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FTC “Reclaim Your Name Campaign” Not Good Enough–No Path for Regulation Identified–All Data Sellers Including Banks, Insurers, Etc. Should Be Required to Buy a License
FTC “Reclaim Your Name Campaign” Not Good Enough–No Path for Regulation Identified–All Data Sellers Including Banks, Insurers, Etc. Should Be Required to Buy a License

If you have read here often enough then you have probably stumbled on to one of my post about privacy and the data sellers.  Certainly the FTC is addressing the data brokers here and again they are relying on trust.  Right now the credit agencies run some queries and “allow” you to see what they “al…

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29Jun2013


FDA Approves 1st Non Hormone Drug for Hot Flashes–Low Dose Paroxetine Used for Depression
FDA Approves 1st Non Hormone Drug for Hot Flashes–Low Dose Paroxetine Used for Depression

The FDA panel voted against the drug and it is unusual for the FDA to approve a drug that does not get panel approval.  Was it due to the fact that there was no non hormonal drug out there for hot flashes?  It supposedly met the goals in clinical trials but those who voted against it said it was onl…

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28Jun2013


ACO “Pioneers” in CMS Program May Leave or Opt for Other Programs–Those With Fewer Penalty Algorithms Looking More Appealing And Require Less Software Purchases & Training
ACO “Pioneers” in CMS Program May Leave or Opt for Other Programs–Those With Fewer Penalty Algorithms Looking More Appealing And Require Less Software Purchases & Training

When ACOs first came out, really nobody quite knew what they were and the structure but all knew they should join one as all were about saving money with good care.  Now we have some folks either wanting to jump ship or move into another program with fewer penalties and no incentives, kind of takes …

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28Jun2013


GE Looking to Shed Consumer CareCredit Healthcare Financing Unit
GE Looking to Shed Consumer CareCredit Healthcare Financing Unit

The targeted consumer here are those who do not have adequate insurance to offer a credit card for short term financing. The article states it will consider an IPO for GE Capital and I am assuming there could be other divisions rolled in here besides just this one when it all comes out.  This compa…

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28Jun2013


Kaiser Permanente Hit With $4 Million Fine and Cease and Desist For Practices in Violation of State Law Related To Mental Health Care
Kaiser Permanente Hit With $4 Million Fine and Cease and Desist For Practices in Violation of State Law Related To Mental Health Care

This is a substantial fine, second only to the $10 millions Blue Cross received a few years ago and Kaiser said they would challenge the dollar amount.  They also said there were changes currently being made to provide better mental health care.  Some of the issues addressed were not seeing patients…

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28Jun2013


FDA Shuts Down over 1600 Web Sites Selling Counterfeit and SubStandard Drugs
FDA Shuts Down over 1600 Web Sites Selling Counterfeit and SubStandard Drugs

From reading this article, if the website says they are Canadian, there’s a good chance they may not be located there, but rather in China, India, Turkey or other countries.  This is a good time to take a look at the 60 minute report and how much money the counterfeit drug companies make.  See how P…

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28Jun2013


“Redneck Killer Algorithms”, Evidence Backing Digital Illiteracy Connection With Abortions Bills Continues to Grow - Texas Legislature Attempting Manual Altering of Automated Time Stamps To Change Law
“Redneck Killer Algorithms”, Evidence Backing Digital Illiteracy Connection With Abortions Bills Continues to Grow - Texas Legislature Attempting Manual Altering of Automated Time Stamps To Change Law

UPDATE:  It was a technology issue on the data stamp that made the change as was explained on Wednesday but nobody could answer on the floor as why this occurred.  An algorithm entered a default date as it was called, but again nobody there having a quick response and with the status of the use of t…

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27Jun2013


SEC Rules Ask for Disclosure Only When Subsidiary Operations Are “Significant”-Was The Federal Hub Contract Awarded to QSSI Not Significant When the Company Was Bought By United Health Group?–Subsidiary Watch
SEC Rules Ask for Disclosure Only When Subsidiary Operations Are “Significant”-Was The Federal Hub Contract Awarded to QSSI Not Significant When the Company Was Bought By United Health Group?–Subsidiary Watch

I think we need a new meaning to the word “significant” as it may not be significant today but it could be tomorrow.  There are others besides Untied Healthcare doing this as mentioned in the title like Google.  But I have read on the web about many others asking why all the secrecy with the Federal…

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26Jun2013


FDA Approves Two New Cigarette Brands
FDA Approves Two New Cigarette Brands

This was a bit of news to me but as the article states the FDA has the final approval process to make sure there’s no new products on the market that could cause any additional health concerns.  They have around 4000 applications for products that claim to be equivalent to other products already on …

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26Jun2013


WellPoint Initiates New Employer Health Cost Tool With Capping Services–3rd Party Castlight To See Additional Revenues as They Will Train The Insured On How To Use the Their Software
WellPoint Initiates New Employer Health Cost Tool With Capping Services–3rd Party Castlight To See Additional Revenues as They Will Train The Insured On How To Use the Their Software

Yes indeed things are becoming  more complex with insurance and in this case WellPoint is capping what they will pay on some services and procedures. Again this is a data creation windfall for Castlight, the 3rd party consultant who  creates the models and algorithms that will be used by employees …

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26Jun2013


Specialty Medical Supply Founder Held Hostage in Chinese Factory By His Own Employees Over Compensation Disputes
Specialty Medical Supply Founder Held Hostage in Chinese Factory By His Own Employees Over Compensation Disputes

The company, Specialty Medical is located in Florida and was in the process of shifting some of the manufacturing from China to India. The employees at the China factory claim they have not been paid, blocked the doors and have locked him in until they can negotiate.  This happened last Friday and …

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26Jun2013


SEC Files Lawsuit Against Imaging3 Inc.–Accusing CEO and Founder of False Statements About FDA Approval Process
SEC Files Lawsuit Against Imaging3 Inc.–Accusing CEO and Founder of False Statements About FDA Approval Process

If you read the third paragraph here it sounds like the FDA was not satisfied with the device overheating and stated the images were useless in 2010.  If you visit the website the company filed for Chapter 11 in May of this year.  The SEC is looking for financial penalties and wants to bar the CEO f…

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26Jun2013


Blackstone is Not The Only Corporation Involved in Housing-UnitedHealth Group New Mexico Investment Wants A Rent Check –Subsidiary Watch
Blackstone is Not The Only Corporation Involved in Housing-UnitedHealth Group New Mexico Investment Wants A Rent Check –Subsidiary Watch

I wrote about this a couple years ago when the project was announced and as you can read from the article they have a partner named Enterprise Community Investment and the two worked together on this to build and provide medium to to income housing, rentals.  We see Blackstone in a much bigger way b…

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25Jun2013


When You Have ALEC, Who Needs Lobbyists…Teaching State Law Makers How To Cash in on Models for Profit With Private Industry…Update from Bill Moyer
When You Have ALEC, Who Needs Lobbyists…Teaching State Law Makers How To Cash in on Models for Profit With Private Industry…Update from Bill Moyer

With ALEC you can change the world without ever having to go to Washington, find out what this is all about if you have not seen this before. This is a quote from the video and there’s a big focus on Wisconsin here and their influence in the state and with Scott Walker.  The Koch brothers were the …

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24Jun2013


Tenet Healthcare Buys Vanguard Health for $1.8 Billion Cash and Assumes $2.5 Billion in Debt
Tenet Healthcare Buys Vanguard Health for $1.8 Billion Cash and Assumes $2.5 Billion in Debt

Not too long ago, Community Health was trying to take over Tenet and that didn’t work and they were pretty aggressive and ended up giving up their efforts.  It was hot news for a while and ended up with Tenet filing a lawsuit against Community stating they were inflating hospital admissions in 2011.…

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24Jun2013


Anthem Blue Cross to Pay $6 Million in Fines for Illegally Dropping Policy Holders–Fixing the Policy Dropping Algorithm Parameters…
Anthem Blue Cross to Pay $6 Million in Fines for Illegally Dropping Policy Holders–Fixing the Policy Dropping Algorithm Parameters…

Here we go again with looking at automation and as I keep saying there are life impacting decisions made about all of us every day on servers that run 24/7 and our fear of the “context” of such analytics.  Apparently in this case here we are needing some additional ‘human” involvement here as we all…

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23Jun2013


CalPERS Reimbursement Caps Seem to Be Working As More Hospitals in California Reduce Prices for Some Surgical Procedures
CalPERS Reimbursement Caps Seem to Be Working As More Hospitals in California Reduce Prices for Some Surgical Procedures

Recently CalPERS has been in the news for their new bidding process to split up the insurers offering coverage for their health insurance.  They have opening admitted they don’t  know if any money will be saved but in working with Blue Cross on some of this they are making some headway with what the…

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23Jun2013
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