Keep Wall Street Out of Traditional Medicare No to ACO REACH!
The Trump administration created a pilot program to privatize traditional Medicare – the Direct Contracting program. The Biden administration has rebranded this privatization scheme as ACO REACH.
Under ACO REACH, the Center for Medicare Services (CMS) contracts with private entities to manage Medicare services. They can be hospitals and clinics, but also for-profit investors like private equity firms, insurance companies, or corporate health care businesses. ACO REACH entities are paid an individualized fee to manage health care services for each Medicare beneficiary based on the health condition of the beneficiary. By 2028 annual Medicare spending is estimated to be $1.6 trillion. For-profit entities are interested in managing Medicare services to get their hands on this money.
Why is this bad?
ACO REACH would allow outside entities to insert themselves between Medicare beneficiaries and our health care providers. ACO REACH would allow for-profit entities to draw down the Medicare Trust Fund for their private profits. ACO REACH would open the door to all sorts of profit-taking practices, including weakening the delivery of Medicare services.
More information from other organizations:
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"Grand Theft Medicare" 8/21/22 by Dick Conoboy, NW Citizen:
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"The Stealth Plan to Privatize Medicare for All", 8/24/22 by Rick Staggenborg, Counterpunch
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Physicians for a National Health Program resources on DCE/ACO REACH: https://pnhp.org/direct-contracting-entities-handing-traditional-medicare-to-wall-street/
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6/7/18: Kip Sullivan article on CMS evaluation of several "medical home" ACO programs: The verdict is in: All three of CMS’s “medical home” demonstrations have failed – The Health Care Blog
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1/16/22: For background on the origins of the ACO REACH program, here's a short article on the key Medicare official who for years has promoted corporate interests in federal health policy.
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2/24/22: American Journal of Managed Care https://www.ajmc.com/view/cms-redesigns-direct-contracting-into-an-equity-focused-aco-model
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5/19/22: Biden’s Little-Publicized Medicare Privatization Scheme Is Starting To Raise Alarm Bells https://portside.org/2022-05-19/bidens-little-publicized-medicare-privatization-scheme-starting-raise-alarm-bells
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An excellent webinar that addresses the lack of health equity in the ACO REACH proposal. DCEs & REACH: Health Equity or Private Equity? - YouTube
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Robby Stern, President of the PSARA Education Fund, was interviewed by Richard Eskow about ACO REACH and the privatization of traditional Medicare. Watch the interview on YouTube by clicking this link: https://youtu.be/6FKFsxRs-Rw
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Robby Stern was interviewed on Twitter Spaces on Jan. 27 about the Medicare Anti Privatization Campaign. Link here: https://twitter.com/i/spaces/1jMKgLrlaOjGL?s=20l
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Webinar with Rep.Pramila Jayapal and members of PSARA on ACO Reach and privatization of Medicare. Link HERE