from the walla walla union bulletin, december 20, 2015 by vicki hillhouse of the paper. (a "homegrown" article, and not some wire service shit.)
"medical suppliers ailing with medicare: reimbursements are becoming less, forcing equipment suppliers to re-evaluate products and services." 12.20.2015, vicki hillhouse.--
"it's older than penicillin. but, it's not surviving medicare.
"walla walla medical supplier green & jackson has closed its dalles military road retail and service operation and moved into space across the parking lot it now shares with sister business m-powered.
"the consolidation of buildings is about much more than real estate. as medicare demands become more difficult to navigate and provide fewer rewards for doing so, even businesses with the deepest roots in health care are having to change their models. [newspaper-speak for "going out of business.": jjj]
for local residents that means oneless place to get medical equipment that can be billed through medicare. consequently, the operation has also ended its equipment repair services.
"owner darcey benzel knows the changes will effect at least a third of her business, yet she also can't afford to go on without a major change. she will continue to offer her slate of medical equipment, but customers covered by medicare would have to have another way to pay.
"the cost of renewing her medicare accreditation is $4,000 to $5,000, she said. she's also required to pay another $5,000 for a surety bond. but, after that, the actual medicare reimbursements for use of the equipment will be cut even more in 2016.
"for instance, a standard wheelchair for which she'd been receiving $93.72 per month from medicare will get her 29 percent less at $66.65 starting in january. by july, it will be cut again to $39.58. [a 58% reduction in reimbursement from the federal government, using the author's calculus.:jj]
"benzel said it takes 13 months of rental through medicare before a wheel chair is purchased. until then, all of the maintenance and repairs are the responsibility of the supplier, she said.
"the reimbursement on a wheeled walker, for example, will decrease from $19.89 per month now to $5.57 by next july. [a 72% reduction in reimbursement from the federal government, using the author's calculus.:jj]
"meanwhile, the suppliers have to obtain all the supporting documentation to show the walker is needed for the customer in the first place.
"given the amount of time and labor in processing the claims, combined with delays in payments, a lesser hit [e.g., financial burden] would come in giving the rentals for free, benzel lamented. the writing on the wall became clearer about the future with medicare.
" 'we knew we had to get out of it, and we couldn't survive it,' benzel said."
vicki hillhouse can be reached at vickihillhouse@wwub.com . i am sure that she would be thrilled to talk to you.
the meaning of this is all very clear. the government got into the medical supply business, and increased the costs in that business by adding an additional layer of bureaucracy and administration to it. now everything has to be done according to its edicts, whether or not they make any particular business or market sense. this level of control was "exchanged" for financial support and subsidy, the "payout" government always proffers in "exchange" for such control.
and, now, the government is unable to pay its obligations under the resultant social contract. in short, the sovereign cannot pony up the financial obligation it has undertaken in order to be able to tell us all that we are to do, in all the minutia of our lives.
so, it does what all incompetent institutions do in such situations, and that is to increase the taxes needed to gain revenues to finance the system it has imposed, while it cuts the benefits it has undertaken to provide, in the name of efficient administration.
ups and fed ex thrive, while the post office is in financial shambles, dead broke.
medicare and medicaid are dead broke.
social security is dead broke. even while private financial institutions thrive providing financial services, retirement accounts, and various and other sundry financial services.
the only thing the federal government does well is to hire employees that it over compensates to administer failed and expensive policies, laying on the political pork to favored segments of the population. those counties in virginia and maryland immediately adjacent to washington d.c. have some of the highest incomes in the united states, even while the government flounders, and threatens to drag the entire economy into the abyss.
the favored employees. the new privileged class in the united states, black americans. you can look it up, but some of the newer federal bureaucracies employee nearly 40% blacks. if you doubt me, look it up. i am tired of spoon feeding you.
the government is failing. it is crippled, and it is broke. and, it will fail, and collapse.
john jay @ 12.20.2015
p.s. please see my previous article on the motivation of politicians and elites for gun control. you think louis 14th and marie antoinette did not see the coming storm? then, you are an idiot. of course they did. and, the politicians and the elites fear their fates, and try to prevent the people from exacting their retribution, and seek to deprive them of their ability to exact their revenge.
we'll just have to see how it all turns out.
Obamacare is allegory for obama and the regime of fuckers who constitute that cesspool of crapweasels on the Potomac.
It is a progression of what began as Roe verses Wade. Another form of cultural marxist genocide by centralized proxy.
Sarah Palin was right. Right about everything.
Posted by: Doug | December 21, 2015 at 09:19 AM
"Nationalization" is the word you're looking for. It's what all banana republic marxists do. Note to baby Bush fake conservatives: applies to banking and insurance during that administration too.
Posted by: Fred | December 21, 2015 at 10:12 AM
Nationalization?
How does a bunch of fucking inbred tyrants who have robbed this great nation blind who deserve to be hanging from a lamp post by their necks grab ya?
Posted by: Doug | December 21, 2015 at 12:30 PM
Doug, That works as well. I actually prefer the biblical "Thus were they defiled with their own works, and went a whoring with their own inventions." from Psalm 106. Whoring out a nation for personal gain, no doubt.
Posted by: Fred | December 21, 2015 at 06:41 PM
That works for me too Fred.
Saying it in a coarse manner is carthatic though. That doesn't lesson the gusto I feel about calling the fuckers out as the true sonsofabitches they are.
This is my true favorite, The Whole Armor of God.
(A special Forces guy said this to me one day in regards to my own comment regarding 4th generation war in the US and to win liberty we are going to fight surrounded, Enemies to the left of us…enemies to the right…enemies inside of us…how do we find the light? His reply was "The light lay in the path of God; doing what’s right morally. Never forget this…
...I was smacked upside the head by that beautiful piece of wisdom. Right, never forget this I said to myself after thinning a bit.
I think when your cold to the bone, and your aches in pains of your burden of rifle and kit weigh you down, when your far from home and hearth, and all seems forlorn and wearisome, when your ammo is low and you have miles of ridges and hollows to hump, and thoughts of loved ones warmth and comfort seem so far away, and but there for the grace of the Lord I go and an appeal to heaven it is time to don The Whole Armor of God.)
Paul's Letter to the Ephesians 6:10-20
6:10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power.
6:11 Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
6:12 For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
6:13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.
6:14 Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness.
6:15 As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace.
6:16 With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
6:17 Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
6:18 Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints.
6:19 Pray also for me, so that when I speak, a message may be given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel,
6:20 for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it boldly, as I must speak.
Posted by: Doug | December 22, 2015 at 06:48 AM