REMEMBER.....EDUCATION REFORM HAS PUBLIC AND PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES AS INNOVATION CENTERS AND CORPORATE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT....THINK THEY CAN'T TAKE MORE FROM THE PUBLIC?
THINK AGAIN!!!!
Today we see yet another step away from the Affordable Care Act sections of the law that held corporations responsible for lowering costs of health care. Third Way corporate neo-liberals are doing to the ACA what they did to the Financial Reform bill......weakening all rules that affect business profits and places any restrictions or regulations. Corporate neo-liberals never intended to have corporations pay anything towards this heath program as the goal is to consolidate health systems to global corporations and maximize profits, so they will one by one remove all corporate cost from this ACA.
Remember, health care costs are so high because of massive health corporation and doctor fraud and wasteful treatment. That is it. The ACA never addressed any of these problems of cost. Now, we are seeing 'affordable' playing out as limiting and ending access to care by patients in order to make health care more profitable.
First the Obama Administration and Third Way corporate neo-liberal states like Maryland lifted from big box stores that employ working class and poor workers the requirement of a minimum in quality health care. Health insurance for these workers has always been what Medicaid has become now....a public health checkup. Right off the bat Obama stated that this health care reform will be tiered with the low-income people losing access to care. Second, the elimination of Medicare Advantage was going to bring hundreds of billions back to Medicare by ending this program meant only as a way to privatize part of the social program Medicare. Medicare Advantage only soaks the system to pay for wellness programs for the more affluent while eating up funding for basic health care for most seniors. You can see how the goal of getting most people away from health care access to maximize profits is playing out. Third, while the Obama Administration tries to tout the Justice Department's supposed increase on fighting Entitlement fraud by saying the recovery of a few billion in fraud represents accountability, we all know that there are hundreds of billions stolen each year for these few decades and nothing is being done about that.
Do not think this is happening because republicans made them do it....you know I've been shouting this for four years....they are doing it because that is the goal! All of Maryland's neo-liberals support this and these private health systems in Maryland built by Johns Hopkins place this global profit -driven scheme on overdrive. YOUR POL IS WORKING TO MAKE SURE YOU HAVE LITTLE OR NO HEALTH CARE COVERAGE!
ALL OF THE CHANGES TO HEALTH CARE VIA THE ACA ADD TO CORPORATE PROFIT WITHOUT ANY GAINS IN OVERSIGHT AND ACCOUNTABILITY!
I also want to show how these corporate 1% are disguising what is fast becoming that global health system. In Maryland we are used to private non-profits using public money to build their infrastructure and then declare themselves ready to become profitable......THAT WOULD BE JOHNS HOPKINS. So who is Johns Hopkins best buddies and partners in this global rise? MED STAR HEALTH AND MANOR CARE. JOHNS HOPKINS IS WORKING HARD TO SEE THAT THESE GUYS GET ALL THEY WANT BECAUSE THEY ARE INVOLVED ON THE GROUND FLOOR OF WHAT THEY THINK WILL BE GLOBAL HEALTH SYSTEMS.
If you look below you will see that Med Star is not a regional health operation .....a group of hospitals. They are specialty health institutions and hospitals in Chicago and throughout Illinois. WAIT!!!!!!! OBAMA AND ILLINOIS AND O'MALLEY AND MED STAR HEALTH.....SAME DEAL WITH EXELON AND BGE FOLKS. If you look further you will see all the way at the top west corner of the country Northwest Med Star is a medical helicopter service and has expanded as well to multiple states......same corporation expanding across the country in different health businesses all ready to consolidate when they go global.
What makes this just as criminal and corrupt as Maryland loves to be known.....O'Malley just purchased for hundreds of millions of dollars a fleet of medical helicopters for the state with taxpayer money...12 huge medivacs. NOW, I WONDER WHAT CORPORATION THOSE HELICOPTERS BOUGHT ON THE PUBLIC DIME WILL END UP BEING TIED TO A PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP? THAT'S RIGHT......O'MALLEY AND THE MARYLAND ASSEMBLY SPENT OUR MONEY BUYING WHAT WILL BE THE HELICOPTERS FOR THE EXPANSION OF THIS WEST COAST BRANCH OF MED STAR....THEIR MEDICAL HELICOPTER BUSINESS. Mind you O'Malley did the same thing for VEOLA, a French transportation company with which neo-liberals are trying to privatize public transportation.
So in Maryland we are seeing Johns Hopkins and Georgetown University teaming with hedge funds to build this global health system (Manor Care is a senior health facility owned by Carlyle Group for example.)
Note below we see another example of a mega-health system TENET HEALTHCARE with majority stakes owned by KKR and Blackstone Group, TWO HEDGE FUNDS....
THE COMPETITION IS ON AND PROFIT-MAXIMIZATION IS THE GOAL FOR ALL!!! WHAT ABOUT THE HIPPOCRATIC OATH?
FORGET ABOUT IT SAY THIRD WAY CORPORATE NEO-LIBERALS......GAME ON AND WINNING AT ALL COST!!!
White House delays key element of health care law
Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Associated Press 1 hour ago
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama's health care law, hailed as his most significant legislative achievement, seems to be losing much of its sweep.
On Tuesday, the administration unexpectedly announced a one-year delay, until after the 2014 elections, in a central requirement of the law that medium and large companies provide coverage for their workers or face fines.
Separately, opposition in the states from Republican governors and legislators has steadily undermined a Medicaid expansion that had been expected to provide coverage to some 15 million low-income people.
Tuesday's move — which caught administration allies and adversaries by surprise — sacrificed timely implementation of Obama's signature legislation but might help Democrats politically by blunting an election-year line of attack Republicans were planning to use. The employer requirements are among the most complex parts of the health care law, designed to expand coverage for uninsured Americans.
"We have heard concerns about the complexity of the requirements and the need for more time to implement them effectively," Treasury Assistant Secretary Mark Mazur said in a blog post. "We have listened to your feedback and we are taking action."
Business groups were jubilant. "A pleasant surprise," said Randy Johnson, senior vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. There was no inkling in advance of the administration's action, he said.
"We commend the administration's wise move," said Neil Trautwein, a vice president of the National Retail Federation. It "will provide employers and businesses more time to update their health care coverage without threat of arbitrary punishment."
But the delay could also whittle away at the law's main goal of covering the nearly 50 million Americans without health insurance.
Liberals immediately raised concerns. Will employees be able to get taxpayer-subsidized individual coverage through new health insurance markets if their company does not offer medical benefits? Uninsured people can start signing up Oct. 1 for the new individual policies.
"If the administration is going to give employers a break, it should not do that at the expense of millions of uninsured or underinsured workers who have been looking to have health insurance available to them on Jan. 1, 2014," said Richard Kirsch, a senior fellow with the Roosevelt Institute in New York, a think tank dedicated to promoting progressive policies.
Under the health law, companies with 50 or more workers must provide affordable coverage to their full-time employees or risk a series of escalating tax penalties if just one worker ends up getting government-subsidized insurance. Originally, that requirement was supposed to take effect Jan. 1, 2014. It will now be delayed to 2015.
Most medium-sized and large business already offer health insurance and the mandate was expected to have the biggest consequences for major chain hotels, restaurants and retail stores that employ many low-wage workers. Some had threatened to cut workers' hours, and others said they were putting off hiring.
Business groups have complained since the law passed that the provision was too complicated. For instance, it created a new definition of full-time workers, those putting in 30 hours or more. It also actually included two separate requirements, one to provide coverage and another that it be deemed "affordable" under the law. Violations of either one exposed employers to fines. But such complaints until now seemed to be going unheeded.
There is no coverage requirement — or penalty — for smaller businesses. Also, for businesses of any size, there is no penalty if their workers are poor enough to be eligible for Medicaid.
The delay in the employer requirement does not affect a provision in the law that requires individuals to carry health insurance starting next year or face fines. That so-called individual mandate was challenged all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled last year that the individual requirement was constitutional since the penalty would be collected by the Internal Revenue Service and amounted to a tax.
Tuesday's action could provide cover for Democratic candidates in next year's congressional elections.
The move undercuts Republican efforts to make the overhaul and the costs associated with new requirements a major issue in congressional races. Democrats are defending 21 Senate seats to the Republicans' 14, and the GOP already had begun to excoriate Senate Democrats who had voted for the health law in 2009.
Senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett cast the decision as part of an effort to simplify data reporting requirements.
She said since enforcing the coverage mandate depends on businesses reporting about their workers' access to insurance, the administration decided to postpone the reporting requirement, and with it, the mandate to provide coverage.
"We have and will continue to make changes as needed," Jarrett wrote in a White House blog post. "In our ongoing discussions with businesses we have heard that you need the time to get this right. We are listening."
Republicans called it a validation of their belief that the law is unworkable and should be repealed.
"The president's health care law is already raising costs and costing jobs. This announcement means even the Obama administration knows the 'train wreck' will only get worse," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said in an email. "This is a clear acknowledgment that the law is unworkable, and it underscores the need to repeal the law and replace it with effective, patient-centered reforms."
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Associated Press writers Donna Cassata, Sam Hananel and Josh Lederman contributed to this report.
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Now the citizens of Maryland and Washington DC may think that the Med Star hospitals they see popping up all over and taking over health care in the state are just regional health systems. Below you see that it is in fact a national health system complete with specialty services, hospitals, and even their own medical helicopters. Is any of this non-profit? OF COURSE NOT.....THEY JUST ARE USING NON-PROFIT AS A TAX-EXEMPTION AND TAXPAYER GRANTS TO EXPAND!
Welcome to Northwest MedStar
Seconds count when a critically ill or injured patient needs specialized medical attention. From bases in Spokane, Tri-Cities, Moses Lake and the Palouse area, Northwest MedStar safely transports thousands of patients each year in Washington, Idaho and Oregon.
Northwest MedStar, a non-profit organization, is the region's premier critical care transport service dedicated to the safe, compassionate care for over 3,500 critically ill or injured patients each year through helicopter, fixed wing and ground-based transports to health care facilities throughout the Pacific Northwest.
MedStar Health
is a $4.4 billion not-for-profit, regional healthcare system with a network of 10 hospitals and 20 other health-related businesses across Maryland and the Washington, D.C., region. As the area's largest health system, it is one of the region's largest employers with almost 30,000 associates and 5,600 affiliated physicians, all of whom support MedStar Health's patient-first philosophy that combines care, compassion and clinical excellence with an emphasis on customer service. We prove this with more than 163,000 inpatient admissions and more than 2 million outpatient visits each year.
Medstar Health Jobs in Illinois (IL)
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Springfield/Champaign Medstar Health jobs by area
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If you read this you would say....isn't that great they are expanding to developing world countries to help those without health care. They allow you to sponsor this expansion. Now think about what is happening in the US and second world countries like India and China.....are people getting more access to better care? No, we are seeing our health care access decline in quality and access. So do we really think this Pharmaceutical executive is working simply to better health care abroad or are they just expanding health systems to developing world's wealthiest? That is in fact what they are doing. Like the US, first world countries are just educating the brightest in developing countries and taking them out of the country. They are establishing health care in these countries only for people who can afford the cost while the rest of the people continue to get clinical care. As we see in the US, they could care less about saving lives......it is now only about profit!
These programs are the structural apparatus for global health businesses that the Affordable Care Act are growing!
Society For Worldwide Medical Exchange Expands Global Medical Education Programs Under The Leadership Of Renowned Clinical Development Executive
Dr. Bruno Musch will be leading SWME's humanitarian efforts to improve health care in developing countries and to expand education in key disease areas together with global medical society leaders
M.D.- PhD in the pharmaceutical industry in the USA and Europe.
Press Release: Society For Worldwide Medical Exchange – Tue, Jun 11, 2013 12:32 PM EDT
MIAMI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
The Society for Worldwide Medical Exchange (SWME), a global non-profit organization dedicated to the medical education of Health Care Providers, announces the appointment of Bruno Musch, MD, PhD, as Chairman of its Advisory Board. The appointment also marks the expansion of SWME's global medical education programs in alliance with medical society leaders around the world.
“It is time we innovate the way we educate Health Care Providers and share up-to-date knowledge and information through educational initiatives tailored for the specific regional and local audiences. By addressing these needs we can inspire cross fertilization and share experience. SWME is developing world class live and online interactive educational tools and extended congress programs that are accessible to large audiences, in particular for developing countries and for the many who cannot attend major medical conventions,” said Bruno Musch, MD, PhD.
With an impressive career spanning more than three decades, Dr. Musch has made ground breaking contributions to the development of medicines that have improved the quality of life of millions of patients around the world suffering from conditions such as epilepsy, sleep disorders, Parkinson's disease, restless leg syndrome and multiple sclerosis. Dr. Musch has previously served in global leadership roles in clinical development and medical affairs in large pharmaceutical corporations in both Europe and the United States.
Under Dr. Musch's leadership, SWME has recently expanded education programs in the areas of Neurology and Psychiatry. This includes the launch of a new continuing medical education course, "Bridging Neurology and Psychiatry: Movement Disorders," which will be held in Boston, MA on October 12, 2013 in collaboration with Brown University, the Movement Disorder Society (MDS) and Butler Hospital and will address the behavioral aspects of movement disorders.
In his role, Dr. Musch will be leading SWME's humanitarian efforts to improve health care delivery in developing countries, and to expand education in key disease areas together with global medical society leaders.
About SWME
The Society for Worldwide Medical Exchange (SWME) is an international non-profit organization uniting doctors around the world to advance global health through continuing medical education. Recognizing health as a fundamental human right, SWME works to strengthen health care delivery in developing communities by breaking down barriers to quality medical education.
We believe that if we take action as a united global medical community, together we can fight diseases, develop cures and save lives.
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Below you see Texas mega-health system Tenet. You would have to have your head in the sand if you do not know how ruthless and profit-driven Texas businesses are and that ethic has infused the nation. So one hospital chain is now in 16 states and they plan to grow just like the Wall Street banks. At the same time they are overseas expanding to other nations. Texas has one of the harshest public health care coverage and quality of life as regards health issues while its health businesses are the most profitable.....SEE WHERE THIS IS GOING?
This is for what the Affordable Care Act is working....it is giving shelter for a consolidation of this industry that everyone knows will move health care from public interest to predatory profiteering.
Tenet Healthcare to buy Nashville-based Vanguard Deal could be good for area health care
Jun. 24, 2013
The Detroit Medical Center was purchased by Nashville-based Vanguard Health Systems in 2010. / Paul Sancya / File / Associated Press Written by Getahn Ward The Tennessean
Vanguard Health Systems Chairman and CEO Charlie Martin, center, rings the New York Stock Exchange opening bell as his daughter Hazel, age 4, holds her ears during the celebration of the company's IPO on June 22, 2011. / Richard Drew / File / Associated Press By the numbers Tenet Healthcare Corp.
Hospitals: 49
States: 11
Employees: 59,000
Revenue: $9.1 billion
Vanguard Health Systems Inc.
Hospitals: 28
States: 5
Employees: 39,800
Revenue: $5.9 billion
Tenet Healthcare’s $4.3 billion deal to buy Vanguard Health Systems will take a corporate headquarters out of Middle Tennessee, and likely reduce some of the influence that comes from Nashville-area companies operating 70 percent of the nation’s for-profit hospital beds.
But if Vanguard CEO Charlie Martin’s track record for investing in early-stage companies is any indication, observers also see potential benefits for the city’s signature health care industry.
The deal, under which Dallas-based Tenet will pay $1.8 billion in cash and assume $2.5 billion in Vanguard’s debt, comes amid challenges that are driving mergers in the acute-care hospitals sector.
“Going big or getting out is reality for hospitals,” said Paul Keckley, outgoing executive director of the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions. Keckley identified several key challenges for today’s hospitals: lower profit margins, higher costs for labor and technology, increased pressure to help doctors stay afloat, new responsibilities to manage outcomes or face penalties, and tougher negotiations with health insurers who want steeper discounts.
On an overall down day for stocks on Wall Street, reaction to the deal was positive. Vanguard’s stock price shot up 67 percent, or $8.33 a share, to close at $20.70 Monday. Tenet, for its part, rose 4.49 percent, or $1.88 a share, to finish the day at $43.73. As a group, for-profit hospital chains rose 9.7 percent Monday.
In a conference call with analysts, Tenet’s CEO Trevor Fetter said the deal was attractive from an operational and strategic perspective, adding that up to $200 million in savings is expected from improved efficiency, reduction in overhead and other improvements. “At this time of unprecedented change in health care, we believe that the combined company will be better prepared to lead this transformation,” he said.
A.J. Rice, a stock analyst with UBS in New York, said Tenet’s offer price —which equates to roughly a 70 percent premium — reflects how Vanguard’s stock had been trading at a discount to its peers.
The significant ownership by private equity firms of nearly half of Vanguard’s stock, including Blackstone Group’s 38 percent controlling stake, also likely played a role in driving the deal to sell to Tenet, Rice said. “Typically, they make their investments with an eight-year horizon, and they’ve owned that Vanguard business for a while now.”
At the $21 a share price, Blackstone’s stake would be worth about $609 million. Martin’s roughly 4 percent stake would be worth nearly $82 million.
Under the deal expected to close by year-end, Martin would join Tenet’s board, while Vanguard Vice Chairman Pitts would be vice chairman at Tenet following the merger.
Martin, who’s known for shunning the spotlight, is no stranger to the mergers and acquisition game. About 16 years ago, Martin sold Nashville-based hospital chain OrNda HealthCorp, which he founded, to Tenet. He later bought back three hospitals in Massachusetts to launch Vanguard. Those three hospitals will again become a part of post-merger Tenet if the latest acquisition closes.
Under Martin’s watch, Vanguard has significantly grown its footprint through large deals, including acquiring the five-hospital Baptist Health System in San Antonio a decade ago and then the eight-hospital Detroit Medical Center 2½ years ago. Vanguard also has been proactive in exploring new models of care with five accountable care organizations in various stages of operations, and the chain’s San Antonio-based system is a participant in a demonstration project on bundled payments.
On a more personal level, Martin is a key player on Nashville’s entrepreneurial scene. He launched companies such as e+CancerCare with proceeds from previous deals and had a key role in launching a Heritage Group fund to invest in health care ideas.
“I would say Charlie has shown historically an exceptional commitment to entrepreneurship,” said Gary Peat, a Nashville venture capitalist who has worked with Martin on deals. “If history is any guide, hopefully this sale of Vanguard presages a sustained commitment to entrepreneurship and also the hard work of building great businesses.”
Clayton McWhorter, another Nashville venture capitalist and former colleague of Martin at HCA, called Martin one of the most able and capable executives with whom he’s worked. “He’s done very well in the industry and he’s done well guarding Vanguard to its present status.”
Sheryl Skolnick, an analyst at CRT Capital in Stamford, Conn., was especially pleased that Tenet did the deal with Martin and Pitts staying on board. “We think that eases the transition, but more importantly gives Tenet strategic, operational and senior management expertise that it could not otherwise have attained,” she said in a research note. “What Tenet gets with Mr. Pitts is a reach into the nonprofit sector and a sophistication in acquisitions that we think could put Tenet on a new growth trajectory. That may, we think, be the single most important strategic asset in this deal.”
It’s unclear how the deal will affect local Vanguard employees, but Tenet said its Conifer subsidiary that handles billing, collections and other back-office functions for health care firms should benefit from increased scale through adding Vanguard.
Critics of the Tenet-Vanguard deal included Vicki Bryan, senior high yield analyst at bond research firm Gimme Credit in New York, who said the transaction would mark yet another rich payday for Vanguard’s founders and long-time management/perpetual deal architects Martin and Pitts.
“That’s more than can be said for Vanguard’s stockholders, who have been mostly underwater since the company was taken public at $18 per share in 2011 in a deal that failed to net even enough to cover debt-funded dividends already paid to former equity owners,” Bryan said in a research note. “One of the weakest of the largest hospital operators pays a hefty premium to buy another sizable hospital operator even worse off — gee, what can go wrong?”
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ALL OF HEALTH CARE IS BEING HANDED TO PRIVATE EQUITY AND HEDGE FUNDS.....ALL OF WHOM ALREADY HAVE STOLEN TENS OF TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS BY CORPORATE FRAUD.....HOW DO YOU THINK THEY WILL BE AS HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS?
Guard your loved one's body at death.....it will become the market source just like personal data!
“PRA is a well-positioned global CRO platform led by a talented management team with a long track record of success. As one of the fastest growing companies in the CRO sector, PRA is known for its strong client relationships and differentiated therapeutic expertise. PRA management and KKR share the common ambition of building on this platform by continually improving service offerings to clients and providing compelling career opportunities for employees,” said Jim Momtazee, Member of KKR and Head of KKR’s Health Care investing team.
- June 25, 2013, 10:11 AM
By Thomas Dunford Mike Lucas for Dow Jones Top stories in this morning’s LBO Wire:
Genstar Capital is seeing double. The firm more than doubled its investment in clinical research company PRA International in a $1.3 billion sale to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts KKR -0.93% & Co., Amy Or reports for LBO Wire. This was Genstar’s second go-around with PRA, after buying the company from Carlyle Group CG 0.00% in 2001 for $95 million, floating it in 2004 and taking it private again for $400 million in 2007.
A couple more free LBO Wire stories on a pair of secondary deals: AEA Investors buys industrial safety products distributor Aramsco Holdings from Summit Partners. And Omers Private Equity agrees to sell United States Infrastructure Corp. to Leonard Green & Partners.
(LBO Wire is a daily newsletter with comprehensive analysis of all the investments, deals, fundraisings and personnel moves involving private equity firms. For a two-week trial, visit our homepage, scroll to the bottom and click “try for free.”)
Elsewhere on the Web:
PRA International isn’t the only private equity-backed health-care business to change hands in a $1 billion-plus transaction Tenet Healthcare Corp. THC -2.65% agreed to buy hospital operator Vanguard Health Systems VHS 0.00% for $4.3 billion, including the assumption of debt, Anna Wilde Mathews and Jon Kamp report for The Wall Street Journal. Vanguard went public in 2011, but Blackstone Group BX -0.44% retains a 38% stake in the company.