FORT MYERS, Fla., Feb. 24, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- The book The Truth About The Healthcare Industry brings readers to understand the oligopoly created by the government and the healthcare industry. Written by Roy J. Meidinger, retired AT&T management employee; Greg Martin, Newspaper Reporter for 27 Years; Chirmen Requintan, CPA & Economists, the book relays the scheme enforced by the government, in connivance with health insurance companies, to conceal the kickbacks condoned by hospitals in favor of insurance companies.

Unfortunately, the first chapter is about the main author. The contributing writers felt the messenger of the information is just as important as the information in the book. They were overwhelmed by the information he provided. Their main task was to verify the facts and update the information. The reader should skip the first chapter, until the end of reading the book. You will then understand their feelings.

The second chapter is where the book should have started. This chapter shows how the healthcare industry grew. The creation of this oligopoly is started in 1983, by the government, which organized it, and forced it to use the same billing practices and administrative procedures. In 1983, the government changed the Medicare reimbursement process and started the Prospective Payment System. This chapter shows how the industry overcharges for its services and then provides the worse healthcare services of all the industrial countries. The tables and charts are very illuminous.

The third chapter shows how the oligopoly practices price fixing, utilizing an economic principle known as "conscious parallelism".  The price fixing scheme starts out as a simple methodology to get more money from the government's Medicare plan. The chapter shows how the industry worked to increase the reimbursement rates for future years, by listing false billing information of the present year's beneficiaries' bills. The book shows how the government's algorithms, statistical formulas, and statistical tables failed to include any checks and balances on the amounts listed on the beneficiaries' invoices. The dumb government computers did not know the invoices contained false information and the healthcare providers were lying to them. The old adage for computer databases of "garbage in gives garbage out" is transformed by the health care industry to be "garbage in gives gold out". Not one healthcare provider considered this fraud, because it was not immediately paid to them.

The third chapter makes it easy for us to understand why our perceptions are false of healthcare industries integrity; like the amount listed on an insured private-pay patient's bill has no meaning; or, the contract between the provider and an insured patient is superseded by the contract between the provider and the insurance company; or, a third-party payer is being given a discount rather than a kickback, by calling the kickback a contractual adjustment.

The book shows how the public, along with the IRS, believes; the amount listed on a bill has no meaning, unless the healthcare provider is trying to collect it. This is false because of the Uniform Commercial Code, which determines the billed amount, is a material fact, which is the sum certain. People are given the perception a third party payer is being given a discount rather than a kickback, by calling the kickback a contractual adjustment. Any legal discount given must be written on the patient's bill and the net amount listed.  The public believes a third-party payer, whom is not the customer, that the insurance company's contract with the healthcare provider, supersedes the patient's contract with the healthcare provider, and that it was okay to change the price to a lower amount than originally billed. This is not true because of the substantive law of the federal parole rule, which says a second contract cannot alter the patient's contract nor, can it alter the original billed amount. The Uniform Commercial Code, Generally Accepted Accounting Procedures and the U.S. Tax Code, which covers bills and the amount listed on them, also enforces this parole rule of substantive law. A third party payer's sole responsibility is too pay the insured members medical bill.

The book shows, how this industry's transformation changed, from a competitive market place, into an oligopoly, created by the federal government. In 1983, Congress introduced a new reimbursement system for Medicare, known as the Prospective Payment System. This system required non-standard billing and accounting procedures. These practices were only legal for the government programs. The industry quickly realized the government had failed to create checks and balances into the new billing and accounting procedures. The reimbursement program relied on the beneficiaries' bills to determine next year's reimbursement rates. Therefore, to increase the amount of the government programs paid in the future, the industry began to inflate their charges on the beneficiaries' bills. This practice is still ongoing and explains why the healthcare charges increase almost double the percentage increase of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) of all industries.

The book revealed the secret, of how the government organized the healthcare industry, by using standard billing practices, into an oligopoly and continues to cover up the fact of its existence. Oligopolies are not new; their main driving force is to increase the revenues for the entire industry. Economist have been aware of these patterns of cooperation within industries, which violate our antitrust and consumer protection laws, and designated these practices as "conscious parallelism", this principle is simple, and the members from the industry said that other members were increasing their charges, making more money, getting away with it. What the industry was doing was stopping to compete with each other, and everyone would just raise their charges. In the beginning, it was to get more money from the Medicare Program, but gradually it affected all patient groups. This cooperation is still going on today. It is price-fixing and, it is illegal.

The fourth chapter shows how the industry's accumulation of wealth is illegal for the last 30 years and explains how this industry has overcharged everyone and stolen $21 trillion. The industry uses false billings, accounting fraud, kickbacks, restrained trade, boycotts and economic duress.

The fourth chapter explains the correlation or effect of the expansion of health care insurance companies to the manufacturing industry. It imminently shows the damage caused to manufacturing industry, which closed 75,000 companies and caused the loss of 7 million manufacturing jobs. This loss of manufacturing has led to a trade deficit of $10 trillion for the past thirty years. The billing practices are causing over a million personal bankruptcies a year. The book shows that the government has known for some time, has covered up the illegal practices, especially the IRS.

The fifth chapter shows how the executive branch failed its responsibilities. The Federal Trade Commission should have recognized an oligopoly and the damages it was doing to other industries. The Centers for Medicare/Medicaid services should have known the amounts listed on the beneficiaries' invoices did not list the lowest price, the actual amount collected by the providers. The Centers for Medicare/Medicaid Services (CMS) should have lowered its payments to providers when the General Accounting Office said the actual cost of healthcare services was 72% lower than the figure CMS was using, in 2006.

The fifth chapter shows the cover-up employed by the government and is discussed throughout this chapter. The biggest failure was the IRS, the nation's auditors; it failed to identify the kickbacks paid to the healthcare insurance companies by the providers or collect the taxes on said kickbacks, which amounted to $3 trillion a year. The government's bias is obvious by the fact that it favors the health care industry and does not prosecute for political reasons.

In chapter 6, it examines several solutions for lowering the nation's healthcare costs, presents a solution to the problem, which will cut healthcare cost in half, eliminate state taxes for Medicaid, move 1.5 trillion a year into other industries, increase salaries, thereby increasing tax revenues. The new system will not increase government spending but combine the existing expenditures for all healthcare programs. The book shows several industrial countries, which have gone to a single-payer system and spend less than half the per capita rate than the United States. The facts show we can move to a single-payer system for this country, with no increase in taxes and eliminate all private health insurance premiums. 

The book calls for your actions, of demanding our government to take action, which is the only hope to fix the healthcare system, in the United States.

"The Truth About The Healthcare Industry" is live in the Kindle Store and is available* for readers to purchase here. Or paste link http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00T78WZNQhttp://www.amazon.com/dp/B00T78WZNQ. The book is also on nine e-book retailer's websites, in 57 countries.

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