Tag: Department of Health and Human Services

Ohio Professor Qing Wang the Latest to be Arrested over China Ties

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Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine professor and former Cleveland Clinic employee was arrested Wednesday over his alleged ties to China.

The Justice Department announced that Qing Wang was arrested at his Shaker Heights, Ohio home as part of a joint operation conducted by the FBI and the  Department of Health and Human Service Office of the Inspector-General. Wang was charged with wire fraud related to more than $3.6 million in grant funding that Wang and his research team at the Cleveland Clinic had received from the National Institutes of Health.

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Report: HHS Computer System Hit with a Cyber Attack from a Potential Foreign Actor

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Hackers seized upon a U.S. Health and Human Services Department computer system Sunday during the government’s public response to the coronavirus outbreak, Bloomberg reported Monday.

The cyber attack was designed to slow down the U.S. response and toss a wrench into the gears of the HHS’s computer system, Bloomberg noted, citing three sources who requested commenting anonymously to discuss something that was not yet public.

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The ‘New’ Ninth Circuit Court Rules Trump Admin Stripping Funding From Abortion Clinics Is Constitutional

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Fetus on Health

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that the Trump administration can continue stripping federal funding from clinics that offer abortions.

The court upheld the Trump administration’s June 2019 declaration that taxpayer-funded clinics must stop referring women for abortions or be stripped of their Title X funding.

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Rep. Green Votes No on $1 Trillion Spending Bill Full of ‘Partisan Garbage’

Jason M. Reynolds

  U.S. Rep. Dr. Mark Green (R-TN-07) voted “no” Wednesday on a bill he said was full of “partisan garbage” that included funding for Planned Parenthood. The House passed the H.R. 2740, the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Defense, State, Foreign Operations, and Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act, 2020. Green tweeted, “Congressional Democrats jammed as much partisan garbage into this nearly $1 trillion spending package as possible. I voted NO.” Congressional Democrats jammed as much partisan garbage into this nearly $1 trillion spending package as possible. I voted NO. pic.twitter.com/h7odAZljWw — Rep. Mark Green (@RepMarkGreen) June 19, 2019 Green explained his no vote in a press release. “Congressional Democrats jammed as much partisan garbage into this nearly $1 trillion spending package as possible. If passed into law, this minibus would force taxpayers to pay for abortions in the U.S. and even overseas, continue funding Planned Parenthood, pay for an earmark program, and send half a billion dollars in aid to foreign countries most responsible for illegal crossings and trafficking on our border. Democrats opted to include these programs at the expense of Department of Defense funding and border wall funding, falling short of President Trump’s budget request. “Moreover, I…

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Trump Administration Ends Unions ‘Skimming’ $100 Million a Year from Medicaid

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by Bethany Blankley   A final rule change has been implemented by the Trump administration to ensure that Medicaid providers receive complete payments as required by law. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released the Medicaid Provider Reassignment Regulation final rule that removes states from being able to divert portions of Medicaid provider payments to third parties – including unions – outside of the scope of what the statute allows. The final rule came after CMS considered more than 7,000 comments from the public, healthcare providers, unions, state agencies, and advocacy groups during the public comment period after the changes were proposed. “State Medicaid programs are responsible for ensuring that taxpayer dollars are dedicated to providing healthcare services for low-income, vulnerable Americans and are not diverted in ways that do not comply with federal law,” CMS Administrator Seema Verma said in a statement. “This final rule is intended to ensure that providers receive their complete payment, and that any circumstance where a state redirects part of a provider’s payment is clearly allowed under the law.” Section 1902(a)(32) of the Social Security Act generally prohibits states from making payments for…

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Sen. Blackburn Says President Trump’s Defunding of Planned Parenthood Mirrors, Supports Her Bill to Block Tax Funds From Going to Abortion Providers

Jason M. Reynolds

U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) announced Friday that President Donald Trump is essentially backing her bill to protect unborn babies by defunding Planned Parenthood. Blackburn on Jan. 10 introduced her first bill in the U.S. Senate, S. 105, the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act, to strip all abortion providers, including Planned Parenthood, of federal funding under Title X of the Public Health Service Act. Now, Trump has announced he would issue a rule to block the use of federal funds from going to abortion providers, including Planned Parenthood, under Title X of the Public Health Service Act, Blackburn said in a press release. The Department of Health and Human Services rule accomplishes the same goal as her act, she said. The bill’s tracking information is here. “President Trump is to be commended for taking action to ensure that federal funding for women’s health is used for its intended purpose, not the ending of innocent human life,” Blackburn said. “This new rule works to accomplish the same goal as the bill I introduced in January, the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act, so taxpayers can be sure their dollars only go toward funding women’s health programs, not big abortion providers.…

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Elizabeth Warren Introduces Legislation to Create a Government-Run Pharmaceutical Manufacturer

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by Molly Prince   Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren introduced legislation on Tuesday that would establish a government-run pharmaceutical manufacturer to effectively compete with the private market. The Affordable Drug Manufacturing Act seeks to address the increasing prices of prescription drugs by injecting competition into the marketplace, consequently lowering the cost of mass-produced generic drugs. The bill would create the Office of Drug Manufacturing, which would be housed within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Warren said that adding the agency would increase competition. “In market after market, competition is dying as a handful of giant companies spend millions to rig the rules, insulate themselves from accountability, and line their pockets at the expense of American families,” Warren said in a statement. “The solution here is not to replace markets, but to fix them.” According to the bill, the Office of Drug Manufacturing would be tasked with producing drugs in cases where the market has been deemed to have failed. For example, in addition to requiring the agency to produce generic insulin within one year of authorization, it will be permitted to manufacture any prescription drug that the government has licensed. Moreover, the office can manufacture generic drugs if: No company…

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States Have a New Opportunity to Lower Health Insurance Premiums and Expand Options

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by Mary Fishpaw   The Trump administration is offering welcome relief to Americans struggling with high premiums under Obamacare premiums and a lack of insurance choices. The administration has taken a series of regulatory actions to do the following: Make short-term, limited duration policies widely available and give consumers the right to renew those policies. Make it easier for small businesses and independent contractors to band together for greater insurance purchasing power. Propose to allow employers to contribute to tax-advantaged accounts, which their workers could then use to purchase portable insurance coverage. The Department of Health and Human Services also has made it easier for states to promote more affordable, flexible insurance coverage options by obtaining waivers from restrictive Obamacare regulations. These “State Empowerment and Relief Waivers” enable states to tap money that the federal government would have paid directly to insurance companies in the form of premium subsidies. States could repurpose this money to design and implement their own premium assistance programs. Such programs could distribute subsidies through defined contributions to consumer-directed accounts established for low-income individuals. States also could provide premium subsidies for insurance policies that don’t conform to Obamacare’s rigid requirements. States that obtain these waivers would…

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Harvard Medical School Calls Trump Admin’s Gender Proposal Medically Inaccurate

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by Neetu Chandak   Harvard Medical School said Thursday the Trump administration’s proposal to define gender as an unchangeable, biological fact is medically inaccurate. The proposal is “overly simplistic, medically inaccurate and antithetical to our values as healthcare providers,” the school said, according to The Harvard Crimson Friday. “Harvard Medical School is staunchly opposed to any efforts by federal agencies to limit the definition of sex as an immutable condition determined at birth,” Gina Vild, an associate dean for communications at Harvard Medical School, wrote in a statement. The statement came on the same day Harvard medical and dental students protested as part of a national initiative to support transgender students, The Crimson reported. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) indicated in a leaked memo that gender would be defined as either male or female based on the individual’s genitalia at birth. Genetic testing would be used in cases of discrepancies. The proposed definition would affect around 1.4 million Americans who identify as a gender that does not match their sex from birth, The New York Times reported in October. Over 1,600 scientists signed a letter written on Oct. 26 opposing the gender definition proposal, BuzzFeed News reported…

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President Trump’s New Rule Aims to Expand Health Coverage and Lower Costs

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by Robert Moffit   The Trump administration just announced a major regulatory change, effective Jan. 1, 2020, that could significantly expand access to affordable health coverage and increase the choice of health plans, particularly among workers and their families in small businesses. The proposed rule, jointly developed by the Department of Health and Human Services and the Treasury Department, would allow employer-sponsored health reimbursement accounts to fund the purchase of individual health insurance on a tax-free basis. Today, workers and their families can use tax-free health reimbursement accounts to offset medical expenses, such as out-of-pocket medical costs. Under the new rule, workers and their families could use employer contributions to the accounts to buy health insurance on their own. This opportunity is particularly valuable for workers employed by small business owners who cannot afford to offer standard group health insurance, but who could afford to help offset the premium costs of their employees’ individual coverage. Treasury Department officials estimate that the new rule could encourage as many as 800,000 employers to sponsor health reimbursement accounts, or HRAs, to fund individual coverage for more than 10 million workers. This relief is crucial, particularly for workers and their families in small businesses. With…

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PROOF: Trio of Project Veritas Videos Expose Unaccountable Federal Government Employees Pushing a Soclialist Agenda From Within the Administrative State

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By Natalia Castro   When federal bureaucrats are unaccountable to even their own managers, it can be hard to identify and correct abuse within the system. In his most recent undercover expose, James O’Keefe sought to uncover the stories of the federal government’s worst employees directly from the source. This week, Project Veritas released three videos highlighting rampant misuse of federal resources by employees for political gain. All stories have a similar thread: the employees believe they can never be fired. And they are not completely wrong, current law makes their removal extremely different despite clear evidence of abuse. O’Keefe’s team of investigative journalists went undercover speaking with federal government employees who are also active members of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), an organization dedicated to ridding the country of capitalism — the economic system responsible for freeing and uplifting millions around the world from poverty — and replacing it with socialism (also known as the economic system responsible for killing millions of people in the last century and continuing to leave Venezuelans starving and penniless). In the first Project Veritas video, Stuart Karaffa, a Department of State employee explained how he spends his day working, “I have nothing to lose. It’s impossible to fire federal employees… I’m…

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Memphis Needs $200,000 to Study Why Kids Gain Weight

Chris Butler
Steve Cohen

The Feds are forcing taxpayers to fork over nearly $200,000 so researchers in Memphis can analyze whether stress makes kids fat. U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, (D-TN-9), announced the money, exactly $189,929, in a press release late last week. The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases — part of the federal Department of Health and Human Services — gave the money to the University of Memphis. The formal name of the project is The Impact of Stress and Resilience on Obesity-Related Metabolic Complications in Adolescents. “Childhood obesity is a national epidemic and Tennessee’s childhood obesity rate is a staggering 38 percent,” Cohen said in the release. The national childhood obesity rate is 31 percent. “This award will help researchers at the University of Memphis study youth obesity, its causes, and find solutions on how to reduce it,” Cohen said. More specifically, according to the press release, the grant will fund research to study “the relationship between stress and resilience in youth and how it can lead to childhood obesity.” Cohen defined resilience as how “one adapts to trauma, tragedy, and threats.” Idia Binitie Thurston, the Director of CHANGE Lab at the University of Memphis, will lead the research…

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Commentary: Tennessee’s ObamaCare Fiasco Shows the Perils of Short Term Plans

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Obamacare

By Peter Moorman   On August 1, the departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and the Treasury released a final ruling on the expanded use of STLDI plans (Short Term, Limited Duration Insurance). Prior to this ruling, short-term insurance plans lasted a maximum of three months before individuals had to sign up for longer-term plans through the ACA “ObamaCare” exchanges. The new ruling issued last Wednesday allows short-term plans to last for up to 364 days, and, with any potential extensions, up to 36 months in total. The rule change is a step in the right direction since it creates more options for health insurance, but it doesn’t go far enough. The Trump solution is a win for more state control of healthcare. It will be important, however, to empower consumers rather than putting too much power in government bureaucracies. According to the new ruling, state insurance commissioners are free to restrict the duration of the short-term plans as they see fit. Last Wednesday’s ruling – set to go into effect on September 30 – sets up the short-term health insurance policies to be sold differently state-by-state. This will most likely create more health insurance options for those living in…

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