill)
Most cultures take care of pregnant people and new moms. What the hell is wrong here? Where are the empathy training classes? Here are 3 Empathetics classes online from the Massachusetts Medical Society - good for CME hours.
Resources
Healthcare Advocacy (Us)
Website
Our Newsletter resources including reproductive healthcare
Healthcare Advocacy Reading List
Find My Elected Officials
Contact the White House https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
Contact State and Federal Representatives
By phone: (202) 224-3121
By email: democracy.io
Important Healthcare Resources
League of Women Voters Healthcare Reform Toolkit
Organizations to Contact
National Nurses United Medicare4All
Physicians for a National Health Program
One Payer States
Healthcare Now
Reproductive Health
NARAL - Pro Choice America
Charley. chatbot abortion resource - make sure to use a secure incognito browser if you live in a state that has banned abortion
Planned Parenthood
Miscarriage and Abortion Hotline has references about where to procure abortion medications. They also assist women in the process of self managed abortion or miscarriage by phone or text and will respond in an hour. Details and hours of operation at their website.
United State of Women Reproductive health page (bottom of the page) has important resources such as medical support, access to Telehealth, prescriptions by mail, and legal support references.
Practice careful communications - The Digital Defense Fund has a number of tips to keep texts, calls, and internet use private. Here is their site.
If you need financial help with an abortion try abortionfunds.org
Claims Denials and Appeals & What to Do
Appeal a Healthcare Decision
Appeal/Negotiate a Hospital Bill
Disinformation Management
Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency
Save Democracy
Chop Wood, Carry Water by Jessica Cravens
RESISTBOT
Link to the RESISTBOT site to learn more
Link to Chop Wood, Carry Water RESISTBOT write up
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When women are buying health care products, they need to use cash. Consider creating their own pads or buying cloth pads from those who make them. A mental cup or ring is better than tampons as well. They should have all period trackers removed from their phones. Leave their phones at home or turn off Bluetooth, wireless, gps, mobile data, and enable airplane mode and for added safety put them in a Faraday cage. When searching online, use a VPN and download the Tor browser. Duck Duck Go and incognito mode in Google are not as safe. Email using an encrypted email client like proton, and one on one communication should be done through signal a text messaging app that encrypts.