Health

Newsworthy News - A massive Medicare fraud scheme centered in Los Angeles County has distorted the entire national home health care payment system, with a single physician billing taxpayers nearly $600 million over four years while legitimate agencies across America shut their door.

Axios - Nearly 6 in 10 commercially insured patients had at least one chronic condition in 2024, with many having "clusters" of diseases like hypertension, diabetes and obesity, a new FAIR Health analysis of claim records finds.

Pre-existing conditions drive up health spending: The average amount a health plan allowed to treat a patient with one chronic condition ($3,039) was nearly double the amount for someone with none ($1,590).

High cholesterol was the most common condition in the commercially insured population, with a prevalence of 21.2%.

• 57.5% of insured patients had at least one chronic condition, while 11.5% had two and 9.1% had three.
• Lung cancer had the highest average allowed amount per year ($22,740) and ADHD the lowest ($4,175).
• People with lower household incomes were likelier to have more chronic diseases — particularly in the Southeast.