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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

Call it futuristic, but in reality, it's science redirected to make people feel better.Eric Rice, founder and CEO of Quanta, gave a virtual tour of his Los Angeles-based lab which produces the muscle Rub.“We have the brain and the body,” Rice said. “The brain does all the calculation. Its where we input information and then the body itself is a gigantic freezer with chambers.”As Rice showed the machines that produce Quanta, and how they work, he said, “Here’s our batches of muscle rub. You can see everything being made. Everything’s organic, natural, grown from the earth. We don’t use any synthetic materials for any of our products.”Running Quanta, he's leading the charge in new technology geared toward pain management."Pain right now affects 22% of the world’s population, or 1.7 billion people daily,” Rice said. “Chronic pain, pain that lasts 3 weeks or longer, that’s considered chronic.”Rice is a former baseball player, so pain is something that Rice knows all too well.“I’m a former athlete and I have horrible knees, shoulders and back,” Rice said. “We started out with a simple muscle rub with a few ingredients and CBD was a great place for us to start. It’s been around, patented, but used for one pharmaceutical solution.”He took the concept of CBD or cannabidiol and applied his knowledge of quantum physics and biochemistry to change molecules, which then makes ingredients more effective.“Imagine my finger point being a nucleus. When you’re alive, electrons rotate like this, really far really fast from the center,” Rice said. “As you die and age, they slow down and get closer to the nucleus. What we do is use our technology to speed it back up and stabilize the cell so we’re creating excited state molecules that don’t ionize and oxidize.”It's a unique business concept, and it's one that even he admits sounds out of this world.“We use really contemporary if not futuristic science to increase the amount of energy to molecules so that we use an ingredient for your skin or your health it performs 3-500 % better than anything else you’ll find in the market,” Rice said.The market he's referring to is topical CBD, which is seemingly everywhere these days.Dr. Richard Sorgnard specializes in electrical cell signaling technology, which is a medical device that treats severe pain.“These are placed on the body in a specific array depending on the diagnosis and then when the machine is turned on it will deliver 12 types of electrical stimulation,” Sorgnard said.He recommends Quanta to his patients, before, during and after the treatment. The machine, he says, treats all kinds of pain and feels like a massage. With Quanta, he says, patients are resolving their problems and not masking them.“We noticed it made a great afterglow for the treatment- when we use them together the patients get a better response for the initial sensation,” Sorgnard said.Rice says Quanta is expanding beyond topical pain relief and into vitamins, supplements and skin care.“I can absolutely see us heavily involved in agriculture, food, beverage anything having to do with energy and natural ingredients is really kind of our focus. Pharmaceutical as well as helping people grow plant matter on different planets,” Rice said.He says Quanta has delayed his own surgeries for years and believes polarizing ingredients is the world's next step into the future and beyond.Rice’s website does note that Quanta’s effectiveness has not been evaluated by the FDA. The FDA adds that while there might be some to CBD products, there are potential side effects that should weighed. More info can be seen here. 3622

CHICAGO, Ill. -- Scientists are continuing to develop new COVID-19 testing methods. Everything from throat swabs and saliva tests to breathalyzers are potential options. The federal government has ordered 150 million rapid antigen tests to help quickly identify cases in places like schools and disaster zones.Still, we're six months into the global pandemic and experts say we still need better and more frequent testing.Supply chain bottlenecks, long turnaround times and the looming flu season have many pharmaceutical companies scrambling for a better test.“There's been a great push and a lot of innovation has gone into developing new tests that might be able to be used in different scenarios,” said Dr. Emily Landon, an infectious disease specialist at University of Chicago Medicine.Abbott Laboratories’ sixth iteration of the COVID-19 test, known as “Binax Now,” is a compact credit card sized rapid test similar to a home pregnancy test.“You are receiving a nasal swab and then that swab is directly inserted into the card and there's a small pouch there that it's inserted into. Six drops of a buffer had been placed there prior to putting in the swab,” explained John Hackett, Junior Vice President of Applied Research and Technology at Abbott Laboratories.And though it does require a health care worker to administer, no specialty lab equipment is needed to process the antigen test. Results are available in about 15 minutes. The cost is apiece.“So, in 15 minutes you can look at the front of this test and if you see a single line, that would be the control line, and if there's two lines, that would indicate that the individual is positive for SARS-CoV-2,” said Hackett.The test was granted emergency use authorization by the FDA. It includes an app that allows people who test negative to display a temporary digital health pass for quick screening.The Trump administration quickly bought up 150 million tests for about 0 million.Officials say they are already beginning to deploy the tests to states, nursing homes, schools and areas hit hard by recent natural disasters.“These antigen tests however are fast and cheap, and it can be done really easily,” said Dr. Landon.Though, helpful in some scenarios, Landon cautions quick antigen tests like this can be less accurate and have a high false positive rate.“These tests aren't perfect and some of you have been in that situation with strep throat where you find that even if the test is negative that they send off a culture afterwards to make absolutely certain that you don't have strep throat and these tests are kind of similar,” she said.Still, experts say having a variety of testing options is beneficial. But the gold standard of accuracy remains the deep nasopharyngeal swab tests processed in a lab. 2796

CHICAGO, Ill. -- The IRS says it has issued more than 159 million stimulus payments in just over two months. About 0 billion has been dispersed via direct deposit, paper check and pre-paid debit cards. Yet, even today there are countless eligible Americans who say they’ve fallen through the cracks.In New York state, Hanna Brandow has no idea why she hasn’t gotten a stimulus payment.“My sister and I who both have not gotten the check yet. We did our taxes this year and got our returns already,” said Brandow. “So, it's very strange.”In California, Alexis Lopez is also in limbo.“For most people, it was like 'this person got it, this person got it,' said Lopez. "I was like, ‘well maybe there's some delay with mine.’ No big deal.”And in Ohio, Karen Melroy is also stuck in in stimulus purgatory.“I received my refund by a direct deposit,” said Melroy. “So, there's no reason I can think of why I shouldn't have received one.”All of them say they get the same message when checking on the IRS website.“I normally add a few more expletives to mine when I see it, but it's something to the effect of payment status not available,” said Melroy.It turns out they’re not alone. Those four words: "payment status not available" are exasperating countless Americans who appear otherwise eligible for payments but have not been paid and can’t get answers as to why.“The IRS obviously was very rushed and even when the government takes a year and a half to do a computer system, there are problems with it,” said Robert Probasco, director of the tax clinic at Texas A&M University.In May the IRS added 3,500 telephone representatives to help with problems, but most can only provide general information.“I found this like nine-step guide of how to get a human on the phone at the IRS. I did it twice and hit a dead end,” said Brandow.Because IRS offices remain closed due to the pandemic, the agency tells us that call center agents are working from home. That means they don’t have access to secure personal information specific to each case.“This was designed poorly obviously because it doesn't tell you which of those things happen and if it is a glitch, it doesn't tell you what kind of a glitch,” said Probasco.The IRS is doing a phased reopening at key processing sites and call centers.The IRS tells us some employees have returned to work in Kentucky, Texas and Utah. They say they will follow state and local guidelines as employees return to work in Georgia, Tennessee, Missouri, Michigan and by the end of June in Indiana, Ohio, California, Oregon and Puerto RicoBut if you can’t get your payment issue resolved by the end of the year, you may have to claim your unpaid stimulus assistance on next year’s tax return as a credit.“That doesn't help me today,” said Melroy.That's a sentiment many like Alexis Lopez share as they struggle to rebound financially from the pandemic.“You're left in limbo wondering, 'am I ever going to get this stimulus check that most Americans received?' And I'm in the minority that has not and there's no answers,” she said.The agency says for case-specific information ,the appropriate number to call remains 800-829-1040. Otherwise, you could call your local IRS office and even set up a face-to-face meeting once they reopen. 3281

By HALELUYA HADERO Associated PressA group in North Carolina has erected a Black Lives Matter billboard to counter a Confederate flag that stands along a road in the state. An official with a group that supported the project says the sign was unveiled in Pittsboro and funded by residents in the city. A GoFundMe page to raise money for the sign said the billboard was a way to show Confederate flags "do NOT represent" Pittsboro. Sam White had been leasing the billboard on his property to an outdoor advertising company. 531