Bill Smith

Congress scheduled a vote at 10pm Sunday night that could take away health care from almost 14 million people. MAYBE NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO BE BITCHING ABOUT BIDEN BOOKS OR WHO GETS TO BE ON THE DNC. Call your representatives at 202-224-3121. Tell them hands off Medicaid.

Beyond unacceptable.

Opinion | America is still grappling with uncomfortable pandemic truths The Covid-19 pandemic reveals itself not as a singular event but as a multifaceted crisis that exposed deep-seated fault lines in American society.

www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...

Perfection.

Turns out having no plan, no strategy, and no message is unpopular as well.

This is the type of ads now being served to me on Twitter. Shameful propaganda.

What fresh hell are we dealing with today? I mean good morning, everyone!

Insurance companies should not be able to own pharmacies. Or medical practices. That shouldn’t be a complicated or controversial idea.

Greedy health insurance companies are totally out of control. We need major reforms to put decisions where they belong- between doctors and their patients. Get rid of prior authorization and ‘fail first.’ Require transparent, independent standards of care. Ban ghost networks.
x.com/wallstreetap...

Privately insured people with depression and anxiety face high out-of-pocket costs - Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker Enrollees who were treated for depression and/or anxiety in 2021 had almost twice as much annual out-of-pocket spending compared to enrollees who were not treated for a mental health diagnosis.

Privately insured people with anxiety and depression pay higher out of pocket costs. Unacceptable. www.healthsystemtracker.org/brief/privat...

Thank you @propublica.org for shining a light on the abhorrent business practices of these huge insurers. It’s time to hold them accountable and make sure that when people pay for insurance, ‘coverage’ actually means care.

Insurers Continue to Rely on Doctors Whose Judgments Have Been Criticized by Courts In dozens of cases ProPublica reviewed, judges found that some doctors working for these companies engaged in “selective readings” of medical evidence and “shut their eyes” to medical opinions opposin...

A damning account of how insurers, like United, rely on the same doctors to deny mental health care, even as judges repeatedly question their calls: “puzzling,” “disingenuous”, “dishonest, “baseless”

By the very best @deldeib.bsky.social @mayatmiller.bsky.social
www.propublica.org/article/ment...

Insurers Continue to Rely on Doctors Whose Judgments Have Been Criticized by Courts In dozens of cases ProPublica reviewed, judges found that some doctors working for these companies engaged in “selective readings” of medical evidence and “shut their eyes” to medical opinions opposin...

www.propublica.org/article/ment... Propublica: ‘Insurers Continue to Rely on Doctors Whose Judgments Have Been Criticized by Courts.’ The more you learn about how these companies abuse #mentalhealth patients, the madder you’ll get. It’s time for major reforms and real accountability.

It’s truly unconscionable that we take people with mental health emergencies and put them in jail because we don’t have appropriate resources and facilities. We must do better for #mentalhealth and build a real continuum of crisis services.

In Settling Fraud Case, New York Medicare Advantage Insurer, CEO Will Pay up to $100M - KFF Health News A whistleblower suit alleged a health insurer bilked Medicare by exaggerating how sick patients were.

A private insurance co & its data mining arm’s CEO carried out a coordinated operation to fraudulently bill for health conditions that didn't even exist.

Dozens of CMS audits have found private health plans intentionally overcharged by hundreds of millions of dollars but the agency has done little

To get there, we have to build a strong social movement that’s unafraid of politics, policy advocacy, and taking on special interests who put profits over people.

Invest in a much largest diverse, culturally competent workforce of professionals, paraprofessionals, and peers who are well-trained and well-compensated to provide care whenever and wherever it’s needed.

Fund crisis stabilization facilities and mobile crisis teams, not just 988 call centers to build out a full crisis continuum of care with qualified providers and staff. And speaking of that…

Ensure every school has enough school mental health providers, faculty and staff are trained and supported, and all insurance providers cover school-based or linked services.

2. Fully integrate mental health with the rest of health, especially primary care. Make resources available everywhere through community initiated care.

1. Hold insurance companies accountable so coverage=care. For starters, ban ghost networks, limit prior authorization, demand transparency re denial rates, require independent standards of care, and ban step therapy.

Access to quality mental healthcare, prevention and early intervention resources in schools, a full continuum of care for people in mental health emergencies, and a bigger, more diverse workforce are all essential if we want to address the mental health crisis in this country. How we get there: 🧵

How UnitedHealth’s Playbook for Limiting Mental Health Coverage Puts Countless Americans’ Treatment at Risk United used an algorithm system to identify patients who it determined were getting too much therapy and then limited coverage. It was deemed illegal in three states, but similar practices persist due...

NEW: UnitedHealth is the nation’s largest health insurance conglomerate.

ProPublica obtained what is effectively the company’s internal playbook for limiting and cutting therapy costs.

Here’s what we found.

From the New Yorker At the same time that news was breaking about the NaviHealth algorithm, the company was fighting—ultimately unsuccessfully—a court decision that it had acted “arbitrarily and capriciously” in repeatedly denying coverage of long-term residential treatment to a middle-school-age girl who repeatedly attempted suicide, and has since died by suicide. Several years ago, government investigators found that UnitedHealth had used algorithms to identify mental-health-care providers who they believed were treating patients too often; these identified therapists would typically receive a call from a company “care advocate” who would question them and then cut off reimbursements. Though some states have ruled this practice illegal, it remains in play across the country. There is no single regulator for a private health-insurance company, even when it is found to be violating the law. For United’s practices to be curbed, mental-health advocates told ProPublica, every single jurisdiction in which it operates would have to successfully bring a case against it. Thompson’s murder is one symptom of the American appetite for violence; his line of work is another.

"There is no single regulator for a private health-insurance company, even when it is found to be violating the law. For United’s practices to be curbed, mental-health advocates told ProPublica, every single jurisdiction in which it operates would have to successfully bring a case against it."

Hats off to @propublica.org for their consistent, in-depth reporting on how health insurance companies abuse the system and make it almost impossible to access #mentalhealth care.

Just getting started on this app. Looking for great advocates, mental health experts, LGBT rights, and fun content during such heavy times. Who should I follow?

Inseparable Inseparable is a coalition of people from across the country who share a common goal to fundamentally improve mental health care policy, to take care of ourselves, our loved ones, and our communities.

The health of our minds is inseparable from the health of our bodies. www.inseparable.us

Inseparable Inseparable is a coalition of people from across the country who share a common goal to fundamentally improve mental health care policy, to take care of ourselves, our loved ones, and our communities.

Want to help build a real movement for mental health? Come join us at www.inseparable.us !