Fraud, Abuse, and Malfeasance in the American Health System AWARDS

The 2023 Shkreli Awards from the Lown Institute have been released! Dysfunction in healthcare is one of the foundational pillars here at Healthcare Triage, and these awards highlight some of the worst examples.
Related HCT episodes:
Shkreli Awards 2022: • Fraud and Dysfunction ...
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Credits:
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[@kyleparkite79]

No joke. The ad that automatically played for me at the conclusion of this video was for a healthcare credit card.

[@shakeyj4523]

What the heck is a "healthcare credit card"?

[@RevShifty]

I think I would be in jail for murder as soon as that offer ever left a hospital employee's lips. You pick what might very well be the hardest moment in that family's life to try to pull a big box store credit card scam? Seriously? Someone absolutely wouldn't be making it home that night.

[@megabyte01]

​@@shakeyj4523 I reckon you don't live in the USA. I'm a little jealous... I'll do my best to explain, but you should go to someone who's studied the big picture and not just fought in the trenches. Instead of having standard prices for medical services with limits set by the government, hospitals and doctors can charge whatever they want. Insurance companies offer to negotiate and pay these fees in exchange for a monthly premium. The major problem is that both of these entities are likely publicly traded for-profit companies that have to return shareholder value first and patient outcomes second. That mindset, along with amazingly ineffective bureaucracies, jacks up the prices and reduce the outcomes for patients. Life expectancy is starting to decline in the US partly because of lifestyle and partly because people can't afford healthcare.

[@megabyte01]

​@@shakeyj4523as for a healthcare credit card, if you need to go to the ER, you can get hit with a bill that starts at 4000. Hospitals are pretty patient and will negotiate with you, but f you don't make arrangements to pay it off, they will report you to collections and damage your credit for years (speaking from experience...). That's where a healthcare credit card comes in.

[@healthcaretriage]

Oh boy 🤦‍♂🤦‍♀

[@mrdrprof8402]

Omfg, on the note of patient dumping. I drive ride share and I don't do hospital pickups for anyone with fewer than 10 rides cause of this. Hospital crammed a homeless man in my car who was disabled and not well and literally wanted me to dump him in an IHOP parking lot DURING THE PANDEMIC. I took him to the homeless shelter and hope he got help

[@katiem.3109]

The crazy thing about these videos is that for every rank, you're like "oh, I don't know what could possibly top that", and then, somehow, the next one does. Dear god Columbia university, what is wrong with you?

[@michaelgodwin6158]

The more I work in healthcare as a professional processing things backend, and the more I experience American healthcare as a patient, the more I'm convinced there will never, ever be an ethical or cost effective way to bleed together the concept of free market capitalism and the healthcare industry.

[@HashSl1ng1ngSlasher]

it's almost as though privatizing essential services that every human needs to survive like food, water, housing and medicine is creating a legalized mafia centered on extorting blood money from citizens in the name of billionaires getting richer. Obviously the solution is to deregulate everything! /s

[@KahnShawnery]

I witnessed patient-dumping first hand in Austin, Texas around 1999. An ambulance would pull up on 6th street and they would unload the patient onto the sidewalk. We got to know one of the guys treated this way, he was an HIV patient, homeless. He eventually died in front of a bodega. It was very tragic.

[@r1b3y38]

Would love to see a hacker break into Columbia University's and their healthcare system's web site and plaster all kinds of stuff about Dr. Hadden right around 4:05 PM eastern on a Friday...

[@AllTheHappySquirrels]

On a particularly slow news week.

[@danielclark1314]

Thank you for these videos. I use them for my Navy Corpsmen. Please continue the excellence!

[@gamerguy5085]

That’s terrible, not all but most these problems could be solved by introducing universal healthcare for all.

[@adriannaconnor6471]

You all are awesome!

[@SomeGuy-yl1bx]

Man, I've never heard of the credit card thing. Makes me scared of working in healthcare in the future. Speaking of which, have you guys considered talking about midlevel creep? Whether or not it's helpful or harmful to patients?

[@phoenixshadow6633]

2:00 This is literally that one SpongeBob episode where the doctors dump Mr. Krabs on the sidewalk.

[@andrewpoderis8548]

Please bring back HCT live !!! And this is also one of my favorite video series from you guys

[@tbdaemon]

Jaw dropping, as usual 😲

[@jeremyscheatday7305]

Yo, this was a WILD video.

[@xioffb97]

On the last one, there's a 21 trans guy that recently committed suicide and I swear that "Dr." was someone that sexually assaulted him. These schools have blood on their hands.

[@otralee]

Thanks for your work

[@krellend20]

These episodes and awards always kind of make me feel justified for not seeing a doctor for over twenty years.

[@darfjono]

still no pfizer or fauci i see

[@blueegg4198]

These are pretty good, but I'd have to say it's all amateur hour compared to the American healthcare system's ongoing negligence with regards to SARS-CoV-2. Though to be fair, that's less of a uniquely American problem and more a global crisis.

[@pulsehead]

As much as I enjoy the bit of outrage over the Skrelli Awards, we are doing the wrong thing by shining a light and fame on these jackals. I think it would be good to have a Salk Awards (after Jonas Salk decided a world without polio was more important than patenting the polio vaccine) to commemorate doctors who go above and beyond... which I realize is many/most of them.

[@standingbear998]

health 'care' no longer exist

[@rainbowkrampus]

Health is on its way out too.

[@MarcPagan]

What can a hospital do but "patient drop" ... to avoid getting itself into debt, and thereby, closing? St. Vincent's in NYC did not patient drop ...now it's closed due to its $700 million debt. Don't know the solution .. but both patient dropping is not good, nor is hospitals closing. From the video's here - looks like France's hybrid system might be a solution.

[@rainbowkrampus]

Indeed, this is a symptom of a more fundamental problem. As long as the fundamental issue remains, inhumane practices like this will continue. It's still inhumane though. Or, as the good doctor put it, "American healthcare, best in the world, amirite?"

[@scottabc72]

Agreed, theres a real distinction between blatant anti consumer profiteering like Shkreli did and bad bureaucratic decisions to problems that have no good answer, which is a position many health care providers find themselves in frequently.

[@rainbowkrampus]

@@scottabc72 Well, let's not abstract things too much. The healthcare industry lobbies for things to be like this. The state of things is the direct result of people choosing to build a system which maximizes profit over healthcare outcomes. The solution is, don't allow for profit healthcare to exist. Certainly not to the extent that it does at any rate.

[@skywise001]

What about the baby decapatation - they tried to hide the crime and its been rules a homicide.