I wrote about this before and a while back Dow Jones did file a lawsuit about the use of the data.  If you have ever done any medical billing, then you know up front how all of this works.  Truly as far as some crunched numbers this may offer some insight, but today with the old paradigms of data on a screen and how people look at it and how employees are told to work with data, again the value here with this information to me is very questionable and again leaves room for additional algorithms to be written for decision making processing.  Back in January of this year is when the lawsuit over the data was filed against HHS.

Dow Jones Files Lawsuit Against HHS To Overturn Ruling To Keep Medicare Physician Compensation Confidential In the False Name of Transparency-Distraction is More Like It

Transparency is one thing but again the numbers and algorithms used for decision are yet another.  Also the AMA took a stand as well with not seeing any value here and then when you get to the doctors, well you know how this will probably go over with them as well with yet one more set of numbers to be held accountable for years back of data entered that has flaws.  I don’t know or have not read if the lawsuit was dropped at this point but might be guessing it has.  In addition who ever received the contract and some big dollars to put the data out there is also unknown. 

We have had several others outside of the government come up with their ratings services too and not too long ago I stumbled on the “flawed data” myself with seeing my former doctor still listed as seeing patients, only problem was the fact that she had been dead for 8 years. 

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

Actually when I communicated with doctors who read here, they looked at their information that was put out via CMS and there was less content but it was found to be a bit more accurate.  Again when I see decisions as such, it really just drives home the need to have key executives in place that understand the ramifications and how data is used today as numbers get skewed for sure.  Today with may layers of algorithms that aggregate with each other it’s difficult to get to the bottom sometimes to find the origins. 

Update on Physician Compare Sites-One MD Reader Found CMS to be More Accurate

I do sometimes chuckle at the press releases and news that comes out with “value” to tell the public that every set of data and it’s analytics process has “value” as it may not.  If a doctor has a bad biller for a couple of years and many errors were made, this will be here too and as I see this, one more nail in the coffin for anyone to go to medical school to become a doctor as who wants all of this?  All data transparency does not necessarily have the value that some may think and I believe that is the case here with delusion for sure.  By the time this shakes out and analytics on steroids come in to play, well good luck on finding any doctor that’s going to be flawless, and that’s the bottom line here and actually too much information that is well known to contain jillions of flaws, well what good is is?  Just because it’s there do we need to analyze it? 

When you fully review the article we have the “sales” pitch with everyone wanting to “jump” at the opportunity, which is kind of funny the way the article was written as yes you will have Medicare contractors, many of which are owned by health insurance companies jump all over it because that is their business and they can find ways to create additional algorithms for profit.  Again crunching numbers and finding some parameters is fine but when you bring this down to individual levels and spin the numbers with certain sets of analytics, you kind of defeat the purpose here. 

Again though, law enforcement and others fighting fraud certainly need access to this information by all means but the “big sale” here to the public and others is clearly diluted. 

Medicare Federal Investigators Getting Algorithms to Analyze And Find Fraud-Good Move as Contractors Efforts Are Weak With Risking Loss Of Transaction Revenue

In my conversations with people from different companies not too long ago one big executive said “yes, it is getting old for an app or algorithm for everything” and that was from a company who write tons of code and creates software…so give that some though as we watch all who are not digitally literate with thinking an algorithm solves all as it does not as healthcare is still the human business.  Again I feel it’s time to pitch a good book here, something that does have value.

“Proofiness–The Dark Side of Mathematical Deception”–Created by Those Algorithms

“Our society is now awash in proofiness. Using a few powerful techniques, thousands of people are crafting mathematical falsehoods to get you to swallow untruths. Advertisers use these techniques to forge numbers to get you to buy their products. Bureaucrats fiddle with data to try to get you to reelect them. Pundits and prophets use phony math to get you to believe predictions that never seem to pan out. Businessmen use bogus numerical arguments to steal your money. Pollsters, pretending to listen to what you have to say, use proofiness to tell you what they want you to believe. “

The book is good and explains how numbers are spun and how steroid marketing almost and does in some cases have people believing that 2 plus 2 equals 5.  If you want a good preview of this, listen to this radio broadcast too and it makes a good point in talking about the book and the demented math we have out there today.  The paragraph above says exactly what I have been saying for a couple years, businesses use bogus numerical arguments to steal your money and look at the economy and who has all the money today and you need to look no further.  So it does make you wonder if CMS due to non IT capable figureheads were sucked in with the use of the lawsuit and other tactics out there to put this flawed data out there and sell it beyond the value it really has.  Numbers don’t lie, but people do….

“Numbers Don’t Lie, But People Do”–Radio Interview from Charles Siefe–Journalists Take Note, He Addresses How Marketing And Bogus Statistics Are Sources of Problems That Mislead the Public & Government

Again I don’t know if the lawsuit had anything to do with this decision but just that fact that it existed makes one think there could have been some influence here as the more complicated decision making gets, it allows for more analytics to be created and the spinning of numbers for sure, and that goes on all around us every day.  Listen in below for 30 minutes and see what you think to this radio broadcast from a few months ago.

Play Interview Via QuickTime                                Download: Ogg Vorbis MP3

Back in August of 2009 I made a post and it somewhat looks like we are on our way to create a government department of such, a department of algorithms to verify the math and remove some of the “spun data” I think as there’s a lot of it out there by all means. 

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

When you begin using machine learning and aggregate “spun data” into formulas where you may not be able to get back to ground zero, the insanity begins and thus so having executives that are just figureheads without any background in this area, they get snowed and buy in to a lot of deception, again as this is sold with the doctor claim information being marketed and put out there as a tool with “value” with tons of flawed data, it is what it is and sad that we have people making decisions that are not wise enough to see some of this. 

Machine Learning Software Working Behind the Scenes Should Move With Caution in Healthcare-Writing the Unreadable With Rogue Algorithms With No Human Intervention

Another post I made a while back too and this flew all over some major publications too and I made it in jest to a degree, but again those who do not understand math very well seem to think that it still is a 100% methodology for proving accuracy and thus so you really can’t read any where today where someone is not pitching their algorithms to find value and yes there are valuable tools out there but again with the series of events that has transpired here and the marketing, I don’t see this data exposure doing much for anyone other than allowing more numbers to be “spun” for additional profits. 

Data Addiction and Abuse –The Up and Coming Next 12 Step Program Is On the Horizon–Side Effects Include Lack Of Data Quality, Integrity And Spasmodic Algorithms

So when you get down to the bottom of this, does this data contain any real value for consumers, probably not and just more flawed data to sort through to make decisions and add it into the glut of what is already marketed out there as a tool and this I just one more data set that can be spun for profit, as when you read the article it states that this will help you “save money”…and so on…great steroid marketing in my opinion and today it is getting hard to decipher what is really a tool and what is glut and items as such substantiates the frustrations of the Occupy movement.  How can you fight an algorithm you can’t see, touch or feel but only get in touch with “cookie cutter” employees who are directed to use the data in the way they are told by the companies they work for.  Below is a video I have used several times here and if you have not seen it, listen in.  Many major news channels have promoted it too, but funny as I think they only viewed it as being popular as the geeks of the world, including Kevin Slavin completely understand the spinning of data and nice that he did a presentation as such to help educate the rest of the world, that wants some answers. 

How Algorithms Shape our World

Again these are my opinions here with having been a coder at one time and you can write clean and good algos or one can be sucked in to the other side, just like anything in life, the choice is there and it works in the world of algorithms around us every day.  Hedge Funds hire a ton of programmers to spin and work data for their investments all the time and with record profits, they have the money to do this.

Again, the value here, minimal and corporate America now has some new data to spin is how I see this and it further erodes the doctor/patient relationship with throwing some new monkey wrenches into the process and again shows the need to have executives that run CMS and other government healthcare agencies to have some IT in their background because we get just this type of activity as seen here with little value and creates a much more difficult world to make a decision and feel good about it.  The new person at CMS certainly has her job cut out and again to me this is a big example on how big business snows the digital illiterates with thinking that this data is going to solve any real problems.  It’s a snow job. 

As a matter of fact I’ll add another opinion here of mine with all the “taxpayer” data that big corporations have free access to buy and sell.  We have a government it seems that is oblivious as to what’s really happening here.  The data is free for the taking out there and corporate America is doing just that.  I read the other day that High Frequency Trading and Hedge Funds are outpacing Facebook in the consumption and analytics of all of this and they get the information for free and make billions. I know you can’t create laws to govern how people write code and use analytics, but you could sure license and tax corporations that are using free web information to build even bigger profit centers off the taxpayers back with the data. Again, maybe we don’t have the leadership in executive positions to see this reality and looking at a solution to bring something back to the middle class, license and tax these corporations for using “free taxpayer data” that is out there, it’s only fair.

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

Now after reading the information here with putting Medicare claim information out there, does this not make sense or was it the lawsuit that pushed this forward?  It does make you wonder if CMS and the lack of folks with IT in executive positions really took on a snow job.  It’s a good way to begin shifting some money back to the middle class too.  I wrote another post called “Occupy Algorithms” which was part of a part series here at the Quack and with transparency, let’s fix the math as I see that as an urgent need, much more so that this data base of Medicare claims open for the public and insurer analytics.  The link below is part 5 and there are links to the prior posts within. 

“Occupy Algorithms”–”The Attack of the Killer Algorithms Part 5” - Nothing Will Improve Until Audits and Actions Takes Place To Correct Formulas Built for Profit Only by Corporations And We Battle Back With Math

Nothing will happen until new code runs through those servers as IT Infrastructure runs almost all processes today in business and government.

There are more than just this blog that are speaking out today about bad math and the link below is a doctor who talks about how clinical trial data gets skewed too, again folks sucked in with analytics.  The doctor really does a good job explaining this and presents a certificate issued to his “cat” to make the point so you do wonder how many “cats” have these today <grin>.

Bad Science and Bad Analytics That Misleads–TED Video Takes on Advertising on Steroids and Danger of Mis-Matched Analytics And Distortion of Clinical Trials (Video)

So we can sit and view lawmakers in session playing solitaire on their computers and jumping around on Facebook, sad to see that is what lawmaking has become in the US and big business just keeps on moving with numbers and algorithms for profit.  In my opinion a really good snow job was sold to CMS to create value here as all we have done is created data for corporate America to profit further. 

Besides that, how many consumers have “time” to even mess with this?  Not many and again I do wonder how the lawsuit did affect this decision as it’s big business again with mighty big stick with selling value, knowing the data they have access to now will generate more corporate profits.  Consumers are too busy with chasing down so much old data from years past to non-incriminate themselves with all the flawed data that is out there and the more healthcare payers and credit companies report, the more the consumer has to run and fix it. 

Sure there may be some issues that need attention but if you read recently how credit agencies are going to compound and bring in more data such as your timely payments of utilities and cell phone bills, then you know the race is on to keep consumers chasing and fixing flawed data that they did not input and again we don’t seem to have enough digital literacy in government to “get this” and see reality, so thus the middle class is further sunk and the marketing of the Medicare claim data just add more fuel to the fire and soon everyone will have credit and healthcare blemishes coming out their ears.  I feel sorry for Marilyn Tavenner, the new director of CMS as it’s a no win job and she will be eaten alive with analytics without any IT in her background as big business moves in for more profiteering but the decisions made affect all of us and we are the ones who really suffer with executives as such when they are chewed up an spit out by big business.  BD 

Picking a specialist for a delicate medical procedure like a heart bypass could get a lot easier in the not-too-distant future.
The government announced Monday that Medicare will finally allow its extensive claims database to be used by employers, insurance companies and consumer groups to produce report cards on local doctors -- and improve current ratings of hospitals.

 
By analyzing masses of billing records, experts can glean such critical information as how often a doctor has performed a particular procedure and get a general sense of problems such as preventable complications.
Doctors will be individually identifiable through the Medicare files, but personal data on their patients will remain confidential. Compiled in an easily understood format and released to the public, medical report cards could become a powerful tool for promoting quality care.

(big time marketing statement below-warning)

Medicare officials say they expect nonprofit research groups in California, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Massachusetts and other states to jump at the chance to use the data. With 47 million beneficiaries and virtually every doctor and hospital in the country participating, Medicare's database is considered the mother lode of health care information.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-us-medicalreportcard,0,7517384.story

Technorati Tags: Dow Jones,Wall Street Journal,healthcare,Medicare,algorithms,media,lawsuit,HHS,AMA,American Medical Association,Doctors

This is funny and we all like the Extormity humor but not too long ago I remember Sean over at HealthVault posting a blog post saying the same thing…you have done a good job so now take a break, but Extormity folks have the humor going for sure.

I do have to say as well I would laugh more at this if I didn’t agree as well:)  We know technology works but since all of this kicked into high gear with the Obama administration, things got a lot more complicated, very quickly too, so yeah guys take that chill pill and give the CIOs and others a chance to catch up a bit as they need it, either that or start working in a little more compassion as the cheerleading phase has passed a while back and now folks are just trying to figure out how to do all that is on their plate and quit telling developers they are going to get rich, they may make a lot of money but cool down on the rich speeches as right now on the consumer side we have gluts of software in healthcare that nobody uses and way too much duplication without collaboration. 

Extormity EHR Testimony at Health IT Hearing (Spoof-Video)

All the stuff is starting to look the same anymore with one small tweak so collaboration is what’s really needed to get apps that do more than “one thing” and please don’t mention the pregnant Mom texting program that horse has been ridden too long and is tired.  This humorous video fits the times even more now than it did when Extormity put it out <grin>.  BD 

Paper Charts EHR

Brantley Whittington, fictional CEO of make-believe electronic health record vendor Extormity, is urging Aneesh Chopra, Farzad Mostashari and Todd Park to tone down their optimism and exuberance about the clinical benefits and cost savings associated with implementing health information technology.

Whittington, speaking to reporters from the offices of a K Street lobbying firm in Washington, D.C., expressed dismay at the unbridled enthusiasm exhibited by White House, ONC and HHS officials. "For years, vendors like Extormity have worked hard to cultivate a healthcare IT culture that combines complexity with closed-mindedness, creating a pervasive and stifling sense of futility."

"Instead of the sober and staid leadership we are accustomed to, these gentlemen are inspiring new models of industry development," added Whittington. "The Direct Project is a great example of supercharged public/private collaboration designed to simplify the flow of health information without spending a dime of taxpayer money. This may benefit patients and providers, but the lack of convoluted infrastructure does little for the Extormity bottom line."

"While I have been known to muster up some counterfeit fervor for shareholder meetings, the consistent passion and zeal demonstrated by these officials is proving disruptive to those of us dedicated to proprietary and expensive solutions," added Whittington. "I suggest dialing back the levels on the gusto meter to preserve the status quo, stifle meaningful innovation and ensure consistent and sizable returns to a handful of large healthcare IT vendors."

http://us1.campaign-archive2.com/?u=176d87dd6ba2729f0d63f2fc5&id=c00178d845

Technorati Tags: EHR,Extormity,humor,ONC,medical records,spoof,meaningful use,Seedie,Upcoding,billing,Health IT

This was a patient’s comment that was too good to pass up and to just hear someone comment on their experience.  Again not being there and knowing all of his/her clinical conditions I can’t comment much there but he somewhat states he was treated with the best technology money can buy in his opinion. The fact that the Boston Scientific Rep was a former nurse at the hospital though does sound interesting and the patient here dug in I do have to say as he/she covered revenue cycling pretty well as most have no clue what that is, so involved I would say this patient is.  The original article is linked below where he/she made their anonymous comment. 

Hospitals in New York, California, Texas, Florida, Michigan and Ohio Will Require Pre-Payment Audits From Medicare for Heart and Orthopedic Surgeries- Algorithm “For Take Back Letters” or Hospital Stays Would be Denied Payment

I don’t know if this person reads this blog or not but they found it this week and are very aware of all the marketing that is handed down and he/she says that United Healthcare is marketing them like crazy as a result.  He/she has all this remote monitoring and again whether he/she is happy or not with it, the sale was made.  This was an important comment I thought to view a bit from the other side here from what appears to be a very business savvy person with the way the business of healthcare is run, or from the experience, they are now and it seems he/she feels there was way too much money spent on the care. 

Everybody wants to be in your face but when is over saturation taking place?  Obviously I think he’s stating that with Untied paying for the pacemaker, they ran in to sell him/her all kinds of other services and we all know some of those collect data for sale, the prescriptions of course have been sold for years by United under their Ingenix, now Optum subsidiary.  Whether or not he/she needed the pacemaker we don’t know but he/she seems to be of the opposite opinion and thinks the care received was way oversold.  BD   

“The Medicare pre-approval of pacemakers and defibrillators is only an initial step to audit unnecessary devices. Defibrillators are being implanted for fainting episodes for young people, particularly if the city has revenue-driven paramedics and a community hospital managed by hospitalists. An example is Hoag Hospital and Newport Beach Paramedics that administer so-called Advanced Medical Services. Newport Beach sells paramedics insurance to residents through telemarketing outsource of Wittman residents.

My experience was the Newport Beach Paramedics mistaking doing push-ups at a sports field for being collapsed and administering Midazolam to cause decreased breathing, irregular heart beat and amnesia. The Hoag contracted hospitalists further caused a temporary coma by applying external defibrillators under their so-called Arctic Sun Cooling.

The Hoag hospitalists from PacificHospitalists.com did what is known as Revenue Cycle Management RCM to get funding from United Healthcare UHC insurance for implanting a defibrillator despite tests showing no cardiac arrest, no blockage, no cardiac myopathy, low blood pressure, not diabetic and normal brain and spine MRIs.

The Boston Scientific rep also was a former nurse at Newport Heart Medical Group. UHC insurance used the implant to telemarket me and upsell more unnecessary services such as remote home nursing, prescription management, and other wellness rouses.

Beyond Medicare costs, unnecessary cardiac devices are costly to employers in benefits. Let's hope for the FDA and congressional action to mandate audits for implanting devices in hospitals and the device makers of Boston Scientific, Medtronic and St. Jude Medical.”

http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2011/12/hospitals-in-new-york-california-texas.html

Technorati Tags: Medicare,algorithms,CMS,naive,math,cardiology,orthopedics,reporting,digital illiterates,hospitals,take back,audits,Hoag,Pacific Hospitalists Association

United Healthcare has become such a huge conglomerate in the health insurance and other Health IT industries of late and I try to keep all updated on acquisitions and mergers as best I can here with articles that I call “subsidiary watch”.  So many do not realize the huge impact that acquisitions are having on care today with contracts and as everyone uses their algorithms and analytics to follow the data trails of who can go where and who can see who, we have issues.  Check out the post below and take a peak at some of the numerous subsidiaries on board just for your own knowledge and to see how insurance companies are not longer just that with mergers and acquisitions.  You will find that United has an industrial bank with deposits over 1 billion just as one example. 

Subsidiary Watch-Corporate Conglomerate Insurers Reduce Compensation Contracts Using One Subsidiary Then Market Same MDs With Another Subsidiary in Health IT

This article below is right out of the Orange County Register.  Back in August, United Healthcare purchased the formerly doctor owned big HMO group.  The crying towels were out and I say that due to the emails I received with doctors and hospitals not feeling very comfortable with this acquisition. 

United Healthcare To Buy Huge Chunk of Orange County, California Managed Care Business with the Purchase of Monarch Healthcare–Subsidiary Watch

It continues on to say that a Blue Shield executive knew of 3 patients that were turned away by Monarch doctors, one of which was a cancer patient. Monarch denies this was an issue, which is usually a standard response as they have to take time and chase the contract algorithms that tell us mere humans what to do. 

In addition to seeing patients the monkey appears to be on the doctor’s backs to notify their patients of the contract change, yet one more item added to the red tape and claim issues that doctors have to deal with.  Monarch ran an ad, but does that reach all patients, probably not.  I would not have seen it. 

Blue Shield is a non-profit and United as we all now is very much “for profit” and this sounds like many patients were caught up in the dark with the new contracts and originally it was stated that there we to be no changes for patients…just let the contract do the talking for you, ok?  I wonder how the transition is going for the other big HMO purchased by United, Memorial Care in Long Beach as that was a big chunk of HMO business too? 

OptumHealth (Subsidiary of United Healthcare) Takes Over Memorial IPA in California-Subsidiary Watch

It has been tough even for employers in the OC with new United contracts since they took over Pacificare too…

Employers in Orange County Looking for New HMO Contracts as St. Josephs and Some Others Begin Cancelling Agreements with Pacificare (UnitedHeatlhCare) – Employer Capitation Contracts

In addition, recently in the news United Healthcare hired the former US Assistant Attorney General in Minnesota as a General Counsel, and again I don’t know exactly what his area of expertise or what role he will play but with all the many tiered subsidiaries that the company has I just wonder when there might be any shades of conflict of interest appear.  It has been in the news that United is suing the government over a multi billion dollar Tri-Care contract they think they should have. A while back too I also found it interesting to read about how United dismisses employees when closing down a division, this too from the Orange County Register on how employees were bused to a hotel and given walking papers. 

UnitedHealthcare Lays Off 180 Employees In Orange County-Initial Notification Sent By Instant Message to Those Affected

The problem with a lot of these contracts is that we are still humans needing medical care and you know what, we can’t move as fast as the algorithm changing contracts change…this is a problem not only here but all over the US.  It’s like musical chairs with finding and “keeping” a provider anymore.  Our poor HHS folks don’t have enough “hands on” expertise I feel at times to see this and big business eats their lunch every day, day in and day out.  We need executives with some Health IT in their backgrounds to keep up with this and the current administration and their methodologies with being naïve and gullible to believing all states and numbers thrown at them is beginning to show big time and people get hurt. 

In my opinion, who suckered in CMS to believe that 50% of Medicare heart and orthopedic procedures were not necessary?  Who’s analytics were used to put that out this week?  What non clinical expert decided to attack doctors on this topic as that is saying they don’t know their business on caring for patients, and see how this gets out there with marketing and sensationalism?  I’m sure there are some as this is not a perfect world but half…again a naïve and digital illiterate believing that number tossed out there and tell the press so as well, duh?

Hospitals in New York, California, Texas, Florida, Michigan and Ohio Will Require Pre-Payment Audits From Medicare for Heart and Orthopedic Surgeries- Algorithm “For Take Back Letters” or Hospital Stays Would be Denied Payment

Again with government “gullibles” out there that don’t question the math today, that’s what we end up with.  I can go farther and bring in Congress here too as they are digitally illiterate and don’t’ get this either as they can’t recognize a technology tool that will help them make better laws either.  The only healthcare issue that gets any real play with discussions is the “abortions filibusters” as so many live in the past who represent us.  I wrote about this back in May. 

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…

In the meantime big business is investing even more with technology and algorithms and formats to help them profit even bigger…Congress had a chance to see a tool to help them with big data but couldn’t look a gift horse in the face so off to the financial and other companies the technology goes.

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

I said a while back that all the data mining information by corporations should be licensed and taxed and you know this is making more sense every day as big corporate conglomerates base contracts on data that they buy and sell and we as patients have to shift and move to new doctors, new pharmacies and so on.  After the 1st of the year Anthem Blue Cross folks can no longer go to Walgreens for prescriptions, a contract issue once again.  Walgreens by the way said their data selling business is worth just under $800 million so why does taxpayer data flow freely to allow big conglomerates to become even more powerful?  That’s is what’s going on in case you have not taken notice here, and you sometimes wonder do pharmacies just fill prescriptions as a side lines business so they can capture and mine taxpayer data to sell?

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

Again, some of this data profiteering needs to be returned to the taxpayers who’s backs all of the millions of profits are coming from, give something back.  I call it the “Attack of the Killer Algorithms” and have 6 parts written about this and you can read part 6 at the link below.  This is really due for a movie or documentary to educate the public on what is happening here behind the scenes on servers that run 24/7 making life changing decisions about all of us. It is time to “Occupy Algorithms” and do it now. 

Welcome to the world of discrimination by the algorithm….

Attack of the Killer Algorithms Part 6–Discrimination With Consumer Credit-Same As Health Insurance Wanting Consumers to Reconstruct Records From Many Years Past As Middle Class Turns Into Data Chasers-Days of Taking Risks to Get Ahead Will Be Limited For Most…Occupy Algorithms

Maybe Monarch will be offering the Optum/United hearing aids soon?  I kind of wondered how this would sit with other insurers too with maybe using this as leverage to attract new members?  

United HealthCare Gets In the Medical Device Business–Distributing Cheap Hearing Aides Sold Via Hi HealthInnovations Division –Subsidiary Watch

Is it this Chinese subsidiary that is making free or no cost hearing aids available? 

UnitedHealth subsidiary (Ingenix Subsidiary I3) Acquires ChinaGate – Working to Sell Chinese Products Globally

If you want to see the back 5 parts on the Killer Algorithms, Part 5 has all the links and again time to “Occupy Algorithms” as ask questions. 

“Occupy Algorithms”–”The Attack of the Killer Algorithms Part 5” - Nothing Will Improve Until Audits and Actions Takes Place To Correct Formulas Built for Profit Only by Corporations And We Battle Back With Math

So back on track here, contracts are wreaking havoc all over healthcare as people have to shift and pick and move, sometimes as this article states with “no notification” as the changes take place too fast. The article here says that they have telephone transcripts from patients with appointments being cancelled or being turned away.  Smart move to to keep those on records so the patient’s voice can be heard and some of these are Medicare Advantage patients, an area where United has been pretty aggressive in working on and securing. 

Blue Shield will join other networks the article continues to state and that affects 16,000 in the HMO side and 2400 in Medicare.  I wonder how this will all play out with the other insurers?  I guess I’ll watch the news for any further information that could arise and again as I mentioned when this acquisition occurred, there may have been very good reason for those “crying towels” that came out. 

One thing for sure consistent care with providers is definitely becoming one big disrupt for all, and it comes down to the buck and this is what digital illiterate Congressmen and Key Executives allow to happen, they are out of touch with the real world.  BD 

Nearly 20,000 Orange County HMO patients are caught in the middle of contract dispute between Blue Shield of California and Monarch Healthcare, an Irvine-based medical group with more than 2,000 doctors.

Starting May 1, Blue Shield will no longer have a contract for its HMO patients to see Monarch's network of doctors across the county. Yet the insurer alleges that patients are being falsely told they are losing their doctors this month, and in a few cases, have been denied care.

Blue Shield on Friday released transcripts of recent calls to its customer service line from Monarch patients complaining that upcoming appointments were being canceled or they were being turned away when calling to schedule one

The dispute is the result of the sale of Monarch to a division of insurance giant UnitedHealth Group. Monarch, which was previously owned by physicians, was sold for an undisclosed amount to Optum Health on Nov. 23. Five days later, Blue Shield formally terminated the contract with Monarch, saying that the sale to a competitor violated the agreement.

Patients like Walter Price, 70, of San Clemente aren't sure what to do. He has an appointment next week with a Monarch doctor covered through his Blue Shield Medicare Advantage plan.

Days before the sale finalized, Price said he received a call at home on a Sunday afternoon telling him he would no longer be able to see his doctor. He called his doctor's office the next day.

"They didn't know anything," he said. "They had no idea. They were in the dark."

Then, Price called Blue Shield, who he says advised him to change doctors.

He's not satisfied with any of the answers he's hearing.

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/monarch-329781-blue-doctors.html

Technorati Tags: Healthcare,HMOs,UnitedHealthcare,revenue,profits,layoffs,Orange County,Medicare,health insurance,Monarch Healthcare,Blue Shield,contracts,algoirthms

Well I guess you could call this the first big Medicare step for rationing patient care in a way.  I don’t know of any doctors myself that would put a patient through surgery if it was not needed and I’m sure that speaks for about 99.9% of the all doctors out there. 

Hospitals won’t get paid until an audit is conducted to “make sure the procedures is necessary”.  That’s not a big seller right now with many hospitals making all kinds of cut backs and so many are operating either close to or in the red.  As for the doctors, they could get a “take back” letter, in other words the doctor will be paid but if the audits determine the procedure was not necessary Medicare will want their money back.  Pacemakers are one of the audit items on the list.

Ok so how do they audit?  They use an algorithm to check to see if all the parameters are met for the surgery to take place, so the patient may indeed need the surgery but it if is not documented property, nobody will get paid.  This seems to be all about Medicare documentation, so add that on to billing complexities and it’s getting more complicated all the time. 

What is odd is that this article says they believe that 50% of the procedures are not necessary, but that’s a pretty high number in my opinion, but the analytics bean counter folks don’t see human bodies and only run algorithms.  This sounds like a good place to talk about the up and coming next 12 step program…data abuse and addiction and the fact that the naïve and gullible out there still think that algorithms are 100% of the solutions today, they are part but not the entire solution. 

Data Addiction and Abuse –The Up and Coming Next 12 Step Program Is On the Horizon–Side Effects Include Lack Of Data Quality, Integrity And Spasmodic Algorithms

Boy we have a country of naïve digital illiterates who know nothing about code and never wrote a stick that think algorithms solve all and predict better than they do.  They are hooked and sucked by the marketing out there for sure in government and in business.  BD 

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services will require pre-payment audits on hospital stays for cardiac care, joint replacements and spinal fusion procedures, according to the American College of Cardiology in a letter to members. Shares in both industries fell with Tenet Healthcare Corp., the Dallas- based hospital operator, plunging 11 percent to $4.18, the most among Standard & Poor's 500 stocks. Medtronic Inc., the largest U.S. maker of heart devices, dropped 6 percent to $34.61.

The program means hospitals won't receive payment for stays that involve cardiac care or orthopedic treatment until auditors have examined the patient records and confirmed that the care was appropriate, Jerold Saef, the reimbursement chair for the Florida chapter of the American College of Cardiology, wrote in a Nov. 21 letter to members. The review process is expected to take 30 days to 60 days, beginning January 1, Saef said.

"This initiative seems onerous for hospitals and will likely reduce procedure volume because hospitals will begin making sure that every patient meets the coverage criteria," Larry Biegelsen, an analyst at Wells Fargo Securities, said today in an investment note on the audit rules.

The program will cover 15 different medical treatments, including patients getting a pacemaker or defibrillator to regulate the heart rate, a procedure to clear arteries or stents to hold them open, spinal fusion surgery or major joint replacement. While Saef based his letter on information provided by First Coast Service Options, which provides all Medicare services to Florida, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, the association confirmed similar programs in 10 other states, he said.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/12/02/bloomberg_articlesLVLIFY1A1I4H.DTL

Technorati Tags: Medicare,algorithms,CMS,naive,math,cardiology,orthopedics,reporting,digital illiterates,hospitals,take back,audits

I was actually hoping part 5 was the end of the Attack Series but it may go on for a few more writing as I review what is in the news today.  In healthcare consumers are already feeling the pinch of having to re-construct past records, data that we have not entered but it has been collected over the years and once again I will refer back to the movie Sicko as Michael Moore did such a good job with his example with the woman who’s medical claim for her surgery was rescinded as they found way back a number of years, a minor yeast infection she didn’t report.

Did a human find this, no, it was the algorithm.  Did human allow this decision without perhaps any discussion, yes they did.  This is the problem with the way math and data is used today, not enough area of forgiveness.  Let’s face it between health insurers and credit agencies they want consumers to go back and correct any and all errors that have been recorded about them.  Why you may wonder?  Their algorithms have to function and make decision with every bit of information that they can dig up about you. This article is all about this with a new company, CoreLogic that is marketing and selling more data about all of us beyond the standard credit reports. 

The workload will be shifted to the consumer and how many of us have 100% clean records?  I should have said “squeaky” clean records, not many.  Actually in Part 4 of the Attack of the Killer Algorithms I explained what is involved for consumers and with the current status quo of customer service and the time it takes to either clear or explain issues, it’s could be a big load of time coming your way.

Attack of the Killer Algorithms-Occupy Wall Street Part 4 Health Insurance Style - One More App For Folks Who Are Tired of Flawed Algorithms That Require A Ton of Work and Research Time To Create “Perfect” Data Files for Insurers And Others Analytics Processes

Over the years many have said to get anywhere in life “you need to take risks” and for the middle class the opportunity to finance and get help with taking risks is getting smaller.  You may have an item in your past, but the way demented digital illiterates work today is that they see anything on there as a blemish which is not the way it should be.  There are errors and there are items reported that may relative to court cases, punitive damage and so forth reported with this additional information that is now coming available with CoreLogic and their new partnership with FICO. 

CoreLogic has formed a partnership with FICO who is already in the process of selling algorithms with mismatched data which connects public information about you and combines it with your credit score to tell if you as a medical patient will take your prescriptions.  Somebody needs to start calling some of these folks on “mis matched data” the discriminates as now we have “Discrimination by the Algorithm” and it’s showing in more places all the time.  Last time I wrote about the FICO mismatched data it all ended up over at the Daily Kos via another publisher as an awareness. 

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

Again by the time that the parameters of the analytics are driven down to fine points, almost everyone will have some kind blemish and what layer of forgiveness will be given. Opportunities for the middle class are again being narrowed down and the only way to take a “risk” will be collaborating with another human that doesn’t get wrapped up in all the algorithms that are on one’s record.  We need a certain amount of credit checks and I don’t discount that at all but now the credit agencies are also building “predictive behavior” analytics to determine if they can with math predict if you will be a good risk or not.  The Netflix algorithms that guesses what you may like is only 60%, so can see that with the amount of flawed data in files over the years coming to surface how screwed we may be?  Here’s how the MIB who collects ton of data on taxpayers even outside of insurance these days markets…sound like the credit lines here…we will all end up being “problem applications”….think about it. 

To clean up one’s current credit record today entails the normal stuff, but add all the additional information that could be drummed up as to if you paid a cell phone bill late, and yes where they are going with all of this, how much chasing will consumers be it with, so sit on the phone with minimally staffed customer service people here or perhaps in the Philippines to help us. 

Again when information is presented on a screen, the “cookie cutter” employees that are hired today only have that to go by and are given specific routines they need to follow by supervisors and may be asking you to provide all kinds of information to allow certain items to be forgiven.  Again the middle class has all this bearing down with algorithms and analytics that run 24/7 on servers and yet here’s a story about a Quant on Wall Street that knowingly operated software that was not calculating financial investments correctly for 3 years.  He knew it and didn’t do anything about it, so think about this and the math…how many others have math that could be questionable with the designed algorithms used for profit only?

SEC Sues Quant–Undisclosed Error in Trading Algorithm- Miscalculating “Risk”-Healthcare Software Evaluates This Factor Too

We have taxpayer data being bought and sold and companies make millions, beyond even what Facebook does selling taxpayer data.  What does the taxpayer get out of this?  We get work to chase down and fix all the information that has been reported erroneously or even correctly over the years as those algorithms and analytics on the screen say go fix it.   It’s time to license and tax corporate USA on data selling.  Walgreens said not too long ago that their data selling business is worth just under $800 million.  We didn’t have the types of data capabilities we have today even a few years ago but now the burden is on the middle class taxpayer to go and reconstruct a perfect healthcare or financial file if they want to make a move today in any direction, and that’s all of the 99% too. 

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

I am going to add a little personal working input here as I have worked on computers as a consultant at hospitals and doctors offices and the tech sees it all and when I found stuff, not being a snoop but trouble shooting as I was called in to fix a computer or a network and I find pornography on a staff member’s computer or for that matter on a doctor’s computer, does my opinion change?  You bet it does and it’s really something I would have rather not known.  My perception has changed and while it may not change whether or not I like that person, I now know something about them that I really would have rather not known, but I am paid to fix a computer, server, network or whatever and find the problems.  With having this additional information on a screen, as you won’t even have an “in person” opportunity here for the most part, guess what’s going to happen in the “world of perception”?  It’s not going to be good. 

So now we come down to the analytics and “scoring” a person with this additional information, how will the algorithms run?  We see stats and skewed data all the time any more and how accurate will these assessments be and how will they discriminate the “land of opportunity”. 

Welcome to the world of discrimination by the algorithm….

Of course companies need to market and sell this type of behavioral analytics information combined with numbers and how will it really be presented and remember a lot of that data could be flawed.  Since I’m on that topic, here’s a real simple example, there are 30k living people in the Social Security Death Index.  It may be a low percentage but if you are one of them listed in there nobody cares about the percentages. What I am trying to say here is that the odds with all the information gathered today presents a pretty good chance of a lot of flawed, skewed and marketed data. 

Social Security Master Death Index Data Flawed–Over 31,000 Living Found in the Index

Here’s a couple more examples of skewed and flawed data….

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

City of Buffalo Has Paid Over $2 Million to Provide Health Insurance for Hundreds of Dead People-Some as Many as 4 Years

The odds with information coming from a multitude of places that there will be quite a few errors and flawed data just due to data input over the years, and we will have to chase it down and fix it all so both credit companies and insurance companies have the data to run their algorithms to see how “bad” we really are and how to create algorithms on how to “fix” us and predict what we may do even before we may have those thoughts ourselves.  Listen to the radio broadcast below to see if you have in fact been naïve and gullible lately, as we all are by human nature, but this is a wake up call. 

“Numbers Don’t Lie, But People Do”–Radio Interview from Charles Siefe–Journalists Take Note, He Addresses How Marketing And Bogus Statistics Are Sources of Problems That Mislead the Public & Government

I made a post a while back in jest but as time moves forward I think it is starting to become real with data addiction and abuse becoming the upcoming next 12 step program to appear.  Someone even put out press release, which I found rather humorous to market consumers on this anal algorithm..it’s all marketing.  One of the geeks I chat with said it was good Saturday Night Live material:)

”The Anal Algorithm”- An Algorithm To Address Treatment of Fecal Incontinence–Bowel Control Disorder Sphincter Therapy

And why is marketing all over the place?  To sell those algorithms for risk, fun, and you name it but some have teeth and run on servers 24/7 and make life impacting decisions about all of us at some point in time.  How much is that algorithm in the window? 

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

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.  Look 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.

If we don’t keep this in check and create algorithms for “accurate” results and not just those for “desired” results…the money stays in the hands of the 1% who hires folks from the 99% group to write the code and keep it that way and this is why we need to Occupy Algorithms pretty soon before the math takes even more away from the middle class.  BD

Report on Jobs Program With Measures to Create Livelihoods–Fix the Math and Create Algorithms to Move Money and Re-Focus on Better Health Versus Risk Assessments

Anyone who has recently applied for a mortgage knows that lenders are already looking much more closely at your financial affairs. But soon, they’ll be able to easily delve into the deepest recesses of your financial life, accessing information that never before appeared on your credit report.

This week, a company called CoreLogic introduced a new type of credit file, which is based on the giant repository of consumer data it maintains on just about everything that most of the traditional credit bureaus do not: missed rental payments that have gone into collection, any evictions or child support judgments, as well as any applications for payday loans, along with your repayment history.

The idea, CoreLogic says, is to provide lenders with more details about prospective borrowers, supplementing what they already know through the more traditional credit reports furnished by the big three credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. Moreover, CoreLogic has formed a partnership with FICO — the provider of one of the most popular credit scores used by lenders — which will formulate a new consumer score based on the new data.

Perhaps it’s not surprising that a company decided to pull together this information, since much of it is already publicly available. But because it comes on top of all the other information that’s being collected about you — your exact location at every minute, where you’ve been on the Web — you can’t help but feel that some of these companies know more about your activities than your spouse.

Lenders of all stripes, including auto lenders, have access to the reports, and they will be marketed to employers and insurers, too.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/03/your-money/credit-scores/corelogics-new-credit-score-exposes-even-more-of-your-financial-life.html?pagewanted=1&seid=auto&smid=tw-nytimesbusiness

Technorati Tags: Proofiness,algoirthms,mathmatics,healthcare,desired results,rogue algorithm,Occupy New York,politics,math,ditigal literacy,Congress,credit,Michael Moore,health insurance,jobs,economy,CoreLogic

This is good now that Bloomberg news broke open the real facts on TARP.  Jon Stewart in his usual style gets right to the point.  It’s all about the math, who’s math, who’s algorithms and which ones were created for “Accurate” results and who created and used those for “Desired” results…well let me guess…It’s all about those algos and time for consumers to take an interest in algorithms and math as there’s a ton of marketing in a lot of that is doing it’s best to convince you that 2 plus 2= 5.  I think I know some of those “snowed over” believers walking around out there today and I read about a lot of them that work for the government too:)

Abortions are about the only topic in healthcare today that gets much play from the digital illiterates on the Hill. 

This is how they do it and it keeps the rich richer, read more at the link below.  BD

“Occupy Algorithms”–”The Attack of the Killer Algorithms Part 5” - Nothing Will Improve Until Audits and Actions Takes Place To Correct Formulas Built for Profit Only by Corporations And We Battle Back With Math

http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2011/11/occupy-algorithmsthe-attack-of-killer.html

Technorati Tags: Jon Stewart,healthcare,TARP,humor,video,Bloomberg,banks,loans,economy,math,algorithms

Maybe I feel these things early but for the last year I have been complaining about way too many apps that do “one” thing and this video says the same thing as far as the folks in the incubators could do a better job and work together.   I’m a big fan of “good” consumer Health IT, but it has not been out there for a while and in doing this blog I don’t see much  to write home about.  How many more Fitbits are going to appear out there for a quick example?  As you can see I’m not talking about actual devices for real monitoring with a doctor/patient. 

On the clinical side it’s a different story though with companies working with sophisticated and complicated medical record systems, devices and so forth but on the consumer side we have gluts of it in Health It, so much that again I consider very little of it worth writing about as the developers most of time are in it to make a buck and won’t use their own software they create for the general public, so what’s up with that!

In addition we have contests coming out our ears and those too are not very exciting as far as what turns out and I’ll scream if I have to hear about the mobile phone app that texts an expectant mother, we all know it’s there but what has developed since then?  I think the pregnant mother text program would be given a rest when promoting the government contests and besides you have to be 2 things to use it, female and pregnant and that leaves a lot of folks out:)  Also, it does “one thing” and multi purpose software for the consumer would really be nice to harness more than just a couple algos at a time.  BD 

Technorati Tags: incubators,health it,developers,money,start ups,healthcare,software,consumer software

I keep telling everyone, check the math and this audit found errors here too, they are amongst us so crawl out of denial and ask questions when something does not seem right.  Wouldn’t you know that retirees appear to be getting too little but some as small as $25 a month, but hey in todays economy every dollar helps.  That could be a couple prescriptions filled. 

Right in this article, the government couldn’t control it as the IT infrastructure I am guessing and am probably right is not adequate or does not exist.  Stock prices were not even correct, but we just collect money for fines and the bad algo guys just keep going, like this on on Wall Street.  He ran his bad algos that miscalcutated for 3 years knowing they had errors. 

SEC Sues Quant–Undisclosed Error in Trading Algorithm- Miscalculating “Risk”-Healthcare Software Evaluates This Factor Too 

These high frequency guys skated along too….pay the fine and keep on going for around 3 years before fixing the glitch that calculates wrong.

High Frequency Trading Firm Fined $850k for Losing Control of an Algorithm in Rapid Succession Buying–Bad Math and Some Killer Algos At Work- Keep Occupying…

This case with errors and problems has only been going on since 1999, how slow can we go.  We need audit trails to find the flawed math.  Along with flawed math we are also deceived quite well with marketing and boy do we fall prey to all the stats thrown at us at times.  If you are on Twitter, follow badalgo as he puts some very interesting images up with showing interruptions of algos in the stock market from Nanex.  Numbers don’t lie, but people do.  BD 

A small company with a big contract to determine how much the government pays people whose pension plans have failed got the numbers wrong, a new audit has found.  And not just once.

A long-awaited report by the inspector general of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation reveals that even after problems at the company were identified, the pension insurer failed to replace it with another vendor. Instead, it expanded the company’s duties.

In 2000, complaints from retirees led to a Congressional investigation of the company’s work, and questions about the awarding of the contract were referred to the Justice Department. Still, the company, the Integrated Management Resources Group, was awarded even more business from the federal pension insurer, with bigger responsibilities, bigger fees and a bigger impact on retirees.

Errors described in the report included very basic ones, like decimal points two digits to the right of where they should have been, or calculations made without per-share stock prices

Integrated Management first came under criticism in 1999, eight years after the collapse of the pension plans of another big, bankrupt airline, PanAm. The airline’s retirees complained for years that the P.B.G.C. was making mistakes in calculating their pensions, and rebuffed their attempts to appeal the errors.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/02/business/contractors-work-for-us-pension-guarantor-was-flawed-audit-says.html?smid=tw-nytimesbusiness&seid=auto

Technorati Tags: pension,algorithms,healthcare,insurance,payments,numbers,retirement,Health IT

This is now a stem cell procedure with harvesting cells so the courts kept up with the times as far as what the procedure really is.  Bone marrow donors are hard to find and one organization wants to offer $3k in scholarships, gifts to charities and so on. 

I t now appears any form of compensation goes and patients can now ask insurers to pay donors, how that will work will prove interesting and they should give that a whirl if they are the risk management tightwads they live up to be.  BD 

(Reuters) - Some bone marrow donors can now receive compensation for their donations without committing a felony, a federal appeals court ruled on Thursday.

The court said that new technologies for transplanting bone marrow make the tissue more like blood and less like an organ. The National Organ Transplant Act prohibits compensation for human organs, such as kidneys, but allows payment for renewable tissues such as blood.

A California nonprofit MoreMarrowDonors.org, parents of sick children, and a physician sued U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder in 2009, challenging the ban on compensation for bone marrow donations. They argued that allowing financial incentives for bone marrow donation was crucial because of the extreme difficulty of finding a genetic match.

A California district court sided with the government, but the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed. The court found that new methods of harvesting stem cells from the donor's blood stream rather than the bone did not amount to an organ transfer.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/01/us-bone-marrow-idUSTRE7B02UO20111201?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&dlvrit=309303

Technorati Tags: bone marrow,transplant,legal,healthcare,judge,California,blood,stem cells

This sounds to me like the medical center is moving a little closer to what I call the Prime Healthcare business model, cutting out what is not profitable and what you can’t sustain and keeping the rest, but maybe not as drastic.  Hospitals all over are doing the same thing today when looking at what stays and what goes.

Patients will go to other facilities but the ER will still retain psychiatric services.  As stated in the article and has been in the news, mental health care services are dwindling all over the state.  The big Medi-Cal cuts don’t help out either.  Psychiatric residency too will be another thing of the past.  Just last week the medical center had another very controversial issue and this one really needs to be changed too.  BD

Cedars-Sinai Hospital Denies Liver Transplant to Patient Using Medical Marijuana–But They Were the Hospital that Prescribed It

All the hospitals really have to scrutinize and be sure they have enough in the budget these days to buy all the very expensive Health IT service they need to operate too, many sold and owned by health insurance companies that profit tremendously on the software, so the clinical sides lose again.  BD 

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center will close its in-patient and outpatient psychiatry programs over the next year, a move prompted by significant shifts in the healthcare system, hospital officials said.
The decision, which was announced Wednesday, was driven by hospital finances and changes to the delivery and organization of healthcare services nationwide.
"We are undergoing a massive transformation," said Mark Gavens, the chief operating officer. "It is natural for an organization to focus on what it does well and what it will continue to need to do well to serve the community."

The planned closure is the latest in a long series of reductions in mental health services across the state. California has roughly 6,500 acute in-patient psychiatric beds, down from 8,500 in 1996, according to the California Hospital Assn. There have also been significant cutbacks in Medi-Cal funding for mental health services statewide.
"What hospitals across California are grappling with are serious financial challenges that are unrelenting," said Jan Emerson-Shea, spokeswoman for the association. "It is causing hospitals across the state to look at what services they can continue to provide and what services they can't."

"The world of healthcare is very complicated right now and there are a lot of changes," she said. Land added that those changes should be done carefully and thoughtfully because they "impact people's lives."

http://www.latimes.com/health/la-me-cedars-mental-20111201,0,7075456.story

Technorati Tags: Cedars-Sinai,mental health,hospital,budgets,healthcare,CEO,services,Heatlh IT,Medi-cal