Dr. Nikki Johnson

First, Happy New Year.  We hope everyone enjoyed the holiday break!  Here’s a new Substack that listed Freedom Hub’s top #HealthFreedom shows from 2022.  Please check it out and subscribe!

 

And now for this week’s guest…

 

Doctors who understand the need for cash transactions to restore the doctor-patient relationship, have blown the whistle on the fraud behind corporate efforts to solve supply, drug & cost issues and many are burning out within the system of corruption fueling the fraud.

 

Loving her medical care of our youngest patients who can’t speak for themselves, Dr. Johnson wants health reform advocates to know why good doctors are leaving medical practice and what we can do about the shortage of nurses and doctors.

 

Much of this has to do with the high demands of the training and the job, but corruption in our healthcare infrastructure has led physicians to early retirement or seeking alternative avenues to lend their expertise. 

 

Dr. Johnson has written about GPO’s bulk purchase supplies for hospitals, nursing homes and home health agencies, and the kickbacks hidden by local business leaders who sit on the boards of both the hospitals and the GPO.  PBMs bulk purchase drugs to save money for group health plans, but Dr. Johnson’s state’s Attorney General sued an Ohio PBM for overriding doctor prescriptions to recommend instead drugs that offered them kickbacks.

 

But the corruption in healthcare stems not only from the profiteering of these middlemen, but also the ever expanding not-for-profit hospitals, and the medical organizations. The American Medical Association - the dominant organization for doctors - profits from controlling the coding for billing and pandemic PPE sales. Hospitals, too, game the system, with only 5% complying with former President Trump’s price disclosures needed for comparison shopping.  

 

Joining the huge Free to Care coalition, Nikki fights for transparency in pricing and against the corporate deals that take away the freedom of patients and independent doctors.  At Physicians for Patients, she exposes the corporate structure that promotes non-physicians as equal to physicians.