Insurance Companies Are Buying Up Consumer Spending Data-Time is Here to License and Tax the Data Sellers-As Insurers Sell Tons of Data, Gets Flawed Data When Data Buyers Uses Out of Context Too

Yes here we go again and more on this same topic. Companies get absolutely rich and wealthy doing this and don’t get sucked in to think that you are the #1 focus, it’s money and you are second;

however when you switch over to the product side, you are #1 and how much your data is worth. Ok my usual example here Walgreens made short of $800 million selling data in 2010 so look who some of their customers probably are..we have Blue Cross mentioned here and later on in the video United Healthcare is mentioned too which they are the pros and have been doing this longer than most others in healthcare. It’s what they do with all their IT analytics to create senses of urgency sometimes.

Some of their reports and studies are completely out of line when they start tossing “trillions” out there to be saved as nobody knows but that’s the world of marketing and companies as such just so happen to be in the insurance business too, they have dual personalities at times, depending on which subsidiary focus you might have. So watch the video and I’ll continue this after the break with a few links on why we need to license and tax data sellers. We need an algorithmic process to begin moving the money from the 1% to the 99% and this is a good plan.

Pretty interesting to hear Blue Cross on the phone, they don’t use it for insuring they say, but who knows what is used where anymore. Insurance companies have so many subsidiaries anymore, and United trumps all of them with even owning a bank. Just give this some thought here, will the data police show up and haul you off if you are a diabetic and bought a candy bar that was for your daughter one day who

is not a diabetic? Do you want to get the third degree when you check out or handed an algorithmic print out that tells you what you are doing wrong? These are processes folks where the technology is there to do such. Its runs on servers 24/7. People are writing and selling data that should not be matched and then market it to the hilt to suck you in. Watch the first video on the left hand side of my blog to see NYU professor Seife explain how you get “Algo Duped”. On top of this the data is getting flawed as well.

Does the US Government Need a Department of Modeling and Algorithms–Is Data Addiction and Abuse the Next Up and Coming 12 Step Program, Some Classic Posts & Topics Revisited

Here’s a great example of flawed data..can’t even get accurate listings of doctors and hospitals on the web…I’ve been on this for a couple years…this is a big chunk of why healthcare cost is so high…they don’t need all of this..See look you can still go see Michael Jackson’s doctor if you believe what you see on the web…

Flawed Data With Physician and Hospital Rating Sites- Want To Go See Michael Jackson’s Former Dermatologist? Vitals and HealthGrades Says He’s Still There - Not…Flawed Data & Algorithms Persist…

Next I would advise all to watch the 2nd video on the left, Quants of Wall Street, which gives you some real insight as to how math is used for all these models that use the “mined” data for one and other information, the Quants tell you flat out that they have to figure a formula to reduce risk whether is accurate or not…they do this to make money. There’s good data and analytics out there too but they all have error factors and values, and some have “fake” values, and telling the difference is hard. Below at this link is a great video forum with companies such as T-Mobile, NASA and others discussing how to find value in big data and how to work with their company Quants. They have them as well writing math formulas for the algorithms to execute. I recommend it highly as this is straight talk that you don’t get very often.

Big Data/Analytics If Used Out of Context and Without True Values Stand To Be A Huge Discriminatory Practice Against Consumers–More Honest Data Scientists Needed to Formulate Accuracy/Value To Keep Algo Duping For Profit Out of the Game

Now that we have that out of the way, this leads to the next back post I recently made that half of the analytics purchased out there are going to be a total waste and it’s true when “junk” is bought that has fake risk assessments figured in and when non linear matches are made on data that doesn’t belong there. They do it though to make money and could care less on the impact of the consumer.

Credit people are good at this in over selling their data and analytics…remember sub prime…bingo..and it still goes on. So the insurance company buys that data, so what subsidiary of theirs

would they send it to? That’s a good question as United could be sending it to one of their medical record companies, one of their wellness companies, to their bank they own, to the doctors groups they own, to AARP, to their various analytics firm companies (formerly known as Ingenix now Optum) and tons more. They have an over flowing river of subsidiaries and the company sells data like there’s no tomorrow all over the place. There’s a ton of behavioral analytics folks out there that salivate for this stuff. I sad the other day some dating sites send off de-identified profile information to the behavioral analytics folks. I play around with “Recorded Future” a little just to see what some of this predicting analytics has to say. Sure, you can trend with it, but totally different story when you take this down to an individual level with mining what’s on the web too. Here we go could United get a contract selling this information to Medicare and Medicaid too? Think about it… the make billions selling data…is this next? All insurers use your prescription data though for underwriting purposes, that’s been going on for years.

United Healthcare Wants to Expand Predictive Modeling for Medicare and Medicaid–Billions in Savings Predicted in Report Only As Good as the Day It Is Published

I end up talking to some real nutcases too, one the other day from an executive who runs a large nursing home facility. We entered into the data selling conversation and I made mention of the farce analytics that FICO sells with credit information and scoring people. He went off and went nuts and said that’s a great idea. So I asked, what are you going to do buy the analytics and waste a bunch of money?

When you admit your patients you do a credit check anyway, are you that duped that you think there’s something there you missed? What are you going to do with this information, cherry pick and kick the low scorers out of the beds so you can make a bigger bonus on your efficiencies? See how this gets misinterpreted? For actual use, it had no value but he saw it as a way to use numbers to make his bonus bigger and show more efficiencies in doing his job…crap get those folks away from me!

Other than that he was nice person but boy toss those numbers and out little concern for residents and the option of more money just took over everything in his head and that’s not right. You need balance and the ability to know when you don’t need to spend money on “junk” analytics. This was prime case if I ever heard it. He was totally duped to thinking the FICO analytics had any value at all, period. Duped, duped and duped again and prime example of consumers getting hurt and analytics used out of context.

Ever wonder why healthcare can be so expensive? Remember billions in profits are made..stand by and watch company after company waste some of this money..as they get sucked in to the wrong analytics..or ones that do not fit their needs…

Half of Analytics Investments By Companies and Banks Will Be a Waste–What Do We Analyze with Big Data and Does It Have Value–Some Algo Fairies Would Do Better at Disneyland…

In closing here, this is why we need to tax and license the data sellers to begin an algorithmic process of moving the money back to the other side. Algorithms moved it to the 1% and algorithms are needed to move it back.

In the meantime with all this high tech analytics going on and add in the financial world too, oh boy we get to look forward to another attorney running the SEC…wrong person for the job, need a technologist to walk and chew code to keep up. Time to license and excise tax the data sellers for more than one reason as consumers need a federal site where we can look up and see who sells what kind of data and to whom…and good luck in generating big consumer participating in Healthcare until this issue is dealt with as the trust will never be there. More videos at AlgoDuping 101. BD