FORT MYERS, Fla., Feb. 24, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- The book The
Truth About The Healthcare Industry brings readers to
understand the oligopoly created by the government and the
healthcare industry. Written by Roy J.
Meidinger, retired AT&T management employee;
Greg Martin, Newspaper Reporter for
27 Years; Chirmen Requintan, CPA & Economists, the book relays
the scheme enforced by the government, in connivance with health
insurance companies, to conceal the kickbacks condoned by hospitals
in favor of insurance companies.
Unfortunately, the first chapter is about the main author. The
contributing writers felt the messenger of the information is just
as important as the information in the book. They were overwhelmed
by the information he provided. Their main task was to verify the
facts and update the information. The reader should skip the first
chapter, until the end of reading the book. You will then
understand their feelings.
The second chapter is where the book should have started. This
chapter shows how the healthcare industry grew. The creation of
this oligopoly is started in 1983, by the government, which
organized it, and forced it to use the same billing practices and
administrative procedures. In 1983, the government changed the
Medicare reimbursement process and started the Prospective Payment
System. This chapter shows how the industry overcharges for its
services and then provides the worse healthcare services of all the
industrial countries. The tables and charts are very
illuminous.
The third chapter shows how the oligopoly practices price
fixing, utilizing an economic principle known as "conscious
parallelism". The price fixing scheme starts out as a simple
methodology to get more money from the government's Medicare plan.
The chapter shows how the industry worked to increase the
reimbursement rates for future years, by listing false billing
information of the present year's beneficiaries' bills. The book
shows how the government's algorithms, statistical formulas, and
statistical tables failed to include any checks and balances on the
amounts listed on the beneficiaries' invoices. The dumb government
computers did not know the invoices contained false information and
the healthcare providers were lying to them. The old adage for
computer databases of "garbage in gives garbage out" is transformed
by the health care industry to be "garbage in gives gold out". Not
one healthcare provider considered this fraud, because it was not
immediately paid to them.
The third chapter makes it easy for us to understand why our
perceptions are false of healthcare industries integrity; like the
amount listed on an insured private-pay patient's bill has no
meaning; or, the contract between the provider and an insured
patient is superseded by the contract between the provider and the
insurance company; or, a third-party payer is being given a
discount rather than a kickback, by calling the kickback a
contractual adjustment.
The book shows how the public, along with the IRS, believes; the
amount listed on a bill has no meaning, unless the healthcare
provider is trying to collect it. This is false because of the
Uniform Commercial Code, which determines the billed amount, is a
material fact, which is the sum certain. People are given the
perception a third party payer is being given a discount rather
than a kickback, by calling the kickback a contractual adjustment.
Any legal discount given must be written on the patient's bill and
the net amount listed. The public believes a third-party
payer, whom is not the customer, that the insurance company's
contract with the healthcare provider, supersedes the patient's
contract with the healthcare provider, and that it was okay to
change the price to a lower amount than originally billed. This is
not true because of the substantive law of the federal parole
rule, which says a second contract cannot alter the patient's
contract nor, can it alter the original billed amount. The Uniform
Commercial Code, Generally Accepted Accounting Procedures and the
U.S. Tax Code, which covers bills and the amount listed on them,
also enforces this parole rule of substantive law. A third party
payer's sole responsibility is too pay the insured members medical
bill.
The book shows, how this industry's transformation changed, from
a competitive market place, into an oligopoly, created by the
federal government. In 1983, Congress introduced a new
reimbursement system for Medicare, known as the Prospective Payment
System. This system required non-standard billing and accounting
procedures. These practices were only legal for the government
programs. The industry quickly realized the government had failed
to create checks and balances into the new billing and accounting
procedures. The reimbursement program relied on the beneficiaries'
bills to determine next year's reimbursement rates. Therefore, to
increase the amount of the government programs paid in the future,
the industry began to inflate their charges on the beneficiaries'
bills. This practice is still ongoing and explains why the
healthcare charges increase almost double the percentage increase
of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) of all industries.
The book revealed the secret, of how the government organized
the healthcare industry, by using standard billing practices, into
an oligopoly and continues to cover up the fact of its existence.
Oligopolies are not new; their main driving force is to increase
the revenues for the entire industry. Economist have been aware of
these patterns of cooperation within industries, which violate our
antitrust and consumer protection laws, and designated these
practices as "conscious parallelism", this principle is
simple, and the members from the industry said that other members
were increasing their charges, making more money, getting away with
it. What the industry was doing was stopping to compete with each
other, and everyone would just raise their charges. In the
beginning, it was to get more money from the Medicare Program, but
gradually it affected all patient groups. This cooperation is still
going on today. It is price-fixing and, it is illegal.
The fourth chapter shows how the industry's accumulation of
wealth is illegal for the last 30 years and explains how this
industry has overcharged everyone and stolen $21 trillion. The industry uses false billings,
accounting fraud, kickbacks, restrained trade, boycotts and
economic duress.
The fourth chapter explains the correlation or effect of the
expansion of health care insurance companies to the manufacturing
industry. It imminently shows the damage caused to manufacturing
industry, which closed 75,000 companies and caused the loss of 7
million manufacturing jobs. This loss of manufacturing has led to a
trade deficit of $10 trillion for the
past thirty years. The billing practices are causing over a million
personal bankruptcies a year. The book shows that the government
has known for some time, has covered up the illegal practices,
especially the IRS.
The fifth chapter shows how the executive branch failed its
responsibilities. The Federal Trade Commission should have
recognized an oligopoly and the damages it was doing to other
industries. The Centers for Medicare/Medicaid services should have
known the amounts listed on the beneficiaries' invoices did not
list the lowest price, the actual amount collected by the
providers. The Centers for Medicare/Medicaid Services (CMS) should
have lowered its payments to providers when the General Accounting
Office said the actual cost of healthcare services was 72% lower
than the figure CMS was using, in 2006.
The fifth chapter shows the cover-up employed by the government
and is discussed throughout this chapter. The biggest failure was
the IRS, the nation's auditors; it failed to identify the kickbacks
paid to the healthcare insurance companies by the providers or
collect the taxes on said kickbacks, which amounted to $3 trillion a year. The government's bias is
obvious by the fact that it favors the health care industry and
does not prosecute for political reasons.
In chapter 6, it examines several solutions for lowering the
nation's healthcare costs, presents a solution to the problem,
which will cut healthcare cost in half, eliminate state taxes for
Medicaid, move 1.5 trillion a year into other industries, increase
salaries, thereby increasing tax revenues. The new system will not
increase government spending but combine the existing expenditures
for all healthcare programs. The book shows several industrial
countries, which have gone to a single-payer system and spend less
than half the per capita rate than the
United States. The facts show we can move to a single-payer
system for this country, with no increase in taxes and eliminate
all private health insurance premiums.
The book calls for your actions, of demanding our government to
take action, which is the only hope to fix the healthcare system,
in the United States.
"The Truth About The Healthcare Industry" is live in the
Kindle Store and is available* for readers to purchase
here. Or paste link
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00T78WZNQhttp://www.amazon.com/dp/B00T78WZNQ.
The book is also on nine e-book retailer's websites, in 57
countries.
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SOURCE The Truth About The Healthcare Industry