Jarad Kushner Airbridge Program Medical Supply Chain
New York reportedly paid $69 million for ventilators to an engineer with no background in medical supplies at the recommendation of the White House coronavirus task force
New York entered into the contract with Oren-Pines at the direct recommendation of the White House coronavirus task force.
POLITICO America’s Son-In-Law-In-Chief has put himself in charge of handling half of the White House response to the coronavirus crisis.
over who will fill the vacancy atop the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, we’ve got a name: Adam Boehler, a California startup executive
Members of his shadow task force include his former roommate Adam Boehler, a private equity and venture capital bro who was a deputy to Seema Verma (of Medicaid co-pays infamy) before taking charge of the International Development Finance Corporation. Boehler’s replacement, Brad Smith, is also on the Kushner team. Smith, like Boehler, made it big as an entrepreneur by building a home-based palliative care company, which got him a COO job at an Anthem subdivision. Rounding out the CMS representatives is Andy Slavitt, the last head of Obama’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Slavitt’s $115 million venture capital fund has an undisclosed sum of money invested in Boehler’s old firm, Landmark Health. Other Kushner team members include private equity executive David Calouri, a career healthcare investor; and Nat Turner, an online advertising-turned-medtech CEO (Boehler is also considered a Silicon Valley-type within the executive branch). So we have a group of entrepreneurs and investors who all made their money in healthcare secretly managing the federal government’s response to the greatest healthcare crisis in decades.
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Senators Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal wrote to the medical supply companies this week requesting details about their participation in Kushner’s program.
The letter went to all six participating distributors: #McKesson, #Cardinal, #Medline Industries Inc., #Henry Schein Inc., #Owens & Minor Inc. and #Concordance Health care Solutions.
It isn’t clear who’s getting them and at what price, or how much private-sector partners are earning through the arrangement.
Coming mainly in China.
Once a supplier’s goods arrive in the U.S., the companies must sell half the order in government-designated hotspots. They sell the rest as they see fit. The U.S. government provides the air transportation for free, to speed the arrival of the products. The six distributors keep the profits, if any.
the Strategic National Stockpile of medical supplies was “our stockpile.” ~ Jared Kushner
A Kushner-created program airlifts virus gear into the U.S. How it’s sold is a secret.
A program created by Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner has airlifted millions of gloves, masks and other coveted coronavirus supplies into the U.S. from overseas — but it isn’t clear who’s getting them and at what price, or how much private-sector partners are earning through the arrangement.
FEMA pays to fly in gear with little control over who gets it.
For about $69 million in flight costs so far, the Airbridge project has flown at least 746 million pairs of gloves, 71 million surgical masks and 10 million surgical gowns to the U.S. market, mainly on planes operated by FedEx Corp. and United Parcel Service Inc., according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The program has also brought in about 2 million thermometers, 768,000 N95 masks and 562,000 face shields.
Why did the CDC, NIH, and Surgeon General make a point of telling Americans not to wear masks?
BECAUSE THEY DIDN’T HAVE ANY IN THE U.S.
Senators Demand Answers About Jared Kushner’s Role In Distributing Medical Supplies
Kushner has touted the partnership as an “unprecedented” answer to critical supply shortages facing many hospitals. Under the arrangement, the U.S. government pays to ship orders of supplies like masks, gowns, gloves and respirators from overseas. The companies ordering the supplies — giants such as McKesson Corporation and Cardinal Health — still pay for those orders and are permitted to sell half to buyers that have already placed orders. The companies must then sell the other half to hard-hit regions prioritized by the federal government.
But Project Airbridge is subject to little public oversight. The administration has not publicized what it considers “hot spots” or what controls it is placing on supplies being flown into the country with taxpayer money.
Warren and Blumenthal asked companies to clarify whether they are hiking up the prices of those supplies. The senators are also seeking transparency on how much equipment Project Airbridge has moved, how companies are selected, and which hard-hit regions of the country are receiving half the equipment.
The senators sent their requests to Cardinal Health, Concordance, Henry Schein, McKesson, Medline, and Owens & Minor, all major medical wholesalers and distributors, and set a May 8 deadline for responses.
Kushner has taken on a vast behind-the-scenes role in managing the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus crisis, including how to get critical medical supplies to thousands of struggling hospitals.
Watchdogs are concerned that Kushner is consulting individuals who are self-interested health care profiteers. And the supply chain is riddled with holes, accusations of price-gouging, and reports that the Trump administration is seizing orders of protective gear from states in need.
So far, the administration is not complying with requests for more transparency about its response.
House Democrats requested similar information from the Federal Emergency Management Agency this month about Kushner’s role in directing the acquisition, distribution or sale of personal protective equipment or medical supplies. So far, the agency has ignored those questions.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/coronavirus-jared-kushner-elizabeth-warren_n_5ea741b5c5b6a30004e6bd2e