Tag: health care

Trump administration tiptoes into testing prior authorization in traditional Medicare

Traditional Medicare plan holders have typically not had to wait for prior authorization before receiving medical treatment.

Until now.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced a new program to test prior authorization requirements for certain services in six states starting Jan. 1.

The states — New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, Arizona, and Washington — will apply prior authorization evaluations to more than a dozen services.

CMS says the pilot program is intended to root out “fraud, waste, and abuse,” but as Medicare Advantage members know well, prior authorization can lead to frustrating delays in care.

How it works

CMS will contract with private companies to deploy “enhanced technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI)” to conduct the authorization reviews.

It won’t apply to in-patient or emergency services or treatments “that would pose a substantial risk to patients if significantly delayed,” according to a CMS press release. Specific services that will require prior authorization are skin and tissue substitutes, electrical nerve stimulator implants, and knee arthroscopy.

There is genuine concern about the costs of some of these items and services. A recent New York Times article highlighted pricey medical products, including paper-thin bandages made of dried bits of placenta, for Medicare patients.

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U. Wisconsin med school admits black students at 6 times rate of Asians

The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health accepts black applicants at a rate six times higher than it does Asian applicants, despite lower average Medical College Admissions Test scores, a medical advocacy group recently reported.

However, the public university denied that it accepts applicants based on their race when contacted by The College Fix.

The report “Skirting SCOTUS Part III: How Medical Schools Continue to Practice Racially Conscious Admissions” by Do No Harm analyzed 2024 admissions data from 23 medical schools, including the University of Wisconsin’s.

At the Wisconsin medical school, it found that “a black applicant has nearly 10 times the odds of admission compared to an Asian or white applicant with the same MCAT score and GPA.”

Admitted black applicants averaged MCAT scores in the 62nd percentile, while white and Asian admits averaged scores in the 86th percentile, according to the report.

A page on the medical school’s website states that “diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are top priorities,” and that it aims to build programs that “reflect” the communities it serves. Its admissions page also highlights that 28 percent of the students who are admitted are “underrepresented in medicine.”

However, UW spokesperson John Lucas told The Fix that the medical school does not discriminate on the basis of an applicant’s race.

“The admission process reviews every aspect of an application with the strength of academic preparation key to determining an applicant’s likelihood of success. No student is admitted on the basis of their race/ethnicity/identity,” Lucas said in a recent email.

“Students are admitted on the basis of their likelihood to succeed throughout the rigorous course of study” in the medical school’s programs, Lucas said.

He also told The Fix that the medical school “educates and trains competent and skilled physicians who are well-equipped to practice medicine and care for their patients.”

Meanwhile, Ian Kingsbury, director of research and co-author of the report, told The College Fix that the admissions analysis was based on data from public records requests to allopathic medical schools in the U.S. Do No Harm works to keep identity politics out of medical education and practice.

The group requested data on student acceptance rates, race, MCAT scores, and GPAs to “observe whether candidates receive preferential treatment based on their race,” Kingsbury said.

“Students with stronger academic credentials (i.e. GPA and MCAT scores) tend to perform better through the medical school pathway (i.e. medical school and residency). Deprioritizing objective measures of merit in service of racial goals is extremely foolish,” he told The Fix in a recent statement via email.

Do No Harm’s report, published in July, is the third part in a series of investigations into racial discrimination at U.S. medical schools.

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Cannabis Seed Oil Has ‘Superior Effectiveness’ In Healing Wounds Compared To Conventional Antibiotics, Study Shows

Cannabis seed oil can help accelerate healing of skin wounds—a promising development that authors say indicates that “hemp seed oil may serve as a promising natural and cost-effective adjunct for wound management”—according to a new study of mice.

The report, published in the journal Narra J, compared wounds treated with hempseed oil against those treated with the conventional antibiotic chloramphenicol. Another group of mice was given only a mild saline solution.

“The findings of the present study highlighted the efficacy of hemp oil in accelerating wound healing processes, particularly wound size reduction, epithelialization, granulation tissue formation, and vascularization,” authors wrote, “with results indicating superior effect compared to chloramphenicol ointment.”

The four-person research team, from Universitas Syiah Kuala in Indonesia, noted that there appeared to be specific portions of the healing process in which hemp oil outperformed treatment with chloramphenicol. During other time frames, however, it seemed “comparable” to the antibiotic.

“Hemp seed oil demonstrated superior effectiveness in accelerating wound size reduction compared to chloramphenicol ointment during days 14 and 21,” the paper says, “indicating its potential as a supportive therapy for prolonged wound healing phases. While both treatments improved epithelialization, the significant effect observed on day 14 in the present study suggested that hemp seed oil may provide particular benefits during this critical stage of wound healing, potentially accelerating the transition to tissue remodeling.”

In terms of tissue formation, “hemp seed oil treatment significantly accelerated granulation tissue formation during wound healing, particularly on day 14, where it outperformed chloramphenicol,” authors wrote. “However, its effect on day 21 was comparable to chloramphenicol.”

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MIT Creates AI-Powered Treatments to Combat Antibiotic Resistant Superbugs

In a groundbreaking advance against the escalating crisis of antibiotic resistance, researchers at MIT have harnessed artificial intelligence to design entirely new antibiotics capable of tackling two notorious drug-resistant bacteria.

The antibiotics can be used to treat Neisseria gonorrhoeae, the culprit behind gonorrhea, and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a common cause of severe skin and bloodstream infections.

The study, published today in the journal Cell, comes at a critical time. Over the past 45 years, the FDA has approved only a handful of new antibiotics, most of which are mere tweaks on existing drugs.

Meanwhile, bacterial resistance has surged, contributing to nearly 5 million deaths annually worldwide from drug-resistant infections.

Traditional drug discovery methods, reliant on screening known chemical libraries, have struggled to keep pace.

But MIT’s Antibiotics-AI Project is flipping the script by using generative AI to explore uncharted “chemical spaces”, vast realms of hypothetical molecules that don’t exist in nature or labs yet.

Led by James Collins, the Termeer Professor of Medical Engineering and Science at MIT’s Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, the team generated over 36 million potential compounds computationally.

These were then screened using machine-learning models trained to predict antibacterial activity, toxicity to human cells, and novelty.

The result? Antibiotics that are structurally unlike any on the market, operating through fresh mechanisms that rupture bacterial cell membranes, making it harder for resistance to evolve.

“We’re excited about the new possibilities that this project opens up for antibiotics development,” Collins said in a statement.

The researchers employed two innovative strategies. For N. gonorrhoeae, they adopted a “fragment-based” approach.

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HORROR: Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Doctor Federally Charged with Possessing Over 153,000 Images and 470 Videos of Child Sexual Abuse — Victims as Young as Newborns

A former physician at one of the nation’s most respected pediatric institutions is facing federal charges for allegedly amassing one of the largest known personal collections of child sexual abuse material in recent history.

Howard M. Saal, 73, a former geneticist and dysmorphologist at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, appeared in federal court this week after investigators say they uncovered a horrifying trove of over 153,000 images and 470 videos of child pornography, with some victims reportedly being as young as newborns.

According to charging documents, the nightmare began when a Hamilton County Sheriff’s detective assigned to the FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force received a cyber tip tracing child pornography image searches back to Saal’s home IP address, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio.

The tip included a disturbing image depicting two naked girls, estimated to be just 10 years old, engaged in explicit conduct.

When investigators executed search warrants, they allegedly discovered a staggering digital archive of abuse. The FBI says many files involved infants, toddlers, and prepubescent children subjected to unspeakable acts.

Authorities claim there is currently no evidence linking the materials to any patients or children connected to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. But given the nature of Saal’s profession, working directly with children, the revelation is sparking outrage and demands for a deeper investigation.

Saal now faces federal charges carrying mandatory minimum sentences of five years and potential prison terms of up to 20 years for each count. If convicted, he will likely die in prison.

“I am incredibly proud of the work of our Regional Electronics and Computer Investigations unit and their diligence in investigating this individual,” said Hamilton County Sheriff Charmaine McGuffey said in a statement.

“We encourage anyone who thinks they may be a victim of Dr. Saal to contact our detectives. We will continue to seek out dangerous individuals and bring justice to victims’ families.”

“The FBI and our partners will continue to fiercely investigate those who attempt to sexually exploit children,” stated FBI Cincinnati Special Agent in Charge Elena Iatarola. “I want to thank the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office for their work on this investigation and for their strong partnership. Law enforcement is always more effective when we work together to address crime issues impacting our community.”

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Uncovering Medical Establishment Dark Secret Operations for Your Health Protection!

Medical establishment is one entity; and remember, you have to identify the real problem to be able to focus your attention on the solution. When seeing the “big picture” in relation to how the medical establishment operates (refer to image), you’ll have a definite vantage point when you would have uncovered its coordinated dark secret operations. 

From your research, the listed harsh realities from what you would have gleaned will serve as a launching point towards finding the solution for your health protection: Remember, the white hat you’re looking for is in the mirror!

The corruption and how it works

The money trails, the corrupt entanglement, dirty dealing, interlocking directorates married into unholy alliances… have been well-documented, but many fail to make the connections between the different cause and effect relationships and how they are affected. 

This can  be  likened  to the analogy of looking at separated pieces of jigsaw puzzle and not having the realization that they are somehow all connected and therefore not carrying out the task of joining up the pieces to see the big picture. 

This is how the corruption still continues and why the villains are allowed to get away with it undetected. 

In order to see how the corruption works, it is necessary to make the interlocking connections so that we can step back and see the ‘big picture’ of what’s really going on and why certain things occur. 

For example, covid was a lie. There was no covid, but it can only be seen as a massive medical fraud for power, profit and political gains when its pieces of the jig-saw puzzle are interlocked and you are able to see the big picture.

Bear in mind, a variation on a theme of the fake disease “script” with all its common-patterns could be ran again by scoundrels wanting to enforce mandates on us, as, for example, in the ongoing push for the global pandemic treaty by the WHO (World Death Organization) which has not been opposed by many countries. 

The sad thing is that Operation Warp Speed has still not been taken down… Don’t call the mRNA shots vaccines because that’s not what they are. They are, in fact, military industrial grade weapons…

After doing your research and seeing the “Big Picture,” refuse the masking, fake tests and so-called vaccinations at all costs.

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The Moral Cost of Modern Transplant Medicine

In a time when trust in public health is already hanging by a thread, recent revelations from the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) have delivered another blow—one that strikes at the very heart of medical ethics. 

“Our findings show that hospitals allowed the organ procurement process to begin when patients showed signs of life, and this is horrifying,” Secretary Kennedy said. “The organ procurement organizations that coordinate access to transplants will be held accountable. The entire system must be fixed to ensure that every potential donor’s life is treated with the sanctity it deserves.”

Hidden beneath the surface and quietly ignored by corporate media is a story that should horrify every physician, patient, and policymaker: the commodification of human life in the American transplant system.

The Independent Medical Alliance (IMA), a coalition of physicians dedicated to restoring transparency and patient-centered care, has publicly denounced the findings of a recent HHS report. As President of IMA, I can tell you this: what we’ve uncovered is not a case of benign negligence. It is a deliberate erosion of the most sacred values in medicine—consent, dignity, and the inviolability of the human body.

A System That No Longer Sees the Patient

Organ transplantation is, in theory, one of the great achievements of modern medicine. When practiced ethically and transparently, it has saved countless lives. But like so many institutions corrupted by profit and policy, it has drifted far from its original mission.

In 2024 alone, over 45,000 organ transplants were performed in the United States. That number should inspire hope—but instead, it invites scrutiny. A substantial portion of those organs were harvested under ethically ambiguous conditions, including donation after circulatory death (DCD) and questionable determinations of brain death. The line between patient and donor is blurring—and not in a way that honors either.

Organ Procurement Organizations (OPOs) are incentivized not by patient outcomes, but by volume. The more organs they harvest, the more funding they receive. Hospitals, too, receive significant reimbursement for transplant procedures, creating a perverse system where terminal patients are seen less as individuals with complex medical stories and more as reservoirs of reusable parts. The New York Times has published a piece that urges standards of death to be liberalized even further. “We need to figure out how to obtain more healthy organs from donors… We need to broaden the definition of death.”

Where Are These Organs Coming From?

The public assumes, understandably, that most organ donors are willing participants—cadaveric donors who’ve signed cards or checked boxes. But the data doesn’t support that rosy picture. A growing percentage of organ procurement comes from patients who are not dead in the traditional sense but are declared brain dead or transitioned to DCD protocols under murky guidelines.

Let’s talk plainly: Who decides when a person is truly dead? And how confident are we, as physicians, that our criteria are airtight?

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Comatose woman woke up moments before organ harvesting surgery… but pushy donor boss ‘told doctors to operate anyway’

An organ harvesting organization has faced allegations that it urged doctors to remove body parts from a comatose woman – who went on to make a full recovery after medics insisted she showed signs of life. 

Danella Gallegos said she feels lucky to be alive after her organs were almost taken by ‘pushy’ donor bosses when she fell into a coma in 2022.

Gallegos, who was 38 at the time, was homeless when she suffered an unspecified medical emergency, and doctors at Presbyterian Hospital in Albuquerque, New Mexico told her family she would never recover. 

Without any hope, her family agreed to donate her organs and preparations were made with procurement organization New Mexico Donor Services. 

In her final days, Gallegos’ family said they saw tears in her eyes – a sign that they say donation coordinators quickly brushed off, claiming watery eyes were just a reflex.

On the day her organs were set to be taken, one of Gallegos’ sisters said she was adamant Danella was still sentient because she saw her move while holding her hand.

Doctors in a pre-surgery room were left stunned when Gallegos, deep in a coma but still medically alive, was able to blink her eyes on the medic’s command.

But the organ coordinator in the room told doctors that they should ply the patient with morphine and move ahead anyway, according to a New York Times report.

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Cancer Patient Denied Treatment Because of Her Conservative Christian Views

An Oregon hospital refused a Catholic cancer patient treatment because she voiced her views on “transgenderism.”

The staff at the Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) disregarded Marlene Barbera’s concerns when she commented on the office’s prominently-displayed “transgender” flag. After she had a disagreement over the phone with a staff member, the clinic dropped her as a patient, informing her in an email:

“Effective immediately, you are discharged from receiving medical care at the Richmond Family Medicine Clinic. This action is being taken because of ongoing disrespectful and hurtful remarks about our LGBTQ community and staff… Please note that you are also now dismissed from all OHSU Family Medicine clinics, including Immediate Care clinics.”

In a message to her doctor last year, Barbera had written this:

I have been threatened on Twitter by trans activists with rape and death — so it is daunting to go for medical treatment with that banner proclaiming that what I am, an adult human female, is a mere opt-in category for any gender non-conforming male and not a reality. May I please have a telephone appointment to discuss how I may access your medical care without walking under a banner that seeks to negate all I am?

Barbera thought the message was private, but it was shared with other staff. When she tried to leave a message for her doctor about her medical situation, the receptionist refused and insisted she make an appointment. When she called back, she was still refused service.

“I asked, guessing ‘Did I hurt the trans person’s feelings?’ And the receptionist took offense to the question, asking ‘What did you say?’ slowly and with great emphasis,” Barbera told Reduxx.

A few weeks later, on June 29, the practice manager, Stein Berger, messaged her to say that she had made “transphobic remarks” that harmed the staff of the “inclusive” clinic. That day, the clinic notified her that she could no longer get care at the clinic, effective July 29.

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Dr. Oz exposes the nonprofit lie at the heart of US health care

American health care is a paradox. We spend more than any nation in history — nearly 20% of our GDP — yet our outcomes remain stubbornly mediocre.

New hospitals rise like monuments to excess. Their parking lots fill with luxury cars. Tax dollars pour in from every level of government. Private spending remains sky-high. But while the profits flow, patient satisfaction and results don’t keep pace.

That’s because the system doesn’t reward quality. It rewards short-term financial performance.

Health care costs keep rising faster than inflation. Voters resist higher taxes, so deficits explode. The federal government now routinely runs annual shortfalls exceeding 6% of GDP — even during boom times. Something’s got to give.

Enter Dr. Mehmet Oz. Once a fixture on daytime TV, now head of Medicare and Medicaid Services under President Trump, Oz has zeroed in on the real source of bloat: hospital executives enriching themselves under the guise of nonprofit care.

Oz recently urged Americans to review tax filings and publicly “shame” hospital administrators pulling down massive salaries. He’s right to sound the alarm.

Most hospitals claim nonprofit status — but their leadership rakes in pay packages in the tens of millions, complete with bonuses, stock perks, and golden parachutes. Those compensation schemes only make sense because the IRS grants nonprofits huge tax breaks. And the standards for maintaining that status? Laughably weak.

As a result, the federal government forfeits tens of billions of dollars annually — revenue that could support real health care reform or reduce the deficit.

Consider Nazareth Hospital in Philadelphia. It belongs to Trinity Health Mid-Atlantic, a large nonprofit chain. Trinity’s CEO earns over $1.4 million a year. Yet, Nazareth carries a dismal one-star Medicare rating, charges high prices, and provides very little charity care. Despite funneling more than $160 million annually through its doors, it contributes almost nothing in taxes — while local, state, and federal governments foot the bill for many of its patients.

It’s a rigged system: Taxpayers pay, executives profit, and patients suffer.

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