Kevin Denehy

Follow up from today’s post I looked into the group whose video ad is running in the Root post, and what I found is concerning. The ad is titled "EXPOSED: Double Billing." Its disclaimer reads "Paid for by Patients for Safe and Affordable Health Insurance." It is a limited liability company. The only place its legal name appears is the website's privacy policy. There is no named executive director, no board, no staff, no spokesperson, and no press release. Its listed address is 712 H Street NE, Suite 1403, in Washington, DC. That address belongs to a FedEx and UPS shipping store. "Suite 1403" is a mailbox. Its website launched in January 2025. The files behind it are hosted on a WordPress network that also hosts campaign pages for Republican candidates. Most of its pages were written by an account called "Web Ops," not by anyone at the group. This isn't a patient organization that hired a web designer. It's a political vendor's product with a patient-sounding name on the front. In 18 months, its campaigns have covered oncology drug vials, out-of-network doctors, upcoding, hospital facility fees, a state-specific attack on a hospital system in Indiana, and now modifier 25. Every single one targets a doctor or a hospital. Not one targets an insurer. Not one mentions prior authorization, claim denials, or the profits of the companies that sit between patients and their care. Look at who it lets speak. Its "facts" page cites AHIP, the insurance industry's trade association. Its billing campaign is built on a Blue Cross Blue Shield Association report. Its surprise-billing pages repeat the insurer line that arbitration costs too much and doctors win too often. The op-eds it promotes are written by a former Florida Blue executive, a former chief medical officer of Regence Blue Cross, and a former chief medical officer of AmeriHealth Caritas. Not one practicing physician. Not one patient. A group that says it speaks for patients, has no patients, no leaders, and no address, and only ever points in one direction is suspicious at best. Notice the timing. The comment period closed September 14. More than 150 medical organizations told CMS to withdraw this proposal. CMS tried the same cut in 2019 and pulled it. The final rule is due within weeks. Nine influencers and a video ad showed up in exactly that window, with the same talking points, thanking the administration for a rule it hasn't finalized yet. That is a pressure campaign not a public awareness campaign. Why would an insurer care about a Medicare rule? Commercial plans already fight physicians over modifier 25 claims. Physicians push back because Medicare, the benchmark, pays in full. If CMS cuts it, every commercial contract in the country follows, and the cut stops being something a doctor can appeal. The savings won’t ever go to seniors. They will go to the plans and their shareholders. Who funds this and why are we hearing from a mailbox instead of a person? If you want to argue that Medicare should pay less for same-day services, make that argument. Put your name on it. Publish your data. Tell us who you work for. Defend it in the comment period and in the open. What you shouldn't do is fund a video from a mailbox, pay nine accounts to run the same script, and call it a grassroots movement. Patients do deserve transparency. That starts with knowing who is talking to them.

Between October 5 and October 7, nine social media influencers all posted the same Medicare argument about a relatively unknown coding modifier physicians use. A content creator, a commentary account, a MAGA account that rescues animals, a radio host, an Outkick writer, a comedian, a newsletter guy, a Townhall columnist, and a RedState columnist who used to carry the nuclear football all suddenly became experts in the minutia of healthcare billing. They don’t regularly discuss Medicare and physician coding in their posts. Their posts reach hundreds of thousands to millions of followers depending on the account. One was labeled “paid partnership”. Modifier 25 is not a scam. It’s not a loophole. It’s not some get rich scheme. Modifier 25 allows a doctor to indicate that a second, separately payable procedure was performed at the same time as another visit. What does that mean in real terms? It means an orthopedic surgeon had you on their schedule for “knee pain”. After careful examination and discussion (the clinic visit), they recognize that you would best be served with an injection (the procedure) to help with the symptoms. They then provide the injection and attach a 25 modifier to indicate that this is a separately identifiable treatment from the visit and requires its own payment for those services. CMS wants to pay the highest-priced service in full and cut every other same-day service by 50%. It is unclear how they came up with 50% and the agency even stated that they aren’t sure there is overlap in work for the two separate codes, but stated the overlap is “likely”. I’ve been clear in my opposition and why. When a plumber comes out to your house because your water supplier sent you a note that you might have a leak and then the plumber finds that leak, do they charge you half price for fixing the leak? Our own government doesn’t even follow these rules. If you go to the post office and have two packages to send to the same address, do they charge you half price for the second box since it is going to the same address? What will happen? First, we’ve determined that 80% of the impact of the -25 modifier will be on independent, private practicing doctors. We’ve created a new tax on independent physicians, pushing them further into consolidation. When doctors become employed, costs go up dramatically leading to increased premiums and increased out of pocket costs. The other impact will be on patient care. Doctors will refuse to be paid half for the same work. They will tell patients to come back on another day for the procedure. That’s another copay. That’s another day finding help with children or loved ones. That’s reduced productivity while waiting for needed treatment. And at the end of the day, the cost to the payer and patient will end up being worse as doctors consolidate.

Today my team sat down with our insurance broker. My health insurance premium for my employees went up 30% for our renewal. The government cut their pay to me and all doctors by 3.37% this year for the first two months then reduced the cut to 1.66% for the remainder of the year. I’m tired of paid mouthpieces telling Congress and Americans that doctors are the reason for our high healthcare costs. If you agree with me, share this post and let your friends and colleagues know where the money in healthcare is going. Hint: it isn’t to doctors