Medicare belongs to America’s seniors — not corporations and criminals. By revoking lab providers, stopping suspicious payments, recovering overpayments, and working with law enforcement, CMS has protected more than $1.6 BILLION in Medicare funds.

The Taipei Times reports that more Taiwanese people are going missing in China. Since 2024, 453 Taiwanese people have had been reported “missing, detained for questioning or suspected of having their freedom of movement restricted from Jan. 1, 2024, to Friday to 453, the Mainland Affairs Council said in its weekly report issued on Saturday.” One of these people was a nurse who was questioned by Chinese state security personnel about a military hospital where she had previously worked. When asked whether any of the Taiwanese reported missing in China might have had their organs removed, a government official said that authorities “do not know.” “The Taoyuan District Prosecutors’ Office last month indicted seven people following an investigation into a suspected human trafficking ring that allegedly attempted to capture people to take to China for organ harvesting. The group allegedly recruited people with promises of high-paying jobs. Three people were deceived, but were never transported out of Taiwan.” It is unclear whether these human traffickers were working for the CCP, or whether criminal organizations are now becoming part of the supply chain that provides prisoners to the CCP for forced organ harvesting. @MDsAgainstFOH @DAFOH_India @JanJekielek @AndreasWeb49965

We don't need technology companies to come off the sidelines; @SurgeryCenterOK has been doing this since 1997. If you want to learn more, contact @SurgeryCenterOK to learn how they have done this for almost 30 years!

Paying a premium every month so you can pay more at the MRI. A guy posted about his scan last night. The imaging center confirmed insurance approved it, and his copay would be four hundred and something dollars. Then he asked the obvious follow-up. What if I just pay cash? A few clicks later: $250. Cheaper to leave the insurance card in his wallet. On a scan his insurance had already approved. This isn't rare. It's the pattern every time somebody actually checks. Medicare pays about $475 for an MRI at an independent imaging center. Cash prices at freestanding centers commonly run $400 to $1,200. Run the same scan through a hospital outpatient department and it can land anywhere from $1,500 to $3,500, plus a facility fee. A Johns Hopkins study published this year compared hospitals' posted cash prices with their insurer-negotiated prices for the 20 drugs Medicare spends the most on. At up to half of hospitals, depending on the drug, cash beat the typical negotiated rate. At up to 81%, cash beat the highest one. The researchers' explanation was simple. Providers like getting paid up front with no claims, no denials and no waiting, so they price cash competitively. Same story at the pharmacy counter. Another Hopkins study found Medicare Part D paid $27.85 a pill for omeprazole that costs about 80 cents over the counter. Across 19 common drugs available both ways, Medicare could have saved $406 million in one year just by paying the cash price. So why does the insured price come out higher? Because a copay isn't a price. It's a number your plan sets based on its benefit design, and it has nothing to do with what the scan or the drug actually costs. Meanwhile the provider has to file a claim, wait on it, fight denials and pay staff to chase it. All of that cost lands in the insured price. Cash skips every step. Insurance raises the cost of the MRI. It raises the cost of surgery. It raises the cost of a hospital stay. And it raises the cost of your prescriptions. That's why we fired them. No claims, no copays, no middleman. The cost of the drug plus a flat fee, posted before you pay. forestparkpharmacy.com, check the price checker, transfer today to save. See ya.

Paragon turns five. Since 2021, we've produced hundreds of research papers, policy briefs, Prognoses, PICs, and congressional testimonies, and our work has helped produce meaningful policy change. Our new 2025 Annual Report tells that story: ow.ly/UE1e50ZU0Io

I just introduced the Red Meat Inspection Exemption Act with @chelliepingree to allow small farmers to slaughter and process their own livestock for direct-to-consumer sales without federal interference. This bill keeps Trump’s promise by reducing regulations on producers.

If you want to understand why healthcare is so expensive, I'd start with a Supreme Court case about teeth whitening. Around 2003, spas and small kiosks in North Carolina were offering teeth whitening for a fraction of what dentists charge. So dentists complained to the state dental board. That dental board looks like this: - 6 of 8 are practicing dentists, elected by other dentists - 8 of the 10 who sat on the board during this period earned substantial fees from whitening The board sent 47+ cease-and-desist letters, warning non-dentists that they're committing a crime by practicing dentistry without a license. The board also sent letters to mall operators, advising them to expel whitening kiosks. All this worked! These kiosks shut down, prices stayed high, dentists stayed happy. Regulatory capture like this exists all over in healthcare. What makes this case notable is that someone actually sued the NC dental board, in a case that went all the way to the supreme court. In a 6-3 ruling, the SC ruled that if a board is run by those who participate in the market without proper supervision - that looks like a cartel, therefore, antitrust law applies. I have to believe there are so many other potential cases like this in healthcare, just waiting to be pressed on. I'd love to see more of this.