92648

Vermont Judicial Ruling on Selling Data Mined Information Certainly Haunts of Huge Undertones of Digital Illiteracy & Tech Denial–There’s A Better Solution–Tax It!

I took me a while and I finally got around to reading more in detail and the more I read the more ridiculous the ruling sounds and again without any modern day considerations of the world we live in today, sure sell everybody out because we are going to attach this to “speech” in the Constitution.  Couldn’t they do any better than that?  It is a very strange world we live in today with technology and algorithms running so much of what we do, but yet when we need a ruling and go to a judicial system, it appears to me from what I read we went back to Bedrock with Fred Flintstone to speak of.  Back in April I already wrote about the capability of any judicial system to rule adequately on the Healthcare law, one way or the other, as so much changed in a year.  Sure modifications are in order as you would have to be living under a rock not to see new developments over the last year, President gets it, but everybody else seems stuck in time. 

Healthcare Reform Law– Is Any Judge Fully Capable of A Decision on a Law That is Challenged By Constantly Changing Algorithms?

This is the deal.  I don’t even think most judges have the ability to interpret the mass of information that is given to them without some extreme mining software and queries.  What is also interesting too is to find the unknown conflicts of interest that judges have today, duh?  I just kind of wonder how they can make impacting legal decisions that affect all of us today and yet be totally out of touch with mergers and acquisition that take and change business models, sometimes with some new algorithms in 48 hours too.  Look at this link for 3 judges that had no clue on how the companies they were long time invested in had changed business models, acquired other companies and so forth…happening all over the place today. 

3 Judges in Health-Care Lawsuits Caught Up In Potential Conflict of Interest-It’s Called Subsidiary Watch-Be Aware of Your Investments With Mergers and Acquisitions

Harvard said in relationship to healthcare they were going to do a study about how mergers and acquisitions are affecting the healthcare business – What took so long to determine this needed a study I say as I have tons of what I call “subsidiary watch” posts that have been put on this blog for over 3 years.  I have been doing my own studies with posts on that subject and they are now just getting a clue on this?  Perhaps we had to hear enough stories in the news that exposed the digital illiterate and non informed before this really came to light. 

Judge In Health Care Lawsuit, Has Financial Ties To GOP Marketing Firm-Judges Need Some “Algo Men” on Board As Advisers to Sort Out Their Connected Interests

I looked around the web a bit to see what others had to say and ran across Dr. Wes who had a few comments that may have been in jest but when you think about it, how does the digital illiterate rule on this, do we just ignore technology and make ruling that are “denial laws” that hurt some and make others rich? 

“What interests me from this ruling is that the act of collecting this information -- the prescribing physician's name and address; the name, dosage, and quantity of the medication; the date and place where the prescription was filled; and the patient's age and gender -- was considered "speech" with the justices ruling that "the creation and dissemination of information are speech for First Amendment purposes."

Think about that: writing a prescription and disseminating that information is now "speech."
What I wonder, of course, will all our prescribing practices that are entered on an Electronic Medical Record, be they for a medical device, test, order, or request, similarly be classified as "speech" protected under the First Amendment? Might this ruling significantly impact a patient's right to privacy about their health condition as innumerable third parties can now access prescribing (aka, ordering) information in the blink of an eye electronically?”

Is writing a prescription considered “speech” and how about all the devices that create the data that is algorithmically created and sent to the companies to sell, are devices that report data called “speech” too?  Are we also going to give “robots” the speech clause too?  Denial? Big time because they are already out there doing it.  So again I look at these rulings and interpretations as being flat out of the dark ages with “non participants” in consumer technology today because if they participated we would have better rulings.  What does HIPAA say about the “speech” clause…can we just blow anything out there today and does this render HIPAA even more useless?  Again, either digital illiteracy or denial or maybe both were definitely included when you read the ruling, can’t miss it. 

Well let’s don’t stop here and see what some government agencies like the FDA are doing these days.  Do you eat Cheerios?  Did you the FDA calls it a drug.  So little Johnnie before he goes to school every morning eats a bowl of drugs.  Goodness forbid he tell his classmates and teacher that he gets a bowl of drugs every morning or the authorities with the context of this will be running out with sirens flaring for that Mom or Dad that gives their child a bowl of drugs every morning and with milk to boot.  This is right along the same lines as this Vermont ruling even though one is judicial and one is an agency opinion, both are just that opinions that bind.

Cheerios Classified as a “Drug” by the FDA

This is not totally the judicial system’s fault for all rulings as we have lawmakers creating new laws at all levels and we have the same issues with being participants and being up to date with consumer digital literacy and this in turn puts more stress on the legal system with trying to rule on some of odd laws that are rolling out of legislative arms everywhere.  Nobody wants this headache so many have retired to get out of the impossible interpretation rat race.  We all need to feel we make good and correct decisions today but this process keeps building on itself so good rulings are going the way side. 

Digital Illiteracy Continues With Lawmakers at State Levels–Insane Laws Proposed And Being Passed-Financial Puppeteers (Video)

By the way, did you know if you are using anti-perspirants that you are apply a drug under your arm every day…and this is actually kind of funny because many companies are out there trying to market products to make “pits” look better.  I really don’t care but I don’t like it when they stink and so I guess I use my drug every day.

Antiperspirants are Considered a Drug by the FDA – Recent Study looks at a connection possible between breast and prostate cancerimage

Now what is really strange at the Office of Patents and Copyright office is the fact that Pfizer could not get a copyright for their drug, Viagra and the reason given was that it was too similar to Horny Goat Weed, so get a load of that as the drug has been out there and prescribed and has been a best seller for years, but can it get copyrighted, nope but I bet that drug or bowl of Cheerios had not problem. <grin>.  See what digital illiteracy does for us today with people making decisions that affect all of us?  Be on your toes though as when Viagra goes off patent here there’s also a new ruling with generic drugs that those companies can’t be sued and that was in the news this week so FDA has few less teeth in their enforcement area today. 

We don’t know what end is up any more to include the judicial system.  To make an effective law and predict how and what areas will be affected we need high tech, like IBM Watson or some other high powered query system, and I have been saying this is needed at the root for Congress to use as a tool and the judges need the collaborative information to made a ruling that doesn’t look like it came out of Bedrock.  Technology and it’s use is going to keep moving along and in the process innocent consumers get fleeced and digital illiteracy of both are lawmakers and judicial system allow that to continue and Price Waterhouse somewhat verified this in their recent study. 

Study From Price Waterhouse States the U.S. Medical-Technology Business Is Losing It’s Edge-Time to Think About Priorities

From the lawmaking standpoint all we get is more talk on abortions, an item out of the 70s where they have some input or knowledge and with yesterday’s ruling in New York allowing gay couples doesn’t tell you we live in different times today with new values, I don’t know what else has to hit one over the head for a wake up call.  Investors today are having a hard time today too with banks over inflating social algorithms and creating this huge imbalance with more algo companies than those that produce tangible products and that’s problem with jobs, as so many start ups don’t last, maybe of 100 make it and all the rest lose their jobs and have to start all over again. I can ‘t take a Facebook pill when I am sick and get well, so tangibles in this and other areas needs investors, not social algorithms. 

Life and Healthcare A Big Batch of Non Balanced Algorithms With Insufficient Intellectual Interpretations–Tax Breaks Maybe For Those Producing Tangibles Vs Formulas

Coming back around to the topic here I think we are going about this in all the wrong ways as you can’t control those algorithms but we can certainly license and tax it and bring money back to the US in this way from those making millions doing so.  People make money all the time giving speeches and it’s income and is taxed so if this speech, let’s get a license fee out there and tax it and provide a public disclosure of all the companies selling and receiving data.  Pop that license right on the web site for both sides.  Make the tax an federal excise tax, just like we do for tires, etc. Again when people are hired to give a “speech” they pay taxes on that income so if this is speech with selling our data, let’s get some revenue back for the consumers and tax it heavily and those who are serious will pay and other will drop out. I wrote a bit more at the link below and there’s certainly more that could imagebe added.

Privacy Wanted–So Let’s Require Those Who Sell Web Data to Register and Tax the Transactions and Publicly Disclose Who They Sell To With a Federal Registry

Another post well worth reading is the idea that a credit agency is going to collect your personal data and sell it to insurance companies to predict if you are going to take your medication as a patient. THIS IS A TOTAL MIS MATCH OF QUERIES AND DATA THAT IS A FARCE TO BE MARKETED.  You know how this stuff gets any support though, see Cheerios above as an example of how distorted all of this gets and the insanity that develops.  No doubt FICO thinks their algorithms will help solve this problem with using your credit scores and other data to assign you a risk assessment and what you see there is a belief in their own insanity, but since it exists, well hey let’s market the insanity <grin> and that’s what they are doing and it will hurt you and I as far as access to medications as some other idiot out there will consider this to be decision making criteria and either give you a less effective cheaper drug based on this or maybe no treatment at all, as they are basically creating guidelines here to deny care and make money at it. If someone tells you repeated that 2+2=5 and pounds it into your head for an extended amount of time you start believing it and that’s what they are hoping for here to further fleece US citizens. 

FICO Analytics Press Release Marketing Credit Scoring Algorithms to Predict Medication Adherence–Update (Opinion)

FICO Credit Score Company Develops New Medication Adherence Scoring Program–Risk Management Assessment Algorithms Created to Derive Profits For Corporations–Fail!

Again are robots and devices that create data needing freedom of speech too?  If so everyone’s going to be creating automated systems to get and sell that data who has not done so already.  Digital illiteracy at the judicial system alive and well with a less than substantially informed decision. 

Have you had enough reading of insanity here yet?  It’s all around us and the digital illiterate are making it worse with insane decisions that are not applicable to the times we live in today and the more rulings they make like this, the worse it will get.  I hate write posts like this and it even spooks me out to see some of the crappy stuff I warned about with misuse and abuse of data back in 2009 now coming to shape as I predicted, again due to digital illiteracy and not knowing what runs on servers behind closed doors with nobody accountable. On days like this I am so very disappointed in our lawmakers and judicial system and some of the decisions they hand down, as right now with not being in touch, they kind grasp at straws to find a way to make sense and give a ruling to where there’s little to choose from and insanity and consumer fleecing continues. 

Those that sell and profit from out data I’m sure are jumping for joy as once more they have been able to coerce the levels of digital illiteracy in our country to fool them again. It goes on all the time and with being in denial and not being a user of consumer IT technology ,they get fooled again and don’t look too smart and of course consumers, (and geeks especially) see this as one more failure of our system and why we are going down the tubes.  I’m not alone but rather I just seem to speak a little louder at times than most and I try to be professional about it but try listening to some read hard core technology specialists and you will hear it loud and clear and everyone works their algorithms around weak laws and rulings to keep the money rolling in.  Right now marketing one’s ass of it showing a lot of pull in fooling decision makers as it’s a game as new law makers come in and they get to start all over and notice who gets the money backing, those leaders who digitally illiterate, as they are easier to manipulate.

Why Is Almost Everyone In Healthcare Marketing Their “Ass” Off

Here’s one judge that finally was honest and said that he needed more time to chase some algorithms as relates to the case against WellCare.

Judge Delays Trial of WellCare Ex General Counsel And States “It’s Complicated” And We Need Time to Chase the Algorithms

As long as we keep calling food articles, drugs, not allowing copyrights for prescription drugs that have been around forever and then see “speech” as a somewhat of an insanity ruling we have not hope to stop the insanity and the digital illiterate are out to busy us all, again ignorance at high scary level with decision makers in the US.  BD 

This week, in a 6-3 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Vermont law that restricts the sale or use of doctors' prescribing information for the purpose of marketing prescription drugs.

The decision is a significant victory for Norwalk-based IMS Health Inc., a leading drug data provider, and its co-respondents, data vendors Verispan LLC (now SDI Health LLC) and Source Healthcare Analytics Inc., and PhRMA, a drug industry trade group. They had challenged the law on First Amendment grounds, that it violated their constitutional right to free speech.

The Vermont law takes aim at a practice known as "prescription data mining," in which pharmacies sell electronic prescription records (with patients' names encrypted) to medical data providers. These companies extract data, such as physicians' prescribing habits, and sell them to pharmaceutical firms, which use them to tailor sales pitches to individual doctors. Vermont sought to curtail this practice to protect physician privacy and to reduce health care costs.

The Day - Connecticut drug data provider can sell prescription info, high court rules | News from southeastern Connecticut

Life and Healthcare A Big Batch of Non Balanced Algorithms With Insufficient Intellectual Interpretations–Tax Breaks Maybe For Those Producing Tangibles Vs Formulas

No matter where you go or what you do there’s a computer process that seems to be governing every part of life today.  This week a computer break down at United Airlines left some algorithms non performing.  From what I have read the news reports the back up system didn’t kick in, so tech interpretation of that is a server fail imageover got wrenched and there are a number of items that can cause that to occur, way too many to talk about with not having any further details, but when the queries stop running the data quits coming. 

Software is nothing more than a big group of algorithms, and that statement was made a while back by Bill Gates.  Whenever you are using software, algorithms are working to move and process data for decision making and automating processes that used to be handled by humans in many areas.  When you go online to bank, more algorithms.  When the doctor uses electronic medical records to enter and query data… more algorithms. 

The issues though that we all face today though is that there are those that produce accurate results and there are those that produce “desired” results and the two are not always the same as they can be skewed.  Wall Street for years has depended on the talent of the Algo Men and Women to create financial markets, trading software and so forth.  Usually the software is set to run a default set of parameters but today you can build your own with user interfaces and that’s when the “desired” category gets a little touchy or in same cases it has been proven illegal with parameters set.  In other words it comes back to the user as normally the software is set up to where it can be customized and the yield is in the hands of the user.

What has been a huge issue of late is the imbalance of technologies imageused.  For example when we take the financial market, they have some of the mostly highly sophisticated algorithms in existence, and how do you think they shifted all the money around in the world, you got it, algorithms and they run silently on servers that you don’t even think about or forget they are around.  We are not balanced with everyone having the same computing power so it’s kind of like a war with one side have single shot pistols and the other side having fully automated machines guns if you will for a simple comparison.  Sure the single shots will make some progress but the automated machines gun group will run them over in a short amount of time and basically this is the world we live in today.  Price Waterhouse did a study about losing our edge, not enough tangibles.

Study From Price Waterhouse States the U.S. Medical-Technology Business Is Losing It’s Edge-Time to Think About Priorities

“It is a technological arms race in financial markets and the regulators are a bit caught unaware of how quickly the technology has evolved”

I read where tax breaks are again on the agenda and the companies producing tangibles are the ones who would benefit the most as they create jobs with products we can use and everyone knows the shift of products to over seas has been growing steadily year by year.  If we want to give out tax breaks that might be a good bet against all the software companies.  I read the other day where the amount of time to get funded in the Silicon Valley according to one individual was down from 3-5 months to 3-5 days, so if you read the news and who gets funded that may not sound too outlandish. 

We have a huge imbalance that can’t sustain forever with just putting money on software and algorithms.  When I get sick I need a pill, a tangible product, not a social network link.  Everyone plays their role but if device companies had a break then they could produce and sell products that we need at hospitals and I would hope that would also help them with the affordability.  I like technology and all it does but we live on formulas alone and we are not balanced. 

Biotech companies scramble to get funded and it is also long term versus investing in some algorithms on the web that will add a little convenience.  I like those conveniences too but we can’t all live on them and eat them for dinner.  Tax breaks are a tricky subject but if used as a lever to bring more balance and jobs to the US, then it might be worth a look. Software has value but not at what we are seeing today as given by the banks.  When you stop and think about it due to transparency we are seeing this in front of our eyes, which with the mortgage formulas, they were hidden so open your eyes and see the next valuation game that’s in the works and how banks are driving it.  The flip side of this is that now all of sudden the banks are finding their own stock worth less. 

Technology has it’s place, a very important place but with everyone stymied as to why jobs are not being created just give that some thought.  Start ups don’t all make it and thus many of those jobs are temporary and go away quickly with the exception of the few survivors, and they should not be so over valued as we see today.  They have value but not with the tricky maneuvering we see out there, it’s fairy tale.  Healthcare CIOs are feeling it, and yet we keep burning them up with higher expectations than what can be met in certain timelines.

CIO Confidence In Meaningful Use Drops-The New Left Curve of Technology That Arrives Daily Contributes-Don’t Burn These Folks Out

Lawmakers are lost due to digital illiteracy in being able to take advantage of some high tech computing power that would help them do their job and stop talking abortions all the time.

Digital Illiteracy Still Plagues Law Makers–Severe Focus on Abortion Rights Proves It–Is This Where Our Lawmaking Knowledge Leaves Off or Even Begins? Scary…

I wrote about our first US CIO and wondered if he suffered burn out and if I were in his shoes with what’s going on today I would certainly feel burned out and the lack of being able to accomplish much of anything.  As humans we all need to have that feeling of accomplishment and people are being boxed in to where that cannot happen and they give up.

Vivek Kundra-US CIO To Resign And Take Fellowship at Harvard-Was He OverTaxed And Burnt Out, If So That is Allowed Today As This A True Reality for CIOs All Over the US

Even our legal system is not immune as all of a sudden they find out they have conflicts of interest as they just have not paid attention to mergers and acquisitions and that long time 10 year investment is not in the same type of company any more, I call this subsidiary watch.image

3 Judges in Health-Care Lawsuits Caught Up In Potential Conflict of Interest-It’s Called Subsidiary Watch-Be Aware of Your Investments With Mergers and Acquisitions

When you even look at where the Gates Foundation is investing today, it’s a heavy push for technology companies that produce tangibles, vaccines for one and biotech drug discovery.  Sometimes, too much technology without the ability to manage it effectively can yield some unintended consequences and I think the US has one big huge dose of this today. 

So to explain myself and everyone chuckles and rightly so at my over use of the word “algorithms” it’s here to educate and get the point across to the layman as to what is happening around them, why is all their money going away and how mathematical formulas do that and if I few get tuned here than I have served some purpose I think.  That’s been my whole lot from the beginning to open the door to the reality of what the world is today and how technology is in fact fleecing so many today.  It is what it is and when used for strictly financial gain we have the pretty situation we all see around us today.

An over balance of investing in formulas is eroding human liquidity and jobs still are for people and create liquidity.

It’s just amazing when I see all the developers who are rich due to their composed algorithms, and then on the other side see our hospitals, doctors and nurses with so much funding removed it doesn’t make sense.

Sure there’s a lot of room for improvement and we are seeing that all over which is good in healthcare but marketing with trying to find the “magic” formulas is killing it and leaving those who work in the industry with that feeling of not being able to feel fulfilled with their work.  Ask them and they’ll tell you.  Yesterday we had nurses march on Wall Street, but did this make the news, nope but some new algorithmic formula start up company got funded for 20 million and that was all over the place and they don’t even have a product yet?  See what I mean and this is the sad reality we have in the US.  Their message was to try and get some “caring” and financial help with a small transaction tax from the street to help finance healthcare when funding is scarce. 

Nurses Demonstrate on Wall Street Discussing Wages, Working Conditions - Addressing the Sad State of Healthcare Created by Financial Greed (Video)

In closing, until we regain some balance in the US the job situation is not going to improve and we lose our human liquidity, all for the sake of algorithms and software that runs through out veins.  Again I like technology and use a ton of it and I used to write code but I’m still I think not over shadowed to see the reality of what we are living today without balance.  BD

Google Health Personal Health Records Will Call It Quits Effective January 1, 2012

There’s a lot of changes around the web these days and keeping the information and APIs current to connect as Google Health was set up requires maintenance from the developing side and perhaps it was all money going out as an expense and not much coming back. I joined both Google Health and HealthVault when they became available a couple years ago and evaluated and used both. The device side of Google Health was slow to catch up with Microsoft Healthvault so in that respect they were out marketed. 

The system was easy enough to use and brought medical prescription records and lab results in, so information processes were similar to HealthVault, but again the big dividing line was “devices” where HealthVault went right away.  In addition, Google has some other interests they are chasing right now in other business areas to build and sometimes it requires a greater focus on few items, just like Cisco has done as well.  If you are spread too thin and can’t product the desired results then it’s time to take a look at the over all big picture.  Also when you step back and take a look at other “Google branded” programs that connected, there were not many and again this is where HealthVault took the ball and ran with it as they have suites of medical software to connect and create greater value and in today’s world of Health It and that makes a big difference.  There’s still the over all problem of not enough consumers using a PHR and that comes from the big lack of role models too as we don’t have any, but everyone repeat like a magpie and tells you “you should do it”. 

Granted that’s another problem but I hear this day in and day out and shoot half the people who write these blazing reviews on PHRS never use one, so that’s issue from the entire consumer side and we don’t even know if the Surgeon General uses the Surgeon General’s PHR either, silence is deafening from Washington on PHRs for the most part.  Not a one will share any of their experiences so this coupled with Google’s other interests with competition barking at their door with other web services probably lead to the announcement today too.  You have until the end of the year to move your records and after that, they will be deleted. 

Another Google Program called “Power Meter” for monitoring electricity in the home is also being discontinued in September.  BD  

Google has officially announced plans to shutter Google Health, its personal health record platform, come January 1, 2012. Data stored in Google Health will continue to be available for download until January 1, 2013. Google plans to add a direct transfer option to Google Health in the coming weeks that will enable users to transfer their health data to any other system that makes use of the Direct Project protocol. After that date any remaining data in Google Health will be deleted.

“In the end, while we weren’t able to create the impact we wanted with Google Health, we hope it has raised the visibility of the role of the empowered consumer in their own care,” Google Health’s senior product manager Aaron Brown wrote in the company’s blog. “We continue to be strong believers in the role information plays in healthcare and in improving the way people manage their health, and we’re always working to improve our search quality for the millions of users who come to Google every day to get answers to their health and wellness queries.”

Official: Google Health shuts down because it couldn’t scale adoption | mobihealthnews

United Healthcare OptumInsight’s LifeCode® Gets US Patent on ICD-10 Algorithms–Time for a Department of Algorithms As Part of the US Patent Office?

As you can see, health insurers are hot on the trail with software (which is nothing more than a collection of algorithms to quote Bill Gates) and this is getting so large and filings for patents is also a huge topic these days and I wonder even about the imageability of our Congress to create new laws and structures for this process.  Patents are not going away, but we nee some new definitive languages to outline a bit better as to what is a patent and is one required for a set of algorithms, i.e. who is affected and how far reaching is the software, on the web or in an application? 

This is a very gray area and I have reported on other companies who have their ICD-10 solutions out there too and without a full research on all that have been announced (i.e. Microsoft and 3M for a couple quick examples) do they all have patents and how does this service from OptumInsight differ?  It may and then again it could be very similar in nature and not seeing the code structure I can say one way or the other.  One thing that I did agree on with Microsoft who was in the news of late was their request to restructure the “intellectual property” patents in the US, as it is needed, it is too unstructured right now and again with software, there needs to be some definitive areas established as anyone could show a display of software and how it works and get a patent and we might be experiencing a lot of that today and then down the road we end up with lawsuits with patent disputes, so we have a real no win problem here and this is not a simple solution by any means to be very definitive with patents and intellectual property. 

Sometimes when challenged in court with some of the long standing patents we have and by the time the court case it settled, nobody is even using the original technologies that received a patent, so what sense does that make?  If you read around here often enough then you know I throw a lot of suggestions out there and this is just my “think tank” brain at work. So I’ll give you a link that goes back to 2009 and it contains the video of Harry Markopoulos and his testimony about the SEC, as it makes a real point for a need for a Department of Algorithms, somewhere in the government structure that is specialized to have experts to not grant so many blanket patents. 

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

This relates a bit to banks and so forth as well and you know the other night I was transferring some data to a server, nothing that was private and just some public file documents and you know I did the same thing the coder that was accused of doing at Goldman, I drug a bunch of old VB code and stuck it where I didn’t need it and it just made me think about the Goldman case as I did the same thing with grabbing a bunch of code accidentally and granted my stuff nothing with any value but the Goldman case stated his was open source code that he grabbed by accident and it just made me think of that case. 

I did it but again I am not a programmer working on trading algorithms and software, but it just told me that accidents like that do happen and it just made me wonder how that trial really went and did the jury understand what the code was and was it really more than just an open source stick of of code module which would need to be combined with other code to have any effectiveness and make some algorithms work.  I mention this as when we go to court these days too, a jury of peers with technology cases is going to be “darn hard” to find as so much will be way over the head of a layman so how fair will court cases be that discuss patent infringements?  I think that’s a real good question to ponder and again wonder if we will in fact have the availability of jurors who can intelligently discuss some of this. 

So back to the core of this discussion how big are the patent files going to get on software algorithms, think we need that specialized department, I think so or something along that line.  In the genetics side of this companies such as Myriad are experiencing their issues with patenting “genes” if you will which again is a software solution to find the data, so perhaps some of this thinking could roll over more so into healthcare software too that has to do with payer processes?  Here’s a couple links from some prior posts that maybe add some food for thought along this line. 

Goldman Stolen Code – Has Algorithmic Fraud Become A Business Model in HealthCare Too?
Are We Ever Going to Get Some Algorithm Centric Laws Passed for Healthcare!

Are we creating laws that are Algorithmic Centric or still just putting down pages and pages of verbiage with language that is supposed to set the laws on how software transactions take place without any certification so we have an idea of accuracy and operability.  This is a herd of big white elephants about ready to stampede.  One of my own thoughts which has been mentioned here many times is the certification too of payer algorithms just like medical records are certified to be accurate in their tender of information? There was a recent case now with 3rd parties too who audit medical claims with Med Solutions and Blue Cross who were caught on the “stress test” algorithm, interesting case and again who’s algorithms are analyzing what and presenting what types of results? 

HHS Issues Final Rule for Health Insurers To Justify Increases–Need to Certify Insurance Algorithms For Calculation Just Like We Certify Electronic Record Algorithms

I mention all of this now and it’s not going to vanish and will come around for discussion again and when I look back to my post on 2009 of needing a Department of Algorithms it even spooks me a bit:)  What even drives this discussion a bit further was back last year when Pfizer couldn’t even get a US trademark on Viagra as they said it was too similar to Horny Goat Weed, so again even in the clinical area there’s a lot of room for patent and copyright discussions today. We all know that we have paid dearly for the “legally patented stents” on the market today that save our lives and not that having a patent is a bad thing by any means, but the value of some these and the awards given in court cases is sure one more driving factor in keeping some of the expenses very high. 

So again lots of talk today about what is a patent, who gets one and how many are affected and last but not least, what does this do for the cost?  We have a lot of folks working on some of the same technologies in open source to, so keeping up with all of this and making an intelligent decision gets a little more trying every day, especially with the glut we have in healthcare technologies and Health IT where all want to cash in and they are lining up at the doors, especially when it comes to the ICD10 conversion technologies from ICD9.  BD 

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--OptumInsight’s LifeCode® Natural Language Processing technology, which powers its computer-assisted coding software, has received a 2011 U.S. Patent as the coding industry’s first natural language processing (NLP) engine to accurately interpret the meaning and context of medical terminology in electronic health records (EHR).

“We wanted to make sure that we had sufficient resources to accommodate the additional time required to use ICD-10 accurately. We knew OptumInsight’s CAC solution had the capability to do what we needed today, and will enable us to work more rapidly within the coming ICD-10 environment.”

LifeCode bridges the natural way physicians communicate about patient care and the data required in hospital information systems to help provide consistent and accurate diagnoses and procedure codes for proper reimbursement and metrics for quality reporting.

The newest LifeCode NLP engine patent recognizes OptumInsight’s innovative “mere-parsing” methodology, which not only identifies and interprets words and phrases, but enables the technology to understand their contextual use to make coding decisions and track clinical documentation practices.

Implementing OptumInsight’s CAC is also foundational to Ohio Health’s ICD-10 readiness efforts. By October 2013, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services requires all health care providers to code medical claims using the ICD-10 classification system, a 155,000-line index of medical diagnoses and procedures that replaces the 17,000-line ICD-9 system. As a result, hospitals and physicians offices face an increased demand for coding resources and are at greater risk of lost revenue and productivity from bottlenecks, inaccuracies, denials and delays in the coding process.

“ICD-10 requires a lot more data knowledge and will take more time to code correctly,” Diane Setty, Ohio Health’s corporate director for health information management. “We wanted to make sure that we had sufficient resources to accommodate the additional time required to use ICD-10 accurately. We knew OptumInsight’s CAC solution had the capability to do what we needed today, and will enable us to work more rapidly within the coming ICD-10 environment.”

OptumInsight’s LifeCode® Natural Language Processing Technology Receives U.S. Patent | Business Wire

Nurses Demonstrate on Wall Street Discussing Wages, Working Conditions - Addressing the Sad State of Healthcare Created by Financial Greed (Video)

This is not what you typically see on Wall Street but it was the sight of a demonstration of nurses calling for fair ethics and the return of good healthcare and working conditions due to the current economic conditions with many hospitals holding on by strings and numerous budget cuts. 

image

The associations as well as most in the country still hold the financial district and the highly sophisticated algorithmic financial deals that distributed the wealth over the US, responsible for their big part in what we have today.  In writing this blog it does get depressing to hear time after time about current hospital conditions, long hours, over worked doctors and nurses, it just never ends.  Since I began blogging back in 2007 content and struggles for money seem to keep getting worse. 

Nurses-Wall Street

The nurses were asking for a “more fair economy” and more responsibility from corporate investors, after all they at some time will be a patient so maybe ears opened.  To be more specific the nurses were calling for a half-cent tax on stock and bond sales and other financial transactions and is called "The Main Street Contract for the American People".  The nurses address that people are suffering but the news isn’t covering it and the loss of home nursing services that are disappearing all over the country due to budget cuts.  BD 

Nurses NYC Rally Promo

It’s time to make Wall Street high rollers who created our economic crisis pay its fair share.

Hundreds of nurses from across the country gathered in the heart of our nation’s financial center on June 22, an International Day of Action, to make that message crystal clear.image

“It’s time for their shared sacrifice. They haven’t had any of that. They have been making billions and trillions in profit and they are not giving anything back to our community,” said Deborah Burger, RN and member of the National Nurses United Council of Presidents.

The protest is part of the National Nurses United’s Main Street Contract for the American People’s campaign, which aims to reclaim an economy with good jobs at living wages, healthcare for all, quality education, good housing, protection from hunger, a safe environment, and a secure retirement for everyone.

Nurses Take On Wall Street | MyFDL

Dog Functions With Four Prosthetic Paws–The Bionic Dog

This is a little off the normal path but I love dogs and this video and story is just too good to pass up with watching the dog run and function so close to normal.  I had no idea that Orthopets existed and has a clinic to help animals. BD

Bionic dog

Naki’o is the first dog to be fitted with a complete set of bionic legs that work naturally to allow him to run, jump and even swim. The prosthetics were designed and fitted in a pioneering procedure by Martin Kaufmann, founder of Orthopets.

image

Abandoned by a family fleeing their foreclosed home and their mother dead, Naki’o and his brothers and sisters barely survived the harsh Nebraskan winter. Weakened by malnourishment, the red heeler puppy stepped into an icy puddle in the basement and got his four paws stuck in freezing water.

image

At just five weeks old the litter was taken to an animal rescue center. Under the shelter’s care Naki’o's paws, lost to severe frostbite, healed to rounded stumps.

Exclusive: Naki’o: The First Dog With Four Prosthetic Paws

FICO Analytics Press Release Marketing Credit Scoring Algorithms to Predict Medication Adherence–Update (Opinion)

I guess now it is official that the Medication Adherence Score Program is out to make money and you can read the press release below and I really don’t have to say much more as it is all self imageexplanatory and sometimes I wonder if companies when they put out press releases realize that consumers read these too <grin>.  In other words the target audience can catch they eye of anyone on the internet today.  When you read it we have the usual mumbo jumbo of the statistics that are usually quoted in most press releases today that elaborate on how big the problem is that they are attempting to solve or provide solutions for and this one is no different.  You can read the original post below from an article that was in the New York Times.  A few folks were critical on how it was presented but I’m going give the journalist a bit of a break here as with everything that is out there today with analytics, it’s hard to zero in and figure out their motive and the press clears some of this up today. 

FICO Credit Score Company Develops New Medication Adherence Scoring Program–Risk Management Assessment Algorithms Created to Derive Profits For Corporations–Fail!

We all know it is that “horrible awful patient” that is the villain here and if anyone reads the news today, those “villains” as they are now being identified as don’t have the money, so can someone please wake up here.  With the way this was explained in the Times article credit scores are being aggregated with additional information from public sources to create this “risk scoring” and so yes, some one that is without a job might not be able to pay for their meds, brilliant conclusion right?  You might also want to read up at the DailyKos on this as there was quite a bit of discussion over there on this topic. 

image

Before I go any further here I want to point out that I like data and realize the value and we are much smarter in so many way today, otherwise a few years ago I would not have written as a developer a medical records program.  If I hated analytics there would have been no way I would have even attempted such but I realize the value and better care patients get and the value for doctors to have charts for better care, hands no doubt about it.  I wanted to clarify this so those reading here know exactly where I am coming from, I don’t hate data and the value we get from it.

I wrote a lot of queries, matched a lot of data and you can create queries for “accurate” results and those for “desired” results and the 2 are not always the same.  We have a lot of of number crunching going on today and I look at a lot of it with a so-so attitude as I see it for what it is, number crunching and sometimes we get some good information from some of it and a lot of it is just numbers crunched.  I was recently communicating with someone over at the Prostate Cancer Foundation and asked how in the world do they work with some of the news that comes out as everyone has a cure, cause, treatment, food you should eat and so forth for prostate cancer. 

Company Advertisements Get Caught Making False Claims And Are Called to Task And So Much of This Activity is in Healthcare

That area of cancer seems to get more press out there in number crunching and advertising than anything else out there.  I report some of it here, one was a speech recognition program that said it could predict prostate cancer by the sound of one’s voice…give me a break…that's a number crunch, period and had little value as it was done over a very small group. 

Bayer Claim That Vitamins Prevent Prostate Cancer Is Now A Class Action Lawsuit – False Advertising

They read them all and evaluate and basically told me they understand how confused the consumer gets today with all of this and they fully understand the marketing going on and work hard to debunk what is not legitimate.  The FDA does a lot of work in that area too as not too long ago they classified Cheerios as a drug and just for the record, did you know your anti perspirant is a drug?  Stick around here long enough and you find some stuff that is kind of shocking.

Antiperspirants are Considered a Drug by the FDA – Recent Study looks at a connection possible between breast and prostate cancer

Back on track here with what is published today using one’s credit information is not an item that is directly related to patient care, it’s a number and with predictive analytics on steroids out there today, people are connecting and analyzing some wild connections.  I have been writing about that for the last 3 years here with articles that I call subsidiary watch.  In other words companies are buying up others who have a business that may not even be related, but guess what, they combine data and analyze.  Now all of this is not bad if done ethically and to the point to where value is derived.  Just put the words “subsidiary watch” in my Google search box and there’s a ton of articles talking about this fact. It’s what the world is today and if data is available, someone is going to figure out a way to market and sell it, bottom line as profits with public companies come first with share holders.  Never mind that you the patient may be harmed with some of this

I have written tons of queries and what’s stopping me to create a connection of the types of breeds of dogs we have in the world to how many folks take a vacation in Mexico?  Did you get that?  It was meant to be obnoxious to drive the point home, bottom line is nobody cares about this fact and it wouldn’t make any money, but now let’s say I come along and match data bases on how many that vacation in Mexico take what breed of dog with them and and come down with a case of gout?  Again pretty useless matching such data, but this is done all the time and marketed and the truth of this example would be that perhaps I own a travel business, sell dog food and am ready to buy a bio tech company that has a potential drug for gout? 

Why Is Almost Everyone In Healthcare Marketing Their “Ass” Off

Think this is unreal, nope, stuff like this happens all the time.  Through subliminal messages with being repeated on the web, people start to believe it and in time we are set for another OMG story and wonder, “how did that happen”, it’s marketing folks with using data for “desired” results.  Again I went to great lengths to be obnoxious here with this explanation to drive the point home and dumber comparisons and numbers have been crunched.  This brings me around to repetition of information on the web and how it creates doubt.  If I put 2+2=5 on this website and everyone retweeted it and is circulated all over and showed up again in a few months with the same marketing scheme, people might think “what is this, I keep seeing this, is there something to this?”  Again I am being obnoxious with the example to drive the point home. 

We have digital illiterates who buy in to this stuff and think everything they read is gospel when it is not, and then studies can get created from some of what is in print, we read it all the time out there. In a way I am doing the same thing here with putting the word “algorithms” center stage on this blog, but purpose is to educate and encourage learning as none of this happens without the math or the algorithms that run the process  Everything just about requires some kind of IT infrastructure to function today and algorithms to run it.  Loos at how the algorithms twisted the mortgage business, could not have been done without those algos they sold and transparency is now just bringing that to task. 

When it comes to drug adherence there’s nothing better than a good solid relationship with a physician and getting a good education about the drugs you are taking.  Even when I look at this I can’t even see how payers are going to buy into this either without seeing through it too, and normally I am not too kind toward my remarks in that area a they the kings of the algos and recently with insurers sending refunds to members, their algo were off too, weren’t they with their predictive cost scoring. 

Compliance Police Out In Force for Seniors–Health Plans and Drug Stores Making Phone Calls-Business Models & Caller Behavior Sucks -A Result of Pay for Performance Efforts?

Granted the company has analytics in many other areas that are helpful and do provide some value but I declare this a mis match just like my dog food and Mexico vacation example.  To be a bit of an oxymoron and comment here I wonder if payers even have room for this as again they are bursting at the seems with analytics and have their own business intelligence software solutions they are currently using?   United is already committed in this area with their predictive models that try to determine risk for diabetes and at least we have something better to look at other than “credit information”.image

With data mining today lawmakers are stuck, don’t know what to do about it, so ready below for my suggestion.  If we are going to get marketed with all our data, let’s license it, tax it and require a full updated disclosure on what the labels are for the data columns on their queries, who they sell to and report their earnings annually.  In addition the licensing fees would cover for a website to contain a full public disclosure and it would gave those who enforce the law a leg to stand on if a company did not register and was selling data.  With transparency, if there done today it would come out and this is not for the browser folks who work hard to bring good search information to us, unless they selling our data.  You can read more at the link below. Lawmakers certainly are not getting anywhere with current privacy efforts. 

Privacy Wanted–So Let’s Require Those Who Sell Web Data to Register and Tax the Transactions and Publicly Disclose Who They Sell To With a Federal Registry

ONE MORE TIME FOR THE RECORD FOLKS, IT’S ALL ABOUT THOSE ALGOIRTHMS, LIKE OR NOT, THIS IS REALITY AND I DON’T LIKE ALL THE RESULTS THAT COME OUT OF IT EITHER, JUST TRYING TO EDUCATE AND EXPLAIN HOW SOME OF THIS HAPPENS. 

I sent out a tweet this week to Michael Moore suggesting maybe his next movie could be titled “The Attack of the Killer Algorithms” as he done a good job with awareness but the next step is education and learning how all these processes take place and the difficult job of determining what is “flat out marketing” and what is valuable out there and I have issues figuring that out too at times.  This particular one though sticks out like a sore thumb. 

Again, think about the conversation between a doctor and a patient discussing treatments and drugs and how much more productive this would be.  The doctor could send the patient to sites and programs to where they could get their medications discounted or free, or even the sample closet.  That makes a lot more sense then running risk analysis numbers on who these algorithms determine are the big villains here.  See this for what it is…marketing.  Healthcare is about helping people and not turning them into an “evil community” of people and that’s exactly what this process is doing, so everyone has villains to blame.  FICO hopes to gain more sales here with this program of course and it’s all automated software so there are no jobs connected with these algorithms either. 

People misuse and abuse information and someone once this gets repeated down the line will use it as their ultimate decision making too, and look at the Arizona Governor who I consider less than digitally literate with what I read in the news.  She didn’t know how to work with math and let people die who needed transplants. 

IBM Watson Capabilities Being Pitched to Financial Industry-Congress Must Not Have Felt They Needed This So Further Behind We Fall With Effective Intelligent Lawmaking

One more time read this book and the understanding of mathematical formulas and how they are used might become a bit clearer to you as it is what it is and let us not forget there are human lives attached to all the algorithms and SQL statements that everyone is selling today.  I’m in there with everyone else with being sold. 

“Proofiness–The Dark Side of Mathematical Deception”–Created by Those Algorithms–New Book Coming Out Soon

Sometimes it say to say that we have become best “marketed” healthcare system that has ever been sold just like the movie. 

The Greatest Movie Ever Sold” Just Like “The Greatest Healthcare System Ever Sold”- Same Paradigms-Colbert Report (Video)

Like every other consumer I want accurate data and not just some projected algorithms that “might” help and you all can go back to the “dead doctor” story if you like if you need proof about what is accurate on the web.  AMA even liked that one we did an interview on that topic as their algorithms were and probably still are way out of whack with not only dead doctors, but many were listed affiliated with hospitals they never set foot in, wrong specialties and so forth. 

HealthGrades And Other MD Rating and Referral Sites List “Dead Doctors” on Their MD Information Pages And Even Include the Insurance Plans the “Dead Doctors” Honor

So once more is this a useful risk assessment to be used, not in my opinion, just someone wanting to make a buck from some new algorithms they created and in time when re-circulated and someone interprets this as gospel, patients will lose access to drugs and care.  It’s the way the digitally illiterate work today and the intelligence of some of the folks who create these stats and numbers know it, so be aware as my mission here is to try to bring this to light for a greater awareness and less potential “data fleecing” of consumers.  BD 

MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--FICO (NYSE:FICO), the leading provider of analytics and decision management technology, today announced the launch of the FICO® Medication Adherence Score, which uses predictive analytics to forecast an individual’s likelihood of taking his or her prescription medication as directed. The FICO Medication Adherence Score is a HIPAA-compliant solution that helps improve drug adherence, boosting therapy effectiveness and reducing health care costs.

“In relation to disease management, the FICO Prescription Score provides unique insights to tailor clinical support for the individual”

Medical industry estimates show that as many as one-half of the 3.2 billion prescriptions in the U.S. each year aren’t taken as prescribed, and patients consequently run a greater risk of poor health outcomes and more frequent hospitalizations. Non-adherence is cited as the primary cause for 10 percent of hospital admissions and 23 percent of nursing home admissions each year. Some 90,000 deaths per year are attributed to patients’ failure to adhere to anti-hypertensive treatment alone. In financial terms, the industry analyst group IDC Health Insights estimates that poor drug regimen compliance costs the U.S. health care system between $250 billion and $300 billion per year, or about 13 percent of the nation’s total health care expenditure. This problem led the National Consumers League to launch a major public education campaign in May to raise awareness about the consequences of not taking medication as directed.

“As the debate intensifies over how to structure and pay for effective health care in America, non-adherence to prescription medication has emerged as a critical focus,” said Mark Greene, CEO of FICO. “When people don’t take their medicine, this hurts their health and raises the cost of care. The FICO Medication Adherence Score has the potential to deliver immediate value in this area, helping physicians, health care organizations, pharmacy benefit managers, clinical review organizations, and pharmaceutical marketers improve patient outcomes while lowering costs.”

FICO’s analytics identify the potential future adherence risk of each patient by using data from a range of publicly available third-party data sources. Because the FICO Medication Adherence Score requires minimal information from the patient, and no prescription claims or sensitive health information, the score can be generated for members of any patient population. The FICO Medication Adherence Score enables patient communication, drug therapy management and other programs to be customized for the individual or patient segment. This tailored approach creates opportunities for improved program effectiveness at reduced costs.

“The FICO Medication Adherence Score provides valuable insight to pharmaceutical marketing teams that until now has not been readily available,” said Eric Newmark, Research Manager at IDC Health Insights. “Considering that non-adherence to prescribed drugs is estimated to cost the pharmaceutical industry more than $35 billion in lost revenue annually, the FICO Medication Adherence Score can offer great value for marketing optimization and insight into ways to improve patient health. The solution is likely to drive synergies in other investments as well, such as remote patient monitoring and better ‘connected’ Medication Adherence.”

“In relation to disease management, the FICO Prescription Score provides unique insights to tailor clinical support for the individual,” said Louis Brunetti, MD, JD, FACP, and Chief Medical Officer for MedImpact Healthcare Systems, Inc. MedImpact has used information technology and human capital to improve the practice of managed care pharmacy since 1989. The company partners with the nation’s finest health plans, hospitals, and employers to provide pharmacy benefit management services.

“Indeed, a readily obtainable measure like the FICO Medication Adherence Score provides physicians, pharmacists and pharmacy benefit managers with a clearer understanding of the most effective therapeutic choices available to effectively treat a particular patient,” said Brunetti.

FICO works with 40 of the world’s top health care companies and eight of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies, helping them apply advanced analytics to gain actionable insights. Services include health care marketing management, health care analytics, wellness management and health care fraud protection.

About FICO
FICO (NYSE:FICO) delivers superior predictive analytics solutions that drive smarter decisions. The company’s groundbreaking use of mathematics to predict consumer behavior has transformed entire industries and revolutionized the way risk is managed and products are marketed. FICO’s innovative solutions include the FICO® Score — the standard measure of consumer credit risk in the United States — along with industry-leading solutions for managing credit accounts, identifying and minimizing the impact of fraud, and customizing consumer offers with pinpoint accuracy. Most of the world’s top banks, as well as leading insurers, retailers, pharmaceutical companies and government agencies, rely on FICO solutions to accelerate growth, control risk, boost profits and meet regulatory and competitive demands. FICO also helps millions of individuals manage their personal credit health through www.myFICO.com. Learn more at www.fico.com. FICO: Make every decision count™.

Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Information
Except for historical information contained herein, the statements contained in this news release that relate to FICO or its business are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the “safe harbor” provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially, including the success of the Company’s Decision Management strategy and reengineering plan, the maintenance of its existing relationships and ability to create new relationships with customers and key alliance partners, its ability to continue to develop new and enhanced products and services, its ability to recruit and retain key technical and managerial personnel, competition, regulatory changes applicable to the use of consumer credit and other data, the failure to realize the anticipated benefits of any acquisitions, continuing material adverse developments in global economic conditions, and other risks described from time to time in FICO’s SEC reports, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended September 30, 2010. If any of these risks or uncertainties materializes, FICO’s results could differ materially from its expectations. FICO disclaims any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

FICO is a trademark or registered trademark of Fair Isaac Corporation in the United States and in other countries.

New FICO Analytics Predict Likelihood of Patient Adherence to Prescription Medication | Business Wire

Investment Banking Background Appears to Have Trumped Science With Selection of New Chairman of California Stem Cell Program

If you read the news today then this is probably of no surprise as everyone is looking for the money and have to save and get more of it.  As was noted in a prior post it was a toss up between 2 very different individuals for the selection of the chairman to run the program. 

California's Stem Cell Agency Board Faces Decision to Choose Between An Investment Banker Or a Cardiologist To Run the CIRM

Frank Litvack, a Los Angeles cardiologist who has held academic appointments at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and the University of California–Los Angeles was the other top running candidate, who according to news reports would have take a much smaller salary by comparison.  In addition there was also some added discussion on whether or not the position should be full or part time, based on how the former chairman, Robert Klein’s performance as the chairman.  BD  

LOS ANGELES — An investment banker with an interest in biology has been chosen to be the new chairman of California’s $3 billion stem cell research program, taking over at a time when the state’s fiscal crisis could jeopardize financing for the effort.

The banker, Jonathan Thomas, replaces Robert N. Klein, who has run the program since voters established it through a 2004 ballot initiative that Mr. Klein helped write and finance. Mr. Klein, a real estate developer, is credited with getting the program up and running, but his hands-on management style had spurred controversy in recent years.

Mr. Thomas, a founding partner of Saybrook Capital in Santa Monica, Calif., was elected by a 14-11 vote of the program’s board Wednesday night over Dr. Frank Litvack, a Los Angeles cardiologist and medical device entrepreneur.

Banker Selected to Lead Stem-Cell Agency - NYTimes.com

Loss Of Health Insurance and Medications Cited as Potential Motive For Shootings in New York Pharmacy Where 4 Were Killed With The Arrest Made

I am sure there will be a lot more information to follow on this story but the article suggests that the shooter’s wife took a lot of pills and for what we don’t know if this was for a real condition or otherwise.  At any rate, sad that 4 innocent people imagewere shot here and that the stress levels got to this point. He had also lost his job so there went the benefits and you can read a few more details below.  As always everyone is shocked and stated this could not have happened and sad that it did.  Once again this is the sad reality here of whatever it took to push this man over the edge and the losses for the 4 families as when he broke, it appeared it just didn’t matter as to who was in the line of fire when he wanted to get prescription drugs from the pharmacy. 

Pharmacy Killings

What is also sad is that he is former soldier who served in the army and worked with intelligence and analytics, so I would say a pretty smart man as far as what he did for work with the military.  When you look at the pictures he doesn’t look read good and the police had several tips to find him from the surveillance tape in the store and they even had to put a bullet proof vest on him when they conducted the arrest.  It is hard to understand what popped here and why not just steal the drugs and leave innocent people alone.  The wife’s role in this with her apologizing as well for her husband’s role in the shooting, and he states on camera he’s innocent.  This is such a sad story and again, the innocent victims and the pursuit of medications seems to be the root of whatever he created in his head to justify such horrific actions.  BD 

David Laffer's life began falling apart two weeks ago.

The former Army private, who worked for years as a shipping clerk at scale manufacturer Cosa Xentaur in Yaphank, L.I., was fired, reportedly for stealing.

That meant no more health insurance - and no more prescription pills.

The loss of health coverage was a blow, said Joanna Martino, a one-time friend of Laffer's pill-popping wife, Melinda Brady.

The loss of health coverage was a blow, said Joanna Martino, a one-time friend of Laffer's pill-popping wife, Melinda Brady.

"This past weekend, Melinda was trying to find out if anyone knew what hospital she can go to to get a 'scrip for pain pills," Martino said

Laffer was described by neighbors as a quiet and inoffensive man.

"It can't be him. It just can't be. This is a nightmare," said Ziada Ayala, his next-door neighbor on the street of manicured lawns and pools.

Loss of health insurance sparked fast and horrific fall for accused pharmacy killer David Laffer