Dennis Rivera (born 1950) is an American consultant and former labor official and a "nationally recognized health care leader" who has been speaking about the issues in the United States healthcare system since 1992. [1] [2]
Born in Aibonito, Puerto Rico, Rivera studied in Cayey, Puerto Rico. After graduating from the University of Puerto Rico at Cayey he went on to organize and grow labor unions at hospitals in Puerto Rico and then in 1977 did the same in New York. [3]
He is the former chair of the healthcare division of the Service Employees International Union [4] [5] and current Senior Adviser to the President of SEIU.
Since as early as 1992 Rivera has spoken for a national healthcare system. [1] In 1997, Rivera worked with the CEOs of New York hospitals and the governor of New York to improve service provided by New York hospitals. [6]
Rivera's views on the U.S. healthcare system is that there are structural problems. [7] In 2016, Rivera spoke about the disparity in payments to doctors in Puerto Rico versus payments to doctors in states of the United States under the existing federal statutes. Rivera said that the current system of payments by the U.S. Federal government to the different health care systems in Puerto Rico is causing a crisis in Puerto Rico with doctors leaving the island, among other issues. [8]
A recognized expert on the healthcare system of the United States, Rivera participates in summits with others before congress. [9] [10]
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Rivera was a member of a commission put together by Governor Cuomo to improve telemedicine in New York. [11] At that time, Rivera was also working with Cuomo on fixing the Medicaid payment system. [12]
In the United States, Medicaid is a government program that provides health insurance for adults and children with limited income and resources. The program is partially funded and primarily managed by state governments, which also have wide latitude in determining eligibility and benefits, but the federal government sets baseline standards for state Medicaid programs and provides a significant portion of their funding.
Cayey, officially Cayey de Muesas, is a mountain town and municipality in central Puerto Rico located on the Sierra de Cayey within the Central Mountain range, north of Salinas and Guayama; south of Cidra and Caguas; east of Aibonito and Salinas; and west of San Lorenzo. Cayey is spread over 21 barrios plus Cayey Pueblo. It is part of the San Juan-Caguas-Guaynabo Metropolitan Statistical Area.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), is a federal agency within the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that administers the Medicare program and works in partnership with state governments to administer Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and health insurance portability standards. In addition to these programs, CMS has other responsibilities, including the administrative simplification standards from the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), quality standards in long-term care facilities through its survey and certification process, clinical laboratory quality standards under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments, and oversight of HealthCare.gov. CMS was previously known as the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) until 2001.
Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is a labor union representing almost 1.9 million workers in over 100 occupations in the United States and Canada. SEIU is focused on organizing workers in three sectors: healthcare, including hospital, home care and nursing home workers; public services ; and property services.
Andrew L. Stern is the former president of the Service Employees International Union, and now serves as its President Emeritus.
UnitedHealth Group Incorporated is an American multinational managed healthcare and insurance company based in Minnetonka, Minnesota. Offering insurance services under UnitedHealthcare and healthcare products under Optum, it is the world's eleventh-largest company by revenue and the largest healthcare company by revenue, and the largest insurance company by net premiums. UnitedHealthcare revenues comprise 78% of the Group's overall revenue.
Health care prices in the United States of America describes market and non-market factors that determine pricing, along with possible causes as to why prices are higher than other countries. Compared to other OECD countries, U.S. healthcare costs are one-third higher or more relative to the size of the economy (GDP). According to the CDC, during 2015 health expenditures per-person were nearly $10,000 on average, with total expenditures of $3.2 trillion or 17.8% GDP. Proximate reasons for the differences with other countries include: higher prices for the same services and greater use of healthcare. Higher administrative costs, higher per-capita income, and less government intervention to drive down prices are deeper causes. While the annual inflation rate in healthcare costs has declined in recent decades; it still remains above the rate of economic growth, resulting in a steady increase in healthcare expenditures relative to GDP from 6% in 1970 to nearly 18% in 2015.
1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East is a healthcare union in the United States, with a membership of 400,000 including retirees. It is a local union within the Service Employees International Union. It is a former local of 1199: The National Health Care Workers' Union.
Service Employees International Union (SEIU) 775 was formed in 2002 when home care and nursing home workers from several different SEIU locals formed a labor union focused on long-term care workers and issues. In 2007, the union changed its name from SEIU 775 to SEIU Healthcare 775NW, as part of a reorganization of its parent union, the Service Employees International Union, but changed the name back to SEIU 775 in 2014. SEIU 775 now represents over 45,000 home care and nursing home workers in Washington and Montana.
Peter Rivera is an American politician who represented District 76 in the New York State Assembly, which comprises West Farms, Van Nest, Castle Hill and Parkchester. He later served as the New York State Commissioner of Labor.
The Puerto Rico Health Reform —Spanish: Reforma de Salud de Puerto Rico, refers to the Medicaid health plan which is a "subset of the larger public government healthcare delivery system" of Puerto Rico. It was once called "La Reforma", later it was called "Mi Salud" and now called Vital but they are all Medicaid, a government-run program which provides medical and healthcare services to indigent and impoverished citizens of Puerto Rico. It was locally referred to simply as La Reforma — for many years. Puerto Rico's Medicaid program is, similar to other Medicaid programs of states of the United States. The funding is by the U.S. Medicaid program in the form of a block grant, unlike how states of the United States Medicaid programs are funded and in 2019 much of the funding was slashed.
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) is the largest trade union of public employees in the United States. It represents 1.3 million public sector employees and retirees, including health care workers, corrections officers, sanitation workers, police officers, firefighters, and childcare providers. Founded in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1932, AFSCME is part of the AFL–CIO, one of the two main labor federations in the United States. AFSCME has had four presidents since its founding.
This portion of National Register of Historic Places listings in Puerto Rico is along the central mountain region, from Las Marías and Maricao in the central-west to Juncos in the central-east, including the slopes of the Cordillera.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA), formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and colloquially known as Obamacare, is a landmark U.S. federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. Together with the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 amendment, it represents the U.S. healthcare system's most significant regulatory overhaul and expansion of coverage since the enactment of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965.
Molina Healthcare is a managed care company headquartered in Long Beach, California, United States. The company provides health insurance to individuals through government programs such as Medicaid and Medicare.
Mary Kay Henry is an American labor union activist who was elected International President of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) on May 8, 2010. She is the first woman to lead the union. While serving with the union in California, she helped pioneer SEIU's use of card check agreements, non-traditional collective bargaining agreements, comprehensive campaigns, and system-wide health care organizing strategies. Henry was included on Time's 100 Most Influential People of 2020.
The United Hospital Fund of New York (UHF) is a nonprofit organization that focuses on improving health care in New York. It conducts health policy research and supports numerous health care initiatives through fundraising, grantmaking, and collaboration with other health care organizations. Since August 2017, the organization is led by Oxiris Barbot.
The public debt of Puerto Rico is the money borrowed by the government of Puerto Rico through the issue of securities by the Government Development Bank and other government agencies.
Harris v. Quinn, 573 U.S. 616 (2014), is a US labor law case of the United States Supreme Court regarding provisions of Illinois state law that allowed a union security agreement. Since the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 prohibited the closed shop, states could still choose whether to allow unions to collect fees from non-union members since the collective agreements with the employer would still benefit non-union members. The Court decided 5–4 that Illinois's Public Labor Relations Act, which permitted the union security agreements, violated the First Amendment. A similar case was decided by the Court in 2018, Janus v AFSCME, overturning the Court's unanimous decision in Abood v. Detroit Board of Education (1977) which the appeals court had upheld in Harris.
Raul Vazquez, is a Puerto-Rican primary care physician, philanthropist, the founder and chief executive officer of the Greater Buffalo United Accountable Healthcare Network, and the founder and president of Urban Family Practice P.C. and Westside Urgent Care in Buffalo, New York.