US Politics and AOPA
Jim DeWees
Description
Collection
Title:
US Politics and AOPA
Creator:
Jim DeWees
Date:
9/9/2009
Text:
Over the past few weeks, while reviewing and really digging up some information about this national healthcare reform issue, I found some interesting information. I noticed that the lobbying firm that Anthem/Wellpoint and United Health Systems (United Healthcare) is the same one that AOPA also pays to represent this industry. It is called Alston & Bird, which is owned by none other than Tom Daschle, the former Senate Majority Leader who lost his re-election in South Dakota a few years ago (I think it was 2004).
I think that it would be a pretty universal feeling in this field that Anthem Blue Cross and also United Healthcare are some of the biggest challenges that we face in this field. Whether it is their low fee schedules or the fact that they deny about every claim that gets submitted to them, they are not our friends in this field. When Anthem is paying this firm TONS of money (nobody will ever know an honest answer to this figure, they know how to hide money and the loop holes), and then AOPA is giving them a few thousand dollars, WHO is this firm really going to fight for????
During the Prosthetic Parity battle in Indiana (which is the headquarters of Anthem/Wellpoint BCBS), most of the battle was against the Anthem Lawyer/Lobbyist here in the hearings. They were there in full force, along with their medical director to claim that their first and highest interest is the wellbeing of the patients....which got a chuckle from about everyone in the room, and the state representative in charge of the meeting asked everyone to be quiet, and any more distractions would end the hearing, or the ones doing the distractions would be removed from the room.
This issue of Anthem not being fair to work with isn't just unique to O&P, it is to every aspect of healthcare. This was obvious in the now-famous Town Hall Meeting here in Bloomington, Indiana, which has now been shown on Fox News and other stations, and of course on Youtube, where the wonderful congressman Baron Hill was asked about why he forbids any audio or video recording of the meeting, and he lashed out BECAUSE IT'S MY MEETING, and went on even worse. (check out Youtube....search Baron Hill My Meeting, it's worth a view)....and I was sitting right in front of the girl that asked, and encouraged her to ask this because when they took her out to talk to her, she handed me her camera to hide it and protect it, but it ended up being confiscated by his goons, threatening us to have us removed by police if we didn't hand it over.....I have been to many places, including Russia and China, and this was far worse than either of these countries regarding freedom to take photos or videos...but I still love this country in spite of some of these politicians).
But the ONLY comment made in this meeting that got a huge roar of support was when he mentioned that these huge million dollar bonus checks were being handed out to the CEO of Anthem. He claimed to have met with him (the CEO of Anthem) and that he got a $38 million bonus check......Well, on a side note, the CEO of Anthem is Angela Braly, and unless Angela has some major secret going on, we all think that it is a SHE and not a he....oh well, so did Baron Hill meet with him or not, or was this another fabricate story. When I got the microphone to ask my question, it was about how Anthem has treated me as a consumer in the past, and more importantly how Anthem treats my patients today, and it is only getting worse. While these insurance companies are raising their premiums all the time, my contracted fee schedule has gone down every year, to a point where it is below the cost of the actual components many times. Again, I got applause from everyone, on both sides of the issue. I asked him if this public option was going to be outsourced like every other government program, and how much this will add to Anthem's profits and how many billions of tax dollars are going to be sent to Anthem and others? His response was It will not be outsourced and will be handled by the Dept of Health and Human Services.
Here's how the Dept of HHS handles claims and everything now....they do NOTHING!!! The actual application process for a Medicare provider ID number is handled by Palmetto GBA, a private for-profit company, and NOT the HHS.
All of my medicare claims (meaning TRUE medicare, and not an advantage (or dis-advantage) plan) are submitted to Administar Federal, which is actually National Government Services, Inc....again, a private for-profit company that has been contracted since 1966. But, the information I have is that they handle 22 million medicare beneficiaries' policies and claims and are at their maximum.
From the Kaiser Family Institute information, there are about 67 million medicare beneficiaries out there (and I cannot find any other good source for this number....if anyone has a GOOD number on this, please let me know)...and so that means that there are 45 million medicare patients using Anthem, Humana, or other replacement/advantage plans, which is giving tax dollars to these giants that seem to be the root of all this healthcare mess today.
Plus, all Federal employees around here have Anthem; all state employees have Anthem; all postal workers have Anthem; all of the University employees have Anthem; and the list goes on and on. These are all jobs where tax dollars pay the salaries and benefits, and yet they are funneled to this one major company...Anthem.
Now, a simple Google search will show Tom Daschle being the Czar of Healthcare Reform, even though he failed in his running for being the Sec. of HHS. He is not the named secretary of this now, but is the acting secretary for HHS.
Also, another interesting concept here is that Kathleen Sebelius (the named sec of HHS) is not involved in this reform at all, and in fact the ONLY time she made a public comment about this was that the public option was not a deal-breaker according to what she had been told in meetings with the administration. When that hit the news, it was quickly denounced by the Whitehouse spokesman who said that she mis-spoke or was mis-informed on this.
Why is she being held at a distance??? Why is she mis-informed? You would think that the Sec of HHS would be on TOP of this issue, and not in the dark. Well, back in 2002, she was the Governor of Kansas, and Anthem/Wellpoint wanted to buy out the Blue Cross of Kansas, and she blocked that deal. She said that over 45% of Kansans were covered by BC of Kansas, and that their premiums were 1/3 of what surrounding states were paying for their BC coverage that was controlled by Anthem. So, Anthem went to the Supreme Court to have this settled and be able to buy BC of Kansas. The Supreme Court upheld Sebelius in this case, and Anthem has not been able to take over Kansas. So, I am sure Anthem is no fan of her, and with Tom Daschle sitting in the White House frequently, helping Pres. Obama come up with a good plan, there is no room for the REAL sec. of HHS to be in the loop here.
It sounds maybe like a big conspiracy theory here that I might be creating or something, but it is so easy to find out all of this on the internet from newspapers and articles that are legitimate. And, nobody is talking about this.....and I don't get it.
We had the Teaparty Express buses here in Bloomington, IN this past Sunday (and Bloomington is called the San Francisco of the mid-west, a very liberal place), I did get the chance to talk to Jim Spellman of CNN to express my concerns about this public option, which will most likely be outsourced to Anthem, which would essentially double the federal money that is going to Anthem. And, Tom Daschle had a lot of personal interest at stake here, when it is his company that does their lobbying work. He found that really interesting and is going to research this. Unfortunately, Grif Jenkins from Fox News wasn't there because of a wedding in the family that he HAD to attend on Sunday. I would have loved to talk to him off the air about this.
So, my question is why does AOPA use Alston and Bird to lobby for us?? Hopefully this information will help them figure out if this is a firm that is a good choice. I am sure there are a lot of other issues to consider, which I am not privileged to know all of them.
Alston and Bird are kind of like referees in this situation, and if one team is paying the ref a TON of money, and the other team is only paying pocket change....who are the refs going to make sure win the game??? Of course it is in their best interest to have the best paying team win.
Again, back to the reform topic...they claim there are 47 million people that NEED this public option, and that the government is going to provide this for them through this public option. But can the HHS actually cover these people and process claims and pay the claims??? Could they even issue insurance cards for these 47 million??? Never!!! They will have to outsource this work, and it only makes sense to just add them to the pile of everyone else, and hand that over to their already contracted providers, Anthem. And, that will add billions of dollars more to this company that is seen to be the enemy for many people.
We all need to think about this and how it all connects. And, how can Tom Daschle be so powerful and involved in this mess??? That is not a good feeling out here.
Thanks
Jim DeWees, CP
_________________________________________________________________
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I think that it would be a pretty universal feeling in this field that Anthem Blue Cross and also United Healthcare are some of the biggest challenges that we face in this field. Whether it is their low fee schedules or the fact that they deny about every claim that gets submitted to them, they are not our friends in this field. When Anthem is paying this firm TONS of money (nobody will ever know an honest answer to this figure, they know how to hide money and the loop holes), and then AOPA is giving them a few thousand dollars, WHO is this firm really going to fight for????
During the Prosthetic Parity battle in Indiana (which is the headquarters of Anthem/Wellpoint BCBS), most of the battle was against the Anthem Lawyer/Lobbyist here in the hearings. They were there in full force, along with their medical director to claim that their first and highest interest is the wellbeing of the patients....which got a chuckle from about everyone in the room, and the state representative in charge of the meeting asked everyone to be quiet, and any more distractions would end the hearing, or the ones doing the distractions would be removed from the room.
This issue of Anthem not being fair to work with isn't just unique to O&P, it is to every aspect of healthcare. This was obvious in the now-famous Town Hall Meeting here in Bloomington, Indiana, which has now been shown on Fox News and other stations, and of course on Youtube, where the wonderful congressman Baron Hill was asked about why he forbids any audio or video recording of the meeting, and he lashed out BECAUSE IT'S MY MEETING, and went on even worse. (check out Youtube....search Baron Hill My Meeting, it's worth a view)....and I was sitting right in front of the girl that asked, and encouraged her to ask this because when they took her out to talk to her, she handed me her camera to hide it and protect it, but it ended up being confiscated by his goons, threatening us to have us removed by police if we didn't hand it over.....I have been to many places, including Russia and China, and this was far worse than either of these countries regarding freedom to take photos or videos...but I still love this country in spite of some of these politicians).
But the ONLY comment made in this meeting that got a huge roar of support was when he mentioned that these huge million dollar bonus checks were being handed out to the CEO of Anthem. He claimed to have met with him (the CEO of Anthem) and that he got a $38 million bonus check......Well, on a side note, the CEO of Anthem is Angela Braly, and unless Angela has some major secret going on, we all think that it is a SHE and not a he....oh well, so did Baron Hill meet with him or not, or was this another fabricate story. When I got the microphone to ask my question, it was about how Anthem has treated me as a consumer in the past, and more importantly how Anthem treats my patients today, and it is only getting worse. While these insurance companies are raising their premiums all the time, my contracted fee schedule has gone down every year, to a point where it is below the cost of the actual components many times. Again, I got applause from everyone, on both sides of the issue. I asked him if this public option was going to be outsourced like every other government program, and how much this will add to Anthem's profits and how many billions of tax dollars are going to be sent to Anthem and others? His response was It will not be outsourced and will be handled by the Dept of Health and Human Services.
Here's how the Dept of HHS handles claims and everything now....they do NOTHING!!! The actual application process for a Medicare provider ID number is handled by Palmetto GBA, a private for-profit company, and NOT the HHS.
All of my medicare claims (meaning TRUE medicare, and not an advantage (or dis-advantage) plan) are submitted to Administar Federal, which is actually National Government Services, Inc....again, a private for-profit company that has been contracted since 1966. But, the information I have is that they handle 22 million medicare beneficiaries' policies and claims and are at their maximum.
From the Kaiser Family Institute information, there are about 67 million medicare beneficiaries out there (and I cannot find any other good source for this number....if anyone has a GOOD number on this, please let me know)...and so that means that there are 45 million medicare patients using Anthem, Humana, or other replacement/advantage plans, which is giving tax dollars to these giants that seem to be the root of all this healthcare mess today.
Plus, all Federal employees around here have Anthem; all state employees have Anthem; all postal workers have Anthem; all of the University employees have Anthem; and the list goes on and on. These are all jobs where tax dollars pay the salaries and benefits, and yet they are funneled to this one major company...Anthem.
Now, a simple Google search will show Tom Daschle being the Czar of Healthcare Reform, even though he failed in his running for being the Sec. of HHS. He is not the named secretary of this now, but is the acting secretary for HHS.
Also, another interesting concept here is that Kathleen Sebelius (the named sec of HHS) is not involved in this reform at all, and in fact the ONLY time she made a public comment about this was that the public option was not a deal-breaker according to what she had been told in meetings with the administration. When that hit the news, it was quickly denounced by the Whitehouse spokesman who said that she mis-spoke or was mis-informed on this.
Why is she being held at a distance??? Why is she mis-informed? You would think that the Sec of HHS would be on TOP of this issue, and not in the dark. Well, back in 2002, she was the Governor of Kansas, and Anthem/Wellpoint wanted to buy out the Blue Cross of Kansas, and she blocked that deal. She said that over 45% of Kansans were covered by BC of Kansas, and that their premiums were 1/3 of what surrounding states were paying for their BC coverage that was controlled by Anthem. So, Anthem went to the Supreme Court to have this settled and be able to buy BC of Kansas. The Supreme Court upheld Sebelius in this case, and Anthem has not been able to take over Kansas. So, I am sure Anthem is no fan of her, and with Tom Daschle sitting in the White House frequently, helping Pres. Obama come up with a good plan, there is no room for the REAL sec. of HHS to be in the loop here.
It sounds maybe like a big conspiracy theory here that I might be creating or something, but it is so easy to find out all of this on the internet from newspapers and articles that are legitimate. And, nobody is talking about this.....and I don't get it.
We had the Teaparty Express buses here in Bloomington, IN this past Sunday (and Bloomington is called the San Francisco of the mid-west, a very liberal place), I did get the chance to talk to Jim Spellman of CNN to express my concerns about this public option, which will most likely be outsourced to Anthem, which would essentially double the federal money that is going to Anthem. And, Tom Daschle had a lot of personal interest at stake here, when it is his company that does their lobbying work. He found that really interesting and is going to research this. Unfortunately, Grif Jenkins from Fox News wasn't there because of a wedding in the family that he HAD to attend on Sunday. I would have loved to talk to him off the air about this.
So, my question is why does AOPA use Alston and Bird to lobby for us?? Hopefully this information will help them figure out if this is a firm that is a good choice. I am sure there are a lot of other issues to consider, which I am not privileged to know all of them.
Alston and Bird are kind of like referees in this situation, and if one team is paying the ref a TON of money, and the other team is only paying pocket change....who are the refs going to make sure win the game??? Of course it is in their best interest to have the best paying team win.
Again, back to the reform topic...they claim there are 47 million people that NEED this public option, and that the government is going to provide this for them through this public option. But can the HHS actually cover these people and process claims and pay the claims??? Could they even issue insurance cards for these 47 million??? Never!!! They will have to outsource this work, and it only makes sense to just add them to the pile of everyone else, and hand that over to their already contracted providers, Anthem. And, that will add billions of dollars more to this company that is seen to be the enemy for many people.
We all need to think about this and how it all connects. And, how can Tom Daschle be so powerful and involved in this mess??? That is not a good feeling out here.
Thanks
Jim DeWees, CP
_________________________________________________________________
With Windows Live, you can organize, edit, and share your photos.
<URL Redacted>
Citation
Jim DeWees, “US Politics and AOPA,” Digital Resource Foundation for Orthotics and Prosthetics, accessed November 5, 2024, https://library.drfop.org/items/show/230783.
