Laura Skopec
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lauraskopec.bsky.social
Laura Skopec
@lauraskopec.bsky.social
370 followers 190 following 21 posts
Writer, comedian, and recovering policy wonk. Staff writer on Divorce Ranch, available wherever you get your podcasts.
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New today: The Medicare Advantage sales industry has become a major source of Medicare spending. Reform is needed to make better use of taxpayer funds and ensure agents, brokers, and marketers meet beneficiaries’ needs.
www.urban.org/research/pub...
Challenges of Choice in Medicare
To explore how agents and brokers may influence Medicare enrollment and identify any gaps in oversight of agents, brokers, and marketers, we conducted a lite…
www.urban.org
Tonight!!
This Thursday, June 5, I'm performing at the Laugh Riot Grrrl Comedy Festival at Tao Comedy Studio! 7PM on the patio.

Tickets are $15, or just $10 per zoom household. Get your ticket here! www.eventbrite.com/e/lrgf25pati...
This Thursday, June 5, I'm performing at the Laugh Riot Grrrl Comedy Festival at Tao Comedy Studio! 7PM on the patio.

Tickets are $15, or just $10 per zoom household. Get your ticket here! www.eventbrite.com/e/lrgf25pati...
LA comedians! Wherever you're at as a stand-up, you should take a workshop with @thebobbieoliver.bsky.social! Get great feedback on your jokes/set, find just the right delivery, and go to tons of free, supportive open mics at Tao Comedy Studio. Bobbie is the best!
Tomorrow, May 18 in Ktown and on Zoom!

Tao Comedy Studio Presents: Tao of Comedy Showcase on Sunday, May 18th at 7:30pm Pacific. Live-streamed to Zoom! $15 per person or $10 per Zoom household!

Tickets: Eventbrite.com/e/tao-of-comedy-showcase-518-tickets-1352846423069
@thebobbieoliver.bsky.social
Hello LA people! I have 2 stand-up shows coming up in the next few weeks.
Sunday, May 18 at 7:30pm at Tao Comedy Studio
Thursday, June 5 at 7pm at Tao Comedy Studio
Zoom tickets are available too! Links in thread
#comedy #womenincomedy #standup #TaoComedyStudio
Come out and see this very funny show!

Tao of Comedy Showcase:
Sunday, May 18th at 7:30pm Pacific, in-person and livestreamed to Zoom.
Just $15 per person or $10 per Zoom household!
Tickets: Eventbrite.com/e/tao-of-comedy-showcase-518-tickets-1352846423069
@thebobbieoliver.bsky.social
New today in Health Affairs: "Updated Medicaid-To-Medicare Fee Index: Medicaid Physician Fees Still Lag Behind Medicare Physician Fees" doi.org/10.1377/hlth...
Updated Medicaid-To-Medicare Fee Index: Medicaid Physician Fees Still Lag Behind Medicare Physician Fees | Health Affairs Journal
Medicaid plays a critical role in the US health insurance system, but a history of low physician fees has limited physicians’ participation in the program. Recent Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services rules have sought to encourage states to increase their Medicaid physician fees to at least 80 percent of Medicare fees, based on the methods used in the Urban Institute’s periodic surveys of Medicaid physician fees. In this article, we show that between 2019 and 2024, Medicaid fees increased slightly, from 72 percent of Medicare fees to 75 percent of Medicare fees for a basket of twenty-seven common physician services. In addition, because the current Medicaid population includes far more nonelderly, nondisabled adults than when the original basket of services was chosen, we present an updated index that better reflects current patterns of spending and service use. We found that, based on this updated index, Medicaid physician fees were approximately 71 percent of Medicare physician fees in 2024, including 69 percent for office visits, 68 percent for hospital and emergency department visits, 87 percent for obstetric care, and 79 percent for other services under our updated approach.
doi.org
(Some) readers of my healthcare-related pilot: "I don't know if I buy that a doctor could be this obviously corrupt and the hospital/other docs would just kind of look the other way."

Me: www.propublica.org/article/thom...
My kid was so proud to show me the stuffie he got at a pokemon tournament and, um…
A writing group friend has a new comedy podcast out called Un-Titled. Check it out! shows.acast.com/un-titled
UN-TITLED
He's too olde for this shit.
shows.acast.com
They gave me a little gift bag of cutesy pink wellness-y shit that I definitely was not in the right mood to receive. I may be mammogram old but I’m not “live laugh love” old!
Got my 1st mammogram today bc apparently the stress of waiting to see if my husband loses his job in January wasn’t immediate enough.

(Btw, fellow old-ass millennials, it’s time to get your mammogram).
So I guess we’re really doing this this time? Here’s hoping this isn’t like all the times I say I’ll join someone’s Discord and then just…never check it again.
Come out and see some funny people (and me) tomorrow night! Zoom options available too.
Finally made it over here to scream into the less-toxic void.