崇信算命的在哪里(台北哪有算命很准的地方) (今日更新中)

California's attorney general sued Sutter Health, accusing the hospital giant of illegally quashing competition and for years overcharging consumers and employers.The lawsuit marked a bold move by state Attorney General Xavier Becerra against the dominant health care system in Northern California as concerns mount nationally about consolidation among hospitals, insurers and other industry middlemen."It's time to hold health care corporations accountable," Becerra said at a news conference Friday. "We seek to stop Sutter from continuing this illegal conduct."The antitrust suit, filed in San Francisco County Superior Court, asks the court to prevent Sutter from engaging in anticompetitive practices and "overcharges."It said Sutter employs a variety of improper tactics, such as gag clauses on prices, "punitively high" out-of-network charges and "all-or-nothing" contract terms that require all of its facilities to be included in insurance networks.Taken together, Sutter's actions "improperly block any and all practical efforts to foster or encourage price competition between Sutter and any rival Healthcare Providers or Hospital Systems," according to the state's complaint. "Sutter's conduct injured the general economy of Northern California and thus of the state.Sutter, which owns 24 hospitals, reported net income of 3 million last year on .4 billion in revenue. Sutter's nonprofit health system also has 35 surgery centers, 32 urgent-care clinics and more than 5,000 physicians in its network.In a statement, Sutter it was reviewing the complaint and couldn't comment on specific claims.Overall, Sutter said, "healthy competition and choice exists across Northern California" for consumers seeking medical care. It also said its charges for an inpatient stay are lower than what other nearby hospitals charge."Sutter Health is proud to save patients, government payers and health plans hundreds of millions of dollars each year by providing more efficient and integrated care," the statement said.This high-profile legal fight caught the attention of employers and policymakers across the country amid growing alarm about the financial implications of industry consolidation. Large health systems are gaining market clout and the ability to raise prices by acquiring more hospitals, outpatient surgery centers and physicians' practices.Martin Gaynor, a health care economist at Carnegie Mellon University, said California's lawsuit may portend more litigation at the state level."There are a number of markets in the U.S. that are dominated by one very large, powerful health system," Gaynor said. "It could be that we're going to see a new level of activity by state antitrust enforcers looking at competition in their own backyards."Glenn Melnick, an economist and expert on hospital finances at the University of Southern California, said if the state prevails against Sutter it could put "a chill on anticompetitive practices that are being adopted across the U.S. and that could help slow down hospital price increases. That would be good news for consumers."The complaints about Sutter's high prices and market power have persisted for years.The state said its investigation started in 2012 under Kamala Harris, California's previous attorney general and now a U.S. senator. Six years ago, her office sent subpoenas to several health systems and insurers seeking information about market concentration and its effect on medical prices.A 2016 study found that hospital prices at Sutter and Dignity Health, the two biggest hospital chains in California, were 25% higher than at other hospitals around the state. Researchers at the University of Southern California said the giant health systems used their market power to drive up prices — making the average patient admission at both chains nearly ,000 more expensive.Last week, researchers at University of California, Berkeley issued a report that examined the consolidation of the hospital, physician and health insurance markets in California from 2010 to 2016. The authors said 44 of California's 58 counties had "highly concentrated" hospital markets.After the report was issued Monday, Becerra said his office would be reviewing those findings and pledged to apply more scrutiny to health care mergers and anti-competitive practices across the state.Sutter Health has gobbled up doctors' practices across the Bay Area, gaining market muscle that has pushed costs upward. Obstetricians employed by Sutter Health, for example, are reimbursed about three times more for the same service than independent doctors, according to a KHN review of OB-GYN charges on several insurers' online cost estimators. It's a key reason why Northern California is the most expensive place in the country to have a baby.At his news conference, Becerra said he's committed to scrutinizing other players besides Sutter in the health care industry who may be engaging in anticompetitive behavior and potentially harming consumers.Consumer advocates and state lawmakers applauded Becerra's aggressive action because of the toll high prices take on millions of Californians. Many residents struggle to pay rising insurance premiums and out-of-pocket expenses for emergency room visits or routine hospital tests."Consumers bear the burden of these monopolistic activities," said state Sen. Ed Hernandez (D-West Covina), chairman of the Senate health committee. "To ensure health care is affordable and accessible to all, we have to get a handle on predatory pricing."In many ways, Becerra's lawsuit mirrors a similar civil case filed in 2014 by a grocery workers' health plan.The attorney general's office filed a motion in court asking for its lawsuit and the class action to go to trial together before the same judge. The trial is scheduled for June 2019 in San Francisco."While we certainly would have preferred this happened earlier, we respect the attorney general's care in conducting a thorough investigation before filing charges," said Richard Grossman, the lead plaintiffs' lawyer representing the class of more than 1,500 employer-funded health plans.In its lawsuit, the attorney general's office blamed Sutter for much of the increase in health care costs across Northern California because "Sutter embarked on an intentional, and successful, strategy of securing market power in certain local markets." State lawyers also pointed out that Sutter's conduct triggered an "umbrella effect" by encouraging other providers to raise their own prices.The state's lawsuit said Sutter used its windfall from excessive prices to acquire more hospitals and medical groups. It also enabled Sutter to "bestow extremely high salaries for its officers and upper management," according to the state complaint.Patrick Fry, Sutter's chief executive from 2005 to 2016, had .4 million in total compensation during his last year there, according to Sutter's 990 tax filing for 2016, the most recent year available.Overall, 18 executives at Sutter had million or more in total compensation during 2016, the federal tax filing shows.Karen Garner, a Sutter spokeswoman, said Fry's compensation in 2016 reflects retirement benefits he accrued over many years. She added that "industry comparisons show our salaries are reasonable and competitive, given the size, scope and complexity of our organization." 7370

Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen has announced a data breach that could affect customers who ate at the restaurant late last year or early this year.The restaurant said on Aug. 16 Cheddar's learned that between Nov. 3, 2017 and Jan. 2, 2018 an unauthorized person or persons gained access to payment card information in the following states: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin.The affected information involved payment card information and payment card numbers.Information from about 567,000 payment card numbers may have been exposed through affected restaurants, according to Reuters.More information can be found here.  849

CHICAGO (AP) — Authorities say a Chicago man has been charged with murder after a fatal fight that began when he put his hands in Thanksgiving leftovers.James Dixon is charged with killing Vincell Jackson, who was the boyfriend of the Thanksgiving party host.A prosecutor says Jackson was trying to escort Dixon out of the Chicago house because he put his hands in leftovers around 3 a.m. Friday.The fight moved to the porch, where law enforcement says Jackson was stabbed at least nine times.Defense attorney Patrick Ryan says Dixon was properly defending himself.A judge set bond at 0,000. 602

Can someone in this election truly be undecided in this election? Sure they can. With less than 70 days to go until the election, undecided voters are poised to play a deciding role in whether President Donald Trump or Joe Biden is the president of the United States come the end of January. GEOGRAPHY MATTERSWhile undecided voters matter everywhere, they really matter in crucial counties in swing states. Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, is one example. In 2008 and 2012, this county, which encompasses towns like Wilkes-Barre, voted for President Barack Obama. In 2016, the county voted for Trump. Luzerne is one of three counties in Pennsylvania to have flipped like that. Political scientists refer to counties like these as "pivot counties." WHAT UNDECIDED VOTERS ARE SAYINGRobert Rinaldi is a school bus driver in the county. His lunch buddy, Gene, at D's Diner likes Trump but Rinaldi isn't sure. "I guess I’m hearing a lot of these negative stories and it’s confusing me," Rinaldi said. "Like for instance, this last one with his sister, a retired judge, she’s blasting the guy," Rinaldi said. Meanwhile, Rinaldi is unsure about Joe Biden. He is growing agitated Democrats repeatedly say he is from nearby Scranton. "It's starting to get old, I understand he used to live here but he's been gone for so long," Rinaldi said. Other customers are undecided for other reasons"I don’t think I’ll ever vote unless something drastic happens," Aubree Patronick, a mom said while eating a club sandwich. Patronick doesn't think she'll cast a vote in this year's election. She is tired of the noise and angry Facebook posts."I don’t need a thousand people coming at my comments," Patronick said. Then there is John Colon, who just left the Army. "I truly don’t know who the lesser of two evils is," Colon said, commenting about Biden and Trump. 1850

By comparison, 2019 was a record year for lottery organizations across the country, with billion dollar jackpots in games like Powerball and Mega Millions. In 2020, though, those big winnings took a dramatic turn."For us, we were hit pretty hard. We offer video lottery at bars and restaurants throughout the state and by far that’s our highest revenue product and literally overnight when bars and restaurants shut down, that revenue line went to zero," said Matt Shelby with Oregon Lottery. Shelby says they were shut down for more than a month. Oregon normally brings in million a week on video lottery games and it goes to some crucial state programs."Things like schools, parks, natural resources, watershed development, most recently veterans' services and then we also fund problem gambling and treatment across the state. When our revenue goes down, we feel it first because we operate like any other business, but those state programs that rely on our dollars will feel that crunch in the next budget cycle," said Shelby.In Vermont, government-mandated shut downs prompted lottery ticket sales to plummet by about 30 percent. All of that money goes to fund education. Gary Kessler, the Deputy Commissioner of Liquor and Lottery for the State of Vermont, says they're now encouraging people to buy lottery tickets in advance to help boost sales. Kessler said, "they could buy them out 20 draws in advance. So, they could be safe and stay in the game at the same time. That was really our message that we tried to get out to our players and players really did respond. We saw quite an increase in our subscription services, which is where you can buy for six months or for an entire year and know that those numbers are set."While most lottery departments have been established for decades, that's not the case in Mississippi. "We hadn't been up and running for a year. We’re still in the building process and we have layers to complete. When COVID-19 hit we had about half of a business continuity plan and it hadn’t been completed," said Mississippi Lottery President Tom Shaheen. While the Mississippi Lottery saw an initial drop in sales, in April things started to pick back up. Mississippi Lottery was still able to contribute more than million to projects in its first seven months of operation."It helps fund roads, bridges and education, which was set by the legislature in the Lottery Act and approved by the Governor," said Shaheen. And while lottery officials across the country understand the current economy may keep some from buying lottery tickets, they hope the programs the lotteries fund aren't impacted too severely. After all, the local businesses that sell lottery tickets benefit, as well. They receive a percentage of winnings and even a jackpot of their own if they sell a winning ticket.Oregon Lottery thinks lotteries will recover just fine. "I think long term we will, but like a lot of other things, I don't think we're ever going back to the way things were in January," said Shelby. 3036

来源：资阳报