A whistle-blower tells of health insurers bilking medicare
When Medicare was facing an impossible $13 trillion funding gap, Congress opted for a bold fix: It handed over part of the program to insurance companies, expecting them to provide better care at a lower cost. The new program was named Medicare Advantage. Now a former well-placed official at UnitedHealth Group, asserts that the big insurance companies have been systematically bilking Medicare Advantage for years, reaping billions of taxpayer dollars from the program by gaming the payment system. In a statement he said finance directors like him monitored projects that UnitedHealth had designed to make patients look sicker than they were, by scouring patients’ health records electronically and finding ways to goose the diagnosis codes. If true, this could help explain why insurers are staying in the Medicare Advantage program even as they pull out of the Affordable Care Act exchanges in some states: Medicare Advantage offers a way to get extra money from the federal government. (New York Times)
Chanel’s $2,000 boomerang criticised for ‘humiliating’ Indigenous Australian culture
Chanel has been denounced on social media for appropriating Indigenous Australian culture by producing a $2,000 boomerang derided as the ultimate in useless status symbols. The wood and resin item is priced at A$1,930 in the luxury haute couture brand’s latest spring-summer 2017 pre-collection, under “other accessories”. Nearly 2,300 comments were posted in three hours, some by users who identified as Aboriginal Australians who said they found the Chanel boomerang offensive. In a statement, Chanel told Guardian Australia it was “extremely committed to respecting all cultures, and regrets that some may have felt offended.” (Guardian)
Sustainable Development
Global coalition set to make sustainable cotton the mainstream choice
Leading international brands and retailers, cotton standards, existing industry initiatives and other stakeholders across the supply chain have come together to form Cotton 2040. The cross-industry initiative is driving change by taking collaborative action to scale up and overcome barriers to sustainable cotton uptake across multiple standards, so that more sustainable cotton becomes a mainstream commodity. Through research and close consultation with cotton stakeholders across the industry over 2015-2016, the following priority areas for action were identified: building demand, closing the loop, traceability, upskilling for resilience. The initiative includes leading retailers M&S and Target, the coalition is now looking for additional partners for the ‘building demand’ workstream and benefit from testing and piloting the framework internally. (Forum For The Future)
Climate Change
China and India to beat climate pledges as Trump drags US backwards
Both China and India have beaten their targets and have room to ratchet up ambitions – which is a key feature of the Paris Agreement – but the United States won’t reduce emissions at all if President Donald Trump implements his proposed policies, according to new analysis from the Climate Action Tracker, published in Bonn. For instance India wins points for canceling coal-fired “ultra-mega power projects”. Its ongoing growth of renewable energy and slowdown of coal is the most important development underway globally today. China is continuing to reduce its coal and carbon dioxide emissions. In the United States, while cities and states have vowed to move forward on climate action, federal policies could negate any progress, keeping the country at its current levels through 2030. (Eco-Business)
CEOs of 30 more major US brands pen letter to Trump, urging adherence to Paris Agreement
Top brands continue to make their voices heard in the days leading up to the G7 Summit in Italy, with the release of yet another letter urging President Trump and the administration to deliver on its climate commitments. Penned by 30 chief executives from major US companies such as Coca-Cola, The Dow Chemical Company, General Electric, Johnson & Johnson, Tesla, Unilever, Virgin and The Walt Disney Company, the letter comes in response to President Trump’s previous threats to pull out of the Paris Agreement and follows two other letters written by 13 Fortune 500 companies and over 200 major investors touching on the same topic. (Sustainable Brands)
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