CCHF Urges States to Protect Citizens’ Health Information

ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) announced earlier this month it will not regulate the nationwide health information network, or NHIN, through formal rule-making, instead offering “a framework of principles and good practice models” to help guide deployment without hindering the implementation. The NHIN is designed to share patient health data among insurers and all types of health providers that an individual may seek treatment from. The nationwide network will interact with all state and individual provider networks, to....

CCHF to Present Written Testimony to U.S. House

ST. PAUL, Minn. – On Wednesday, September 12, 2012, the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means and its subcommittee on health will hold a hearing to learn more about the state implementation of health insurance exchanges. The Committee outlined in a hearing advisory that, without final guidelines from the Obama Administration on such issues as mandated benefits packages, expected enrollee costs, and other exchange-related information, uncertainty “threatens to saddle stakeholders with higher costs and also increases the risk of waste, fraud, and abuse.

Are the Feds Forcing Citizens to Accept Medicare?

ST. PAUL, Minn. – On August 24, 2012, a group of plaintiffs petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to hear their case, which alleges that the federal government is forcing citizens to accept Medicare Part A coverage, sometimes against their will. Using a rule-making manual called POMS... the Federal Government insists that any citizen who voluntarily turns down Medicare benefits must also be denied Social Security benefits earned throughout their lifetime of work, and that any Social Security benefits received must be paid back to the government upon denial of Medicare.

CCHF Outlines True Reform

The Real Reasons to Say No to State Healthcare Exchanges

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Many states continue to move toward implementation of the centerpiece of the Affordable Care Act: state healthcare exchanges. But as these implementations continue, there are four major issues impacting both individual patient/taxpayers as well as state legislators.

CCHF: Exchange Data Sharing Promotes Major Privacy Intrusions

ST. PAUL, Minn. – KEY FACTS:
•    Minnesota currently leads state health insurance exchange implementation with its recently signed, $41 million contract with Maximus, Inc.
•    Contract details follow federal regulations and provide a glimpse at what information must be shared based on the law.
•    Information shared with federal agencies by state health insurance exchanges based on the Enroll UX 2014 initiative is intrusive and compromises patient privacy.

State Exchanges: A Ruse for National Registration of Insurance Status

ST. PAUL, M.N. – As states begin to process and plan for the implementation of “American Health Benefit Exchanges,” otherwise known as state health exchanges, the reality of the end of personal health privacy is being realized by individual citizens. The Citizens' Council for Health Freedom has produced a detailed diagram that shows exactly how each individual state exchange is connected back to the federal government, creating a federal registration system that involves every American.

$8.3 Billion Medicare Program Increases Debt & Should be Cancelled

ST. PAUL, M.N. – On July 11^th the U.S. Government Accountability Office released a report questioning the authority of the Department of Health and Human Services to implement a new, $8.3 billion bonus program to help improve the quality of the Medicare Advantage program. This program took the place of the less expensive, more limited program required by the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

CCHF Commends States that Refuse Health Exchanges

“These state exchanges are really the crux of the Affordable Care Act,” said Brase. “It is mandated that each one be connected to the larger, nationwide exchange and enable sharing of information on a national level with multiple government agencies and entities that have no place in what goes on between a person and his or her doctor. By refusing to implement an exchange, states protect the doctor patient relationship and keep care where it belongs, while preventing an extremely costly and ineffective system from moving forward.”

Exchanges: Compromise Privacy, Provide Federal Agencies Control

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Now that the Supreme Court of the United States has ruled the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) mainly constitutional, primary components such as health insurance exchanges are being pushed at the state level. But implementation of these exchanges creates new and lasting challenges, adding $340 billion to the nation’s deficit and creating $17 trillion in long-term, unfunded liabilities that will burden the already floundering economy. Perhaps even more disturbing is the intrusion into patient privacy that these exchanges allow.