Growth of Medicare’s ACO Reach Scam Halted

Gaudium Magnum! 

Now that 2.1 million Medicare beneficiaries have been involuntarily moved from their Traditional Medicare into the ACO Reach privatization scheme, the creation of any more such entities has been halted. A decent presidential administration would now offer an off-ramp to the victims of this outrageous assault on their vital health insurance programs. Unfortunately, the sole escape from this “Reach,” for all intents and purposes, is death.   

This from the President of Physicians for a National Health Plan (PNHP),  Dr. Phil Verhoef:

“As you may have heard, we won a big victory recently in our campaign against the REACH program, which has placed corporate middlemen in charge of the care of 2.1 million Traditional Medicare beneficiaries. The director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation [CMMI]—the agency in charge of REACH—announced that the program had been capped and would not be accepting any more corporate applicants. This means they are projected to fall far short of their goal of moving everybody on Traditional Medicare to a REACH-like plan by 2030.”

Dr. Verhoef went on to describe this admission as a “stealth announcement” by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. This confession came during the CalPERS Education Day gathering.

“In a speech given to the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) on January 17, Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) Director Liz Fowler revealed that there are no plans to further expand the number of organizations or beneficiaries in the controversial Medicare REACH model.”

I watched the video of the entire proceedings as Fowler bobbed and weaved through her pitch on the glories of ACO Reach. Throughout, she carefully avoided mention of the severe fiscal and health delivery problems with this privatization effort, ABOUT WHICH SHE HAS FULL KNOWLEDGE. Her evasive answers to questions from the CalPERS board members were a monument to the ability of political appointees to speak fluent argle-bargle, while simultaneously holding contradictory thoughts, without their heads exploding. Of interest in the CalPERS video was a presentation by Dr. Jim Kahn, Emeritus Professor of Health Policy, Epidemiology, and Global Health at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Kahn shredded Dr. Fowler's contentions by exposing the deliberate omissions, misstatements, and misrepresentations that are constantly being fed to the public about Medicare Advantage and ACO Reach. His riposte is well worth the time to watch and can be found at 2:54:00 on the video counter.

I invite readers to contact their legislators in Congress and President Biden to demand that these Medicare privatization scams be terminated permanently. While you are at it, contact Dr. Lorna Gober, recently announced as the new chief medical officer for PeaceHealth Northwest network, which includes St. Joseph Hospital here in Bellingham. Send a letter* to advise her that PeaceHealth moved thousands of their own patients, without permission or warning, into its version of ACO Reach.   Demand that she speak out against this greedy and deceitful move against those whose health and well-being has been placed at risk for the sake of profits. This is all the more incongruous given PeaceHealth's “non-profit” declaration. More on that here: “The Blob” or Peace Health’s Latest Expansion Gambit.

*2979 NW Squalicum Parkway, Bellingham, WA 98225