Film Examines Corporate Greed, Silenced Patients and the Systematic Destruction of American Medicine

BALTIMORE, MD, UNITED STATES, February 20, 2026 / EINPresswire.com / — At a time when healthcare systems nationwide are navigating workforce shortages, financial strain and evolving regulatory pressures, the documentary ” Suck It Up, Buttercup: Trust & Betrayal – Healthcare in America,” will screen in Baltimore on March 19, at 7 p.m at the historic The Senator Theatre.

Hosted by the Irreverent Health podcast team, the event is open to healthcare professionals, executives, policymakers, students, and anyone who is frustrated with the state of the healthcare.The film examines how unchecked corporate greed — driven by private equity takeovers, predatory consolidation, and profit-first reimbursement models — has gutted the U.S. healthcare system from within. Patients pay the highest price: their voices silenced, their care decisions overridden by administrators who have never set foot in an exam room, and their trust in medicine systematically eroded.

Through interviews with frontline physicians, healthcare leaders, patient advocates, and policy experts, “Suck It Up, Buttercup,” presents perspectives from inside exam rooms and executive offices, exploring how financial priorities and compliance demands intersect with clinical decision-making.

Crucially, the film amplifies patient voices — people whose care has been denied, delayed, or degraded — ensuring those most affected by corporate greed in healthcare are finally heard.

“This film pulls back the curtain on how the prioritization of profits over people has fractured trust in healthcare,” said Executive Producer Todd R. Otten, MD. “It reveals the human cost of a system where administrators and stakeholders often protect financial interests at the expense of patient care and clinician wellbeing.” “Greed is not a business strategy — it is a destruction strategy. And American patients are paying the ultimate price.”

“Suck It Up, Buttercup,” examines the increasing role of bureaucracy and financial incentives in modern medicine,” said Executive Producer MaryAnn Wilbur, MD, MPH, MHS. “It addresses the learned helplessness many clinicians describe and invites a broader discussion about leadership accountability and long-term sustainability in healthcare. What is too often missing from these conversations is the patient,“ she adds. “This film insists that the patient voice be heard — not as an afterthought, but as the entire point.”

Directed by the collaborative team of Amy Schrob, Scott Pressler, John Mottern, MaryAnn Wilbur and Todd Otten, the documentary features physicians, nurses, healthcare executives and policy voices discussing operational realities, including documentation burdens, productivity targets, consolidation and shifting governance structures.

Executive producers, Otten and Wilbur lead the producing team that includes The American Academy of Emergency Medicine along with John Hunter Mottern, Director of Photography, Producer, Scott Pressler, Creative Director, Producer, and Amy Schrob, Editor, Producer.

Featured participants include Mark Cuban; Dr. and Lady Glaucomflecken; Wendy Dean, MD; Leah Carpenter, RN; Ashley Chancellor, RN; Dike Drummond, MD; Don Berwick, MD; Mark Reiter, MD, Tammy Scott, RN; Terrence Mulligan, MD; Rebecca Wood; Camille Burnett, PhD; Linda Peeno, MD; Wendell Potter; Matthew Zachary; Taylor Paige Borque, RN; Tina Shah, MD; Steve Abelowitz, MD; and Kemia M. Sarraf, MD.

For Baltimore — home to globally recognized healthcare institutions, academic medical centers, and a robust life sciences ecosystem — the screening offers an opportunity to engage in dialogue around workforce stability, leadership responsibility, and the business decisions shaping care delivery.

The screening is open to the public and will include a post-film discussion.

Tickets and additional information are available at: https://irreverenthealth.com/suck-it-up-buttercup/

About “Suck It Up, Buttercup: Trust & Betrayal – Healthcare in America”:

The documentary explores systemic pressures within the U.S. healthcare system and their impact on patient care, clinician wellbeing, and organizational culture. The film is produced by Buttercup Productions and its executive producing team. The film makes the case that unchecked greed — through private equity, corporate medicine, consolidation, and profit-first mandates — has devastated U.S. healthcare, and that restoring it requires centering the patient voice above all else.

For more information about the film visit https://suckitupbuttercupfilm.com.

Official teaser: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2g6yxyUydY

Read full press release HERE.

The American Medical Association (AMA) has delivered eight major wins for physicians and patients—wins that did not happen by chance. They happened because the AMA fought relentlessly on your behalf.

The federal government funding package passed Tuesday includes several AMA-backed provisions that will directly impact your practice and strengthen patient care:

1. Medicare telehealth coverage extended for two more years, preserving essential access for patients nationwide.
    
2. A 3.1 percent bonus reinstated for physicians in Medicare alternative payment models, helping stabilize practices participating in value-based care.
    
3. Expansion of the Medicare Diabetes Prevention Program to include virtual services through 2029, improving access for at-risk patients.
    
4. New requirements for Medicare Advantage plans to maintain accurate, regularly updated provider directories, reducing administrative burdens and patient confusion.
    
5. Extension of the Acute Hospital Care at Home waiver through 2030, supporting innovative, physician-led care models.
    
6. A five-year extension of the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act, continuing vital efforts to reduce stigma around physician mental health.
    
7. Targeted PBM reforms that increase transparency and move us closer to lowering prescription drug costs for patients.
    
8. Reauthorized PREEMIE Reauthorization Act, expanding research on preterm birth, and the Preventing Maternal Deaths Act, increasing funding to $100 million annually through 2030 to prevent maternal mortality.

When combined, these hard-fought victories demonstrate something more powerful than legislative wins alone. They represent what is possible when physicians stand together and when lawmakers find common ground to support better care. Learn more here.

The bipartisan bill would forgive medical school loans of up to $50,000 a year.

In many parts of Virginia, patients have to travel long distances for basic health care due to a lack of doctors and hospitals likely to worsen with the implementation of President Donald Trump’s 2025 budget law, which slashed $1 trillion from Medicaid and other federal health programs over a decade.

A bipartisan bill currently being considered in the Virginia General Assembly, sponsored by Democratic Sen. Creigh Deeds and Democratic Del. Rodney Willett, is designed to increase the number of medical providers serving those health care deserts, areas that are without sufficient medical providers and facilities.

Senate Bill 625 and House Bill 663 would create a Medical Education Loan-for-Service Fund and Program, providing forgivable medical school loans of up to $50,000 per year for up to four years for those who agree to practice medicine at a rural Virginia emergency hospital or health clinic or provide needed services in other underserved Virginia locations following graduation. In order for the loans to be forgiven, the recipients would have to commit to two to five years of service, depending on how many years they received loans, or pay back the funds with interest.

“Looking at the experience of other states, we did a heck of a lot of research and talked to a heck of a lot of people, and ultimately came up with this medical education loan-for-service program,” Clark Barrineau, vice president of government affairs and public policy of the Medical Society of Virginia, told the Virginia Independent. “This would, as it says, drive people to go live and work in underserved parts of Virginia, increasing health care access and strengthening our workforce.” Similar laws have been adopted in Kansas, North Carolina, and New Mexico.

If approved, the legislation would cost Virginia $3 million annually and cover 60 loans per year.

Barrineau, whose organization strongly supports the bill, noted that Virginia has a statewide health care workforce crisis: “People have to drive for miles to see specialists in certain parts of southwest Virginia. So we need those people, primary care, pediatricians, OB-GYNs. We need them to go live where people are and where we know the needs are.” He noted that Trump’s budget law included a $200,000 cap on the amount a medical student can borrow in federal loans, below the total cost of all six Virginia medical schools. “This is an attempt to fix some of what the federal government decided to break, and this way we can address the problems that we have all across Virginia.”

“It would drive more and more of these individuals to these parts of the commonwealth, and the reason for that is because we lose more than we keep, in Virginia,” Barrineau said. “We train more people at our medical schools than we retain to live and work in Virginia once they graduate from medical school. If we are investing in them, we want them to stay and treat Virginia patients.”

Last year, Pulaski County community volunteer and stay-at-home mom Hazel Wines told the Virginia Independent that a lack of providers means her family often has to drive an hour to Roanoke for health care. “We often have to go outside, certainly outside of our county and sometimes outside of the New River Valley altogether, to get appropriate care, especially for our children,” she said.

Rural medical providers are cheering the legislation.

Dr. Stephen Combs is chief medical officer for Ballad Health Medical Associates, responsible for medical facilities operating in southwest Virginia and northeast Tennessee, and a practicing pediatrician in both states. He said in a phone interview that the mountainous terrain of southwest Virginia can present challenges both for patients to get to medical care and to have adequate Internet to use telehealth. 

“This is really unique in that it addresses the workforce shortages early in the pipeline,” said Combs, who also . “So this is when students come out and go, Wow, I’d really like to do family medicine or pediatrics, but I already owe $200,000. I don’t know if I can afford it. We would be able to work with those students then and say, If you will commit to practicing in Virginia, commit to practicing one of these specialties — and it’s not just family medicine and pediatrics. Surprisingly, there’s a need for emergency medicine, OB-GYN, psychiatry, so there are multiple needs that would fill any medical student’s wish list — we would be able to help you.” 

Wendy Welch, executive director of the nonprofit Southwest Virginia Graduate Medical Education Consortium, said her organization loves the bill: “I talked to a couple of the coordinators of residency programs here in southwest Virginia — there are four residency programs — and they said the same thing: This is going to be really helpful to rural kids who want to go to medical school. It’s going to be a quick infusion of cash available. In Scotland, where my husband’s from, they would call it ‘ ‘money for old rope,’” meaning a big return for little investment, though she noted that the time it takes to complete medical school, including residencies, means it will take a while for the bill’s impact to be fully felt.

“There is nothing about this that loses for rural people, especially rural medical students,” Welch said. “They’re going to get assistance to do something they want to do. The communities themselves are going to get good doctors from those rural students who are dedicated to rural education and rural health care provision. There’s nothing about that that’s wrong.”

From Virginia Independent News

The Washington Post reports the Administration is “overhauling the list of routine shots recommended for all babies and children in the United States.” Effective immediately, the CDC will “no longer recommend every child receive vaccines for rotavirus, influenza, meningococcal disease, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), hepatitis A and hepatitis B, according to materials released Monday by the Department of Health and Human Services. Instead, smaller groups of children and babies should get those vaccines only if they are at high risk or if a doctor recommends it.”

The New York Times reports the CDC’s new schedule “continues to recommend vaccines against some diseases, including measles, polio and whooping cough, for all children,” but immunization for six other illnesses “will be recommended for only some high-risk groups or after consultation with a health care provider.” The new schedule also “circumvents the detailed and methodical evidence-based process that has underpinned vaccine recommendations in the nation for decades.” Public health experts “expressed outrage at the sweeping revisions, saying federal officials did not present evidence to support the changes or incorporate input from vaccine experts.”

The AP reports that Administration officials “said the overhaul…won’t result in families who want the vaccines losing access to them, and said insurance will continue to pay. But medical experts said the decision creates confusion for parents and could increase preventable diseases.” The change also comes as US vaccination rates are declining and “the share of children with exemptions has reached an all-time high, according to federal data.”

NBC News also reports.

Read full article from American Health Law here.

On January 1, 2026, the Virginia Workers’ Compensation Commission will implement the 2026 Medical Fee Schedules and Ground Rules that will establish the maximum fees for fee scheduled medical services rendered to injured workers pursuant to (a) the Virginia Workers’ Compensation Act (Title 65.2 of the Code of Virginia) during the period from January 1, 2026 through December 31, 2027; and (b) amendments to regulation 16 VAC 30-110-10 et seq. Click below to view the following information:

• 2026 Medical Fee Schedules;
• 2026 Medical Fee Schedules Ground Rules;
• 2026 Medical Fee Schedules Summary of Changes;
• Medical Fee Schedule Regulations

Additional Schedule resources available include the MFS Calculator and MFS Administrative Determination Notice. Both include:

• Line-Level Adjustments – each claim line now clearly shows impact of Ground Rule adjustment(s) to the maximum fee.
• Fee Calculations – are also displayed as the calculated maximum fee per code.

Tutorials for each are linked here.

Questions? Email the Medical Fee Services team here.