Sitemap - 2023 - HEALTH CARE un-covered

Mapping UnitedHealth’s consumption of our health care system – from the ‘70s to today

Cigna Healthcare said it will buy back $11.3 billion of its own shares of stock. That announcement made the company's CEO and other investors much richer.

After Wall Street balks, Cigna calls off Humana merger and instead is set to buy back up to $11.3 billion of its shares in gift to investors

Hospitals across the country are dumping Medicare Advantage plans and canceling their contracts with insurers

An ounce of opioid prevention

Thanks to reporters at ProPublica and Scripps News, we are learning more about how health insurers cheat patients out of life-saving care

Retirees in Cortland County, New York, opposed UnitedHealth's Medicare grab and won. At least, for now.

Cigna said to be going after Humana to buy its way into Medicare Advantage

Cigna denied a double lung transplant after a donor was found, leaving a mother scrambling for answers

Private Medicare blitz: for-profit health insurers are pressing hard for new enrollees in their taxpayer-supported Medicare businesses in 2024

Long-COVID patients face treatment denials, skepticism from clinicians

Reports and lawsuits allege UnitedHealth uses AI algorithms to cut off care for the elderly and disabled

America has a worsening hospital crisis. The new documentary "American Hospitals" charts a way out of it.

Join me for the nationwide one-night-only screening of the documentary “Medicine Man: The Stan Brock Story” on November 14

The top 10 recipients of campaign cash from seven health insurance industry PACs

Ady Barkan, Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of Be A Hero, dies at 39.

How the Nuka System of Care has improved the quality of medical care (and lives) of Alaska Natives

Sanders' Senate committee report puts nonprofit hospitals on notice while bi-partisan appetite for reforms intensifies.

Americans can't afford their out-of-pocket costs at the pharmacy counter. Legislators on both sides of the aisle are taking action.

An epidemic of medical debt is devastating American families as health insurers ratchet up out-of-pocket demands

She was the first American woman to win the all-around gold medal in Olympic gymnastics. Now she's buried in medical debt.

How two very motivated women are helping patients fight their health insurers and get the care they need

How UnitedHealth became Goliath, Medusa and mythical sirens all wrapped into one

"Under the law he had no remedy." How Dr. Dan Hurley's legacy could lead to health insurance prior authorization reform

Walgreens said to be courting a former Cigna/Express Scripts executive to turn the company around

As Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) expands into a rich suburb, a small community hospital faces closure

NEWS UN-COVERED: health insurer rate hikes and Medicare Advantage ads in 2024

Health insurers find new way to drain the bank accounts of Americans with chronic conditions

As executive compensation at big automakers soars, so does health care costs for the companies, workers

WSJ shows insurers make patients pay thousands for cheap generics while Brookings thinks Congressional PBM reforms could fall short

After missing mid-year financial expectations, here are the ways big health insurers are going to get back into Wall Street's good graces

First half of 2023: 7 big health insurers pulled in $683 billion in revenues – largely through taxpayer-supported programs and the pharmacy supply chain

The seismic shift in U.S. health care imposes big hurdles for providers as payors benefit from “flywheel effect”

[VIDEO] Poor Americans to feel the burn from health insurer Elevence's decision in Medicaid dispute

Elevance and other for-profit insurers find new scrutiny from lawmakers over their denials of care for Medicaid patients

Dr. Daniel Hurley, advocate for health insurance reform, dies at 50

Senators Warren, Grassley and others taking bi-partisan action to address business practices of non-profit hospitals

Medicare Advantage plans have potentially deadly side effects. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services must act.

Cigna’s Q2 earnings put Wall Street on edge despite huge PBM business revenues

State and local governments are acting to unburden millions in medical debt but federal action is still needed

Elevance Health is denying care for Medicaid patients at high rates, according to Department of Health and Human Services report

The LOOP NOW Coalition sent a letter to Congressional leaders asking them to introduce bipartisan legislation to begin reducing Americans’ exposure to absurdly high out-of-pocket requirements.

Elevance's Q2 profits make Wall Street investors (and company executives) happy and wealthy

UnitedHealth Group's Q2 2023 earnings report shows billion dollar gains in pharmacy benefit business, tax-funded programs

Hospitals' latest "innovation": "patient-centric payment capabilities"

Big health insurers are using Washington-based trade group the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA) to bankroll ad campaigns in the DC area

Doctors said "it was a matter of life or death." But their health insurer denied the claim.

Amid Congressional PBM scrutiny, CVS/Aetna CFO assures investors of continued profits, even at expense of employers and taxpayers

Meet Dr. Hurley – a physician (and now a patient) bent on righting the wrongs of insurance denials

$335 million take-home: here are the 7 health insurance CEOs who made it big in 2022

An open letter to Congress: Is health care at a tipping point?

Finally, Big Insurance's Pharmacy Benefit Managers are being probed by Congress

Health insurers have spent nearly $141 billion buying back their own shares since 2007 while premiums and deductibles have skyrocketed

Q1 2023: UnitedHealth Group made $27.8 billion from the drug supply chain; spent $3.5 billion buying back their own stock

Insurers using AI and algorithms to deny claims; Sen. Elizabeth Warren calls on Biden to address Medicare Advantage profiteering

16 years ago, my story was told in Michael Moore's documentary "Sicko." I still struggle for the health care I need

A message large nonprofit hospitals should hear: "The judge will see you now…"

REVENUES OVER LIVES: health professionals' role in challenging the "medical-financial complex”

U.S. women enrolled in high-deductible health insurance plans are at risk of dying younger

Former PBM chief medical officer: ‘Our motives were murky at best’

The choice between traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage? It’s easier than you think. (PART 2)

The Big Seven health insurers spent $26.2 billion buying back their own stocks in 2022 to enrich CEOs, shareholders

Consolidations and profiteering: the relentless rise of hospital expenditures

BIG INSURANCE 2022: Revenues reached $1.25 trillion thanks to sucking billions out of the pharmacy supply chain – and taxpayers' pockets

Cigna and CVS's CEOs pulled in $632 million while 100 million Americans are buried under medical debt

The lunacy of 340B and Medicare’s inability to negotiate drug prices

"Confessions of a Former Carrier Executive": my keynote address at the 2023 YOU Powered Symposium

The choice between traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage? It’s easier than you think.

What I'm Reading: PBM front groups, Biden on prior authorization and American's $88 billion medical debt problem

UnitedHealth, CVS/Aetna, Cigna pulled in close to a trillion dollars last year, mostly as drug middlemen

LIFE AND DOLLARS: a health care insider's account of how prior authorization really works.

What I'm Reading: Cigna's 2022 earnings; ProPublica's prior authorization series

How prior authorization can kill: a 2-year-old with cancer; a young woman needing chemo; and a 17-year-old in need of a transplant

Doctors and patients raise alarm about prior authorization

The American Health Care System is on the Brink of Collapse: How the Center for Health & Democracy Will Help Us Fix It

Big Insurance in-fighting: why it's so important that Cigna is suing CVS

What I'm reading in health care this week.

Welcome to HEALTH CARE un-covered (formerly Wendell Potter NOW)

Elevance Health's 2022 earnings are in, outperforms Wall Street expectations

A closer look: what you need to know about insurance companies' and PBMs' "copay accumulator" scheme

What I’m reading in health care this week.

NYC mayor’s misguided and dangerous plan to move city retirees into a private Medicare replacement plan dealt another blow

NYC's call to move retirees to a Medicare Advantage plan is being opposed by a 9/11 hero. She's backed by hundreds of retirees.

The health care injustices that Dr. King spoke about are still here. And growing.

UnitedHealth Group's 2022 Earnings are in, PBM Optum outperforms health insurance division

Interested in the U.S. health care system? Here's what you need to know going into 2023.

In New York, the left and right are united in a fight against the corporate takeover of Medicare

NYC Mayor Adams wants to force retirees into a so-called Medicare Advantage plan. See my testimony against it.