Medicare: Pressure Grows on Biden to Shut Down Trump-Era Privatization Scheme: The DCE Program

[appalachiablue]

- Doctors attend a protest at the headquarters of the Health and Human Services Department on Nov. 30, 2021 in Washington, D.C.
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Common Dreams, Dec. 30, 2021. - Ed.

Calls are mounting for President Joe Biden to terminate an under-the-radar Trump-era pilot program that—if allowed to run its course—could result in the complete privatization of traditional Medicare by the end of the decade. A petition recently launched by Physicians for a National Program (PNHP) has garnered more than 10,000 signatures as doctors and other advocates work to raise public awareness of the Medicare Direct Contracting program, which the Trump administration rolled out during its final months in power.

"Under this model," the petition warns, "the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) could move more than 30 million traditional Medicare beneficiaries into mostly commercial, for-profit plans called Direct Contracting Entities (DCE) without the enrollees' understanding or consent." "In ways similar to commercial Medicare Advantage plans, DCEs have the potential to interfere with care decisions and waste taxpayer money when compared with the efficiency of traditional Medicare," the appeal continues.

"The Biden administration is moving the DCE program forward, threatening the future of Medicare as we know it. We, the undersigned, demand that CMS immediately stop the DCE program to keep Medicare public and nonprofit for future generations." Late last month, a group of physicians from across the U.S. traveled to the headquarters of the Health and Human Services Department in Wash., D.C. to demand that HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra halt the pilot program in its tracks. The doctors were ultimately blocked from delivering a petition signed by around 1,500 physicians calling for an end to the privatization scheme, which inserts profit-seeking companies between traditional Medicare and healthcare providers.

"Just like corporate middlemen stand between patients and the healthcare they need, security staff stood between PNHP doctors and the policymakers who want to privatize Medicare," PNHP tweeted during the demonstration at the nation's capital. While the doctor-led protest was followed by a brief uptick in reporting on the obscure initiative, Biden's HHS has yet to act and few members of Congress have publicly spoken out against the Direct Contracting program despite the massive implications for the future of Medicare and its tens of millions of beneficiaries...

More,
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/12/30/pressure-grows-biden-shut-down-trump-era-medicare-privatization-scheme

[Pinback]

1. Medicare for None - sounds like a great plan.

This is your periodic reminder that Republicans are hell-bent on dismantling the New Deal and every other beneficial plan implemented by Democratic administrations. Let’s not help them.

Kicking with disgust.

[LoisB]

2. Agree.

[XanaDUer2]

3. Biden needs to get on this

I supported him from the get go and sent money to his campaign for reasons just like this

[ShazamIam]

4. More tax money for private personal wealth. For profit only medicine is a passive mass killing of

of the poorest. Now they have found so many ways to legally skim tax funds from all to benefit the few.
Privatization, legal graft and extortion for no services.