Medicare’s Bundled Payment Program Is Coercive Experiment on Patients

***NEWS RELEASE***

For Immediate Release
April 5, 2016

CONTACT:
Deborah Hamilton, Hamilton Strategies, 215.815.7716, 610.584.1096, ext. 102, or Beth Harrison, 610.584.1096, ext. 104, Media@HamiltonStrategies.com

Medicare’s Bundled Payment Program 

Is Coercive Experiment on Patients

Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom: Beginning April 1, Hospitals 

\Forced to Participate in Medicare Experiment on Hip and Knee 

Replacements, Compromising Patient Care and Privacy

ST. PAUL, Minn.—A five-year Medicare experiment that began on April 1 forces 800 hospital systems in 67 metro areas to receive “bundled payments” for the care of patients who are undergoing hip and knee joint replacements. And these payments must cover all charges associated with these procedures, regardless of how high they might be.

Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom (CCHF, www.cchfreedom.org) says the program turns patients—mostly seniors—into involuntary research subjects, possibly compromising their care and forcing doctors, hospitals and clinics to share private medical information, thereby putting patients’ privacy at risk.

“The charge of the Obamacare-established Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation is to test various models for payment and delivery of health care, specifically to move away from paying doctors and hospitals for actual services performed. This is an experiment on patients, who may not know and may not have anywhere else to go,” said Twila Brase, president and co-founder of CCHF, a patient-centered national health freedom organization based in St. Paul, Minn., existing to protect health care choices, individualized patient care, and medical and genetic privacy rights.

“This initiative forces hospitals to accept bundled payments that they have to divvy out over the entire ‘episode of care,’” she continued. “These dollars must also be used to care for most other conditions of the patient for 90 days. If physicians spend too much, they must pay the government back. If they spend less than the government’s allotment, they can receive a reconciliation payment. Nothing about this is good for the ethical practice of medicine.”

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation operates under a $1 billion annual taxpayer-funded budget and is the centerpiece of President Obamaʼs health care rationing and transformation plan, CCHF further reported. Another consequence could be the refusal to do joint replacements, for example, on patients with chronic illnesses.

“Rationing is inevitable because the hospital is at risk under this rule rather than the government, so some of the sickest patients may be denied the joint replacements they need,” Brase added. “Hospitals face significant losses unless they play the government’s game. If they keep costs low under the government’s ‘episode of care,’ they get paid more. But if they have excess costs ‘above the target price,’ they will have to pay the difference. This experiment shows the danger of government health care.”

Brase discusses headline-making health care issues on CCHF’s daily one-minute radio feature “Health Freedom Minute.” Heard on almost 400 stations nationwide, including nearly 200 on the American Family Radio Network and 100 on the Bott Radio Network, “Health Freedom Minute” helps listeners learn more about the agenda behind health care initiatives, as well as steps they can take to protect their health care choices, rights and privacy. The 60-second program is free for stations to run; for details, contact Michael Hamilton at mhamilton@hamiltonstrategies.com or (610) 584-1096 or (215) 519-4838.

For more information about CCHF, visit its web site at www.cchfreedom.org, its Facebook page at www.facebook.com/cchfreedom or its Twitter feed, @CCHFreedom.

Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom, a patient-centered national health freedom organization based in St. Paul, Minn., exists to protect health care choices, individualized patient care, and medical and genetic privacy rights. CCHF sponsors the daily, 60-second radio feature, Health Freedom Minute, which airs on approximately 400 stations nationwide, including nearly 200 on the American Family Radio Network and 100 on the Bott Radio Network. Listeners can learn more about the agenda behind health care initiatives and​ steps they can take to protect their health care choices, rights and privacy. 

CCHF president and co-founder Twila Brase, R.N., has been called one of the “100 Most Powerful People in Health Care” and one of “Minnesota’s 100 Most Influential Health Care Leaders.” A public health nurse, Brase has been interviewed by CNN, Fox News, Minnesota Public Radio, NBC Nightly News, NBC’s Today Show, NPR, New York Public Radio, the Associated Press, Modern Healthcare, TIME, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and The Washington Times, among others. She is at the forefront of informing the public of crucial health issues, such as intrusive wellness and prevention initiatives in Obamacare, patient privacy, informed consent, the dangers of “evidence-based medicine” and the implications of state and federal health care reform.

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For more information or to interview Twila Brase, president and co-founder of Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom, contact Deborah Hamilton at 215-815-7716 or 610-584-1096, or Beth Harrison at 610-584-1096, Media@HamiltonStrategies.com.