DCEs: Handing Traditional Medicare to Wall Street

During the final days of the Trump Administration, officials at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) launched a dangerous and insidious pilot program known as Medicare Direct Contracting. (This program was recently rebranded as REACH by the Biden Administration.)

Left unchecked, Direct Contracting and REACH would allow profit-hungry middlemen to “manage” the care of up to 30 million Traditional Medicare beneficiaries. These middlemen, some of whom have received a huge influx of money from private equity, have every incentive to frustrate patients and deny medically necessary care.

Unless we stop REACH, this program could spell the end of Medicare as a public, nonprofit, social insurance program.

Dr. Ana Malinow explains Direct Contracting Entities

Learn more about Medicare Direct Contracting and REACH

Fact sheet: Direct Contracting: Quietly Handing Medicare to Wall Street
Policy primer: Medicare Direct Contracting and REACH
PowerPoint: Privatizing Medicare through Direct Contracting and REACH

Dr. Susan Rogers testifies before the U.S. Senate

On February 2, 2022, PNHP president Dr. Susan Rogers testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, Subcommittee on Fiscal Responsibility and Economic Growth, regarding the dangers of Direct Contracting.

Oral testimony: “Medicare Direct Contracting: A Threat to Seniors and to Medicare’s Future”
Written testimony: Comprehensive version, complete with links and citations
Watch the full hearing: Dr. Rogers’ opening remarks start at 42:50; DCE questioning starts at 1:49:35

As Dr. Rogers stated in her testimony, “Medicare was designed as a lifeline for America’s seniors and those with disabilities, NOT a playground for Wall Street investors.”

Doctors deliver petitions directly to HHS

On November 30, 2021, PNHP president Dr. Susan Rogers led a delegation to the doorsteps of the Dept. of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C. to deliver 13,000+ petitions demanding an end to Medicare Direct Contracting.

If you’d like to JOIN our fight against Medicare Direct Contracting, please call your member of Congress at (202) 224-3121 and ask them to demand HHS end this dangerous and insidious program; hold hearings on DCEs; and establish Congressional oversight of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI). You can also:

Sign and share our petition calling on the Biden Administration to end DCEs
Share our organizational sign-on letter with allies in your community
Watch and share the livestream of our Nov. 30 press event in Washington, D.C.
Download and print our Traditional Medicare Death Certificate (available in one-page and large-scale versions)
Read our press release: “Doctors to Biden: Don’t hand Medicare to Wall Street investors”

Photos of PNHP taking action in Washington

Additional information

For the most current information on Direct Contracting and REACH, visit ProtectMedicare.net. To access archival information from the late 2021 and early 2022 phase of this fight, see the following pages: