npr--2019-04-03--Shocking New Statistics About Water And Hygiene In Hospitals Around The World

Shocking New Statistics About Water And Hygiene In Hospitals Around The World  Go to the hospital or a clinic in a wealthy country, and you take it for granted that there's going to be enough clean water — for the doctor to wash her hands before she attends to you, for the staff to clean the floors and linens, and for you to drink when you get thirsty.  But in 17 countries at least one in five health-care facilities has no clean water service on site.  That's just one of many disturbing findings in a new report by UNICEF and the World Health Organization.  That data, collected in 2016 from 69 low- and middle-income countries and territories, amounts to the first comprehensive global assessment of water, sanitation and hygiene in health-care facilities ranging from hospitals to rural clinics.  Here are five more takeaways:  • The problem is particularly common in Africa, but there's a lot of variation on the continent. For instance, in Namibia only 1 percent of health care facilities have no water service, while in Liberia more than half of facilities go without. Meanwhile several non-African countries also perform poorly by this measure including Myanmar, where 27 percent of health care facilities lack water service, and Peru, where it's 18 percent.  • Soap is also in short supply. One out of six health-care facilities covered by the report have no hand hygiene service, meaning not just no soap and water but not even alcohol-based hand rubs available.  • And there's a serious lack of toilets. One in five health-care facilities – including almost one in ten hospitals — does not have toilets beyond rudimentary set-ups like pit latrines and bucket latrines. This means more than 1.5 billion people are getting their care at health facilities with these conditions.  • Waste disposal is a challenge too. In 30 countries more than half of the health care facilities lack basic waste management services – meaning that infectious waste is not treated and disposed of safely.  • All this contributes to both maternal and infant mortality. The report authors estimate that each year 17 million women in the world's poorest countries give birth in health centers with inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene. This increases the chance of deadly infections in both mother and newborn.


npr--2019-04-07--Economic Ripples Hospital Closure Hurts A Towns Ability To Attract Retirees

Economic Ripples: Hospital Closure Hurts A Town's Ability To Attract Retirees

Before it closed March 1, the 25-bed Columbia River Hospital, in Celina, Tenn., served the town of 1,500 residents. The closest hospital now is 18 miles from Celina — a 30-minute or more drive on mountain roads. **Blake Farmer/WPLN** ****hide caption****  ****toggle caption****  Blake Farmer/WPLN  Before it closed March 1, the 25-bed Columbia River Hospital, in Celina, Tenn., served the town of 1,500 residents. The closest hospital now is 18 miles from Celina — a 30-minute or more drive on mountain roads.  Blake Farmer/WPLN  When a rural community loses its hospital, health care becomes harder to come by in an instant. But a hospital closure also shocks a small town's economy. It shuts down one of its largest employers. It scares off heavy industry that needs an emergency room nearby. And in one Tennessee town, a lost hospital means lost hope of attracting more retirees.  Seniors, and their retirement accounts, have been viewed as potential saviors for many rural economies trying to make up for lost jobs. But the epidemic of rural hospital closures is threatening those dreams in places like Celina, Tenn.. The town of 1,500, whose 25-bed hospital closed March 1, has been [trying to position itself](https://www.nashvillepublicradio.org/sites/wpln/files/201903/Clay- County-Plan.pdf) as a retiree destination.  "I'd say, look elsewhere," says Susan Scovel, a Seattle transplant who came with her husband in 2015.  Scovel's despondence is especially noteworthy given that she leads the local chamber of commerce effort to attract retirees like herself. She considers the wooded hills and secluded lake to hold comparable scenic beauty to the Washington coast — with dramatically lower costs of living; she and a small committee plan getaway weekends for prospects to visit.  When she first toured the region before moving in 2015, Scovel and her husband, who had Parkinson's, made sure to scope out the hospital, on a hill overlooking the sleepy town square. And she's rushed to the hospital four times since he died in 2017.  "I have very high blood pressure, and they're able to do the IVs to get it down," Scovel says. "This is an anxiety thing since my husband died. So now — I don't know."  She says she can't in good conscience advise a senior with health problems to come join her in Celina.  Susan Bailey has lived most of her life in Celina and started her nursing career at Cumberland River Hospital. She now worries that its closure will drive away the town's remaining physicians. **Blake Farmer/WPLN** ****hide caption****  ****toggle caption****  Blake Farmer/WPLN  Susan Bailey has lived most of her life in Celina and started her nursing career at Cumberland River Hospital. She now worries that its closure will drive away the town's remaining physicians.  Blake Farmer/WPLN  **The closure adds delays when seconds count**  Celina's Cumberland River Hospital had been on life support for years, operated by the city-owned medical center an hour away in Cookeville, which[ decided in late January](http://cumberlandriverhospital.com/news/Closing%20of%20Cumberland%20River%20Hospital) to cut its losses after trying to find a buyer. Cookeville Regional Medical Center explains that the facility faced the grim reality for many rural providers.  "Unfortunately, many rural hospitals across the country are having a difficult time and facing the same challenges, like declining reimbursements and lower patient volumes, that Cumberland River Hospital has experienced," CEO Paul Korth said in a written statement.  Celina became the 11th rural hospital in Tennessee to close in recent years — more than in any state but Texas. Both states have refused to expand Medicaid in a way that covers more of the working poor. Even [some Republicans](https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https- 3A__www.nashvillepublicradio.org_post_republican-2Dlegislator-2Dblames- 2Dfailure-2Dinsure-2Dtennessee-2Dlatest-2Drural-2Dhospital-2Dclosure- 23stream_0&d=DwMFaQ&c=E2nBno7hEddFhl23N5nD1Q&r=QudUozOfk5JYj59lXMfG7HhQDJlDuCgW_MJ4Ojoyn1s&m=fiNEWGqEEVTPHgTCQZWbKKnGx9hm3uC0cvJsSQyf8DI&s =exdlPT_pYxo4RCx6GM4izdv6Ghrv-Rur1XNrbvkbB5E&e=) now say the decision to not expand Medicaid has added to the struggles of rural health care providers.  The closest hospital is now 18 miles away. That adds another 30 minutes through mountain roads for those who need an X-ray or blood work. For those in the back of an ambulance, that bit of time could make the difference between life or death.  Staff members posted photos and other memorabilia in the halls — reminders of happier times — in the weeks before its closure. **Blake Farmer/WPLN** ****hide caption****  ****toggle caption****  Blake Farmer/WPLN  Staff members posted photos and other memorabilia in the halls — reminders of happier times — in the weeks before its closure.  Blake Farmer/WPLN  "We have the capability of doing a lot of advanced life support, but we're not a hospital," says emergency management director Natalie Boone.  The area is already limited in its ambulance service, with **** two of its four trucks out of service.  Once a crew is dispatched, Boone says, it's committed to that call. Adding an hour to the turnaround time means someone else could likely call with an emergency and be told — essentially — to wait in line.  "What happens when you have that patient that doesn't have that extra time?" Boone asks. "I can think of at least a minimum of two patients [in the last month] that did not have that time."  Residents are bracing for cascading effects. Susan Bailey hasn't retired yet, but she's close. She's spent nearly 40 years as a registered nurse, including her early career at Cumberland River.  "People say, 'You probably just need to move or find another place to go,' " she says.  Closure of the hospital meant 147 nurses, aides and clerical staff had to find new jobs. The hospital was the town's second-largest employer, after the local school system. **Blake Farmer/WPLN** ****hide caption****  ****toggle caption****  Blake Farmer/WPLN  Closure of the hospital meant 147 nurses, aides and clerical staff had to find new jobs. The hospital was the town's second-largest employer, after the local school system.  Blake Farmer/WPLN  Bailey and others are concerned that losing the hospital will soon mean losing the only three physicians in town. The doctors say they plan to keep their practices going, but for how long? And what about when they retire?  "That's a big problem," Bailey says. "The doctors aren't going to want to come in and open an office and have to drive 20 or 30 minutes to see their patients every single day."  Closure of the hospital means 147 nurses, aides and clerical staff have to find new jobs. Some employees come to tears at the prospect of having to find work outside the county and are deeply sad that their hometown is losing one of its largest employers — second only to the local school system.  Dr. John McMichen is an emergency physician who would travel to Celina to work weekends at the ER and give the local doctors a break.  "I thought of Celina as maybe the _Andy Griffith Show_ of health care," he says.  McMichen, who also worked at the now shuttered[ Copper Basin Medical Center](https://www.modernhealthcare.com/indepth/rural-hospital-closure- tennessee-leaves-town-scrambling/), on the other side of the state, says people at Cumberland River knew just about anyone who would walk through the door. That's why it was attractive to retirees.  "It reminded me of a time long ago that has seemingly passed. I can't say that it will ever come back," he says. "I have hopes that there's still some hope for small hospitals in that type of community. But I think the chances are becoming less of those community hospitals surviving."


npr--2019-04-23--Hospitals Chafe Under A Medicare Rule That Reduces Payments To Far-Flung Clinics

Hospitals Chafe Under A Medicare Rule That Reduces Payments To Far-Flung Clinics  Eric Lewis' plans of expanding his community hospital's reach have been derailed.  As CEO of Olympic Medical Center, he oversees efforts to provide care to roughly 75,000 people in Clallam County, in the isolated, rural northwestern corner of Washington state.  Last year, Lewis planned to build a primary care clinic in Sequim, a town about 17 miles from the medical center's main campus of a hospital and clinics in Port Angeles.  But those plans were put aside, Lewis says, because of a change in federal reimbursements this year. Medicare has opted to pay hospitals that have outpatient facilities "off campus" a lower rate — equivalent to what it pays independent doctors for clinic visits.  Over the past decade, hospitals have been rapidly building outpatient clinics or purchasing existing independent ones. It was a lucrative business strategy because such clinics could charge higher rates, on the premise that they were part of a hospital.  With its new policy, Medicare is essentially saying that an off-campus office is an off-campus office, regardless of whether it's owned by a hospital, a group of doctors or a solo practitioner.  Taking that position will save Medicare — and possibly patients — money.  The federal insurer bore the brunt of its members' extra charges, but beneficiaries sometimes picked up part of that expense through deductibles and copayments. Patients with commercial insurance often were blindsided by high bills — going to what seemed to be a normal primary care clinic, only to discover they were charged a hospital facility fee, for example.  Health policy analysts say the new policy represents an important step in rationalizing payments. Part of a strategy called "site neutral" payment, the new policy has its roots in the Obama administration and was part of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015.  "You don't care about where [your treatment is] happening. You care that it's a safe and inexpensive procedure," says Gerard Anderson, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Hospital Finance and Management. "And the facility fee just adds to the cost with very little added value."  The new payment structure may financially hurt some hospitals, he and other experts acknowledge. But making reimbursements more uniform across providers facilitates competition and may lead commercial insurance to follow suit — which could translate to more savings for patients.  This year, the policy's two-part phase-in cut Medicare payments for clinic visits to outpatient departments by 30%, according to the rule finalized in November. By 2020, the payment rates will be cut by 60% compared with what they were last summer.  The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services estimates that the change will save the federal government $380 million this year and patients an average of $7 every time they visit a hospital-owned clinic. Clinic visits are the most commonly charged service for hospital outpatient care under Medicare.  It could also cut down on consolidation in the industry, health care economists say, by closing the loophole that created incentives for hospitals to purchase independent physician practices and charge higher rates for services at taxpayers' expense.  The American Hospital Association filed a lawsuit late last year alleging that CMS overstepped its authority when setting the new reimbursement schedule. Olympic Medical Center is among the plaintiffs.  The hospital association claims that the new rule infringes on a precedent Congress set with the 2015 budget law. That legislation standardized Medicare payments for clinic visits to physicians' offices and new hospital outpatient facilities, but allowed most hospital-affiliated departments that existed at that time to continue receiving a higher rate, according to a comment letter from the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission. The group is a nonpartisan agency that advises Congress.  The differential for site-based payments was designed originally to help hospitals offset the higher costs they incur for maintaining the staff and equipment to handle a wide variety of treatments, says Christopher Whaley, an associate policy researcher at the research organization Rand Corp.  But that financial relief became an incentive for hospitals to buy independent practices, says Dr. Ateev Mehrotra, associate professor of health care policy and medicine at Harvard Medical School. Hospitals were able to charge higher prices for services performed at newly acquired clinics.  Mehrotra says the new CMS rule could be a way to slow down the trend.  "This isn't going to fully put the brakes on it," he says, "but it could be one push on the brakes here — to kind of push that consolidation down."  Some health care analysts have urged the government to expand the number of services covered by the site-neutral policy, including paying hospitals' on-site clinics a rate equivalent to what independent doctors receive.  Hospitals acknowledge that the change implemented by CMS could lead to savings in the health care system, but they say it comes at the cost of patients' convenient access to medical care. In Washington state, Lewis anticipates a loss of $1.6 million for his hospital.  The lack of a clinic in Sequim means ailing patients there will not be able to get care close to their homes, Lewis says.  "If you're well-to-do financially, these aren't big problems," Lewis adds. "But I think the poorest, elderly, sickest of our society will pay the price of this policy."  Melinda Hatton, general counsel for the hospital association, agrees. "I think access trumps a couple extra dollars in copays every single time," she says.  On the other hand, many independent physicians support the change. Marni Jameson Carey, executive director of the Association of Independent Doctors, says she hopes the rule will curb consolidation.  According to a recent report by the consulting firm Avalere, the number of hospital-owned physician practices more than doubled from 35,700 to 80,000 between July 2012 and January 2018. Hospitals own more than 31% of all physician practices, the report found.  Jameson Carey says such mergers can also cause problems for the local economy. When a nonprofit hospital acquires an independent clinic, it effectively removes a tax-paying business from the area. That's because nonprofit hospitals are exempt from paying certain federal, state and local taxes — in exchange for providing community benefits.  "So, not only do they [hospitals] get the facility fee," Jameson Carey says, "they don't have to pay taxes."  Kaiser Health News is a nonprofit news service and editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation. KHN is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.


npr--2019-05-31--Richer Medicare Payments For Rural Hospitals Could Come At Urban Centers Expense

Richer Medicare Payments For Rural Hospitals Could Come At Urban Centers' Expense  As rural hospital closures roil the country, some states are banking on a rescue from a Trump administration proposal to change the way hospital payments are calculated.  The goal of the proposal, unveiled by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma in April, is to bump up Medicare's reimbursements to rural hospitals, some of which receive the lowest rates in the nation.  For example, Alabama's hospitals — most of which are rural — stand to gain an additional $43 million from Medicare next year if CMS makes this adjustment.  "We're hopeful," said Danne Howard, executive vice president and chief policy officer of the Alabama Hospital Association. "It's as much about the rural hospitals as rural communities being able to survive."  The proposed tweak, as wonky as it may seem, comes with considerable controversy.  By law, any proposed changes in the calculation of Medicare payments must be budget-neutral; in other words, the federal government can't spend more money than previously allocated. That would mean any change would have a Robin Hood-like effect: a cut in payments to some hospitals to make it possible to increase payments to others.  "There is a real political tension," said Mark Holmes, director of the University of North Carolina's Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research. Changing the factors in Medicare's calculations that help hospitals in rural communities generally would mean that urban hospitals get less money.  The federal proposal targets a long-standing and contentious regulation known in Washington simply as the "wage index." The index, created in the 1980s as a way to ensure that federal Medicare reimbursements were equitable for hospitals nationwide, attempts to adjust for local market prices, said Allen Dobson, president of the consulting firm Dobson, DaVanzo & Associates.  That means under the current index a rural community hospital could receive a Medicare payment of about $4,000 to treat someone with pneumonia while an urban hospital received nearly $6,000 for the same case, according to CMS.  "The idea was to give urban a bit more and rural areas a bit less because their labor costs are a bit less," said Dobson, who was the research director for Medicare in the 1980s when the index was created. "There's probably no exact true way to do it. I think everybody agrees if you are in a high-wage area you ought to get paid more for your higher wages."  For decades, hospitals have questioned the fairness of that adjustment.  Rural hospitals nationwide have a median wage index that is consistently lower than that of urban hospitals, according to a recent brief by the Sheps Center. The gap is most acute in the South, where 14 of the 20 states that account for the lowest median wage indexes are located.  Last year, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General found that the index may not accurately reflect local labor prices and, therefore, Medicare payments to some hospitals "may not be appropriately" adjusted for local labor prices. More plainly, in some cases, the payments are too low.  In an emailed statement, Verma said the current wage index system "has partly contributed to disparities in reimbursement across the country."  CMS's current proposal would increase Medicare payments to the mostly rural hospitals in the lowest 25th percentile and decrease the payments to those in the highest 75th percentile. The agency is also proposing a 5% cap on any hospital's decrease in the final wage index in 2020 compared with 2019. This would effectively limit the loss in payments some would experience.  Dobson, a former Medicare research director, said he expects "enormous resistance." (The CMS proposal is open for public comment until June 24.)  HHS Secretary Alex Azar, foreshadowing how difficult a change could be, said during a May 10 Senate budget hearing that the wage index is "one of the more vexing issues in Medicare."  It's problematic, agreed Tom Nickels, an American Hospital Administration executive vice president, noting in an emailed statement that there are other ways "to provide needed relief to low-wage areas without penalizing high-wage areas."  It's this split that appears to be dictating the range of reactions.  The Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association's Michael Sroczynski, who oversees its government lobbying, questioned in an emailed statement whether the wage index is the correct mechanism for providing relief to struggling hospitals. The state's hospitals have historically been at the higher end of the wage index.  In contrast, Tennessee Hospital Association CEO Craig Becker applauded the proposed change and said the Trump administration is recognizing the "longstanding unfairness" of the index. Tennessee has been among the hardest hit with hospital closures, counting 10 since 2012.  In Alabama, where four rural hospitals have closed since 2012, Howard said that without the change she "could see a dozen or more of our hospitals not being able to survive the next year." Indeed, Howard said, hospitals in more than 20 states could gain Medicare dollars if the proposal passes and "only a small number actually get hurt."  Kaiser Health News asked the Missouri Hospital Association, in a state where most hospitals do not stand to gain or lose significantly from the rule change, to calculate the exact differences in hospital payments under the current wage index formula.  Under the complex formula, a hospital in Santa Cruz, Calif., an area at the top end of the range, received a Medicare payment rate of $10,951.30 — or 70% more — for treating a concussion with major complications in 2010 as compared with a hospital in rural Alabama, at the bottom end, which received $6,441.76 to provide the same care.  Even more, MHA's data analysis showed that the lower payments to Alabama hospitals have compounded over time. In 2019, Medicare increased its pay to the hospitals in the area around Santa Cruz for the same concussion care. It now stands at $13,503.37 — a nearly 23% increase above the 2010 payment. In contrast, rural Alabama hospitals recorded a 3% payment increase, to $6,646.80, for the same care.  For Alabama, addressing the calculation disparity could be "the lifeline that we've been praying for," Howard said.  Kaiser Health News is a nonprofit news service covering health issues. It is an editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation that is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.


npr--2019-08-28--Federal Agency Accuses Vermont Hospital Of Forcing A Nurse To Assist In An Abortion

Federal Agency Accuses Vermont Hospital Of Forcing A Nurse To Assist In An Abortion  The federal government says the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington, Vt., violated federal law by forcing a nurse to participate in an abortion despite her objections. The hospital issued a statement saying that the allegation is "not supported by the facts," as Vermont Public Radio reported.  At the center of the dispute is a nurse, whose name is not public. According to a complaint her lawyers filed last May with the Office for Civil Rights, the nurse is Catholic and had informed her employer she could not participate in abortions because of her religious beliefs. Federal law protects health workers from discrimination based on religious or moral beliefs.  In 2017, the complaint alleges, the nurse was misled by her employer to believe she was assisting in a procedure scheduled after a miscarriage. "After [she] confirmed that she was, in fact, being assigned to an abortion, [her employer] refused her request that other equally qualified and available personnel take her place," the complaint reads. She then participated in the procedure and "has been haunted by nightmares ever since," according to the complaint.  On Wednesday, the Office for Civil Rights announced a notice of violation against the hospital — its first such action since Director Roger Severino launched the Division of Conscience and Religious Freedom in 2018.  The Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Health and Human Services receives and investigates complaints from health organizations and workers over issues of privacy violations, civil rights discrimination and discrimination based on moral or religious beliefs. As NPR has reported, Severino has made clear that protecting religious freedom is his priority, though most of the complaints his office handles have to do with patient privacy or civil rights.  Severino told reporters Wednesday this nurse's story was the "quintessential violation" of conscience.  "This should never happen in America," Severino said. "There is room for disagreement on these issues without having to coerce people to choose between a career dedicated to supporting life versus instances and situations where they were being forced to take life."  The notice of violation says the hospital's policies violated federal law "by discriminating against health care personnel who have religious or moral objections to abortion." It gives the medical center 30 days to agree to work with the agency "to change its policies so it no longer requires health care personnel to participate in abortion against their religious or moral objections, and to take immediate steps to remedy the effect of its past discriminatory conduct." If not, its federal funding could be at risk.  University of Vermont Medical Center disputes the events described by the nurse and that its policies violate federal law. It also disputes the government's allegation that it has been uncooperative in the course of the investigation.  "I will tell you that we carefully investigated this complaint and we're very, very comfortable that the allegations are not supported by the facts," says Dr. Stephen Leffler, interim president of the University of Vermont Medical Center.  Leffler seemed baffled by Severino's characterization of the medical center as not complying with the agency's investigation.  "From the outset — and as recently as this month — we offered to discuss our policies and practices with them," Leffler says. "We asked to receive their advice on how those policies and practices could be improved consistent with our obligation to our patients. Unfortunately, OCR instead chose to proceed with this announcement today, as opposed to meeting with us to work to improve the policy together."  Neither the medical center nor the government offered any details about the patient who had that procedure in 2017. Severino told reporters it was a dilation and curettage procedure but would not say whether there were any other medical issues at play or how far along the pregnancy was. He noted the law protecting health workers who don't want to participate in abortions does not make any distinctions about gestational age.  Leffler, of the medical center, says he is concerned that its federal funding could be at risk if it doesn't change its staffing policy regarding abortions.  "All the funding we receive is important," he says. "But we do believe that our policy is correct and just. We do believe our policy protects the rights of the patients who seek our services and protects the rights of our staff. And so we do stand by our policy."  Leffler says the hospital's policy is that no health care worker would be forced to participate in a procedure that's against his or her beliefs except in cases of life or death.  "I don't know of any cases where we've compelled someone to do something against their will," he adds.  Emily Corwin of Vermont Public Radio contributed reporting to this story.


npr--2019-09-25--Nonprofit Hospital That Sued Poor Patients Just Freed Thousands From Debt

Nonprofit Hospital That Sued Poor Patients Just Freed Thousands From Debt  This article was produced in partnership with MLK50: Justice Through Journalism, which is a member of the ProPublica Local Reporting Network.  The largest nonprofit hospital system in Memphis, Tenn., is erasing the debts owed by more than 6,500 patients it sued for unpaid hospital bills. Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare had come under fire for its practice of aggressively pursuing medical debt from poor patients, in a city where nearly 1 in 4 residents lives below the poverty line. The move to forgive outstanding bills comes amid an overhaul of its debt collection processes announced in late July.  The dramatic shift was prompted by an investigation from nonprofit news organizations MLK50: Justice Through Journalism and ProPublica that revealed that Methodist filed more than 8,300 debt lawsuits from 2014 through 2018, including against its own employees. Methodist had doggedly pursued low-income defendants who had little ability to pay, often garnishing their meager paychecks.  The single-page "case satisfied" notices filed by Methodist are coming into the Shelby County General Sessions Court faster than staff can process them. A court administrator estimated a backlog of about 4,500 Methodist notices are waiting to be entered into the court's system.  From July 30 through Tuesday, the court had logged more than 2,300 notices submitted by the hospital system that wiped away patients' debts. That's more than nine times the number of notices filed by Methodist in the first six months of 2019.  For now, it appears that Methodist is no longer using the courts as a collection agency, a practice that was roundly criticized by health care experts, some elected officials and members of the United Methodist Church, with which the hospital is affiliated. Since July 3, Methodist has not filed any new debt collection lawsuits or garnishment attempts.  Among the defendants who no longer owe is Carrie Barrett, a part-time Kroger employee featured in one of the MLK50-ProPublica articles. Barrett's case began in July 2007, when a two-night stay at Methodist Bonheur Healthcare, where doctors performed a heart catheterization, left her with a $12,019 bill. In 2010, Methodist sued her for more than $16,000, one-third of which was attorney's fees.  Over the years, thanks to interest and court costs, Barrett's debt climbed to more than $33,000. If she had paid $100 per month as ordered by the court, she would have been 90 by the time she paid it off.  Barrett says she received a call nearly two weeks ago from an administrator who said the hospital had reviewed her records. "He said, 'The balance is zero. ... I said, 'You don't know how good that sounds to my ears.' "  Jessica Curtis, a senior adviser at Community Catalyst, a national advocacy organization, has followed other nonprofit hospitals that have been the subject of similar media reports.  "I was trying to remember when have I seen such a rapid switch," Curtis says. "I don't know that I've seen that before. The scale of what they are attempting to rectify is really commendable from what we've seen thus far."  Because the case-satisfied notices do not include the amount owed, the total dollar amount of debt Methodist forgave could not immediately be quantified. Methodist did not immediately respond to requests for comment.  Nonprofit hospitals are generally exempt from local, state and federal taxes. In return, the federal government expects them to provide a significant community benefit, including charity care and financial assistance.  Methodist, which operates five hospitals in Shelby County, does provide some charity care — but experts faulted it for its aggressive collection practices.  Its handling of poor patients began with a financial assistance policy that, unlike many of its peers around the country, all but ignored patients with any form of health insurance, no matter their out-of-pocket costs. If they were unable to afford their bills, patients then faced what experts say is rare: a licensed collection agency owned by the hospital.  Lawsuits followed. Finally, after the hospital won a judgment, it would repeatedly try to garnish patients' wages, which it did in a far higher share of cases than other nonprofit hospitals in Memphis.  Methodist repeatedly refused to make its executives available for interviews, but it sent statements defending itself, noting how it is the only health care system that has hospitals in all four quadrants of Shelby County and that it provided more than $226 million in community benefit. It did not address why its financial assistance policy was less generous than those of its peers or why it garnished wages in a higher percentage of cases than other hospitals.  But on June 30, three days after the MLK50-ProPublica investigation was published, Methodist CEO Michael Ugwueke said in a column published in The Commercial Appeal that the hospital would spend the next 30 days reviewing its collection and financial assistance policies.  Days later, Methodist announced it would suspend court collection activities over unpaid hospital bills. In the weeks that followed, the hospital's attorney, R. Alan Pritchard, dropped dozens of suits that had been on the court docket.  On July 30, the hospital announced wide-reaching reforms. "We were humbled to learn that while there's so much good happening across our health system each day, we can and must do more," Ugwueke said in a media conference call.  Under the new policy, financial assistance will be provided to patients earning up to 250% of the federal poverty line, or $53,325 for a family of three. The previous policy applied to uninsured patients with incomes up to 125% of the federal poverty line. Methodist said more than half of the population of greater Memphis would be eligible for assistance under the new policy.  The hospital also said it would no longer accept court-ordered interest on medical debt nor would it seek to collect attorney's fees or court costs from patients.  And it said it would raise its minimum wage to $13.50 an hour by mid-September and to $15 an hour by January 2021. The lowest-paid employees made $10 an hour and about 18% of workers earned less than $15 an hour, the hospital reported in response to MLK50's 2018 Living Wage Survey.  The pay increase signaled that Methodist took the issue seriously, Curtis says. "The inclusion of wages means someone has realized not just the symptom of the problem but the core root of the problem. This is a clearly promising start," she says.  It's unclear whether Methodist will resume suing patients for unpaid bills. And the hospital has not said how many additional case-satisfied notices it could file. Plaintiffs cannot refile lawsuits after the case has been marked satisfied.  One of the defendants featured in the investigation was a housekeeper at Methodist, who asked that her name not be used for fear that the hospital would fire her for talking to a reporter.  In 2017, Methodist sued her for the cost of hospital stays to treat chronic abdominal pain she experienced before the hospital hired her. She owed about $23,000, including around $5,800 in attorney's fees.  In January, a General Sessions Court judge ordered her to pay $75 biweekly. The housekeeper paid reliably until this summer, when she missed several days of work because she was sick, eventually ending up in the hospital. That left her paycheck short.  She received a small annual raise in August, and another to $13.50 less than two weeks ago  Last week, a reporter showed the housekeeper a copy of her case-satisfied notice.  "God is a good God," she said, laughing and smiling. "I've been calling them and they tell me nothing. ... This is a blessing right here."  Barrett, the Kroger employee featured in the first MLK50-ProPublica story, likewise praised God. At church this month, Barrett had an update for the congregation, which had heard her speak about her financial troubles before.  "I have a zero balance," she said. "I just want to thank God for blessings that he has brought to me. ... I thank him for the victory!" she shouted, as others joined her in praise.  "Victory is ours, amen!" a minister said from the pulpit. "Don't y'all know that Jesus will drop those charges? Glory to God!"


prepareforchange--2019-08-23--This Futuristic Hospital Is Using Greenery As Medicine

In 2005, CPG Corporate, a Singapore-based design firm, was tasked with creating a hospital that actually lowered visitors’ blood pressure. “How do we challenge the idea of a hospital to deinstitutionalize it and make it look, smell, and feel unlike a hospital?” Jerry Ong Chin-Po, an architect who worked on the project, tells mbg of the initial challenge. “We felt the best way to do it was to integrate nature into the space.”  The hospital, which opened its doors in 2010 and now serves 800,000 residents in northern Singapore, has masked the smell of medicine and chemicals with over 700 species of fragrant native plants. In the lobby, sounds of machines are drowned out by bird species in the central courtyard. And instead of walking through sterile white hallways, patients, caretakers, and the occasional butterfly navigate the space on outdoor bridges wrapped in greenery.  In Singapore, medical buildings have multiple tiers of patient rooms (it’s part of how the country maintains its famously cheap health care). Some are private and have air conditioning; others have up to five beds and rely on natural ventilation. In order to ensure that all patients feel comfortable—regardless of how much they’re paying to be there—Chin-Po’s team again leaned on nature. They installed new windows that could be opened wider to allow for more airflow and made sure that every patient could see greenery from their bed, even if it was just a planter box on the other side of their window.  At mealtimes, patients are given organic food grown in a massive rooftop garden, and everyone fills their plates with fruits and veggies on the weekly, hospital-wide Meatless Mondays. “We always bring this idea of creating a total healing environment,” Chin-Po says. “Not just for the patients but for the caregivers and staff as well. It’s all part of the whole system.”


prisonplanet--2019-09-11--Illinois Hospital Created Comfort Room For Aborted Babies to Die In

Illinois Hospital Created ‘Comfort Room’ For Aborted Babies to Die In

An eyewitness nurse revealed how a hospital in Illinois has a “comfort room” in which aborted babies who survive for hours outside the womb are left to die.  Jill Stanek told a hearing on the Born Alive Act in Washington, D.C. that doctors at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn perform “live birth abortions” where the baby is allowed to die during or after the abortion procedure.  The hospital provides “comfort care” for the babies for hours after the procedure by wrapping the infant in a blanket and keeping it warm until it dies. Parents of the baby are also allowed to hold it during this time.  “If staff did not have the time or desire to hold the baby, she was taken to Christ Hospital’s Comfort Room, which was complete with a First Photo machine if parents wanted professional pictures of their aborted baby, baptismal supplies, gowns and certificates, foot printing equipment and baby bracelets for mementos, and a rocking chair,” Stanek said.  She also revealed how once she witnessed a nurse deliver a live baby but then fail to clamp the severed umbilical cord, causing the baby to begin bleeding. The infant was then placed in a bag and thrown in the trash.  Stanek also related how she held a 22 week old down syndrome baby for the last 45 minutes of his life because his parents did not want to hold him.  “Toward the end, he was so quiet I could not tell if he was still alive,” Stanek said. “I held him up to the light to see through his chest wall whether his heart was still beating. After he was pronounced dead, I folded his little arms across his chest, wrapped him in a tiny shroud and carried him to the hospital morgue where all of our dead patients are taken.”  Stanek subsequently quit her job at the hospital.  Meanwhile, as I explain in the video below, a new sexual fetish involves couples repeatedly getting pregnant and aborting multiple babies.  My voice is being silenced by free speech-hating Silicon Valley behemoths who want me disappeared forever. It is CRUCIAL that you support me.  Please sign up for the free newsletter here. Donate to me on SubscribeStar here.  Support my sponsor – Turbo Force – a supercharged boost of clean energy without the comedown.  This article was posted: Wednesday, September 11, 2019 at 5:41 am


skynewspolitics--2019-08-05--Which NHS hospitals will benefit from PMs 16318bn spending pledge

Which NHS hospitals will benefit from PM's £1.8bn spending pledge?

Which NHS hospitals will benefit from Boris Johnson's £1.8bn spending pledge?  Which NHS hospitals will benefit from Boris Johnson's £1.8bn spending pledge?  Boris Johnson is set to announce the 20 NHS hospitals in England that will benefit from an £850m cash injection.  The money, which makes up part of a £1.8bn spending pledge, will be provided to upgrade outdated facilities and equipment.  The prime minister will make the commitment for the health service during a speech at a Lincolnshire hospital on Monday.  Here is a list of the beneficiaries and the funding they will receive:  Luton and Dunstable University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (FT): £99.5m for a new block in Luton to provide critical and intensive care, as well as a delivery suite and operating theatres.  Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS FT: £69.7m to provide diagnostic and assessment centres in Norwich, Great Yarmouth and King's Lynn.  Norfolk and Suffolk NHS FT: £40m to build four new hospital wards in Norwich, providing 80 beds.  University Hospitals Birmingham: £97.1m to provide a new purpose-built hospital facility, replacing outdated outpatient, treatment and diagnostic accommodation.  United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust: £21.3m to improve patient flow in Boston by developing urgent and emergency care zones in A&E.  Wye Valley NHS Trust: £23.6m to provide new hospital wards in Hereford, providing 72 beds.  University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust: £17.6m to create three new modern wards to improve capacity and patient flow in Stoke, delivering approximately 84 beds for this winter.  Barking and Dagenham, Havering and Redbridge CCGs and North East London NHS Foundation Trust: £17m to develop a new health and wellbeing hub.  Croydon Health Services NHS Trust: £12.7m to extend and refurbish critical care units at the Croydon University Hospital.  Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS FT: £41.7m to improve paediatric cardiac services in the North East.  Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust: £12m to provide a single laboratory information management system across West Yorkshire and Harrogate, covering all pathology disciplines.  Mersey Care NHS FT: £33m to provide a new 40-bed low secure unit for people with learning disabilities.  Stockport NHS FT: £30.6m to provide a new emergency care campus development at Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport, incorporating an urgent treatment centre, GP assessment unit and planned investigation unit.  NHS Wirral CCG: £18m to improve patient flow by improving access via the urgent treatment centre.  Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS FT: £16.3m to provide emergency and urgent care facilities at Tameside General Hospital.  Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust: £99.9m to build a new women's and children's hospital in the centre of the Royal Cornwall Hospital site in Truro.


skynewsus--2019-03-10--Hospital defends use of robot that told patient he was going to die

California hospital defends use of robot that told patient he was going to die  California hospital defends use of robot that told patient he was going to die  The family of a dying 78-year-old man have been left devastated after a hospital robot rolled into his room to deliver the news that he did not have long to live.  Ernest Quintana was taken to the Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in the San Francisco Bay area of California last weekend after suffering breathing difficulties, and died on Tuesday.  His family had known that he would die of his chronic lung disease, but were not expecting to receive news of his imminent death when a robot arrived at the intensive care unit on the night Mr Quintana was admitted.  Rather than a doctor deliver the news that he would likely die within days in person, one flashed up on a screen on the robot to tell them via video link.  It has sparked outrage among the family of Mr Quintana, who thought the robot was making routine visit.  Daughter Catherine Quintana said: "If you're coming to tell us normal news, that's fine.  "But if you're coming to tell us there's no lung left and we want to put you on a morphine drip until you die, it should be done by a human being and not a machine."  Part of the exchange between the on-screen doctor and the shocked family was captured on video by Annalisia Wilharm, granddaughter of Mr Quintana, who was alone with him when the robot appeared.  The 33-year-old said she had been told by a nurse that a doctor would be making his rounds.  "This guy cannot breathe, and he's got this robot trying to talk to him," she said.  "This guy is telling him, 'So we've got your results back, and there's no lung left. There's no lung to work with.'"  Ms Wilharm said she had to repeat what the doctor said to her grandfather because he was hard of hearing in his right ear and the machine was unable to get to the other side of the bed.  The hospital has defended its use of the robot, insisting that the diagnosis came after several physician visits and that it did not replace "previous conversations with the patient and family members".  But Michelle Gaskill-Hames, senior vice-president of Kaiser Permanente Greater Southern Alameda County, added that hospital policy was to have a nurse or doctor in the room when remote consultations took place and acknowledged it had fallen short of the family's expectations.  "We will use this as an opportunity to review how to improve patient experience with tele-video capabilities," she said.


sottnet--2019-01-04--Hospital in Sweden closed after patient is suspected of carrying ebola

The room being hung around with a collection of the portraits of remarkable men, among them were those of Bacon, Newton and Locke. Hamilton asked me who they were. I told him they were my trinity of the three greatest men the world had ever produced, naming them. He paused for some time: "The greatest man," said he, "that ever lived, was Julius Caesar."


sputnik--2019-03-31--Mexico City Hospital Blast Leaves 14 Injured - Officials PHOTOS

Mexico City Hospital Blast Leaves 14 Injured - Officials (PHOTOS)

"An investigation into the blast at a hospital, as a result of which 14 people were injured, has been launched. The hospital is located… in the Venustiano Carranza district", the statement read.  According to preliminary data, there are nine women and five men among the injured. The explosion has also damaged six cars, according to the statement.  The cause of the blast has not been established yet. Local media suggested a flawed gas system caused the explosion and reported that the incident injured at least 16 people. Local authorities have reportedly launched the investigation into the incident.


sputnik--2019-05-29--Netizens Ridicule Indian Hospital for Astrological Diagnosis of Patients

New Delhi (Sputnik): A media report of a hospital in India's north-western Jaipur city hiring a full-time astrologer to detect diseases and diagnose illness based on a patient's astrological birth chart has gone viral on social media. A majority of netizens are ridiculing the practice as unheard of in modern times.  The hospital's in-house astrologer, Pandit Akhilesh Sharma, has been tasked with the responsibility of subjecting patients to astrological evaluation and diagnosis.  Thereafter, the doctors compare the medical and astrological diagnosis before finally deciding on the line of medical treatment to be given to patients.  Doctors at the hospital told Indian news agency ANI that Pandit Sharma has so far predicted diseases correctly, while clarifying that astrology is being used only for diagnosis and not for treatment.  The hospital is now reportedly preparing a new course that will be a combination of medical science and astrology, which is planned to be called astronomical sciences.


sputnik--2019-11-06--Boston Hospital Staffers Oppose Melania Trump’s Visit to Mark Programme on Opioid-Addicted Babies

An intense discussion involving a protest in front of the hospital premises appears to be turning a non-partisan event into a controversy around White House policies as a whole. Roughly 250 people working at the Boston Medical Centre are protesting a scheduled visit by First Lady Melania Trump, The Boston Globe reported. The appearance is set to focus on a hospital programme geared toward babies suffering from drug exposure while in the womb.  The opponents - family physicians, social workers, and administrative employees among them - assumed that a photo opportunity highlighting BMC’s work with ailing little children could send the wrong message, primarily to immigrants worried about the Trump administration’s policy prerogatives, who would then prefer to abstain from turning to the said medical institution for help.  Cecilia T. Girard, a nurse midwife who immigrated to the US from Ecuador, was among those who expressed concern about her being deemed as having links to the party in the White House.  According to some employees, BMC, one of the largest hospitals in New England, treats an especially large number of low-income patients on Medicaid, as well as immigrants who are so worried about deportations that they have been missing appointments.  Protest organisers said they sent out a letter last week asking to cancel the top-profile visit, with employees planning a late-morning demonstration in front of the hospital on Wednesday.  President and chief executive Kate Walsh, who met about 75 people to talk the matter over on Monday, argued in response that Melania Trump’s visit will provide invaluable and well-deserved recognition for an innovative programme they are pursuing in their institution.  Walsh said she hopes “the visit will be a unique opportunity to share our values of respect and inclusion with federal leaders whose policies have a significant impact on the vulnerable populations we are dedicated to serving", her email sent Tuesday to 6,000 employees reads.  She further addressed the issue of government insurance, saying two-thirds of their patients have “some form” of it.  FLOTUS’s visit to Boston comes as part of her “Be Best” initiative, which entails boosted attention and work on issues including opioid addiction in children and bullying.  More specifically, the visit would focus on the Cuddling Assists in Lowering Maternal and Infant Stress — or CALM — programme that uses volunteers to help comfort babies born with opioid dependency, according to a White House statement.  After a short briefing on other programmes aimed at pregnant women with substance abuse issues and their babies, FLOTUS is scheduled to tour the hospital’s pediatric care unit “to see firsthand how these programmes are implemented and meet with the children and families who have been successfully treated", the White House said.


telesurtv--2019-09-17--Argentinian Hospitals On The Verge Of Collapse

Argentinian Hospitals 'On The Verge Of Collapse'

Medical groups have appealed to the government on Tuesday, asking for urgent intervention to avert mass closures of health centers in the country. Hospitals have been particularly hard by the country’s economic crisis, presided over by neoliberal President Mauricio Macri.  > **RELATED:**  >  > **_[Argentina Police Suppress Protesters Demanding Food](https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Argentina-Police-Suppress- Protesters-Demanding-Food-Emergency-20190912-0005.html)_[ _Emergency_](https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Argentina-Police-Suppress- Protesters-Demanding-Food-Emergency-20190912-0005.html)**  “The situation is catastrophic” [said](https://www.pagina12.com.ar/218598-clinicas-y-sanatorios-al-borde-del- colapso) Jorge Cherro, President of the Association of Private Clinics, Sanatoriums and Hospitals (Adecra), one of the groups that launched the appeal.  Cherro lays blame squarely at the feet of the Macri administration, saying, "This government has brought us to this catastrophic situation, they must adopt urgent, forceful and creative measures to save the sector.”  One of the biggest problems facing the country’s health system is that runaway inflation has made medical supplies hard to obtain within hospital budgets; furthermore, Cherro points out that some supplies from abroad do not even deliver to Argentina anymore because of pricing instability.  The private sector is said to be particularly vulnerable, and that a collapse there will trigger a crisis in the already struggling public sector. The medical groups who are part of the appeal say that the public system doesn't have anywhere near the capacity to absorb a private sector collapse.  Argentina's inflation has reached 50 percent, causing sharp rises in poverty and unemployment. The country’s crisis follows the election of neoliberal President Mauricio Macri who took on a multibillion dollar IMF loan. The subsequent privatizations and deregulation has triggered an inflationary crisis.  Angered by the country’s spiralling economic crisis, voters are set to punish Macri at the upcoming presidential elections.[ Polls](https://www.losandes.com.ar/article/view?slug=tres-nuevas-encuestas- vaticinan-un-triunfo-mas-amplio-para-fernandez-en-las-generales) indicate that the progressive Fernandez-Kircherner ticket are on course for crushing first round victory.  The appeal which was sent to the government is signed by; Cedim (Chamber of Entities for Diagnosis and Outpatient Treatment), Copsal (of Healthcare Providers), Confeclisa (of Clinics, Sanatoriums and Private Hospitals), Cadime (of Medical Diagnostic Institutions), Cacep (of Clinics and Psychiatric Establishments) and AAEG (Association of Geriatric Establishments).


theblaze--2019-01-01--Cleveland hospital no longer employs Muslim doctor who made violent anti-Jewish remarks on social me

Cleveland hospital no longer employs Muslim doctor who made violent anti-Jewish remarks on social media  No word on whether they played a part in her termination.


theblaze--2019-03-22--Transgender man claims Catholic hospital refused to perform a hysterectomy on him Now hes suing

Transgender man claims Catholic hospital refused to perform a hysterectomy on him. Now, he’s suing.  'I began taking testosterone. I had a double mastectomy. The next step was a hysterectomy.'


theblaze--2019-07-24--The hospital that treated Neil Armstrong reportedly gave his family 6 million in a wrongful death s

The hospital that treated Neil Armstrong reportedly gave his family $6 million in a wrongful death settlement  However, the hospital never admitted to any wrongdoing


thedailybeast--2019-08-12--Disgusting Study Shows Hospitals Sending More and More Surprise Bills

‘Disgusting’: Study Shows Hospitals Sending More and More Surprise Bills

Surprise hospital bills—when a patient is asked to pay for an out-of-network service during a visit to a hospital that’s in their insurance network—have gotten a lot of attention from consumer advocates and lawmakers in recent years.  But a new study shows just how prevalent the problem is: Nearly 40 percent of people who go to a hospital get hit with one of these bills, and the average amount of the bills crept up year by year.  Researchers from Stanford University examined more than 5 million inpatient admissions and more than 13 million emergency room visits between 2010 and 2016, crunching insurance data to find out how many Americans are leaving the hospital with liabilities they didn’t expect.  Of the ER visits, 39 percent of people got an out-of-network bill—the average amount of which rose from $220 to $628 over the six-year period, according to results published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Internal Medicine on Monday. For inpatients, 37 percent got at least one out-of-network bill, and the average more than doubled from $804 to $2,040 over that period. In addition, the study found that the percentage of both groups getting surprise bills rose between 2010 and 2016.  The bills could have serious consequences for those without savings: A recent survey showed that four in 10 Americans would be unable to pay an unexpected expense of $400 without borrowing money or selling something.  “It is disgusting to think that the rate of these cases is actually going up,” Claudia Knafo, who became a patient advocate after getting hit with a surprise bill, told The Daily Beast. “We have to empower patients to know exactly what their rights are.”  The study found that taking an ambulance to a hospital was particularly risky; 85 percent of all ambulance trips saddled patients with out-of-network bills.  “Ambulances almost never write contracts with insurance companies,” says J.B. Silvers, a professor of health-care finance at Case Western Reserve University. “And they’re counting on the fact that you’re not going to get off a gurney and ask if you’re covered.”  Emergency room patients were most likely to get surprise hospital bills from the radiology, medical transport and cardiology departments.  Silvers said the status of hospital employees is the culprit. Full time staffers are usually covered under the same insurance package as the hospital, but temporary employees who are pulling in extra shifts or filling in for a sick doctor may not.  “The responsibility belongs to hospitals to ensure everyone who works there is under the same insurance,” said Silvers.  Silvers has some advice for patients who get a surprise bill: Negotiate. With everyone.  “Talk to the hospital, the insurance company, the doctors. It’s a Middle Eastern bazaar and there’s a carpet between you and the other guy,” he said.  Sean Barry, of the American Hospital Association, says his group has limited data on surprise billing but said that “hospitals and health systems are committed to protecting patients from surprise bills and support a federal legislative solution to do so.”  Legislative solutions are in motion ; as of June, at least nine states had passed laws to deal with the issue and four  states had laws that hadn’t taken effect yet, according to Peterson-Kaiser’s Health System Tracker . President Trump issued an executive order in June authorizing the U.S.  Department of Health and Human Services to draft legislation to protect consumers against surprise bills.


thedailybeast--2019-08-30--Firing Doctor Christian Hospital Sets Off National Challenge to Aid-in-Dying Laws

Firing Doctor, Christian Hospital Sets Off National Challenge to Aid-in-Dying Laws

DENVER — A Christian-run health system in Colorado has fired a veteran doctor who went to court to fight for the right of her patient to use the state’s medical aid-in-dying law, citing religious doctrine that describes “assisted suicide” as “intrinsically evil.”  Centura Health Corp. this week abruptly terminated Dr. Barbara Morris, 65, a geriatrician with 40 years of experience, who had planned to help her patient, Cornelius “Neil” Mahoney, 64, end his life at his home. Mahoney, who has terminal cancer, is eligible to use the state’s law, overwhelmingly approved by Colorado voters in 2016.  The growing number of state aid-in-dying provisions are increasingly coming into conflict with the precepts of faith-based hospitals, which oppose the practice on religious grounds.  Morris’ dismissal presents an early test of state laws. The Trump administration has moved to broaden the latitude of providers to refuse to participate in medical interventions they object to on religious grounds, though that has previously applied primarily to abortion and contraception. As hospitals across the country have consolidated, five of the top 10 hospital systems by net patient revenue are associated with the Roman Catholic Church, according to Definitive Health. That includes hospitals that did not previously have any religious affiliation. Meanwhile, there are 10 U.S. jurisdictions where aid-in-dying has been approved and public support for the option is increasing. The Aug. 26 firing came days after Morris joined with Mahoney in filing a state lawsuit that alleges Centura’s faith-based policy violates the law that allows doctors to prescribe lethal drugs to dying patients who want to end their own lives.  Officials at Centura, a system jointly run by Catholic and Seventh-day Adventist churches, told Morris on Monday that she had defied church doctrines that govern her employment.  “I was shellshocked,” Morris said in an exclusive interview with Kaiser Health News. “Because of all the things I expected them to do, that was not in the playbook. Because it seemed so obvious that they can’t do it.” But in legal documents filed Friday that ask to elevate the case to federal court and invoke the First Amendment in defense of their actions, Centura officials said Morris had violated terms of her physician’s employment agreement and “encouraged an option that she knew was morally unacceptable to her employer.”  For Mahoney, the firing deals yet another setback in his quest to use the law. Mahoney, who in July was given four to 14 months to live, said he watched his mother die a slow, painful death and hopes to avoid that for himself.  “Knowing that I could die at home is huge,” said Mahoney, who has lost 30 pounds since April, even as his belly swelled painfully with fluid as a result of the cancer. “This gets dragged out too long.” The Trump administration in May approved a so-called conscience rule that strengthens the rights of hospitals and health workers to refuse to participate in patient care based on religious or moral grounds.  At the same time, more doctors and patients in the country are providing and receiving health care subject to religious restrictions. About 1 in 6 acute care beds nationally is in a hospital that is Catholic-owned or -affiliated, said Lois Uttley, a program director for the consumer advocacy group Community Catalyst.  In Colorado, one-third of the state’s hospitals operate under Catholic guidelines.  In a letter hand-delivered to Morris, who has worked for the health care system since 2013, Centura president Vance McLarren said that she had violated the firm’s governing rules, the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services.  “Rather than encouraging patient Cornelius Mahoney to receive care consistent with that doctrine or transferring care to other providers, you have encouraged a morally unacceptable option,” the letter said.  The directives state that Catholic health care providers “may never condone or participate in euthanasia or assisted suicide in any way.” Such acts are described as “intrinsically immoral” and “intrinsically evil” in the document.  “Patients experiencing suffering that cannot be alleviated should be helped to appreciate the Christian understanding of redemptive suffering,” the document states.  Centura officials confirmed Thursday that Morris is no longer employed there, adding in a statement that the firm “expects all our caregivers to act in a manner consistent with our Mission and Core Values.”  Company officials did not address claims that Centura violated state law but argued that its policy prohibiting doctors from prescribing drugs or otherwise participating in medical aid-in-dying is federally protected.  “We believe the freedom of religion doctrine at the heart of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution supports our policies as a Christian health-care ministry,” Centura spokeswoman Wendy Forbes said in an email. “We will vigorously defend our Constitutional rights.”  Legal experts said that Morris’ firing may be rare or even unprecedented, but the argument based on the First Amendment has gained support recently in conservative circles.  “In recent years, the radical right has gotten traction with the argument that religious peoples’ constitutional rights are violated if they have to follow the same law as everybody else,” said Robert Rivas, a Florida lawyer who serves as general counsel for the Final Exit Network, a nonprofit group that promotes right-to-die causes.  “When you look closely at what they are saying,” he said, “it turns out they really want to be empowered to force their religion on others.”  Officials with the Archdiocese of Denver said they supported Centura’s efforts to uphold church doctrine.  “Asking a Christian hospital to play any role in violating the dignity of human life is asking the Christian hospital to compromise its values and core mission,” spokesman Mark Haas said in a statement. “This is not the hospital forcing its beliefs upon others, but rather having outside views forced upon it.”  The issue is playing out against growing federal protections for religious views of health care, said Kathryn Tucker, executive director of the End of Life Liberty Project and co-counsel on the Centura lawsuit filed Aug. 21.  The Trump administration conscience rule, which was challenged by two dozen states and cities, including Colorado, has been delayed until Nov. 22.  “What’s getting lost here is the patient, and the doctor may hold equally strong ethical and religious views as Centura,” Tucker said. “Why should their views be overridden by the views of corporate religious medicine?”  Morris’ termination was immediate, according to the letter. She was asked to hand over her badge and her company laptop computer. The action abruptly halted her care of 400 geriatric patients and left Morris worried about their future.  “These are complex, ill patients,” Morris said. “We have a pretty big thing in medicine about not abandoning patients, so that’s a pretty big issue.”  In the lawsuit, Morris joined with Mahoney, a Golden, Colorado, nursery manager diagnosed in July with stage 4 metastatic cancer. The pair alleged that Centura’s policy prohibiting doctors from prescribing aid-in-dying drugs is broader than state law allows. Colorado’s End of Life Options Act, approved by 65 percent of voters in 2016, allows hospitals and health systems to opt out of offering aid-in-dying drugs for use on their premises.  In addition, another Colorado law says health care facilities may not “limit or otherwise exercise control” over a physician’s medical judgment.  The suit asks a judge to rule that the hospital system may not bar Morris from prescribing the lethal drugs — or penalize her if she does.  Centura officials expressed sadness over Mahoney’s illness but said the institution promotes “the sacredness of every human life.”  After he received his grim diagnosis, Mahoney asked an oncologist and a social worker at his cancer center to help him access aid-in-dying. Both said no.  “I feel like I got slapped in the face,” Mahoney said.  Mahoney was advised to transfer his care to a secular provider, but he said he didn’t want to undergo additional tests, costs and travel as he struggled with debilitating symptoms.  Morris said she understood that Centura was religiously affiliated when she was hired but didn’t anticipate a problem.  “I didn’t think it was going to affect my general family practice,” she said. “Until these conversations about medical aid-in-dying, I hadn’t felt any interference.”  Once the law passed, however, a growing number of patients asked about the option.  “I’ve had patients as they face devastating illness or the end of life where they say, ‘Will you do this for me?’” she said, adding later: “At a certain point, we have to stand up for what’s right.”  Morris is considering her next steps, including separate legal action against Centura over her termination. Mahoney, who is scheduled for his third round of chemotherapy soon, said he’s not sure what to do in the wake of the firing.  Raised Catholic, he said, he rejected that theology long ago.  “I don’t believe in church. I don’t believe in religion,” he said. “I just think they’re getting way too much power.” Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a nonprofit news service covering health issues. It is an editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation that is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente


thedailycaller--2019-04-12--Woman Sues Illinois Hospital For Allegedly Paying Her To Have An Abortion To Cover Up Its Mistake

A woman sued an Illinois hospital Thursday, alleging that it pressured and bribed her to have an abortion after mistakenly giving her drugs that can cause birth defects.  Reneizha Morris, 23, filed the suit against UnityPoint Health Methodist in Peoria County Circuit Court Thursday, The Associated Press reported. According to the suit, Morris was admitted to the hospital on Nov. 1, 2017 for a psychiatric evaluation, WMBD News reported. The hospital also informed Morris at that time that she was pregnant.  Following her evaluation, a hospital employee allegedly gave Morris methotrexate, according to the suit.  Methotrexate is an immunosuppressive drug used to treat cancer. It can also treat psoriasis and rheumatoid arthritis.  “Methotrexate must not be used during pregnancy,” according to WebMD. “It may harm an unborn baby. It is important to prevent pregnancy during and after treatment with methotrexate.”  After the hospital realized its mistake, both its management and legal team pressured Morris to have an abortion, the suit alleges.  Morris understood the risks of continuing her pregnancy and wanted to carry to the child to term. “I hoped that maybe [the baby] could be normal,” she said, according to WMBD. “That something good could come out of it. But over time they were adamantly telling me that there was no way that this would be a normal child.”  “She told doctors during this meeting that she was willing to take the risk,” Morris’ attorney Thomas Mulroy III said, according to WMBD. “[S]he wanted to give this baby a chance and that she hoped that it was a girl.”  The hospital allegedly pressured her for weeks to abort. UnityPoint officials sent her $2,000 in hopes of convincing her to have an abortion, according to the lawsuit. The hospital wanted to “eliminate evidence of their mistake,” according to Mulroy, WMBD reported. (RELATED: Did An Immigration Lawyer Pressure An Illegal To Get An Abortion She Didn’t Want? It Appears That Way)  Morris had an abortion on Dec. 15, 2017.  She is suing the hospital over claims of negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress and lack of informed consent among a total of five-counts, according to WMBD. Morris seeks a minimum of $50,000 for each count.  UnityPoint Health Methodist won’t comment on pending litigation, according to spokesman Fabiola Orozco, WMBD reported.


thedailycaller--2019-04-30--27 West Virginia Hospitals Join Together To Sue Opioid Companies Including Purdue Pharma

Twenty-seven West Virginia hospitals and 10 affiliated Kentucky hospitals joined together to sue opioid companies for monetary damages, including Purdue Pharma, Monday.  “Imagine what the hospitals — who are the entities of last resort — have gone through as part of this [opioid] crisis,” said the hospitals’ lawyer, Stephen B. Farmer, according to the Associated Press. “Their day-to-day ability to treat people effectively has been completely disrupted by the whole spate of opioid issues that come through their doors every day.”  The hospitals say the opioid companies, some of the largest in the country, inundated the Appalachian region with the prescription pain pills. West Virginia has the highest age-adjusted opioid overdose rate in the country. (RELATED: Activist With ALS Who Needs Help From Computer To Speak Testifies At First Medicare For All Hearing)  The suit is the first one brought by a big group of hospitals against opioid companies, the hospitals’ lawyers said. The suit cites statistics claiming the number of opioid-related emergency room visits has doubled nationally, blaming unlawful marketing and distribution for millions of dollars in uncompensated care hospitals have to shoulder, reported the AP. The hospitals are seeking “that the responsible parties be held accountable for the role they’ve played in this crisis,” Ronald Pellegrino, chief operating officer at WVU Hospitals, said.  Distributors AmerisourceBergen and Cardinal Health as well as the Sackler family, which controls Purdue Pharma, are additional defendants named in the suit, reported the AP.  AmerisourceBergen responded to the hospitals’ suit in a statement.  “A significant number of these doctors – 38 percent in the U.S. – are employed by hospitals, which is where in many cases they prescribe, fulfill through distributors, and then dispense medications to patients,” the statement reads according to the AP. “This is why hospitals pursuing legal action related to opioid abuse against other members of the supply chain is counterproductive and ignores the facts.”  Other prescription opioid makers are starting to face lawsuits like the ones brought against Purdue Pharma. An Oklahoma suit against several drugmakers paints Johnson & Johnson as an opioid “kingpin,” according to media reports in mid-March.  The Daily Caller News Foundation reached out to Purdue Pharma but did not receive a response at the time of publication.  Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.


thedailycaller--2019-05-31--Memphis VA Hospital Remains Troubled Despite Secretarys Assurance It Has Turned A Corner

Memphis VA Hospital Remains Troubled, Despite Secretary’s Assurance It Has ‘Turned A Corner’

Despite happy talk from the Secretary of the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA), the Memphis VA Medical Center (VAMC) remains a troubled hospital.  VA Secretary Robert Wilkie gave an interview in May to the Commercial Appeal in Memphis about that hospital, and in the interview, he stated the leadership, “is now one of the best in the country”  He also said in the interview that the hospital had “turned a corner.”  In March 2019, the Office of Special Counsel sent a letter to President Trump concluding another investigation into the Memphis VA; this one found that the hospital cancelled more than one hundred electromyography (EMG) tests improperly.  “Memphis VAMC staff did not follow appropriate procedures when they discontinued a backlog of 143 EMG consults to 140 veterans,” the letter noted.  “The events highlighted in the letter occurred more than three years ago under the past administration and previous medical center leadership,” Susan Carter, director of the Office of Media Relations at the VA, told The Daily Caller.  She cited numerous steps the hospital had taken to improve the situation, including having EMG lab staff “sign a statement indicating they have reviewed and understand the Choice guidance on when and how to place veterans on the Veterans Choice List,” and hiring two new medical support assistants for the Neurology Service.  In 2017, USA Today reported that things were so bad at the Memphis VA Medical Center that it was one of four hospitals in the system which required weekly briefings from top brass at the VA.  In 2018, the USA Today reported that the Memphis VA Medical Center was one of five hospitals in the VA system to receive the worst rating in the VA’s internal rating system for three years in a row. (RELATED: VA Report Shows Young Military Veteran Suicide Rate On The Rise)  That internal system is called Strategic Analytic for Improved Learning (SAIL) and ranks hospitals one to five with one being the lowest. The Memphis VAMC continues to maintain a one rating.  Sean Higgins is a former employee in the Memphis VA Medical Center who was credited with more than forty disclosures of waste, fraud, and abuse at the hospital.  “How can he [Wilkie] say they’ve turned a corner, if it’s still rated one,” Higgins said.  Carter acknowledged that the hospital continues to maintain the worst rating, she said it doesn’t tell the whole story.  “Star ratings are an internal comparison tool. While a one-star rating indicates room for improvement, the hospital still provides high-quality health care, as underscored by the fact that thousands of Memphis-area Veterans trust the Memphis VAMC for their care year after year,” she said. “The Memphis VAMC has improved in a number of areas, including standard mortality ratio, mental health and employee engagement. The facility recently received accreditation from The Joint Commission in Hospital Care, Home Care and Behavioral Health with no requirements for improvement, and the facility is set to build on these gains in the future.”  Higgins said that it’s hard to argue the leadership is one of the best, when much of that team has been at the hospital for years and presided over its dismal ratings.  David Dunning is the Medical Director and he has been there since 2017. Of the rest of the leadership team, Chief Operating Officer Fred Kehus, Assistant Medical Director Tommy Ambrose, and Chief of Staff Thomas Ferguson have been there even longer, Higgins said. (RELATED: Two Whistleblowers Say They Were Run Out Of VA Hospital In Jennings, Louisiana)  Higgins said the leadership team is largely the same as the one which caused its abysmal ratings.  Higgins has been terminated three times by the Memphis VAMC; he got his job back the first two times and is appealing the third termination.  Higgins’ attorneys have filed an appeal in U.S. Federal Court, arguing that Higgins was being terminated for swearing in a meeting. “Agency wants to end the Appellant’s career for profanity and a figure of speech with no ill-intent behind it. Agency argues this is a just outcome despite the fact the Agency caused PTSD in Mr. Higgins according to his doctor and despite the fact Agency continued to subject Mr. Higgins to enormous pressure for his whistleblowing,” the appeal noted.  He said if there are fewer disclosures it is only because the rest of the staff has seen how he was treated.  Of Higgins, Carter said, “Mr. Higgins was removed for misconduct June 30, 2017. Mr. Higgins filed an appeal to the Merit Systems Protection Board, which thoroughly and independently investigated the basis for removal. On June 7, 2018, the MSPB rendered its ruling, which upheld the agency’s decision to terminate his employment.”  Pedrick Thompson is another whistleblower at the Memphis VAMC and he agrees with Higgins assessment; he told The Caller that he has talked to several employees who considered making a disclosure but then backed out, fearing retaliation.  Thompson is currently on medical leave but has worked at the Memphis VA since 2009. He said he believes that things have continued to deteriorate and are worse today than they were when he arrived.


thedailycaller--2019-06-26--Report Shows Just How Big A Business A Nonprofit Hospital Can Be

A report published Monday detailed how the country’s 82 biggest nonprofit hospitals resemble big business despite getting breaks on income and property taxes and collecting tax-deductible donations.  “Last year, patients spent roughly one out of every seven U.S. healthcare dollars within these healthcare networks. Many are household names: Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, Kaiser Foundation, Dignity Health, and Partners HealthCare,” government transparency group Open The Books wrote in its report.  The report compared 2017 or latest available numbers for nonprofit health care systems and for-profit health care systems with surprising results. The report shows why media outlets like Axios have characterized nonprofit hospitals as “raking in cash” from Wall Street. (RELATED: Trump Calls Latest Health Care Executive Order ‘The Opposite Of Obamacare’)  For example, the five biggest for-profit hospitals had a combined $40.7 billion in net assets — compared with the five biggest nonprofits’ $28.3 billion. But the non-profit hospitals’ ability to grow their assets was significantly higher, and the top five reported 8.4 percent year-over-year growth compared with the for-profit entities’ 1.5 percent.  Meanwhile, the nonprofits have executives who make millions every year.  “Top executives at Memorial Hermann Health System, Kaiser Health, Ascension, Advocate Health Care, and Northwestern Memorial made between $10 million and $18 million,” the report stated.  The report also touched on the fact that nonprofit hospitals took in billions from Medicare and Medicaid, and only 14 of the 82 hospitals the report examined disclosed how much of their revenue came from those two streams.  “Mayo Clinic is a dedicated and mission driven nonprofit that confers strong community benefit through providing hundreds of millions of dollars in charity and other uncompensated patient care. Any excess revenue supports cutting-edge programs in research and education that benefit patients everywhere,” spokeswoman Susan Barber-Lindquist told the Daily Caller News Foundation in an email.  “Cleveland Clinic was founded as a nonprofit group practice with a mission to care for the sick and improve patient care through research and education. Any and all extra funds from operations are invested back into the health system to fund new research and education initiatives and to continue our long-standing charitable efforts. In 2017, our Community Benefit contribution totaled $906.5 million,” spokeswoman Angela Smith told the DCNF in an email.  Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.


thedailycaller--2019-07-30--Trump Administration Could Fine Hospitals For Failing To Disclose Insurance-Negotiated Prices

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed a rule Monday that would require hospitals to disclose prices negotiated with insurers and fine them for not complying.  The rule builds on President Donald Trump’s executive order signed in June that directs the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), of which CMS is part, to create rules increasing transparency in health care pricing.  “President Trump has laid out a clear vision for healthcare: a patient-centered system that puts you in control and provides the affordability you need, the options and control you want, and the quality you deserve,” HHS Secretary Alex Azar said in a statement. “Under this proposal, hospitals will finally have to make their real, negotiated prices known to patients, enabling patients to shop among providers.” (RELATED: Trump Calls Latest Health Care Executive Order ‘The Opposite Of Obamacare’)  The proposed rule would fine hospitals $300 per day for noncompliance, CMS said. The administration already forces hospitals to publish the sticker prices of procedures and other services, but now patients will also have access to the prices their insurance plans pay, according to CNBC.  The rule could go into effect in January if finalized after a public comment period ending in Setpember.  The hospital and insurance industries have already pushed back against the proposal.  “Publicly disclosing competitively negotiated, proprietary rates will push prices and premiums higher — not lower — for consumers, patients, and taxpayers,” Matt Eyles, president and CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans, said in a statement, according to CNBC.  Cynthia A. Fisher of Patient Rights Advocate said her organization applauded “the Administration’s bold step to deliver real price transparency in healthcare to the American public.”  “Patients need to see real prices to make their healthcare decisions.  Empowered with price and quality information, patients and their employers will be able to shop and ultimately drive down the costs of care and coverage.  With this measure, healthcare will function like other competitive markets such as groceries, travel, and retail,” Fisher said in a statement.  The rule would apply to roughly 6,000 hospitals taking Medicare, according to CNBC.  Trump has issued several health-care-related executive orders, but not all of them have inspired solutions that panned out. For example, White House spokesman Judd Deere confirmed earlier in July that the president was abandoning the so-called “rebate rule” proposal, a big part of his drug pricing plan, reported Axios.  Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.


thedailymirror--2019-01-09--Flooded wards and leaking ceilings of slum NHS hospital hit by Carillion collapse

Flooded wards and leaking ceilings of "slum" NHS hospital hit by Carillion collapse

Desperate NHS staff have revealed they work in shocking “slum” conditions at hospitals hit by the failure of NHS outsourcing to private firms.  Nurses tell of flooded and tattered wards, leaking ceilings, broken lights, cancelled operations and fears for patient safety after the collapse of construction giant Carillion.  Fatcat bosses bankrolled by the Government pocketed millions of pounds from contracts to build and run hospitals, along with the accountancy companies who failed to flag up last January’s impending disaster.  But Carillion’s collapse left struggling NHS trusts hundreds of millions out of pocket.  Royal Liverpool Hospital is one of 14 affected.  It flooded 10 times last year after the firm went bust, leaving a planned new building unfinished  Staff had been due to move in a £430million relocation before work stopped last year.  Describing the conditions to bosses in a BBC documentary to be aired tonight, theatre nurse Abirose Cardwell said: “We go down to sit for a break and it’s like sitting in a slum.  "The ceilings are leaking, there’s buckets on the floor catching the water, the lights don’t work.”  Anaesthetic nurse Matt McGinn added: “We’re concerned about patient care with so many systems failing on a regular basis.”  Footage comes from the fourth series of BBC2’s hit documentary series Hospital, filmed across Liverpool between October and December.  Staff are shown having to make heartbreaking decisions to prioritise some patients over others.  In the first episode patients come in after waiting four months for surgery.  Medics have to prioritise each day which emergency operations they can carry out given the lack of staff and available beds.  Head vascular surgeon Professor John Brennan tells the programme: “It’s an impossible balance, there are too many patients trying to get in too small a resource.  “The hospital is full of people needing beds and, inevitably, something has to give – either people ending up staying for longer in A&E or we have to cancel cases.”  A&E staff work 12-hour days as they struggle to cope with the workload. The department was even shut down due to burst pipes.  Hospital bosses have to find £1million a year to keep the ageing building operational until completion of the new one in 2022.  Trust chief executive Aidan Kehoe says: “I am angry at the way Carillion has behaved.  "I look at it and think these people were taking huge bonuses that they are not paying back and will leave the people of Liverpool waiting years more for a hospital.”  Managers are having to employ 18 staff at the incomplete new hospital just to turn the 4,000 taps on and off regularly to prevent the build-up of deadly bacteria.  A second hospital in Birmingham under construction and abandoned by Carillion will take three years longer to build and at and double the cost.  The Midland Metropolitan will be Europe’s biggest emergencies-only hospital and was intended to treat 170,000 A&E patients a year from this summer. It was meant to replace parts of Sandwell Hospital and City Hospital, Birmingham.  Priced at £350million, it will now cost least £605million. Carillion was paid £205million towards the project.  Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust said it has had to find more than £400million to complete the hospital and keep current emergency services running.  When Carillion, subcontracted to provide services such as building maintenance, catering, cleaning and portering, went into liquidation regulator NHS Improvement admitted 14 trusts were affected.  Carillion also dumped an unknown number of GP and community services across the country.  It is a far cry from the glitzy 10-year vision of the NHS unveiled by Theresa May in Liverpool on Monday.  Introducing a blueprint for the health service, she claimed to have “prioritised the NHS” saying the Tories had “delivered real improvements for patients”.  That came despite creeping privatisation and a decade of historic under-funding  The Department of Health and Social Care said: “We continue to support and fund the Royal Liverpool Trust to get the new hospital built as quickly as possible, while making every penny of taxpayers’ money count.  “We want patients to continue to receive world-class care in world-class facilities delivered by our excellent NHS staff.”


21stcenturywire--2019-01-23--Hollywoods Mission The Systematic Degradation of Western Society

Hollywood’s Mission: The Systematic Degradation of Western Society

For music, TV and film, the current race to the bottom is palpable. For even the most casual observer of mass media and entertainment, it’s become increasingly obvious that Hollywood’s stock-in-trade is now marked by gratuitous, profanity, violence, sex, and one of the most disturbing trends: the increased degradation of women, and the systematic sexualized depiction of children.    AVAILABLE NOW: Esoteric Hollywood 2: More Sex, Cults & Symbols in Film  Programming and social conditioning through mass public ceremonies is nothing new and continues to this day, weaponized by the corporate entertainment industry to further degrade society. What first began through the planned counter-culture revolution of the 1960s, has now descended into a relentless onslaught of overt messaging through mass media. All of this is preparation for a new AEON being ushered in through even greater levels of psychological and cultural degradation, with the end game being the fragmentation of society through the institution of social engineering.  Author Jay Dyer explains how these carefully crafted mass public ritual ceremonies are one of the chief ways we are initiated into this anti-spiritual state: from the Beatles to Ariana Grande – know that society is being indoctrinated. Watch:


activistpost--2019-01-03--Reporter Quits NBC Citing Networks Support for Endless War

Reporter Quits NBC Citing Network’s Support for Endless War

(CJ Opinion) — A journalist with NBC has resigned from the network with a statement which highlights the immense resistance that ostensibly liberal mass media outlets have to antiwar narratives, skepticism of US military agendas, and any movement in the opposite direction of endless military expansionism.  “January 4 is my last day at NBC News and I’d like to say goodbye to my friends, hopefully not for good,” begins an email titled ‘My goodbye letter to NBC’ sent to various contacts by William M Arkin, an award-winning journalist who has been associated with the network for 30 years.  “This isn’t the first time I’ve left NBC, but this time the parting is more bittersweet, the world and the state of journalism in tandem crisis,” the email continues. “My expertise, though seeming to be all the more central to the challenges and dangers we face, also seems to be less valued at the moment. And I find myself completely out of synch with the network, being neither a day-to-day reporter nor interested in the Trump circus.”  “A scholar at heart, I also found myself an often lone voice that was anti-nuclear and even anti-military, anti-military for me meaning opinionated but also highly knowledgeable, somewhat akin to a movie critic, loving my subject but also not shy about making judgements regarding the flops and the losers,” he writes.  Arkin makes clear that NBC is in no way the sole mass media offender in its refusal to question or criticize the normalization of endless warfare, but that he feels increasingly “out of sync” and “out of step” with the network’s unhesitating advancement of military interventionist narratives. He writes about how Robert Windrem, NBC News’ chief investigative producer, convinced him to join a new investigative unit in the early days of the 2016 presidential race. Arkin writes the following about his experience with the unit:  I thought that the mission was to break through the machine of perpetual war acceptance and conventional wisdom to challenge Hillary Clinton’s hawkishness. It was also an interesting moment at NBC because everyone was looking over their shoulder at Vice and other upstarts creeping up on the mainstream. But then Trump got elected and Investigations got sucked into the tweeting vortex, increasingly lost in a directionless adrenaline rush, the national security and political version of leading the broadcast with every snow storm. And I would assert that in many ways NBC just began emulating the national security state itself — busy and profitable. No wars won but the ball is kept in play. I’d argue that under Trump, the national security establishment not only hasn’t missed a beat but indeed has gained dangerous strength. Now it is ever more autonomous and practically impervious to criticism. I’d also argue, ever so gingerly, that NBC has become somewhat lost in its own verve, proxies of boring moderation and conventional wisdom, defender of the government against Trump, cheerleader for open and subtle threat mongering, in love with procedure and protocol over all else (including results). I accept that there’s a lot to report here, but I’m more worried about how much we are missing. Hence my desire to take a step back and think why so little changes with regard to America’s wars.  Arkin is no fan of Trump, calling him “an ignorant and incompetent impostor,” but describes his shock at NBC’s reflexive opposition to the president’s “bumbling intuitions” to get along with Russia, to denuclearize North Korea, to get out of the Middle East, and his questioning of the US military’s involvement in Africa.  I’m alarmed at how quick NBC is to mechanically argue the contrary, to be in favor of policies that just spell more conflict and more war. Really? We shouldn’t get out Syria? We shouldn’t go for the bold move of denuclearizing the Korean peninsula? Even on Russia, though we should be concerned about the brittleness of our democracy that it is so vulnerable to manipulation, do we really yearn for the Cold War? And don’t even get me started with the FBI: What? We now lionize this historically destructive institution?  “There’s a saying about consultants, that organizations hire them to hear exactly what they want to hear,” Arkin writes in the conclusion of his statement. “ I’m proud to say that NBC didn’t do that when it came to me. Similarly I can say that I’m proud that I’m not guilty of giving my employers what they wanted. Still, the things this and most organizations fear most — variability, disturbance, difference — those things that are also the primary drivers of creativity — are not really the things that I see valued in the reporting ranks.  The lengthy email covers details about Arkin’s relationship with NBC and its staff, his opinions about the mainstream media’s refusal to adequately scrutinize and criticize the US war machine’s spectacular failures in the Middle East, how he “argued endlessly with MSNBC about all things national security for years”, the fact that his position as a civilian military analyst was unusual and “peculiar” in a media environment where that role is normally dominated by “THE GENERALS and former government officials,” and how he was “one of the few to report that there weren’t any WMD in Iraq” and remembers “fondly presenting that conclusion to an incredulous NBC editorial board.”  That’s about as charitably as it could possibly be said by a skeptical tongue. Another way to say it would be that plutocrat-controlled and government-enmeshed media networks hire reporters to protect the warmongering oligarchic status quo upon which media-controlling plutocrats have built their respective kingdoms, and foster an environment which elevates those who promote establishment-friendly narratives while marginalizing and pressuring anyone who doesn’t. It’s absolutely bizarre that it should be unusual for there to be a civilian analyst of the US war machine’s behaviors in the mainstream media who is skeptical of its failed policies and nonstop bloodshed, and it’s a crime that such voices are barely holding on to the fringes of the media stage. Such analysts should be extremely normal and commonplace, not rare and made to feel as though they don’t belong.