Government Programs

Blame Congress for HMOs

Only 27 years ago, congressional Republicans and Democrats agreed that American patients should gently but firmly be forced into managed care. That patients do not know this fact is evidenced by public outrage directed at health maintenance organizations (HMOs) instead of Congress.

Medicare

DIAGRAM - Government, Health Care and Taxpayers

One page diagram showing the expensive bureaucracy of government, the limited access of captured HMO patients and the freedom available through fee-for-service payments to doctors and hospitals.

Medicaid - History

A federal government document showing the history and growth of Medicaid, beginning in 1965.

Medicare's OASIS home health data collection system

There is no obligation on the part of private patients to contribute to the Medicare OASIS database. Yet, OASIS regulations seek to collect data on all patients in the home health system. There is no statutory basis for coercion of non-subsidized patients into the federal data collection process. In fact, the Fourth Amendment prohibits such collection without patient consent.