HHS Invites Insurance Company Leaders to Discuss Health Insurance Premiums To Yet Another Meeting – “It’s the Algorithms of High Frequency Healthcare Stupid”

Well I’m waiting for the blog to start asking for opinions and suggestions here, it’s what people do that don’t know what to do. Here we have one more meeting to “talk” about this again. We have had months of talk and all I see is a whole bunch of leaders that in fact appear not to be leaders at all as most suffer from “tech denial” and can’t wake up and smell the servers. In other words they are completely oblivious to the world that is evolving around them. It’s the algorithms stupid!

“Department of Algorithms – Do We Need One of These to Regulate Upcoming Laws?

It is all the “secretive” formulas that making these decisions and until we take the health insurance business off the stock market and turn it back to non profit businesses again, this is going nowhere. Any laws that are made without doing this and creating a “private” option will fail. We don’t trust their business model now and won’t in the future. Some of our healthcare profits go out of the country right now with Private Equity Firms in the UK! Rachel sums it up pretty well here, it’s all about business. It’s the algorithms stupid!

TriZetto Group, Owned by Apax Partners-London Based Private Equity Firm, Rolls Out Payer Based PHR

Why do things like this happen with coverage disappearing and coming back – it’s the algorithms stupid!

Health Insurance Coverage Disappears Mysteriously – It’s the Algorithms – He Was Reinstated More Than Likely with Some Human Intervention and Additional Analysis Investigations

So we have one more talk in addition to the President tomorrow. I have very little faith in any of this as Congress doesn’t live in the real world to understand how technology is taking advantage of the ignorance. Others said this last year in front of crowds at the annual HIMMS convention! It’s the algorithms stupid!

U.S. Congress has an inadequate understanding Value of Health IT – HIMMS Opening Session

Here’s one more suggestion below, and I said last year that we needed a leader in HHS that had some IT skills and it’s coming to fruition on the lack thereof as they missed the boat in seeing down the road and looking at the future. It’s the algorithms stupid!

Would Someone Explain Data Aggregation and “High Frequency Healthcare” to the US Congress

In short, we have a technologically advanced world that appears to have evolved beyond the understanding of our lawmakers, who make little or no effort to participate or understand. It’s the algorithms stupid! BD

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today invited insurance company chief executive officers to a March 3 meeting at HHS to discuss their companies’ insurance premiums. The CEOs of UnitedHealth Group Inc., WellPoint Inc., Aetna Inc., Health Care Service Corporation and CIGNA HealthCare Inc. along with leaders from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners have been invited.

Text of the letter delivered to insurance company CEOs is below:

Dear ______,

Across the country, health insurance premium increases are impacting American families and business owners, and experts indicate that premiums will continue to rise. In recent weeks, we have learned of premium increases of nearly 40 percent in one state and we know significant premium increases are not isolated incidents. I am concerned about these increases, which make it harder for people to access the health care they need, and eager to hear the justification for these increases and steps we can take to create a more stable system that keeps premium costs down for all Americans.

To that end, I will be hosting a meeting with insurance company executives and hope you will accept this invitation to join us on Wednesday, March 3 at the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C at 11:30 AM. Our conversation will benefit from your experience and expertise.

I hope this meeting will provide an opportunity to discuss how health insurance reform can bring down health care costs and fix our broken health insurance system. President Obama has offered a health insurance reform proposal that begins to give middle class families and small business owners the health care security they have been losing over the past 16 years. This plan was informed by our discussions with a wide variety of stakeholders over the past year including representatives from NAIC. Now, as we move forward, we welcome your thoughts and ideas about how reform can ensure all Americans have the stable, secure, affordable health care coverage they need and deserve.

We all share a commitment to fighting fraud in our health care system, driving down health care costs and implementing reforms that will add value to our health care system. I look forward to a productive conversation on these and other issues. Should you have any questions regarding this meeting, please contact my office at (202) 690-7000.

Sincerely,
Kathleen Sebelius
Secretary of Health and Human Services