I’ve been investigating federal waste and fraud for 20 years. This is the biggest scandal I’ve ever found.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Just before the Department of Government Efficiency closed its doors, it made a quiet move that may end up as its most lasting impact on the federal deficit.

DOGE published a massive trove of data in February that, for the first time, lets the public see what companies are billing Medicaid for. For decades, the payouts have been shrouded in secrecy. One of the largest government programs was a black box.

I’ve spent the past two months diving into the numbers. What I found was the most blatant waste of federal dollars that I have encountered in my two decades as an investigative reporter.

This is the first part of “Medicaid Millionaires,” a series exposing billions of dollars in dubious “personal services” payments where people are paid to spend time with their own family.  Continue reading →

A pro-lifer says lawmakers are trying to prevent the federal government from getting specific information about things such as abortion.

Under a bill the California Legislature may soon approve, medical providers and affiliated businesses could face hefty state fines if they comply with a federal subpoena seeking information about abortion. Continue reading →

Billionaire Mark Cuban says big drug and insurance companies in the U.S. have grown too powerful to care about ordinary people, but policymakers aren’t taking any real action to fix it.

Speaking at the Punchbowl News Conference in Washington, DC, earlier this month, Cuban said major insurance companies run vertically integrated empires — they control everything from pharmacy benefit managers to wellness programs. That’s why they hold so much power over the entire healthcare system. His fix? Force them to divest non-insurance businesses and level the playing field. Continue reading →

Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban isn’t letting the absurdity of America’s healthcare costs slide – not when a scan can cost more than some used cars.

On Saturday, Cuban reignited his crusade for healthcare reform by highlighting what he sees as a glaring pricing failure. “Explain to me why the insurance company will pay $2500 for an MRI when there is a center down the street that will do it for $350?” he wrote on X. Continue reading →

The modern American health insurance system didn’t emerge because someone designed it thoughtfully, and it shows. It evolved from a series of political, economic, and cultural accidents beginning largely around the period of World War II. As with many political redistribution schemes, once underway, the system has snowballed into the unsustainable trajectory we see today.

My goal in writing this article is to explain how we got here, describe the present situation from the physician’s vantage point, and outline what must change to restore sanity to American healthcare. Continue reading →

          BIG Pharma

Medicare will impose price controls on prescription drugs for the first time when the calendar flips to January. Even before those controls formally take effect, the damage is already being done. The scheme has begun to hollow out America’s biomedical research ecosystem.

Patients will pay the price — in the form of fewer new therapies for disease, particularly cancer.

The price-control gambit was enacted as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, which a Democrat-controlled Congress passed on a party-line vote and then-President Joe Biden signed into law in August 2022. The law empowers the federal government to set the prices Medicare pays for a steadily expanding number of prescription medicines. Continue reading →

A Los Angeles jury awarded $40 million on Friday to two women who claimed that talcum powder made by Johnson & Johnson caused their ovarian cancer.

The giant health care company said it would appeal the jury’s liability verdict and compensatory damages. Continue reading →

…and since this was published… The Gubmn’t has shut down! ~ Editor

The FDA said that a generic version of metoprolol was recalled because it failed to meet the agency’s criteria. (Oh GOODY – My Heart Doctah has this stuff prescribed to me! – Editor)

The Food and Drug Administration on July 8 upgraded a recall of a generic version of blood pressure medication metoprolol to its second-highest level because it failed to meet the FDA’s own criteria.

The recall notice encompasses metoprolol succinate extended-release tablets in 25 milligram doses in 100-count and 500-count bottles. India-based Granules Pharmaceuticals Inc., the manufacturer, voluntarily recalled the medication, which is a beta-blocker used to treat high blood pressure, heart failure, and angina, or chest pain. Continue reading →

President Trump on Tuesday announced that Pfizer had agreed to sell its products in the U.S. at “Most Favored Nation” pricing, one day after the administration required companies to respond to his prescription drug pricing executive order.

Drugmakers were given until Sept. 29 to respond to Trump’s “Most Favored Nation” Executive Order that required companies sell drugs in the U.S. at the lowest price they sell in other developed countries, establish direct-to-consumer avenues and not sell new drugs for lower prices in other countries.

“Pfizer is committing to offer all of their prescription medications to Medicaid. it will be at the most favored nation’s prices. It’s going to have a huge impact on bringing Medicaid costs down like nothing else,” Trump said in a press briefing in the Oval Office. Continue reading →