What We're Reading: Fighting Single Payer; Surgery Center Gaps; Dialysis Ballot Initiative

Payers, Pharma Firms Join Together to Lobby Against Single-Payer Healthcare

Health insurance and drug companies, which are often on opposing sides of policy issues, have joined together to form the Partnership for America’s Health Care Future to wage a campaign against the growing idea of single-payer healthcare, The Hill reported. It is a sign of the industry’s alarm over growing support for the idea within the Democratic Party. The group is said to be more focused on 2020 than the midterms and may run advertisements against single-payer plans and promote studies to undermine the idea.

Oversight Gaps for Surgery Centers Leave Government, Patients in the Dark

Surgery centers operate under an uneven mix of rules so that deaths and serious injuries can result in no warning to government officials, much less to potential patients, a Kaiser Health News and USA Today Network investigation found. The gaps in oversight allow centers hit with federal regulators’ toughest sanctions to keep operating, according to the investigation, and nothing stops physicians barred by hospitals from opening a surgery center nearby.

Union-Led Ballot Initiative in California Takes Aim at Dialysis Clinics' Profitability

Depending on which side you’re on, a ballot initiative called Proposition 8 in California to limit the profit of dialysis clinics is either an effort to improve patient care or it could jeopardize it by threatening the financial viability of clinics. Stateline reported that Proposition 8 would require dialysis clinics to issue refunds to patients or insurance companies if they have revenue above 115% of the costs of “direct patient care,” which includes wages and benefits of staff who administer treatment to patients, as well as drugs and supplies. The ballot initiative is spearheaded by the Service Employees International and the United Healthcare Workers Unions.