Tag: health care

‘Equity for All Patients’: Arizona Senate Moves to End Vaccine Incentives for Doctors

The Arizona Senate this week approved legislation that would bar insurance companies — including Medicaid — from reimbursing physicians at different rates based on whether their patients “refuse one or more vaccines,” according to the Arizona Mirror.

Lawmakers passed the bill Tuesday by a 16-13 party-line vote. The measure now moves to the Arizona House of Representatives. If approved there, it would head to Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs for consideration.

Bill sponsor Sen. Janae Shamp, a Republican nurse, said the proposal is a response to parents who say they struggle to find pediatric care for their children if they don’t follow the full childhood vaccination schedule from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“This specifically comes from a lot of parents asking for help for their children to be able to go to a pediatrician’s office when they don’t meet the entire vaccine schedule minimums to go to a practice,” Shamp told colleagues on the Senate floor. “This is about equity for all patients.”

Shamp previously said she lost her nursing job after refusing the COVID-19 vaccine.

‘Bill protects families’ rights to make informed decisions’

Ursula Conway, president emeritus of Children’s Health Defense’s (CHD) Arizona Chapter, said the legislation reflects broader debates about medical choice and physician incentives.

Shamp’s bill reflects “Arizona’s commitment to each individual’s right to make their own healthcare decisions,” Conway said.

She said some physicians receive financial bonuses tied to vaccination rates within their practices. She argued that those incentives can influence how doctors treat families who decline shots.

“Consequently, some practitioners choose to restrict their practice to those families who agree to the recommended vaccine schedule, thus securing their bonus income,” she said.

Families who don’t follow the schedule face difficulty finding care, according to Conway.

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California bill seeks to restore Medi‑Cal coverage for undocumented adults in 2027

A proposed California bill could pave the way for undocumented Californians ages 19 and older to once again receive Medi-Cal coverage, beginning Jan. 1, 2027.

State Sen. María Elena Durazo and Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula, both Democrats, introduced the Medi‑Cal Access Restoration Act to end the freeze and reinstate full‑scope Medi‑Cal benefits for undocumented adults.

As of Thursday afternoon, the bill states that it would “make an individual who is 19 years of age or older, who does not have satisfactory immigration status, eligible for the full scope of Medi-Cal benefits subject to certain limitations, such as the payment of premiums and certain dental benefits.”

According to the Fresno Bee, California faced a deficit of more than $10 billion last year before rolling back health insurance access for undocumented adults, a benefit the state had been expanding for several years, to help balance the 2025‑26 budget.

The state is again projecting a nearly $3 billion deficit as lawmakers prepare next year’s spending plan.

Lawmakers say the freeze does not eliminate health needs and instead shifts costs to counties, hospitals and emergency rooms.

“Undocumented Californians pick our crops, build our homes, and care for our families – and they pay billions in taxes to do it,” said Senator Durazo. “Denying them basic health coverage isn’t saving money, it’s borrowing trouble. We pay more when people end up in the emergency room. SB 1422 is the fiscally responsible thing to do, and it’s the right thing to do.”

According to officials, undocumented Californians contribute $8.5 billion annually in state and local taxes and make up roughly one-tenth of the state’s workforce.

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Shocking new Epstein photo shows top doctor giving woman STITCHES on predator’s dining room table… as acclaimed female cancer expert is engulfed by scandal

A newly uncovered photo from the Epstein files revealed a shocking home surgery appearing to show a woman getting stitches on his dining room table, as the disgraced financier’s ties to the medical industry are exposed. 

Millions of documents tied to the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, released by the Department of Justice, are beginning to show how entrenched the famed figure was in high society. 

Epstein was arrested in 2019 on federal sex trafficking charges before he died by suicide in prison, but evidence of his abuse dates back decades. 

Information on his large-scale scheme has slowly come to light since the DOJ released millions of files related to the disgraced financier, including several loyal medical specialists who allegedly brushed his wrongdoings under the rug.

Emails released by the DOJ and first reported by the New York Times revealed that Dr Eva Dubin, former Miss Sweden and founder of the Dubin Breast Center at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City had frequent correspondence with Epstein.

In one particularly shocking exchange, Epstein told Dubin that he was flying to New York with a Russian female student, whose name was redacted in the files, after she fell off an ATV on his private island in the US Virgin Islands. 

In an email to Dubin dated October 6, 2012, Epstein wrote: ‘I am flying to ny will land at 630… [redacted] fell off the ATV and needs stitches in her forehead and an x-ray to ensure no concussion… can you organize thanks will call later or try my cell.’ 

Dubin responded that top plastic surgeon Jess Ting was ‘standing by’ and told Epstein to call her when they landed so she could go with them. 

The next day, Epstein sent another email to his assistant, instructing her to purchase large first-aid kits and asking for a defibrillator. 

‘[Redacted] had a bad accident on the island. dr ting put 35 stitches in her head, laid out on the dining room table,’ the email continued. 

A photo in the files showed a woman lying down, apparently undergoing a medical procedure. Her face was blocked by towels, and the faces of the three other individuals in the picture were redacted. 

A person in a checkered shirt who looked like a man was seen sitting near the woman while two other women stood over them, and one held a lamp over the alleged procedure. 

The New York Times also found several other emails included in the files between Dr Ting and Epstein. 

One of the emails revealed correspondence about Ting’s family taking a trip to Epstein’s island. Another email, months later, revealed that Epstein agreed to donate $50,000 to breast cancer research. 

Ting denied any wrongdoing and said he was not in the photo of the alleged home procedure. He added that he never witnessed any criminal activity from Epstein. 

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Woman, 97, was found dead on the floor of her home after being told she would have to wait ten days for an ambulance for a suspected hip break, coroner hears

A 97-year-old woman died after being told she would need to wait ten days for an ambulance over a suspected hip fracture. 

Babette Burge was found on the floor of her home in Newport, Isle of Wight, by a carer on October 19, 2025. 

Just five days earlier, a paramedic from a local GP surgery had attended Ms Burge’s home to assess her condition and found that her leg was ‘shortened and rotated’ – a sign of a fractured hip. 

The pensioner was told she would need to wait 10 days for an ambulance to St Mary’s Hospital in Newport, but suffered a fall before the transfer could take place. 

She was found on the floor of her home struggling to breathe by her carer and died shortly before 1pm that day. 

An inquest at Isle of Wight Coroner’s Court has now given pneumonia as Ms Burge’s cause of death, with immobility and a left femoral fracture recorded as contributing factors.

It was also revealed that mottling was found on her skin – a sign of reduced blood flow often caused by cold temperatures or poor circulation.  

Coroner Caroline Sumeray offered her condolences to Mrs Burge’s family and set a provisional date of August 12 for a full inquest.

The delay in ambulance transfer and the care provided following the pensioner’s fall will be examined.  

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Former NY Sales Director Sentenced to Prison in $70M Medicare Brain Scan Scheme

A former New York-based sales director for the Northeast region of a mobile medical diagnostics company was sentenced on Feb. 13, 2026, in federal court in Boston for conspiring to offer and pay kickbacks to doctors in exchange for ordering medically unnecessary brain scans.

The scheme resulted in fraudulent bills of about $70.6 million to Medicare. Medicare paid approximately $27.2 million to the TCD company for the fraudulent claims.

James Rausch, 57, of Point Jefferson Station, N.Y., was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton to eight months in prison, to be followed by one year of supervised release. The defendant was also ordered to pay $17.5 million in restitution, forfeiture in the amount of $408,437 and a $20,000 fine.

 In June 2025, Rausch pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the anti-kickback statute.

From March 2015 through at least September 2020, Rausch conspired with others, including two managers for a mobile medical diagnostics company that performed transcranial doppler (TCD) scans, to enter into kickback agreements with various doctors. 

TCD scans are brain scans that measure blood flow in parts of the brain. 

Rausch and his co-conspirators agreed to offer and pay doctors kickbacks, some in cash and others by check, based on the number of TCD ultrasounds the doctors ordered. The co-conspirators created purported rental and administrative service agreements, which on paper made it appear as if doctors were compensated for the TCD company’s use of space and administrative resources of the ordering doctor’s practice based on fair market value and not based on the volume or value of referrals. These were sham agreements that hid the true nature of the arrangement of paying per test.  

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Florida, Texas Executives Get 20 Years for $233M Affordable Care Act Fraud Scheme

Two executives were each sentenced to 20 years in prison after being convicted for a years-long scheme to steal from the Affordable Care Act program.

The defendants — the president of an insurance brokerage firm and the CEO of a marketing company — preyed on tens of thousands of vulnerable consumers to improperly enroll them into fully subsidized ACA plans, for which the defendants earned millions of dollars in commission payments from insurance companies.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Cory Lloyd, 47, of Stuart, Florida, and Steven Strong, 43, of Mansfield, Texas, engaged in an extensive fraud scheme that sought over $233 million in fraudulent ACA plan subsidies for which the federal government paid at least $180 million. 

“Preying upon medically compromised consumers to rob hundreds of millions from taxpayer-funded programs is evil and unforgivable,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “Fraud schemes like this rob citizens and shake faith in our institutions — today’s sentencing is the latest example of this DOJ’s commitment to fighting fraud nationwide.”

As proven at trial, Lloyd and Strong targeted vulnerable, low-income individuals experiencing homelessness, unemployment, and mental health and substance abuse disorders, and, through “street marketers” working on their behalf, sometimes offered bribes to induce those individuals to enroll in subsidized ACA plans. 

“These defendants didn’t just commit fraud; they built a business model around exploiting people at their most vulnerable,” said FBI Director Kash Patel. “They targeted vulnerable individuals in the community, manipulated federal health programs for profit, and put victims at risk of losing critical medical care so they could cash in. Stealing hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars while endangering lives is as callous as it gets. The FBI and our partners will continue to track down and hold accountable anyone who treats vulnerable Americans as a payday.”

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New York Times Hit Piece On ICE Facilities’ Medical Care Is Riddled With Falsehoods, DHS Says

Ahit piece in The New York Times claiming the medical care provided at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers is ‘poor’ is riddled with falsehoods, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told The Federalist.

The New York Times on Saturday ran through several claims that several illegal aliens did not receive proper care: Aliens were forced to wait long periods of time to be “lucky enough to see a doctor,” diabetes patients did not receive regular insulin, and detainees faced various other medical care failures.

According to DHS, those claims are totally unfounded.

“These allegations of illegal aliens being denied proper medical care in ICE custody are FALSE. It is both policy and longstanding practice for aliens to receive timely and appropriate medical care from the moment they enter ICE custody,” Dr. Sean Conley, DHS chief medical officer, told The Federalist. “This includes medical, dental, women’s health and mental health services, any needed follow up medical appointments as well as  24-hour emergency care. This is better, more responsive healthcare than many aliens have ever received in their entire lives.”

The New York Times claims that medical staff at Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas “downplayed” the concerns Kheilin Domelis Valero Marcano and Stiven Jose Arrieta Prieto had about the medical condition of their 18-month-old daughter, Amalia Isabella Arrieta-Valero. The Biden administration released the Venezuelan family in 2024 after they entered the country illegally, according to DHS.

Marcano and Prieto claim, apparently through a lawyer, that medical staff delayed until Arrieta-Valero developed a fever that allegedly lasted 19 days and caused her to lose two pounds.

According to DHS, however, after Arrieta-Valero developed a respiratory condition, she “immediately received proper medical care and was admitted to the Methodist Children’s Hospital in San Antonio, Texas for treatment.”

She stayed at the hospital for eight days, and then a pediatrician approved her release. She was brought back to Dilley, where she received further medical monitoring and prescriptions.

Another claim in the hit piece is about Anastasiia Ekimovskaia, a 35-year-old illegal alien from Russia who entered the United States illegally on Oct. 6, 2025, who “reported no medical or mental health” concerns upon arrival at Dilley, DHS said.

The New York Times says DHS staff refused care to Ekimovskaia for hemorrhaging and bleeding “through six sanitary pads.” She was ultimately taken to a hospital, allegedly after “pleading with staff and after they demanded proof.” She showed the pads and was given a prescription that “took weeks to arrive” as “the bleeding continued.”

According to DHS, Ekimovskaia said she had side pain on Nov. 1, and disclosed a “history of kidney stones.” After consulting with the medical staff who “started appropriate treatment” and planned a future visit to revisit the situation, on Nov. 6, she sought care for “menstrual discomfort and heavy bleeding,” DHS said.

After going to Frio Regional Hospital upon referral from Dilley’s medical provider, she was “diagnosed with moderate heavy menstrual bleeding” and referred to an off-site obstetrician-gynecologist and had “multiple follow-up appointments.”

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University of Florida to stop ‘gender-affirming care’ for students

Laser hair removal and cross-sex hormones will no longer be provided to gender-confused students at the University of Florida starting this summer.

The student health center previously provided these services to gender-confused students to help them look like the opposite sex. However, the clinic cited federal and state policies in announcing its decision to cease offering the procedures effective May 1, according to the Alligator.

State data for 2018 to 2022 shows “over 700 patients underwent hormone replacement therapy, 90 received prescriptions for puberty blockers and 41 underwent gender-affirming surgery,” the student newspaper reported. However, this is across all University of Florida health centers, not just the student clinic.

A state law placing limits on both minors and adults receiving the drugs and surgeries is currently pending in the courts. The Supreme Court also upheld the rights of states to regulate the procedures for minors last summer. These procedures can include removing healthy reproductive organs or taking drugs that can lead to permanent infertility.

The pro-LGBT organization Equality Florida did not respond to two emails and a phone call in the past three weeks from The College Fix, asking for comment on the decision.

However, a critic of transgender ideology praised the decision in emailed comments to The Fix.

“Obviously, it’s a refreshingly sane decision, though they obviously made it for the wrong reasons – because of the state laws forcing them,” MassResistance President Brian Camenker told The Fix.

“But even just affirming that mental illness instead of treating it is destructive,” he said. “The whole idea of gender affirming care is medical quackery and clear malpractice.”

Camenker said gender-confused adults should be treated like others with a mental illness and he suggested there are underlying problems when someone says they are transgender.

“People need help healing from whatever traumas are behind this problem, and be given a pathway toward normalcy,” he said. “It should never involve the barbaric practice of hormones, puberty blockers, or medical procedures.”

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HHS Releases Medicaid Dataset to Crowdsource Fraud Detection

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has released a massive data set related to health care spending. 

The release follows rampant fraud exposed in multiple government programs, including programs meant to feed hungry kids, help autistic kids, get kids into daycare, and help people find housing. One prosecutor alleged that criminals stole up to $9 billion across 14 social programs in Minnesota. 

If you have a computer with enough memory to download the data set and find fraud, then you could even get paid to expose fraud, according to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. 

The Treasury Department will set up a website to report fraud where whistleblowers can receive part of the fine, Secretary Scott Bessent said.

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RFK JR: $100 Billion a Year in Medicare and Medicaid Fraud, Mainly in Blue States

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said an estimated $100 billion is stolen each year from Medicare and Medicaid and outlined new efforts to detect and prevent fraud during a discussion with Theo Von.

Von asked Kennedy about what he discovered after reviewing operations within federal agencies.

“What were some of the biggest cases of fraud, like, when you got in there and got behind the curtain, see, like, you know, like the NIH, the EPA, like, just see what’s going on back there. What were some of the biggest cases of fraud that you kind of found?” Von asked.

Kennedy pointed to Medicare and Medicaid as the largest sources of fraud.

“I mean, the biggest cases are, what were we got between Medicaid and Medicare? There’s about 100 billion stolen every year, and a lot of it is like what’s happening in Minnesota with the Somali community and what’s happening now, even worse in California,” Kennedy said.

He described what he called systemic issues within the programs.

“But you know, one of the problems is that that’s a systemic problem, is that Medicaid, Medicare now no longer. It used to be that they that they paid for your medical treatment, your doctor’s visit, but now they pay for the person who takes you to the doctor, and they pay for home care, and they pay for a person to come in and pay your bills, right? So there, there’s, there’s all kinds of opportunities for fraud,” Kennedy said.

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