Part of the Western Governors Association (WGA) new Western Prosperity Roundtable (WPR) platform is to completely reorient how one receives care for their health. Webinars were previously released on WPRs agenda for education and workforce training, and now the video on Improving Health Care Access in the West is available. In reality the primary goal is accelerating access to high-speed internet (5G) for telehealth which is falsely presented as improving healthcare.
None of the presenters know anything about medical care. Serving as the moderator is lawyer Mei Wa Kwong, who is the Executive Director of the Center for Connected Health Policy. She assists in driving policy on telehealth and it is coming from the government.
Laura Arcibal is the telehealth and health care access coordinator for the Hawaii Department of Health. She works to “increase the adoption of telehealth in Hawaii” and create partnerships across jurisdictional boundaries. Providing access to broadband and making sure providers are adequately reimbursed to encourage their use of telehealth are reiterated by her. Ensuring everyone has education in “digital literacy and AI technologies” to “work and learn from home and access to government services” are emphasized. Finally, Ms. Arcibal highlights the need for a “centralized data system” to track telehealth utilization. Now this is just for Hawaii but it is in line with the WGA. She also noted a generation of providers that will be retiring soon and with provider demographics changing new providers will be more digitally inclined and use telehealth. Yes, replacing experienced providers with a machine is really smart Ms. Arcibal.
William England, also a lawyer, works for the federal Health Resources and Service Administration and is Director for the Office for the Advancement of Telehealth. Mr. England envisions telehealth growth over the years with mental health being a primary focus. As a result of Covid, implementation has begun with Medicaid reimbursement for telehealth and even phone visits allowed! Idaho belongs to the Northwest Regional Telehealth Resource Center that promotes this agenda. He notes the federal partnerships, which include the entire “federal space”, are so exciting. Later on, he almost described this whole transition as an experiment, not knowing what would work, what modalities were best, and the need for gathering information to determine what worked best. But he did state creating policies must precede figuring it all out. Kind of like this vaccine experiment we are under. Naturally, he reminds us that federal grants are available to fund this agenda, especially for non-profits. More fiat money being used against us.
David Pryor MD, Regional Vice President Medical Director for Anthem Commercial Accounts, is the only individual in this group with a medical background. Anthem has ties to the WEF and a shady history. Mr. Pryor reports a “digital first” strategy for his company. According to him, the percentage of increase in the use of telehealth with the pandemic was 60% (This is not by the design of providers, it was forced upon them). The misleading claim that 69% of providers want to increase the use of telehealth came from the Covid-19 Health Care Coalition, a conglomerate of healthcare organizations, technology firms, nonprofits, academia, and startups, not by actual providers. Digital Kiosks are being promoted as well, for eliminating language barriers and improving “culturally appropriate” care. Telehealth kits for rural areas will be used for post Covid-19 care and eventually chronic care. There are eight telehealth initiatives underway to dramatically change healthcare to “build a telehealth system for the future”. Again, the mistaken belief is that this will provide better quality care.
Lastly, Mr. Pryor claims the behavioral health populations were best served but he could not possibly be more wrong. Telehealth removes the ability of the provider to evaluate a mental health problem. The ability to assess personal hygiene, general health, motor activity, movement disorders associated with psychotropic medication, and other subtle observations are removed. Often patients with mental health issues isolate, telehealth enhances isolation by removing the need to come to an appointment and interact with others. How does the paranoid patient deal with being on camera? These are only a few facets of how telehealth removes a complete assessment. The same with medical conditions, it will never replace what can be assessed with an in person visit. No Mr. Pryor, telehealth fails in all areas.
Shannon Sainer, MSW, represents the Nurse-Family Partnership and Childcare First and is Impact and Learning National Service Office Director, who can’t wait to get into your home. Ms. Sainer’s work involves in-home visits for two years with first time low income mothers, with mental health and employment part of the package. She reinforces that because of the pandemic there was increased telehealth use. No internet? No problem, in partnership with Verizon they provided it to mothers along with smart phones. However, she reports telehealth provides cost reduction, saving time, and adding more patients to the caseload, basically exchanging quality for quantity. As she stated, actions by the government on Covid forced providers to use telehealth, and that is what this is all about, forcing a change to the healthcare system. Even though nurses prefer person to person contact with patients, Ms. Sainer explained that with education and training (indoctrination and propaganda) nurses became more comfortable with telehealth. Policies have forced that switch as well. There was also a higher use of “audio only”, translated that means phone. Yeah, let’s keep changing the language.
This WGA platform aligns with the World Economic Forum (WEF) digital health plan utilizing 5G for its 4th Industrial Revolution agenda. It is about getting 5G into every home for connectivity and gathering data, eventually providing the ability to control how you live, it has nothing to do with your health. The intention was never to end telehealth once the pandemic ended, it was to fully implement it to change how we receive healthcare. Mental health care by telehealth is a WEF goal and overall transformation of the healthcare system. All health information will be collected, shared, and through artificial intelligence, algorithms will be created that medical professionals will be forced to use. As a result reimbursement will change to “Value-Based Payments” where providers will be not be paid for a service but will be “incentivized to use evidence-based medicine…upgrade health information technology, and use data analytics to get paid for their services.”
Through the National Governors Association (NGA), in partnership with the WEF and in which Gov. Little participates, the goal is pushing value based care, another WEF goal. Basically it is a false premise that costs will be cut for the misnomer of better health outcomes by using algorithms, rather than using a medical provider’s expertise of clinical experience, and restructuring payment systems for better healthcare outcomes. Changing a payment system does not improve health care.
The federal and state governments are now a machine of tyranny with no regard for their responsibility of representing people. What Idahoan requested medical visits via a computer? With educational data being collected from cradle to grave to create a workforce, the government will now be collecting data to determine health outcomes and if one is complying with the algorithm, punishing the provider if health doesn’t improve. Government is out of control and our Republic has been lost.
One reply on “WGA Is Forcing Healthcare Change”
Great article. Value-centered medical care encourages providers to “cull” sick patients from their practices in order to show better outcomes on paper. Better outcomes=higher reimbursements. Patients with chronic illnesses, cancer, and heart disease, and, diabetes should be worried. When doctors, PA’s, FNPs, are incentivized in such a manner, medical care will be impacted in a negative manner. We should demand an audit of all programs in our State that are currently being funded via government transfers—-look to SHIP first.