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Bill Smith

@iambillsmith.bsky.social
173 followers 228 following 24 posts

Dog dad. Mental health advocate. 🏳️‍🌈Founder of www.Inseparable.us. Opinions are my own.

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Bill Smith @iambillsmith.bsky.social · 17/05/2025
Congress scheduled a vote at 10pm Sunday night that could take away health care from almost 14 million people. MAYBE NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO BE BITCHING ABOUT BIDEN BOOKS OR WHO GETS TO BE ON THE DNC. Call your representatives at 202-224-3121. Tell them hands off Medicaid.
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Bill Smith @iambillsmith.bsky.social · 22/03/2025
Beyond unacceptable.
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Bill Smith @iambillsmith.bsky.social · 16/03/2025
www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...
msnbc.com
Opinion | America is still grappling with uncomfortable pandemic truths
The Covid-19 pandemic reveals itself not as a singular event but as a multifaceted crisis that exposed deep-seated fault lines in American society.
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Bill Smith @iambillsmith.bsky.social · 16/03/2025
Perfection.
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Bill Smith @iambillsmith.bsky.social · 16/03/2025
Turns out having no plan, no strategy, and no message is unpopular as well.
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Bill Smith @iambillsmith.bsky.social · 20/02/2025
This is the type of ads now being served to me on Twitter. Shameful propaganda.
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Bill Smith @iambillsmith.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
What fresh hell are we dealing with today? I mean good morning, everyone!
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Bill Smith @iambillsmith.bsky.social · 15/01/2025
Insurance companies should not be able to own pharmacies. Or medical practices. That shouldn’t be a complicated or controversial idea.
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Bill Smith @iambillsmith.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
Greedy health insurance companies are totally out of control. We need major reforms to put decisions where they belong- between doctors and their patients. Get rid of prior authorization and ‘fail first.’ Require transparent, independent standards of care. Ban ghost networks. x.com/wallstreetap...
x.com
x.com
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Bill Smith @iambillsmith.bsky.social · 08/01/2025
Privately insured people with anxiety and depression pay higher out of pocket costs. Unacceptable. www.healthsystemtracker.org/brief/privat...
healthsystemtracker.org
Privately insured people with depression and anxiety face high out-of-pocket costs - Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker
Enrollees who were treated for depression and/or anxiety in 2021 had almost twice as much annual out-of-pocket spending compared to enrollees who were not treated for a mental health diagnosis.
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Bill Smith @iambillsmith.bsky.social · 30/12/2024
Thank you @propublica.org for shining a light on the abhorrent business practices of these huge insurers. It’s time to hold them accountable and make sure that when people pay for insurance, ‘coverage’ actually means care.
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Reposted by Bill Smith
Melissa Sanchez @melissa-sanchez.bsky.social · 30/12/2024
A damning account of how insurers, like United, rely on the same doctors to deny mental health care, even as judges repeatedly question their calls: “puzzling,” “disingenuous”, “dishonest, “baseless” By the very best @deldeib.bsky.social @mayatmiller.bsky.social www.propublica.org/article/ment...
propublica.org
Insurers Continue to Rely on Doctors Whose Judgments Have Been Criticized by Courts
In dozens of cases ProPublica reviewed, judges found that some doctors working for these companies engaged in “selective readings” of medical evidence and “shut their eyes” to medical opinions opposin...
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Bill Smith @iambillsmith.bsky.social · 30/12/2024
www.propublica.org/article/ment... Propublica: ‘Insurers Continue to Rely on Doctors Whose Judgments Have Been Criticized by Courts.’ The more you learn about how these companies abuse #mentalhealth patients, the madder you’ll get. It’s time for major reforms and real accountability.
propublica.org
Insurers Continue to Rely on Doctors Whose Judgments Have Been Criticized by Courts
In dozens of cases ProPublica reviewed, judges found that some doctors working for these companies engaged in “selective readings” of medical evidence and “shut their eyes” to medical opinions opposin...
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Bill Smith @iambillsmith.bsky.social · 30/12/2024
It’s truly unconscionable that we take people with mental health emergencies and put them in jail because we don’t have appropriate resources and facilities. We must do better for #mentalhealth and build a real continuum of crisis services.
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Reposted by Bill Smith
Ryan Marino, MD @ryanmarino.bsky.social · 25/12/2024
A private insurance co & its data mining arm’s CEO carried out a coordinated operation to fraudulently bill for health conditions that didn't even exist. Dozens of CMS audits have found private health plans intentionally overcharged by hundreds of millions of dollars but the agency has done little
kffhealthnews.org
In Settling Fraud Case, New York Medicare Advantage Insurer, CEO Will Pay up to $100M - KFF Health News
A whistleblower suit alleged a health insurer bilked Medicare by exaggerating how sick patients were.
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Bill Smith @iambillsmith.bsky.social · 27/12/2024
Access to quality mental healthcare, prevention and early intervention resources in schools, a full continuum of care for people in mental health emergencies, and a bigger, more diverse workforce are all essential if we want to address the mental health crisis in this country. How we get there: 🧵
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Reposted by Bill Smith
ProPublica @propublica.org · 19/11/2024
NEW: UnitedHealth is the nation’s largest health insurance conglomerate. ProPublica obtained what is effectively the company’s internal playbook for limiting and cutting therapy costs. Here’s what we found.
propub.li
How UnitedHealth’s Playbook for Limiting Mental Health Coverage Puts Countless Americans’ Treatment at Risk
United used an algorithm system to identify patients who it determined were getting too much therapy and then limited coverage. It was deemed illegal in three states, but similar practices persist due...
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Reposted by Bill Smith
Soraya Nadia McDonald @soraya.press · 08/12/2024
"There is no single regulator for a private health-insurance company, even when it is found to be violating the law. For United’s practices to be curbed, mental-health advocates told ProPublica, every single jurisdiction in which it operates would have to successfully bring a case against it."
From the New Yorker

At the same time that news was breaking about the NaviHealth algorithm, the company was fighting—ultimately unsuccessfully—a court decision that it had acted “arbitrarily and capriciously” in repeatedly denying coverage of long-term residential treatment to a middle-school-age girl who repeatedly attempted suicide, and has since died by suicide. Several years ago, government investigators found that UnitedHealth had used algorithms to identify mental-health-care providers who they believed were treating patients too often; these identified therapists would typically receive a call from a company “care advocate” who would question them and then cut off reimbursements. Though some states have ruled this practice illegal, it remains in play across the country. There is no single regulator for a private health-insurance company, even when it is found to be violating the law. For United’s practices to be curbed, mental-health advocates told ProPublica, every single jurisdiction in which it operates would have to successfully bring a case against it.

Thompson’s murder is one symptom of the American appetite for violence; his line of work is another.
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Bill Smith @iambillsmith.bsky.social · 27/12/2024
Hats off to @propublica.org for their consistent, in-depth reporting on how health insurance companies abuse the system and make it almost impossible to access #mentalhealth care.
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Bill Smith @iambillsmith.bsky.social · 27/12/2024
Just getting started on this app. Looking for great advocates, mental health experts, LGBT rights, and fun content during such heavy times. Who should I follow?
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Bill Smith @iambillsmith.bsky.social · 27/12/2024
The health of our minds is inseparable from the health of our bodies. www.inseparable.us
inseparable.us
Inseparable
Inseparable is a coalition of people from across the country who share a common goal to fundamentally improve mental health care policy, to take care of ourselves, our loved ones, and our communities.
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Bill Smith @iambillsmith.bsky.social · 27/12/2024
Want to help build a real movement for mental health? Come join us at www.inseparable.us !
inseparable.us
Inseparable
Inseparable is a coalition of people from across the country who share a common goal to fundamentally improve mental health care policy, to take care of ourselves, our loved ones, and our communities.
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