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SRN News
Before It's News
Top 10 Trending Stories
Welcome to the Before It's News Top Trending Stories. Each weekday we
deliver the most important and interesting alternative stories to your
inbox. Be the first among your friends and colleagues to get the scoop
on the stories everyone should be talking about today.
Video - North Korea Displays Firepower While Australia Plans Evacuations Of 7000 Citizens As North Korea Prepares Nuclear Strike Against America
CONTRIBUTOR: Live Free or Die.
I hate war, whether that war is being waged by America against innocent
children in Pakistan via drones or North Korea preparing to wage war
against America, it is all wrong. Whether watching American servicemen
getting their jollies blowing up kids or Kim Jong-Un and his kamikaze
soldiers enjoying watching...
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How Korean War Might Play Out (Video) (video)
CURATOR: Mort Amsel.
Me I see a massive artillery bombardment by North korea on South Korean
cities killing thousands and turning cities into rubble followed by a
massive ground attack on the DMZ and NK Special Forces making amphibious
landings all along the coast. I also see a massive US counterattack.
Bombings...
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April 10th Deadline Given By N. Korea For Firms To Pull Out Of Kaesong Industrial Complex (video)
CONTRIBUTOR: Live Free or Die.
North Korea has given South Korean firms an April 10th, 2013 deadline
to pull out of the Kaesong Industrial Complex in Korea according to this
story from China.org.cn. In the meantime, the North Korea military has
given final approval for a nuclear strike upon the US as shared in
the...
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Alert: F-22 Plans Stolen By Israel And Sold To China, Among Other Things
CONTRIBUTOR: The Vatic Project.
Vatic Note: (Read this whole thing and all the links in the VN: but if
you want to skip it and go directly to the F-22 treason, then scroll
down about half way in the article and its there. Its bad. What Israel
did ensures our lose in WW III....
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Dirty Money And Offshoring: Secret Files Expose Politicians, Con Men And The Mega-Rich: Global Elites' Offshore Accounts Exposed--It's Bigger Than Wikileaks
CONTRIBUTOR: muckracker1.
Dozens of journalists sifted through millions of leaked records and
thousands of names to produce ICIJ’s investigation into offshore secrecy
By Gerard Ryle, Marina Walker Guevara, Michael Hudson, Nicky Hager,
Duncan Campbell and Stefan Candea International Consortium of
Investigative Journalists A cache of 2.5 million files has cracked open
the...
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25 Must Have Survival Foods: Put Them In Your Pantry Now
CURATOR: Mort Amsel.
Stock up on the following items today to get your prepper pantry ready
for the next extended emergency: 1. Canned fruits, vegetables, meats,
and soups 2. Dried legumes (beans, lentils, peas) 3. Crackers 4. Nuts 5.
Pasta sauce 6. Peanut butter 7. Pasta 8. Flour (white, whole wheat)...
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Common Core Education System Must Be Stopped In Arkansas And Around The Country.
CURATOR: Josey Wales.
SB814 must be Stopped The Common Core Education System must be stopped
in Arkansas and around the county. This is a complete takeover the
education system by the federal government to brainwash the child. After
you have completed your calls you might want to read the common core
article that...
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Radio Host Swat Teamed & Jailed Without Bail (video)
CONTRIBUTOR: Peter Santilli.
Episode #385 - Radio Host Swat Teamed - Jailed Without Bail All
comments may be directed to http://petersantilli.com/chat, or speak to
Pete directly by calling during the live show at 218-862-9829 Mon-Sat
11am PST Tomorrow on The Pete Santilli Show : Larry Nichols; The Clinton
Chronicles … Today; Wednesday: April...
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Foreign Criminals Targeting US: ICE Union President--Obama Ignoring Mexican Drug Cartels' Influence Inside US
CONTRIBUTOR: muckracker1.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement union president Chris Crane told
reporters on Wednesday that the Mexican drug cartels’ influence inside
the United States has been “almost completely absent” from the
immigration reform debate but needs more attention. “I mean, if these
folks coming over here taking work, we know that the...
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Ron Brown Was Hillary's 1st Chris Stevens
CONTRIBUTOR: BARRACUDA.
Exclusive: Jack Cashill reviews skullduggery surrounding official's
death 17 years ago WND Jack Cashill Seventeen years ago yesterday,
Hillary Clinton got her first practice in publicly blowing off the death
of a government official she had dispatched on a dubious mission to a
war-torn corner of the world. In the...
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MORE POPULAR STORIES
CONTRIBUTOR: FSN
CURATOR: JIMALE
CONTRIBUTOR: Live Free or Die
CONTRIBUTOR: LavenderRose
CURATOR: John Rolls
CONTRIBUTOR: Pat Dollard
CONTRIBUTOR: Natural Society
CURATOR: Mort Amsel
CONTRIBUTOR: NESARA
CONTRIBUTOR: Live Free or Die
NRA Truth About Gun Owners Poll
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Dear Friend,
President Obama and the media are waging all-out war to DESTROY YOUR FREEDOM. And unless you take action now, your right to own a gun will soon be a thing of the past. Congress and the public are being bombarded with a steady stream of media attacks on our gun rights.  CBS, ABC, MSNBC and CNN are flooding the
airwaves with their demands for gun control. And they’re blaming
the acts of violent criminals and madmen on our Second Amendment
freedom.Obama is echoing the media’s demand for “sensible gun control.” You and I know that’s code for GUN BANS and GUN OWNER REGISTRATION. |
WE HAVE TO FIGHT BACK NOW
BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE! |
That's
why I need you to click here and complete the NRA Truth About Gun Owners
Poll (TAG Poll) today. Your completed TAG Poll is the best tool NRA has in
our battle to protect your Second Amendment rights on Capitol Hill.
Over the past 20 years NRA has been using TAG Polls like this to combat the media’s lies and get the truth out about law-abiding gun owners like you and me.
When the media elites bombard
Congress with calls for gun control, your TAG Poll answers give NRA the
cold, hard, indisputable proof of where you and
America’s 100 million gun owners really stand… that
we will not be disarmed and left defenseless…. and that we will
mobilize gun-owners by the millions to DEFEAT GUN CONTROL
LEGISLATION.
When I go to Capitol Hill to meet with your
elected officials, this
is the one poll about gun rights that matters to them most.
But I can't let your Congressman and Senators know the truth about where law-abiding gun owners like you stand on the Second Amendment unless you complete your TAG Poll today. Remember, the talking heads on the nightly news don't own guns. The editorial board at The New York Times doesn't go hunting. They don't shoot. But they think they can pressure Congress to do what they want – and that is to BAN GUNS and REGISTER GUN OWNERS. So please, go here right now to answer 10 important TAG Poll questions concerning your Constitutional Right to Keep and Bear Arms. I need you to take just a few minutes of your time to help send a powerful message to Congress and the media. If you don't speak for yourself, the media will speak for you. And the media elites know that if they tell their anti-gun lies often enough -- it will provide political cover for gun-ban ringleaders in Congress to push through legislation that will eat away your Second Amendment freedoms. So please, don’t wait. Take your TAG Poll today. Now is the time to STAND and FIGHT with NRA. Thank you for answering the call of freedom. I look forward to receiving your TAG Poll answers right away. Sincerely,
P.S. Please direct your friends to www.NRA-TAGPoll.com.
NRA needs as many TAG Poll responses as possible so we can fight back
against the anti-gun media's lies.
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Cancer clinics are turning away thousands of Medicare patients - Blame the sequester
by Sarah Kliff
Cancer clinics across the country have begun turning away thousands of Medicare patients, blaming the sequester budget cuts.
Oncologists say the reduced funding, which took effect for Medicare on April 1, makes it impossible to administer expensive chemotherapy drugs while staying afloat financially.
Patients at these clinics would need to seek treatment elsewhere, such as at hospitals that might not have the capacity to accommodate them.
“If we treated the patients receiving the most expensive drugs, we’d be out of business in six months to a year,” said Jeff Vacirca, chief executive of North Shore Hematology Oncology Associates in New York. “The drugs we’re going to lose money on we’re not going to administer right now.”
After an emergency meeting Tuesday, Vacirca’s clinics decided that they would no longer see one-third of their 16,000 Medicare patients.
“A lot of us are in disbelief that this is happening,” he said. “It’s a choice between seeing these patients and staying in business.”
Some who have been pushing the federal government to spend less on health care say this is not the right approach.
“I don’t think there was an intention to disrupt care or move it into a more expensive setting,” said Cathy Schoen, senior vice president of the Commonwealth Fund, which recently released a plan for cutting $2 trillion in health spending. “If that’s the case, we’re being penny-wise and a pound-foolish with these cuts.”
Legislators meant to partially shield Medicare from the automatic budget cuts triggered by the sequester, limiting the program to a 2 percent reduction — a fraction of the cuts seen by other federal programs.
But oncologists say the cut is unexpectedly damaging for cancer patients because of the way those treatments are covered.
Medications for seniors are usually covered under the optional Medicare Part D, which includes private insurance. But because cancer drugs must be administered by a physician, they are among a handful of pharmaceuticals paid for by Part B, which covers doctor visits and is subject to the sequester cut.
The federal government typically pays community oncologists for the average sales price of a chemotherapy drug, plus 6 percent to cover the cost of storing and administering the medication.
Since oncologists cannot change the drug prices, they argue that the entire 2 percent cut will have to come out of that 6 percent overhead. That would make it more akin to a double-digit pay cut.
“If you get cut on the service side, you can either absorb it or make do with fewer nurses,” said Ted Okon, director of the Community Oncology Alliance, which advocates for hundreds of cancer clinics nationwide. “This is a drug that we’re purchasing. The costs don’t change and you can’t do without it.
There isn’t really wiggle room.”
Okon’s group has sent letters to legislators urging them to exempt cancer drugs from the sequester or, as a back-up, only shave 2 percent off the money they receive to administer the medications.
Doctors at the Charleston Cancer Center in South Carolina began
informing patients weeks ago that, due to the sequester cuts, they would
soon need to seek treatment elsewhere.
“We don’t sugar-coat things, we’re cancer doctors,” Charles Holladay, a doctor at the clinic, said.
“We tell them that if we don’t go this course, it’s just a matter of time before we go out of business.”
Cancer patients turned away from local oncology clinics may seek care at hospitals, which also deliver chemotherapy treatments.
The care will likely be more expensive: One study from actuarial firm Milliman found that chemotherapy delivered in a hospital setting costs the federal government an average of $6,500 more annually than care delivered in a community clinic.
Those costs can trickle down to patients, who are responsible for picking up a certain amount of the medical bills. Milliman found that Medicare patients ended up with an average of $650 more in out-of-pocket costs when they were seen only in a hospital setting.
It is still unclear whether hospitals have the capacity to absorb these patients. The same Milliman report found that the majority of Medicare patients — 66 percent — receive treatment in a community oncology clinic, instead of a hospital.
Non-profit hospitals will likely have an easier time bearing the brunt of the sequester cuts. A federal program known as 340B requires pharmaceutical companies to give double-digit discounts to hospitals that treat low-income and uninsured patients.
Eastern Connecticut Health Network began preparing for additional volume after a local oncology practice sent out notice that it would stop seeing certain cancer patients.
“What we’re trying to do in the hospital is prepare for this,” ECHN spokesman Eric Berthel said.
“We’re making sure we have access to the pharmaceutical companies and that we have appropriate staff on hand. We’re hoping the oncology practice will be successful in renegotiating this. It’s so fresh, so we’re pretty unsure.”
Some cancer clinics are counting on the federal government to provide relief, and continuing to see patients they expect to lose money on.
“We’re hoping that something will change, as legislators see the impact of this,” Ralph Boccia,
director of the Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders in Bethesda, Md., said. “I don’t think we could keep going, without a change, for more than a couple of months.”
An analysis prepared by his clinic estimates that, if the full 2 percent cut takes effect, between 50 and 70 percent of the drugs it administers would become money losers.
Boccia estimates that 55 percent of his patients are covered by Medicare, making any changes to reimbursement rates difficult to weather.
“When I look at the numbers, they don’t add up,” he said. “Business 101 says we can’t stay open if we don’t cover our costs.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/04/03/cancer-clinics-are-turning-away-thousands-of-medicare-patients-blame-the-sequester/?hpid=z1
Further reading
- Sarah Kliff’s health-reform watch columns.
- 21 graphs that show Americans health-care prices are ludicrous.
- Absolutely everything you need to know about the sequester in one FAQ.
Ralph
V. Boccia of the Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders runs a cancer
clinic that is in danger of losing funding due to the sequester cuts.
(Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)
Oncologists say the reduced funding, which took effect for Medicare on April 1, makes it impossible to administer expensive chemotherapy drugs while staying afloat financially.
Patients at these clinics would need to seek treatment elsewhere, such as at hospitals that might not have the capacity to accommodate them.
“If we treated the patients receiving the most expensive drugs, we’d be out of business in six months to a year,” said Jeff Vacirca, chief executive of North Shore Hematology Oncology Associates in New York. “The drugs we’re going to lose money on we’re not going to administer right now.”
After an emergency meeting Tuesday, Vacirca’s clinics decided that they would no longer see one-third of their 16,000 Medicare patients.
“A lot of us are in disbelief that this is happening,” he said. “It’s a choice between seeing these patients and staying in business.”
Some who have been pushing the federal government to spend less on health care say this is not the right approach.
“I don’t think there was an intention to disrupt care or move it into a more expensive setting,” said Cathy Schoen, senior vice president of the Commonwealth Fund, which recently released a plan for cutting $2 trillion in health spending. “If that’s the case, we’re being penny-wise and a pound-foolish with these cuts.”
Legislators meant to partially shield Medicare from the automatic budget cuts triggered by the sequester, limiting the program to a 2 percent reduction — a fraction of the cuts seen by other federal programs.
But oncologists say the cut is unexpectedly damaging for cancer patients because of the way those treatments are covered.
Medications for seniors are usually covered under the optional Medicare Part D, which includes private insurance. But because cancer drugs must be administered by a physician, they are among a handful of pharmaceuticals paid for by Part B, which covers doctor visits and is subject to the sequester cut.
The federal government typically pays community oncologists for the average sales price of a chemotherapy drug, plus 6 percent to cover the cost of storing and administering the medication.
Since oncologists cannot change the drug prices, they argue that the entire 2 percent cut will have to come out of that 6 percent overhead. That would make it more akin to a double-digit pay cut.
“If you get cut on the service side, you can either absorb it or make do with fewer nurses,” said Ted Okon, director of the Community Oncology Alliance, which advocates for hundreds of cancer clinics nationwide. “This is a drug that we’re purchasing. The costs don’t change and you can’t do without it.
There isn’t really wiggle room.”
Okon’s group has sent letters to legislators urging them to exempt cancer drugs from the sequester or, as a back-up, only shave 2 percent off the money they receive to administer the medications.
“We don’t sugar-coat things, we’re cancer doctors,” Charles Holladay, a doctor at the clinic, said.
“We tell them that if we don’t go this course, it’s just a matter of time before we go out of business.”
Cancer patients turned away from local oncology clinics may seek care at hospitals, which also deliver chemotherapy treatments.
The care will likely be more expensive: One study from actuarial firm Milliman found that chemotherapy delivered in a hospital setting costs the federal government an average of $6,500 more annually than care delivered in a community clinic.
Those costs can trickle down to patients, who are responsible for picking up a certain amount of the medical bills. Milliman found that Medicare patients ended up with an average of $650 more in out-of-pocket costs when they were seen only in a hospital setting.
It is still unclear whether hospitals have the capacity to absorb these patients. The same Milliman report found that the majority of Medicare patients — 66 percent — receive treatment in a community oncology clinic, instead of a hospital.
Non-profit hospitals will likely have an easier time bearing the brunt of the sequester cuts. A federal program known as 340B requires pharmaceutical companies to give double-digit discounts to hospitals that treat low-income and uninsured patients.
Eastern Connecticut Health Network began preparing for additional volume after a local oncology practice sent out notice that it would stop seeing certain cancer patients.
“What we’re trying to do in the hospital is prepare for this,” ECHN spokesman Eric Berthel said.
“We’re making sure we have access to the pharmaceutical companies and that we have appropriate staff on hand. We’re hoping the oncology practice will be successful in renegotiating this. It’s so fresh, so we’re pretty unsure.”
Some cancer clinics are counting on the federal government to provide relief, and continuing to see patients they expect to lose money on.
“We’re hoping that something will change, as legislators see the impact of this,” Ralph Boccia,
director of the Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders in Bethesda, Md., said. “I don’t think we could keep going, without a change, for more than a couple of months.”
An analysis prepared by his clinic estimates that, if the full 2 percent cut takes effect, between 50 and 70 percent of the drugs it administers would become money losers.
Boccia estimates that 55 percent of his patients are covered by Medicare, making any changes to reimbursement rates difficult to weather.
“When I look at the numbers, they don’t add up,” he said. “Business 101 says we can’t stay open if we don’t cover our costs.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/04/03/cancer-clinics-are-turning-away-thousands-of-medicare-patients-blame-the-sequester/?hpid=z1
Further reading
- Sarah Kliff’s health-reform watch columns.
- 21 graphs that show Americans health-care prices are ludicrous.
- Absolutely everything you need to know about the sequester in one FAQ.
Political Outcast
-
Most People Don't Know Much About Second Amendment History -
Will Liberals Attack Al Sharpton for His Anti-Abortion Comment?
- Obama Repeating Clinton's Housing Market Mistake
- Connecticut Governor Poised to Sign Gun Control Law
- A Fine Proposal
- Are "Natural Rights" Natural or Right?
- The Conservative Alternative to the Liberal Google
- Should Fort Hood Shooting Victims Receive Purple Hearts?
- PoliticalOutcast.com is writing its "about" at this moment.
Zionica News
April 4, 2013
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TODAY'S HEADLINES:
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TODAY'S SCRIPTURE:
For first of all, I delivered unto you that which I received, how that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, And that he was buried, and that he arose the third day, according to the Scriptures, And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve. After that, he was seen of more than five hundred brethren at once: whereof many remain unto this present, and some also are asleep. After that, he was seen of James: then of all the Apostles. And last of all he was seen also of me, as of one born out of due time. For I am the least of the Apostles, which am not meet to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God. But by the grace of God I am that I am: and his grace which is in me, was not in vain: but I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which is with me.(1 Corinthians 15:3-10, 1599 Geneva Bible) |
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