How Medicare Advantage Plans Dodged Auditors and Overcharged Taxpayers by Millions

In April 2016, government auditors asked a Blue Cross Medicare Advantage health plan in Minnesota to turn over medical records of patients treated by a podiatry practice whose owner had been indicted for fraud. Medicare had paid the Blue Cross plan more than $20,000 to cover the care of 11 patients seen by Aggeus Healthcare, … Read more

Blind to Problems: How VA’s Electronic Record System Shuts Out Visually Impaired Patients

Sarah Sheffield, a nurse practitioner at a Veterans Affairs clinic in Eugene, Oregon, had a problem. Her patients — mostly in their 70s and beyond — couldn’t read computer screens. It’s not an unusual problem for older people, which is why you might think Oracle Cerner, the developers of the agency’s new digital health record … Read more

Reporter Follows Up on ‘Cancer Moonshot’ Progress and the Bias in Digital Health Records

KHN correspondent Darius Tahir discussed the latest developments related to the federal “Cancer Moonshot” initiative on Houston Public Media’s “Town Square With Ernie Manouse” on Oct. 4. Tahir also discussed how bias can be embedded in medical records on America’s Heroes Group’s “Roundtable” on Oct. 1. Click here to hear Tahir on “Town Square With … Read more

Embedded Bias: How Medical Records Sow Discrimination

David Confer, a bicyclist and an audio technician, told his doctor he “used to be Ph.D. level” during a 2019 appointment in Washington, D.C. Confer, then 50, was speaking figuratively: He was experiencing brain fog — a symptom of his liver problems. But did his doctor take him seriously? Now, after his death, Confer’s partner, … Read more