RFKJr. Exposes More Billions in Medical Fraud

KanekoaTheGreat @KanekoaTheGreat

NEW: RFK Jr. says Medicare spending on wound care patches exploded from $200 million in 2019 to $14 billion last year: "It's all stolen."

Bad actors billed Medicare billions by slapping the most expensive skin grafts on elderly and dying patients who didn't need them.

"The doctors who prescribed them would get 6% of the sales cost. And so, they were incentivized to prescribe more expensive products. In Europe, they spend 35 cents a cubic inch. We were spending $135, and that went up to $2,000 a cubic inch."

"So 2019, we were paying $200 million. Last year we spent 14 billion. All stolen. It's all stolen. And we were on track to spend 23 billion this year."

"We put an end to it, and we now have driven that cost down to somewhere around a billion dollars."

In one Arizona case, the owners of two wound care companies pleaded guilty to more than $1.2 billion in fraudulent claims. Medicare paid over $1 million per patient for grafts slapped on elderly patients who didn't need them, many of them dying in hospice.

In June, DOJ charged 11 more defendants over more than $2 billion in allograft claims, including a company accused of issuing sham invoices to inflate what Medicare paid.

It feels like every week I learn a new way people were ripping off taxpayers for billions.

Video below the fold.

Related: Hennepin County, Minnesota helpfully set up a new welfare program for Somalis to defraud.

They got so many obviously-fraudulent applications that even fraud-happy Minnesota had to halt the program.

It's estimated that three-quarters of the applications are fraudulent.

The welfare was for businesses who were "harmed" by ICE operations in Minnesota, due to illegal aliens not showing up for work or illegal aliens not patronizing restaurants.

Hennepin County shut down a small business grant program after apparently fraudulent applications raised concerns, with $1.5 million in public money left in the fund.

The county said fraudulent applications plagued the recovery program, which was meant to help offset local business losses during Operation Metro Surge. County leaders repurposed the remaining $1.5 million into what they described as a lower-risk program with wide-ranging support such as business consulting for new entrepreneurs.

Two successes came out of the now-ended fund, according to the county: no tax money actually went to fraudsters and legitimate businesses did receive help.

Um, no. You stopped the obvious fraud. Plenty of more skillful fraudsters got paid.

...

Hennepin County Commissioner Jeffrey Lunde said 82 legitimate businesses received help, but the county got about 300 applications and shut down the $2 million program after giving out $500,000.

218 out of 300 applications were "obviously fabricated."

Commissioner Lunde said the county and a nonprofit helping to review grant applications found a significant number with red flags for fraud.

"As we dug deeper in, and we started to see patterns, and those patterns were not -- they were fraudulent patterns," Lunde said.

Note that the only reason these fraudsters were caught is because they copy pasted repetitive applications for a large number of fake businesses. That's the "patterns" the commissioner euphemizes above.

Also, the only verification they bothered doing was going to the addresses of the "businesses" to make sure they even existed. Three quarters of them did not.

But of the businesses that did exist -- how many actually suffered thousand dollar "losses" due to illegal aliens not coming to work or eating in their restaurants? They didn't bother to even check that.

Actual Justice Warrior has more, including video of local news coverage. Lord knows you won't see national media outlets cover it.

Trump boasts he'll be sending out $500 refund checks to people overcharged for Obamacare.

The real refunds need to go to independent workers who pay for their own insurance, but who are forced to subsidize the unhealthiest of all people getting insurance through Obamacare.

President Donald Trump is set on Sept. 30 to start sending $500 checks to nearly 1 million Americans his administration says were overcharged through the Affordable Care Act's federal exchange for buying health insurance.

Treasury Department checks, along with letters signed by Trump notifying recipients, will begin going out to more than 950,000 Americans across 30 states, according to an administration official.

"For years, the Biden administration overcharged you to fund the operation of HealthCare.gov," Trump says in the letter, which was viewed by USA TODAY. "That money belongs to hard-working Americans, not the Government, and now I'm returning it to you!"

Trump announced the $500 Obamacare refund checks on Sept. 10 in a video posted by the White House that coincided with the Republican midterm convention in Dallas. The money is separate from a controversial $5,000 dividend Trump has vowed to distribute to all Americans if Republicans retain control of Congress after the November midterm election.

The White House has said the Biden administration collected user fees from health insurance companies that consumers paid for in the form of higher premiums ‒ and that the premiums exceeded what was needed to run the exchange. The Trump administration has accused the Biden administration of sitting on the surplus of money.

The checks, issued five weeks before the November midterm election, come as Americans' anxieties over high costs and affordability pose major political liabilities for Trump and Republicans as they look to hold on to power in Congress.

"You have paid into this flawed System, and now you are finally getting something back," Trump says in the letter.

In news that would make RFKJr. happy: McDonald's is spending $8.5 billion to change its menu to be healthier -- more protein in meals.

The fast-food chain is exploring higher-protein menu options and different portion sizes, as customers increasingly look for meals that will satisfy them without leaving them feeling like they need to unbutton their jeans.

...

The menu rethink is part of a much bigger makeover. McDonald's plans to spend roughly $8.5 billion to support franchisees over the next decade. The money will go toward modernizing restaurants, improving operations and helping franchisees win customers.

The plan did not impress Wall Street, with shares falling 6% in afternoon trading after the spending was announced.

Part of that shift comes as Americans are putting more money and attention toward wellness. GLP-1 use is one piece of that change. About 11% of U.S. adults said they were using a GLP-1 medication for weight loss in 2026, up from just 3% in 2024, according to Gallup.

The U.S. wellness economy reached roughly $2.1 trillion in 2024, making it the largest wellness market in the world, according to the Global Wellness Institute.

That focus is increasingly showing up in how some consumers order fast food, too. McDonald's is placing a sizable bet on getting customers through the doors more often at a time when its rivals are making their own expensive plans.

Burger King, for example, has committed up to $700 million through 2028 to its "Reclaim the Flame" turnaround plan, which includes restaurant remodels, new technology, kitchen equipment and other upgrades. Those efforts appear to be gaining traction as Burger King U.S. reported comparable-sales growth of 8.5% in the second quarter of 2026.

...

Now the company is looking for ways to stretch business even further. It plans to explore more flexibility on the beef side, including different portion sizes and menu options.

"We're looking to add more choice in beef for those seeking more flexibility in portion sizes, for example, a burger bowl," Jill McDonald, McDonald's executive vice president and global chief restaurant experience officer, said during the meeting.

You're spending billions to introduce a burger without the bun?

But that's not their real plan. Their real plan is to make Quarter Pounders entirely out of 10 karat gold.

Gold has no calories. Look it up.

The fast-food giant is giving away a miniature Quarter Pounder made from a quarter pound of 10-karat gold as part of its 2026 Monopoly Golden Edition promotion in Canada.

According to Access Winnipeg, the unusual collectible has an estimated value of C$20,000, which works out to roughly $15,000 USD.

Unlike the restaurant's usual signature burger, there is no need to add cheese or a side of fries.

McDonald's official promotion website confirms that the prize is crafted from a quarter pound of 10-karat gold and comes with an appraisal.

So now that this is a Health Gains thread:

Does apple cider vinegar help with gastric reflux?

"Most of the research on apple cider vinegar is about blood sugar and weight. For digestive symptoms, I am not aware of a single well-designed human trial showing it helps reflux, bloating, gas, or the gut microbiome," says gastroenterologist Sameer Berry, MD, a clinical assistant professor of medicine at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York City and the chief medical officer of Oshi Health, which provides multidisciplinary gastrointestinal (GI) healthcare.

Acid reflux, when acid from your stomach moves up into the esophagus and throat, is common: Research has found that 2 in 5 Americans experience it weekly. Some people with the condition rely upon anecdotal evidence that ACV can tame uncomfortable symptoms like heartburn and indigestion.

I'm one of them. When I get reflux, which I get if I eat carbs or something that disagrees with me within two hours of bedtime, if I drink a tablespoon of ACV in a glass of water, the reflux goes away in 20 minutes.

Years ago someone claimed that reflux is not caused by too much acid, as you might think, but too little acid, where your stomach never finishes digesting a meal so it just hangs around in your gut. Apple cider vinegar gets the last meal fully digested.

Or maybe it just sends a signal to the stomach that, as it has a lot of acid in it, it's time to turn off the acid taps.

I don't know. But it works for me, much better than antacids ever did.

The online claims aren't backed by research though, says Dr. Berry. "There is absolutely no evidence in human trials that ACV does anything for acid reflux," he says, adding that for reflux, "I don't recommend it."

ACV may also make chronic reflux, known as gastroesophageal reflux disease, symptoms worse because it is acidic, says Simon Mathews, MD, a Baltimore-based gastroenterologist and spokesperson for the American Gastroenterological Association, where he chairs the Committee for GI Innovation and Technology. "An inflamed esophagus doesn't benefit from an increased acid load," Dr. Mathews says.

Maybe. All I can say is that it works for me, every time.

Vinegar is bad for your teeth so you need to brush your teeth after drinking it. Because I don't want to be bothered with that in the middle of the night, I take apple cider vinegar pills when I get woken up with reflux. They're cheap and available on Amazon (and pretty much any drug or nutrition store.

By the way: A commenter recommended nicotine lozenges over gum. I knew about lozenges, but never tried them until he recommended them. Thanks -- it's how I take nicotine now. Costco sells a big box of them, 270 lozenges, for $45. Pretty cheap.

"If you enjoy the taste and if you feel better on it, it's totally safe to use. If your reflux gets worse with it, then I would absolutely stop," he says.

Well of course. But it's worth a try, I think.

Here's seven supplements you should take if, unlike me, you're over 40.

To spare you having to read, here are the seven: Vitamin D3, Vitamin B12, Calcium, Magnesium, Potassium, Omega 3s, Probiotics. Potassium's hard to get in a supplement because the little pills they sell have 3% of the RDA of potassium. You have to take -- let me run the calculations -- ten just to get 30% of the RDA. You could, however, get Potassium Chloride, which people cutting salt use as a salt substitute. But I'd be cautious. I have to assume they strictly limit the amount of potassium in each pill for a reason.

A special message about addiction for Jack Straw.

Anyone have any health gains to report?

I have a semi-gain. I got serious about staying Keto for the first time in years. I've been in keto almost every day, at least just a little. (I check my urine.)

But unlike in previous keto regimes, I'm not really losing any appreciable weight. Has anyone else gone through this? Is there a fix to kick-start actual fat-burning? (You don't have to mention the "fat fast," I know about that.)

posted by Disinformation Expert Ace at 03:10 PM

| Access Comments