webodec3ARCHIVEPreview
Open in TheBrain

seema verma

wonder what here pension plan gig will be

CYA, pension?

an 10 21

no lnx

Now that former President Donald Trump's reign is over, the members of his administration have been forced to take their careers in different directions. So, where are the members of the Trump administration now? According to The Intelligencer, many are doing an array of different things; some of which are synonymous with the questionable activities that long-haunted the Trump administration.

Here's where the top Trump White House officials are now:

1. Former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is still trying to distance himself from the kidnapping of Julian Assange. According to Pompeo, he had nothing to do with it.

Pompeo is adamantly denying any involvement in the plot to kidnap Assange. A report published by Yahoo! News back in September, suggested that Pompeo was livid when he learned Assange divulged U.S. national-security secrets. In fact, the report also claimed that he participated in discussions with members of the Trump administration on how to get retribution.

However, Pompeo is still suggesting the reports are not true. "There's pieces of it that are true," Pompeo said during an appearance on The Megyn Kelly Show. "We tried to protect American information from Julian Assange and WikiLeaks, absolutely, yes … We're not permitted by U.S. law to conduct assassinations. We never acted in a way that was inconsistent with that."

2. Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has been milking his access to the Secret Service.

Thanks to Trump's order extending the use of the Secret Service to members of his administration, Mnuchin has used the professional perk to his benefit. The publication reports that in his first six months out of office, Mnuchin has racked up the highest Secret Service tab. The Washington Post detailed how Mnuchin managed to rack up more than $150,000 in Secret Service expenses.

The receipts showed that agents spent $114,000 over the six months to rent rooms at a W Hotel in Los Angeles, where Mnuchin has a home. They also followed Mnuchin on three trips to the Middle East, where Mnuchin is reportedly seeking to raise money from sovereign wealth funds for a new venture called Liberty Strategic Capital…

Mnuchin's travels with the Secret Service weren't all business, however. Over the six months, the records show three separate trips to Cabo San Lucas — the Mexican resort, where Mnuchin had also vacationed during Trump's presidency.

To guard Mnuchin during those three trips, the records show, the Secret Service paid $56,000 for hotel rooms and $2,000 to rent golf carts.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Mnuchin is planning to use the $2.5 billion he has raised traveling so he can invest in technology and cybersecurity investments, along with "new forms of content." It remains unclear what Mnuchin specifically describes as "new forms of content" but "many big tech companies are pushing virtual- and augmented-reality hardware and content products and digital gaming."

3. Wilbur Ross is reportedly fantasizing about putting "Trump condos on the moon."

Back in February after the Trump administration transitioned out of the White House, Ross spoke with Bloomberg and shared his upcoming post-government plans; which involve "Trump condos on the moon."

On this particular afternoon, he's sitting in the living room of his 80-year-old home filled with Magrittes and Picassos, sipping a cappuccino, dressed in cashmere sweater, slacks and velvet slippers embroidered with octopuses.

Ironically, it's while ensconced in this paradise of earthly delights that Ross is gearing up to invest in space, among other possibilities. He sees opportunity in extraterrestrial tourism, manufacturing, research and habitation.

Habitation? When asked whether space would be a gold-plated real estate opportunity for Trump, Ross didn't disagree.

"Why not Trump condos on the moon?" he quipped back.

Ross' remarks came just months after the U.S. Commerce Department's inspector general released a scathing report about the former Trump official's behavior. According to The Washington Post, the IG's report "concluded that Ross had made many inaccurate statements to federal officials about his assets before taking office, though he did not willfully violate conflict-of-interest laws."

4. Ben Carson is launching a venture similar to Boy Scouts of America.

After departing Washington, D.C., Ben Carson —the former Housing and Urban Development Secretary— launched an organization called the American Cornerstone Institute.Carson's new think tank reportedly places an emphasis on discovering "commonsense solutions to some of our nation's biggest problems."

The American Cornerstone Institute

youtu.be

Carson has also created the Little Patriots program, which is described as a partisan organization for children. Speaking to The Washington Post, Carson explained the organization's initiative. "It will be something like the Boy Scouts," Carson told the publication. "But heavily exposed to the real history of America.

"You probably notice when ISIS goes into a place, they destroy the history, they destroy the monuments," Carson explained. "History is what gives you identity."

  1. Elaine Chao contributed to calls for Kroger to be boycotted.

Chao —wife of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and former transportation secretary— worked for several of the country's top corporations prior to her role with the Trump administration. But Intelligencer reports that "she and other Trump Cabinet alums were having a hard time finding cushy landing spots after exiting the administration. 'The feedback was 'It's too soon,' said one of the headhunters involved in an unsuccessful effort to find companies willing to work with Chao."

:{

}:

Despite her struggles to re-enter the corporate world, Chao was appointed to Kroger's board of directors. But given her history of abusing her power and position with the government, social media users quickly expressed outrage and urged Kroger to drop the former Trump cabinet member from its board.

6. Alex Azar is reportedly conspiring against his former colleagues.

Former Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar is at odds with many of his former colleagues. In fact, several of them including —former FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn, former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director Robert Redfield,former Medicare chief Seema Verma, and former White House COVID coordinator Deborah Birx— have reportedly joined forces to prepare their statements regarding the Trump administration's handling of COVID-19.

According to Politico, they've done so out of caution and concern about Azar possibly using them as "scapegoats" to clear themselves.

"I know the way this goes — everyone has a different perspective," Hahn said in an interview. "I wanted to tell what it was that happened and why it happened and the perspective that we had."

In calls and text messages, members of the group have swapped notes, compared recollections, and sent updates on media requests and interview opportunities, four people with knowledge of the matter said …

And in a nod to their individual battles with Azar, some have jokingly referred to the group in private as "AAA," or Alex Azar Anonymous, according to a person in direct contact with multiple members.

From the looks of it, many Trump administration officials are still conducting shady business as they did while in office.

===

https://www.alternet.org/2021/01/tennessee/

no lnx twt

Trump administration approves Tennessee's 'reckless' plan to slash Medicaid as pandemic rages

Portrait of Seema Verma, President-elect Donald Trump's choice for Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator

Andrea Germanos and Common Dreams January 10, 2021

Healthcare advocates are criticizing the Trump administration's approval—amid overwhelming opposition, a global pandemic, and as the number of uninsured Americans grows—of Tennessee's plan to overhaul funding of its Medicaid program, calling the decision "reckless" and "irresponsible."

Joan Alker, executive director of the Georgetown Center for Children and Families, called it "a radical waiver that puts Tennessee's Medicaid beneficiaries at risk."

The state's Medicaid program, TennCare, covers 1.5 million people, or about one in five of the state's residents. The proposal would "fundamentally" transform how TennCare is managed and funded, The Tennessean reported. When Republican Gov. Bill Lee rolled out the plan in fall, the outlet added, the state received 1,800 written comments, of which just 11 were in support.

Kaiser Health News reported:

With just a dozen days left in power, the Trump administration on Friday approved a radically different Medicaid financing system in Tennessee that for the first time would give the state broader authority in running the health insurance program for the poor in exchange for capping its annual federal funding.

The approval is a 10-year "experiment." Instead of the open-ended federal funding that rises with higher enrollment and health costs, Tennessee will instead get an annual block grant. The approach has been pushed for decades by conservatives who say states too often chafe under strict federal guidelines about enrollment and coverage and can find ways to provide care more efficiently.

But under the agreement, Tennessee's annual funding cap will increase if enrollment grows. What's different is that unlike other states, federal Medicaid funding in Tennessee won't automatically keep up with rising per-person Medicaid expenses.

The approval, however, faces an uncertain future because the incoming Biden administration is likely to oppose such a move. But to unravel it, officials would need to set up a review that includes a public hearing.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced the approval Friday. "It's no exaggeration to say that this carefully crafted demonstration could be a national model moving forward," said CMS Administrator Seema Verma—a Trump appointed official who's pushed attacks on Medicaid and has been described as "the architect of Indiana's punitive restrictions on Medicaid patients."

Michele Johnson, executive director of the Tennessee Justice Center, said in response to the approval that "no other state has sought a block grant, and for good reason," and warned of its impacts to those "in nursing homes, those struggling with mental illness, diabetes, cancer, and countless other complex conditions."

"Tennessee is one of a handful of states still denying Medicaid to its working uninsured, and the block grant is just another example of putting politics ahead of healthcare during this pandemic," said Johnson. "It's a political gimmick that jeopardizes access to healthcare for hundreds of thousands of Tennesseans by creating a state budget booby trap."

"State officials have an abysmal record of mismanaging programs that help those in need. The block grant will allow these same state officials to inflict further damage on Tennessee's healthcare system," she said.

The approval also drew outrage from a coalition of 21 patient and consumer groups including the American Lung Association, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, and National Alliance on Mental Illness. They called the plan's approval "a reckless move that would reduce Tennesseans' ability to get needed healthcare" and urged the incoming Biden administration to halt its implementation.

"Our organizations have clearly and repeatedly voiced our deep concerns with Tennessee's proposal, as well as our strong opposition to block grants in Medicaid in general," the groups said Friday in a joint statement. "Per capita caps and block grants are designed to cap or limit the amount of federal funding provided to states, forcing them to either make up the difference with their own funds or make cuts to their programs reducing access to care for the patients we represent."

Such cuts, they warned, "will likely result in enrollment limits, benefit reductions, reductions in provider payments, or increased out-of-pocket cost-sharing for Medicaid enrollees. The approval specifically includes authority to limit prescription drug coverage, a dangerous proposal for patients."

Referencing the coronavirus pandemic, the groups added, "It is irresponsible to approve this waiver during this public health crisis, and especially to do so for an unprecedented 10-year period." Implementation of the plan stands to "limit Tennessee's flexibility in responding to recessions, pandemics, new treatments, and natural disasters," and thus "moves in the opposite direction of the lessons learned from 2020."

The Tennessean further noted:

The block grant approval, negotiated over about a year with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, still must get final approval from state lawmakers before it can be implemented. Lee now intends to present a joint resolution on the plan for the General Assembly's "immediate consideration," according to a news release.

The Tennessee Justice Center is urging its supporters to pressure lawmakers to block the plan.

"We are not surprised but are unsettled by this eleventh-hour action by the federal government during the height of the pandemic," said Jane Perkins, legal director for the National Health Law Program. "The approval raises so many issues," she said, "from the process the government used to approve this project to the specifics of how the government has cut into the healthcare safety net. Our legal team is investigating the enforcement and litigation options at this time."

Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over Medicaid, also sounded alarm.

"This is an illegal move that could threaten access to healthcare for vulnerable people in the middle of a pandemic," Pallone tweeted Friday. He also expressed hope the incoming Biden administration would "move quickly to roll back this harmful policy as soon as possible."

==

https://prospect.org/mapping-corruption-interactive

Seema Verma, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and proud crusader against “waste, fraud and abuse” in the Medicaid program, apparently had no problem with devoting $2 million of her agency’s budget to a personal PR campaign aimed at, among other things, getting designated one of the country’s top “Power Women” and gaining coverage in places like Glamour magazine.

...

Housing and Urban Development Department

QUICK AND DIRTY

SELF-AND-CRONY-ENRICHMENT

==

https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/she-must-resign-top-trump-official-comes-under-fire-after-new-report-exposes-extensive-corruption

Rep. Pramila Jayapal on Thursday called for the ouster of Medicare and Medicaid chief Seema Verma following a watchdog’s report revealing that the administration official violated federal requirements in her management of over $6 million in contracts.

The report from inspector general at the Department of Health and Human Services, according to Jayapal (D-Wash.), added more evidence that “Verma has been using government money for her personal benefit” and showed that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator engaged in “the textbook definition of corruption."

[twt]

For its audit, the OIG said it looked at three contracts for strategic communications services from June 2017 through April 2019 and found:

AD REMOVED FOR SUBSCRIBED USER

CMS allowed a subcontractor individual to perform inherently governmental functions, such as making managerial decisions and directing CMS employees. CMS also administered its strategic communications services contracts as personal services contracts. CMS officials exerted a level of control over the contractors’ work that exceeded what is allowed under service contracts; in essence, CMS administered these contracts as if the services had been procured under CMS’s statutory authority to contract for experts and consultants. Lastly, CMS did not comply with FAR [Federal Acquisition Regulation] requirements in managing contract deliverables and approving the use of a subcontractor, did not maintain complete working files for all three contracts, and paid some questionable costs.

The contacts, as Politico reported Thursday, “ultimately benefited GOP-aligned communications consultants.” Or, as Esquire‘s Charles Pierce put it,the IG findings showed Verma “has been helping various Republican consultants get fat.”

Government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) responded to reporting on the inspector general’s findings with a tweet Thursday saying, “Reports like this are exactly why we need independent IGs to conduct robust oversight.”

Jayapal isn’t alone in her call for Verma—an ally of Vice President Mike Pence and proponent of Medicaid privatization—to replaced.

The Washington congresswoman joined seven other House Democrats in a letter to President Donald Trump on Thursday, writing, “After a 15-month inspector general (IG) investigation, it has now been proven that Verma has consistently shown a lack of good judgement when it comes to responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars.”

“She has defied rules, skirted regulations, violated trust, misled Congress, and she must be replaced,” the Democrats wrote in the letter, led by Rep. Joe Kennedy (D-Mass.).

“Besides arranging contracts with personal friends to raise her profile and thus misspending CMS dollars, the IG investigation identified additional hundreds of thousands of ‘questionable costs’ all associated with reckless spending,” the letter added. “She has put the agency at risk of fraud and abuse and therefore she has put the public  in jeopardy.”

Additional scrutiny came from Reps. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-N.J.) and Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) and Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who said in a joint statement Thursday that over “the past year, our offices have been investigating Administrator Verma’s use of millions of taxpayer dollars to retain high-end communications consultants to burnish her public profile.”

The “report confirms that Administrator Verma and her top officials used contracts in violation of federal regulations and spent taxpayer funds inappropriately to retain these private consultants,” the lawmakers continued, adding that their offices would soon release additional findings they claimed would “provide additional details on Administrator Verma’s inappropriate use of private consultants for her personal benefit.”

Verma, for her part, has rejected the IG’s conclusions, calling them “unsubstantiated assumptions and incomplete analyses.”

CREW’s deputy director Donald Sherman, in a Thursday tweet, hinted at Trump’s purge of inspectors general and the important role the watchdogs play in rooting out corruption.

“Inspectors general expose corruption like Verma’s,” he said. “That’s why President Trump hates them so much.”

===

https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/blatant-lie-seema-verma-claims-trump-not-cutting-medicaid-as-he-pushes-plan-doing-just-that/

==

trump looks to take an axe to Medicaid — and people will die as a result

Jake Johnson / Common Dr

==

https://www.alternet.org/2019/12/trump-official-who-doesnt-want-poor-people-to-have-publicly-funded-healthcare-wants-public-to-pay-for-stolen-ivanka-jewelry

no lnx

Trump official who doesn’t want poor people to have publicly-funded healthcare wants public to pay for stolen Ivanka jewelry

Written by Andrea Germanos / Common Dreams December 9, 2019

President Donald Trump’s official in charge of Medicare and Medicaid, Seema Verma, came under fire after Politico reported Saturday that she submitted a $47,000 claim for reimbursement on the taxpayers’ dime for stolen, uninsured items items.

My #MedicareforAll bill covers:

? mental health, dental & vision care

? comprehensive reproductive care

? long-term care services

? prescription drugs

? stolen jewelryhttps://t.co/lTJpP7sX9g

— Rep. Pramila Jayapal (@RepJayapal) December 8, 2019

The bulk of the claim—for which the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ultimately reimbursed her $2,852.40—was for roughly $43,000 worth of jewelry. Among the roughly two dozen pieces was an Ivanka Trump brand pendant whose estimated value was $5,900, according to documents obtained by Politico. A $325 claim for moisturizer was also among the items included.

The theft reportedly took place in July of 2018 in San Francisco when Verma’s luggage was stolen from a rented SUV as she delivered a speech in which she bashed Medicare for All and the Affordable Care Act.

An HHS spokesperson told Politico that submitting a claim while on work travel “is not an unusual practice for federal employees,” though items “inherently” for non-work uses would not be covered.

“Staff were unaware of a federal health employee previously filing a claim as large as $47,000,” the news outlet added.

The attempt at reimbursement for the apparent luxury items from an official who’s repeatedly attacked the key safety net programs drew condemnation from former head of the Office of Government Ethics Walter Shaub.

“Verma is worried about wasting government money on ‘unnecessary’ medical care for poor people, but she wants the government to reimburse her for $47,000 worth of jewels and clothes she took on a government trip,” Shaub tweeted Sunday.

Robert Maguire, research director at watchdog group CREW, suggested Verma’s move was more evidence of Trump’s betrayal of his campaign vow to “drain the swamp” of Washington corruption.

The guy who keeps talking about how he’s draining The Swamp is going to be so angry when he hears that the president of the United States keeps hiring people who use taxpayer money like it’s their own personal piggy bank https://t.co/GlIDZaPNRg

— Robert Maguire (@RobertMaguire_) December 8, 2019

During the July 2018 speech at the Commonwealth Club, Verma said, “Medicare for all would become Medicare for none” and suggested it would be “bad health policy” to have a single-payer healthcare system that covered everyone in the country at a lower cost.

Verma left no room for doubt about her opinions of switching away for the current for-profit system four months later when she called Medicare for All “a bad idea” and “scary.”

And Verma followed up with similar attacks this year. As Common Dreams reported, she said in April, contrary to a number of studies, that Medicare for All proposals such as Sen. Bernie Sanders’s would mean worse health outcomes at a higher cost for Americans. In an op-ed published last week at Fox Business, she called Medicare for All a “foolish” plan that would “ruin the program for everyone.”

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator has also attacked Medicaid, including by pushing work requirements and so-called block grant programs. Rebecca Vallas, vice president for the Center for American Progress’s Poverty to Prosperity Program, said previously, “Make no mistake: people will die if Medicaid block grants take effect.” Physicians for a National Health Program president Robert Zarr previouslycriticized Verma as “the architect of Indiana’s punitive restrictions on Medicaid patients.”

More recent reporting on Verma has focused on the supposed “bad blood” between her and HHS Secretary Alex Azar, and her hiring of Trump allies as consultants, to the tune of $2.5 million, in order to boost her image.

===

[T]he President has a growing number of supporters who understand opposition to abortion and immigration as intertwined—as means of preserving a white, Christian America. And the Trump Administration is taking concrete steps to encourage this ideational fusion.

Consider the events of last week. The Trump Administration dispatched officials to the International Conference on Family Policy. There, Trump officials laudedHungary’s “procreation, not immigration” policies, which oppose refugees and immigration and instead subsidize traditional, nuclear Hungarian families to have more children. These policies coincided with a new Hungarian constitution, which protects fetal life from the moment of conception.

Joe Grogan, an assistant to the president and director of the Domestic Policy Council, praised Hungary for the “courage and creativity” of these policies and said the Trump Administration was “inspired” and came “in support and solidarity.” He took the occasion of celebrating Hungary’s fertility-boosting programs to affirm the Administration’s opposition to abortion.

Hungary’s “procreation, not immigration” policies have their roots in “replacement theory.” This doctrine holds that white women are not producing enough babies and Christian, western civilizations will be “replaced” through the twin forces of falling birth rates and increasing immigration.

Back in March, Trump’s HHS provided $5.1 million Title X family-planning funds to an organization called Obria, which aims to be a pro-life alternative to Planned Parenthood.

In 2015, Obria’s founder and current chief executive explained, “When [Europe’s] nations accepted contraception and abortion, they stopped replacing their population. Christianity began to die out. And, with Europeans having no children, immigrant Muslims came in to replace them, and now the culture of Europe is changing.” She warned that America is “on the same track as Europe” and that “[i]n only two of the past 40 years have we replaced our population.” WHITE GENOCIDE

Anyone familiar with Margret Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale understands that this is what happens when democracy is replaced bytheocratic authoritarianism. It is a marriage of white nationalism, Christian nationalism, and misogyny. That is where the current conservative movement is headed in this country.

Nancy LeTourneau is a contributing writer for the Washington Monthly. Follow her on Twitter @Smartypants60.

==

==

https://www.alternet.org/2019/10/trump-just-launched-a-stealth-attack-on-medicare/

no lnx many

Trump just launched a stealth attack on Medicare

Written by Diane Archer / Common Dreams October 7, 2019

Watch out, older Americans and people with disabilities! President Trump just announced a plan to give corporate health insurers more control over your health care. His new executive order calls for “market-based” pricing, which would drive up costs for everyone with Medicare, eviscerate traditional Medicare, andsteer more people into for-profit “Medicare Advantage” plans.

Seema Verma, the Trump appointee who heads the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), may not have warned Trump about the slew of government audits revealing that many Medicare Advantage plans pose “an imminent and serious risk to the health of… enrollees.” They also overcharge taxpayers to the tune of $10 billion a year.

In the last few years alone, CMS’ limited audits have highlighted major issues with Medicare Advantage plans. Reports from the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General (OIG) and Government Accountability Office (GAO) have underscored these issues. They have recommended that CMS increase its oversight of Medicare Advantage plans and its enforcement efforts.

A Medicare Payment Advisory Commission report indicates that the problems with Medicare Advantage may be even more far-reaching than the government audits indicate. The Medicare Advantage plans have failed to turn over reliable and complete claims data, as required by law. Without this data, it’s not possible to know whether they are covering the health care services they are paid to provide or to oversee them to the extent necessary.

Last month, Senators Sherrod Brown, Amy Klobuchar, Chris Murphy, Richard Blumenthal, Bernie Sanders and Debbie Stabenow laid out several serious malfeasances by these corporate Medicare insurers—including UnitedHealth Group, Aetna, Cigna and Humana—in a detailed letter they sent to Verma.

The insurers’ wrongdoings are systematic. They are ongoing. They endanger the health and financial well-being of millions of people. They undermine the financial integrity of the Medicare program and harm the U.S. Treasury. Yet, to date, CMS has failed to develop, let alone execute, a plan to hold these insurers accountable for violating their legal obligations and to ensure their members get the health care to which they are entitled.

Tens of billions in overcharges are one big problem. Medicare Advantage plans have been overcharging the government for their services for many years now, by claiming that their members are in worse health than they actually are in order to increase payments. To make matters worse, they have refused to pay back the tens of billions in overpayments that the federal government has made to them. UnitedHealth successfully fought to keep the government from collecting this money.

Another major concern is that Medicare Advantage plans are failing to cover the care their members need and are entitled to. Government audits show that Medicare Advantage plans are inappropriately delaying and denying care and coverage to hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of their members. This puts patients’ health and safety at risk. Thousands of people end up paying for care that should have been covered—or foregoing care altogether.

CMS has not named or flagged these corporate health plans on its Medicare website or notified people in any other way of plans with serious violations, as it had agreed to do at the recommendation of the Office of the Inspector General. So, people with Medicare are unaware when they enroll in a Medicare Advantage plan that the government has found to be jeopardizing the health and safety of its members. Instead, CMS continues to give four- and five-star ratings to some of these health plans. In the process, it misleads older adults and people with disabilities about their performance.

What’s more, CMS has found that a sizeable number of Medicare Advantage plans have for years issued highly inaccurate provider directories; and, the GAO has noted “concerns about ensuring enrollee access to care.” Many of these health plans have narrowed their provider networks. GAO suggests that it is not at all clear which of these Medicare Advantage plans have an adequate number and mix of health care providers in their networks.

To date, the Trump administration has been steering people into Medicare Advantage plans, without regard to their deficiencies. And, it has failed to provide people with Medicare with meaningful information about their health plan choices as required by law. It is on a reckless path, promoting the business interests of Medicare Advantage plans that violate the law over the health care needs of vulnerable Americans.

The administration and its congressional allies are playing a game of bait and switch with older adults and people with disabilities. They allow Medicare Advantage plans to lure people with benefits that traditional Medicare does not offer, such as dental care and transportation services to the doctor, without exposing their failings. The Trump administration’s goal is to fully privatize Medicare and shift more costs onto older and disabled Americans.

To be clear, Trump’s executive order does nothing to hold the Medicare Advantage plans accountable for their fraudulent overcharges or their inappropriate denials of care and coverage. Rather, it rewards them. It gives them even more discretion regarding the services they cover and the freedom to create new bells and whistles to lure in members. The health and financial well-being of older and disabled Americans hangs in the balance.

This article was produced by Economy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

===

https://www.alternet.org/2019/03/a-federal-judge-just-struck-a-blow-to-the-trump-administrations-cruel-plot-to-gut-medicaid/

On Wednesday, a federal judge dealt a massive blow to one of the Trump administration’s pet projects.

Washington, D.C. District Court judge James Boasberg struck down work requirements in Kentucky and Arkansas, ruling that the waivers granted by Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar were not valid because work requirements do not further the Medicaid Act’s mission of improving public health.

The rules differ in some ways, but both broadly require certain Medicaid recipients to complete a minimum number of work or community service hours each month and provide proof to the state.

Kentucky’s work requirement, known as Kentucky HEALTH, was the first to be approved by the Trump administration but was struck down last year by the same judge, and the newly revised rules were scheduled to take effect on April 1. Arkansas has already implemented its work requirement system, known as Arkansas Works, with disastrous consequences — over 18,000 people in the state have lost Medicaid coverage, many of whom actually were working but couldn’t figure out how to meet the state’s confusing reporting requirements, especially those in rural areas who don’t have easy access to the internet.

Boasberg criticized Arkansas for doing virtually nothing to help Medicaid recipients understand and comply with the new work requirement, saying “the State’s outreach efforts may well be falling severely short.” He further criticized Kentucky, which argued that their work requirement does further the mission of expanding health coverage because Gov. Matt Bevin intended to cancel Medicaid expansion entirely if he didn’t get his way: “The Court cannot concur that … states are so armed to refashion the program Congress designed in any way they choose.”

Several other Republican-controlled states are currently seeking approval for similar work requirement programs.

Medicaid is a joint federal-state program — both Congress and the states provide funding, and the states are in charge of administering the program within their borders. The Medicaid Act sets strict guidelines about how the program can be run, but the Department of Health and Human Services can approve what are called “Section 1115” waivers if a state has a custom-designed plan that would promote health and coverage beyond what traditional Medicaid does. The Trump administration is trying to flip this on its head, encouraging states to apply for waivers that will lead to fewer people being covered.

Boasberg’s ruling holds that states cannot use Section 1115 waivers in this manner. “That provision of the Act does not turn the comprehensive Medicaid program into a buffet for states,” he wrote.

Medicaid work requirements are a particular passion of Seema Verma, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services. She has claimed that denying low-income people health coverage is actually good for them, insisting that “it is not compassionate to trap people on government programs or create greater dependency on public assistance.” She has also claimed that work requirements do further the mission of Medicaid, pointing to studies that show people with jobs tend to be healthier (when in reality the correlation is probably the other way around.)

Arkansas and Kentucky were early adopters of the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion, which made the program available to people up to 138 percent of the poverty line. The Affordable Care Act originally required states to expand Medicaid, but a Supreme Court ruling allowed states to decide whether they wanted to or not. Republicans in these states are now intent on chipping away at this progress, and work requirements are one way the Trump administration is encouraging them to do it.

For now, that effort has hit a roadblock.

==

http://www.prwatch.org/news/2017/01/13198/seema-verma-trump-pick-medicaid-and-medicare

While Trump repeatedly said on the campaign trail that he will not cut Social Security Medicare or Medicaid, he plans to put opponents of these programs in key positions in his administration.

Congressman Tom Price, Trump's pick to head the Department of Health and Human Services, is a leading proponent of changes to Medicare. He has supported raising the eligibility age, which would leave more seniors without health care options, and he wants to privatize the program with vouchers, which would lose value over time and shift more costs onto seniors and the disabled. He also wants to cap Medicaid assistance to states, likely to result in states reducing services to the most needy–often very low-income families with kids.

One of his top officers will be the CEO of a company that has been cashing in on the Medicaid "reform" schemes she has designed for states.

In November, Trump announced Seema Verma as his choice to serve as the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, part of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Seema Verma is the founder and CEO of the Indiana health consulting business, SVC Inc. She worked as a consultant for several states but forged her reputation as a reformer with former Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels and current Governor and VP-elect Mike Pence, both conservative Republicans with ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council. ALEC has long opposed any expansion of Medicaid and has sponsored model bills to privatize and chip away at the program.

Forging a New Health Care Bureaucracy

In Indiana, Verma helped design the Healthy Indiana Plan (HIP 2.0), which is described as a "consumer-driven insurance program for low-income Hoosiers." However, others such as the Kaiser Family Foundation have noted that it is one of the most complex and restrictive experimental programs ever given a waiver by the federal government which gives states some leeway to tinker with the program.

Medicaid is the largest source of funding for medical services for low income families including millions of children. It is jointly funded by the state and federal governments and managed by states. Currently, most people in the United States that qualify for Medicaid receive care based on their actual medical needs and on their own doctor's guidance. But some Republicans think this is too much of a free ride.

Under Verma's program, Medicaid recipients can't get complete benefits unless they pay new monthly premiums. People that are poor enough to qualify for Medicaid in Indiana can actually be locked out of their coverage for six months if they fail to make a payment. The overly strict rules of the state also impose charges on patients that make what are deemed to be too many emergency room visits.

A July report from the Lewin Group, a health consultancy firm, found that 21,500 beneficiaries below the poverty level were dropped from Indiana's HIP Plus to HIP Basic because they didn't pay their contributions on time. One woman reported losing health care coverage after the state lost track of her $1 payment.

"There is no evidence that it has any advantages over traditional Medicaid and it's probably worse because it is so punitive and bureaucratic. Stories abound here of people getting locked out of health care for no reason," Dr. Robert Stone, Director of Hoosiers for a Commonsense Health Plan, told CMD.

Verma touts the plan as "consumer driven," but in actuality "the model adds a huge layer of bureaucracy compared to Medicaid service in other states," Stone explained.

"Consumer-driven" means that patients are supposed to be motivated to be good consumers, to make wise choices about whether they go to the emergency room or whether they get preventative care. And it all kind of sounds good when you listen to their rhetoric, but there's actually no evidence – zero published, credible evidence – that these kinds of "consumer-driven" features really accomplish any of the things they claim to do," said Stone.

In addition to Indiana, Verma has contracted with other Republican-led states, including Iowa, Ohio and Kentucky. She consulted with them on submitting Medicaid expansion proposals to the federal government. Her proposal for these states also layered on the punitive provisions such as requiring recipients to pay for more of their care, and making their coverage contingent on them actively working or looking for work, ideological aspects that might appeal to conservative Republicans have nothing to do with health care delivery and results.

Cashing in on Complexity

According to a 2014 report by the Indianapolis Star Tribune, Verma and her firm have received at least $3.5 million from state contracts in Indiana alone.

While working for the state, Verma was also working for one of the state's largest Medicaid vendors, a division of Hewlett-Packard. According to the Star Tribune's report, the corporation paid her more than $1 million and received more than $500 million in state contracts.

In other words, Verma is helping to create a complex health care bureaucracy that benefits private providers and then cashes in from both sides, a conflict of interest questioned by the state's major newspapers.

"Trump has shown little interest in resolving his own conflicts of interest, so it comes as no surprise he things that Seema Verma, who simultaneously crafted Indiana's health care policy and reaped massive profits from it, is a great choice to run our nation's vital Medicare and Medicaid programs," said a skeptical Alex Lawson, who runs the public-interest group Social Security Works.

To take the position in the Trump administration, Verma will need to resign from SVC and divest her holdings. She will be barred for at least a year from participating in agency matters that involve her company or the companies she did work for, but after her stint in the administration she will be free to return to the private sector and find ways to cash in at the state level on any Medicaid and Medicare programmatic changes she has helped design.

In picking Seema Verma, the Trump administration continues to signal that fealty to corporate special interests might trump the president elects' repeated promises not to mess with critical programs like Medicare and Medicaid.

Rep. Tom Price's confirmation hearing is scheduled for January 18 in the Senate.

Democracy

Health

Politics

http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/11/29/503762324/trump-picks-seema-verma-to-run-medicare-and-medicaid

President-elect Donald Trump unveiled two big health care decisions Tuesday.

He picked Rep. Tom Price to head the Department of Health and Human Services and tapped Seema Verma, a health care consultant, to head the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. That's the part of HHS that oversees Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children's Health Insurance Program and has a budget of just under a trillion dollarsin 2016.

Verma comes to the job with extensive Medicaid experience. Her consulting firm, SVC, Inc., worked closely with Indiana Gov. Mike Pence to design Indiana's Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act. The expansion, known as the Healthy Indiana Plan 2.0, went into effect early last year, and Verma's involvement in it may prove important as Congress and the Trump administration, including the Vice-president elect, make decisions on the future of Obamacare.

Indiana's unique Medicaid expansion was designed to appeal to conservatives. HIP 2.0 asks covered people to make a small monthly payment to access health insurance. A missed payment can result in six-month lockout from insurance coverage. Those provisions aren't allowed under traditional Medicaid, but Indiana got a federal waiver to implement them.

SHOTS - HEALTH NEWS

5 Things To Know About Rep. Tom Price's Health Care Ideas

Other Republican-led states, such as Iowa, Ohio and Kentucky, have contracted with Verma's firm to help submit their own Medicaid expansion proposals to the federal government that also include conservative provisions such as asking recipients to pay for some of their care, requiring them to work or to be actively looking for work.

Susan Jo Thomas, who heads the Indiana insurance advocacy group Covering Kids and Families, says Verma's contributions to HIP 2.0 made Medicaid expansion possible in a Republican state. "She understood that in order to get expansion in this state, it's more about what is palatable, what can get approved," she says.

Nearly 410,000 people are members of HIP 2.0, according to the latest data from the state.

But the Indiana approach has its critics. David Machledt, a policy analyst with the National Health Law Program, argues that provisions like denying coverage for a certain period of time or charging copays reduce participation. "Early evaluations show that a lot of people don't understand this plan and don't understand the incentives in it," he says. That means people end up not getting the health care they need.

Nevertheless, Machledt says, if Medicaid expansion continues, Trump's pick of Verma to head CMS could mean that proposals like Indiana's may be more likely to be approved.

Policy analyst Joan Alker, with the Georgetown Center for Children and Families, finds it worrisome. "It is a good thing that she has experience with Medicaid and it is a positive that Gov. Pence worked with Ms. Verma to advance a version of Medicaid expansion," she says. "But I think if you look at the totality of the Trump administration's picks today — Congressman Price as well as Ms. Verma — this represents potentially a very damaging and chaotic restructuring of the Medicaid program." Price has advocated severely cutting Medicaid funding, and Alker worries that cuts and more stringent requirements under Verma would mean people will lose the health insurance.

"The Healthy Indiana Plan has occurred in the context of generous federal funding," she says. "And I think some of that is on deck to go away."

But Verma may be a smart pick, says Indiana Rep. Charlie Brown, the ranking Democrat in the state's public health committee. "She is a smooth operator, and very, very persuasive," he says. Brown worked in opposition to Verma in crafting the Healthy Indiana Plan, but said she was effective across party lines at incorporating the Pence administration's wishes.

"She's very resourceful and intelligent," says Brown. "But the question now becomes, 'What will be her marching orders as they relate to Medicare and Medicaid?' "

Verma's role in shaping Indiana's health care policy has had some controversy. According to a 2014 report from The Indianapolis Star, she has received millions of dollars from the state through her work with the Indiana government. She was also paid by Hewlett-Packard, a Medicaid vendor that received more than $500 million in state contracts. Government ethics experts told the Star the arrangement presented a conflict of interest.

Verma didn't immediately respond to requests for comment, nor did Gov. Pence's office.

Jake Harper reports from member station WFYI in Indianapolis. This story is part of a reporting partnership with NPR, Side Effects Public Media and Kaiser Health News.

==

Seema Verma, president and founder of SVC Inc., gets into an elevator as she arrives at Trump Tower on November 22, 2016 in New York City.

Verma, who is the daughter of Indian immigrants, is Trump's pick as Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Verma, a founder of a health policy consulting firm, is an Indiana resident, who has close ties to Vice-President elect Mike Pence after she designed the state's Obamacare Medicaid expansion model.

"I am pleased to nominate Seema Verma to serve as Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services," Trump said in a statement. "She has decades of experience advising on Medicare and Medicaid policy and helping states navigate our complicated systems."

Verma, a graduate of Johns Hopkins University, served as the Indiana's health reform lead following the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/29/politics/trump-cabinet-women/

==