Top Doctor For Miami VA Healthcare System Lost Medical License in New York, Had Issues With Florida Board of Medicine, But On the Internet He Still Works and Takes New Patients in New York With Plenty of Insurers…

<p>Without knowing all the exact details here of each case it’s hard to comment and people deserve a second chance by all means.  The second issue in Florida was failing to accurately read a patient’s x-rays which lead to the patient’s death and I am guessing treatments were missed due to this as the article reports he did  not do proper follow up.  If proper treatment is not given then follow up would be missed as well.  Now for the next part of this discussion.<strong>  If you wanted to look up Dr. De Gennaro on the internet, well gee, he’s never left New York!</strong>  This is more on the Healthgrades and Vitals flawed data issues.  Over the last 4  years I occasionally post an error when I see and I don’t really go looking for it either and once in a while just do a random search and I find errors every time and this is no exception.</p> <p>On Healthgrades no sanctions even though he surrendered his license in 2011 and promised to never apply again in New York and we have 5 star rating going on here.   Odd while I was on this page I get the “please give us feedback request” from Healthgrades too (grin).  The page still shows the doctor working Staten Island University Hospital.  You know when Healthgrades releases their hospital rankings, how does this impact those numbers?  Good question?  We got ads popping up all over the place which is basically why these pages exist with nobody minding the “accuracy” shop here, just make sure we have good “click bait” and get that ad exposure revenue. <strong></strong></p> <p><strong>Heck I wish some of those folks would come over to my blog and advertise (grin) at least the content is accurate at the Quack.</strong>  It’s amazing all the insurance plans he takes for being on staff at the VA in Miami for a few years and has no New York License. </p> <p><img align="left" alt="image" border="0" height="311" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-WkuGoATMQAo/U5TwxrV01fI/AAAAAAABKis/7HXdAkdlcoU/image%25255B18%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" title="image" width="496" /></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <h6><img align="left" alt="image" border="0" height="338" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-M3kscwuUMpk/U5TwyW4ceHI/AAAAAAABKi0/QIfBJYZLh0U/image%25255B19%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" title="image" width="498" /></h6> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>A couple weeks ago there was an <a href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304422704579571940584035918">article in the Wall Street Journal</a> saying how doctors need to “own” these sites and take responsibility to update them, right, so the sites don’t lose any ad exposure revenue, right?  So much for that and it was funny to see so many on the web who are not aware of all the flawed data out there just lump right on to it, so see the power of the media when you maybe don’t have all the facts on what goes on with flawed data.  It’s very easy to write fake review too and one doctor told me he saw some bad stuff about other doctor friends and took time out to write some “fake reviews” to make them look better as he felt the reviews that were there were fake as well too and didn’t include the whole picture of a review.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2011/11/healthgrades-to-merge-with-cpm.html">Healthgrades to Merge with CPM Marketing–Will Their Data and Questionable Algorithms Will Be Improved For Consumers?</a></h5> <p>So next stop, let’s hop on over to  Vitals too and see what we find there…he’s only has 4 stars over here.  He’s accepting new patients over here too and is board certified….</p> <p><img align="left" alt="image" border="0" height="418" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-vWYvCoo_0aI/U5TwyyuyhlI/AAAAAAABKi8/O227_HUD9oA/image%25255B20%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" title="image" width="488" /></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>Not just one but he’s affiliated with 9 hospitals over here and is at the top 25% of Staten University as well.  <strong>If you scroll down to the bottom of the page you can see some great kudos from Fox News, NPR, Wall Street Journal, Money, Fast Company, The Huffington Post…so what’ that tell you, they don’t dig in and look and they too just assume these are great pages?  </strong></p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/09/jacob-reider-to-lead-onc-until-new.html">Jacob Reider To Lead the ONC Until New Leader Is Appointed–Visit His Page on Healthgrades Showing He’s Still Open For Business To See Patients, Along With Links to Dead Doctors, Some On Staff At Hospitals They Have Never Set Foot In And More…</a></h5> <p><strong>I wonder how many of the media folks might asked to be removed now:) </strong>This is the reason little bloggers like me exist to add our expertise in specific areas where we are in the know where major media might miss some of this.  They cover broad news and can’t do all the specifics and I understand that.  You have lots of ads running over here too and flashing at you and there’s nothing wrong with ads at all but damn get your content upgraded and accurate as these sites really do look like “click bait” and they don’t care what shows, just look at and click those ads, accuracy on doctors is not a concern it appears with the MD ratings that they promote to get you here.  </p> <p><img align="left" alt="image" border="0" height="372" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-SCCv91OxNEM/U5Twznk-HRI/AAAAAAABKjE/fwxjgD3mrpQ/image%25255B21%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" title="image" width="508" /></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>Maybe Google should take a look at their rankings here as their algorithms scare the daylights out of everyone else and move these folks down the search ladder a bit until they can improve the content they provide.  This has been going on forever as the <a href="http://www.amednews.com/article/20101018/business/310189969/5/">AMA and I had a nice chat about this about 3-4 years ago</a> when I found my former MD listed who had been dead for 8 years on there.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/02/operation-spinal-cap-former-owner-of.html">Operation Spinal Cap-Former Owner of Orthopedic Hospital Admits He Bribed California State Senator Calderon-Hospital Closed And Sold But Still Listed on Healthgrades</a></h5> <p>It’s been 4 years folks and and nothing has improved as a matter of fact it looks worse.  Really the sites are looking like the intent is only to collect ad revenue now.  Do you have to be so blatant about it?  Here’s my original post before the AMA and I chatted.  Don’t you think consumers deserve a little bit better than this as you bill yourselves as MD information pages.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2010/09/healthgrades-and-other-md-rating-and.html">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 </a></h5> <p>I’ve written about <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/10/healthgrades-updates-their-hospital.html">upgrades that Healthgrades made</a> and there’ <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/10/healthgrades-updates-their-hospital.html">little impact on that data</a> that appears here and I also covered how they merged with a “marketing company” so we get better ad marketing I guess.  When it comes to getting some quality information does it have to be the bottom feeder end of a search here?  Vitals made some nice little videos that use a computerized voice that speak all the flawed data to you as well and it looks nice but the data is still flawed so a nice appealing format reading off flawed data..how nice:)  Being I have talked about this for 4 years now and nothing has improved, I’m a bit more vocal than before I guess.  Shoot I even found Michael Jacksons old doctor on there taking new patients long after he went bankrupt and vacated his offices.  Here’s a few tweets from today too you might want to look at.</p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/02/flawed-data-with-physician-and-hospital.html">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…</a></h5> <hr /> <p><strong><a href="http://twitter.com/MedicalQuack"><em><font size="2">MedicalQuack</font></em></a></strong><em><font size="2"> MD readers here be sure and fix your </font></em><a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23clickbait"><em><font size="2">#clickbait</font></em></a><em><font size="2"> at Vitals and Healthgrades:) Like you have time to help those sites w their ad revenue?</font></em></p> <p><strong><a href="http://twitter.com/MedicalQuack"><em><font size="2">MedicalQuack</font></em></a></strong><em><font size="2"> My last tweet contains links to both Vitals and Healthgrades showing VA MD who lost license still practicing in New York:) </font></em><a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23clickbait"><em><font size="2">#clickbait</font></em></a></p> <p><strong><a href="http://twitter.com/MedicalQuack"><em><font size="2">MedicalQuack</font></em></a></strong><em><font size="2"> VA MD lost license in NY? Want to race me to Healthgrades & Vitals to rate him:) </font></em><a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23flaweddata"><em><font size="2">#flaweddata</font></em></a><em><font size="2"> </font></em><a href="http://t.co/uW8kQbCUvK"><em><font size="2">bit.ly/1kSBITU</font></em></a><em><font size="2"> | </font></em><a href="http://t.co/HVRBcII6et"><em><font size="2">bit.ly/1kSBOuQ</font></em></a></p> <p><strong><a href="http://twitter.com/MedicalQuack"><em><font size="2">MedicalQuack</font></em></a></strong><em><font size="2"> Top Miami VA doctor lost medical license in NY Dr. Vincent DeGenmaro via Westport News </font></em><a href="http://t.co/xxstWV0lMx"><em><font size="2">bit.ly/1kSB4pF</font></em></a> </p> <hr /> <p><strong><u>From my MD mailbox too on this topic…</u></strong></p> <p><em>“They still include doctors who have had licenses revoked. One is on their list (Rodney Dotson at 'Best Match' #61 of 2121) , and when you click on his name it does tell you that his license was cancelled (HG doesn't say, but it was in 2008) . So I am not sure why he lands in their top doctors list.  And a lower ranked (at #137 but still in top 10%) doctor had his license revoked in 2011 and that fact is not anywhere to be found, and he is still listed as taking patients. (Check out Lee Friend ).  </em></p> <p><a href="http://www.healthgrades.com/provider-search-directory/search?q=friend&prof.type=provider&search.type=&entityCode=&method=&loc=Amarillo%2C+TX+79109&pt=35.1643%2C-101.889&isNeighborhood=&locType=%7Cstate%7Ccity%7Czip&locIsSolrCity"><em>http://www.healthgrades.com/provider-search-directory/search?q=friend&prof.type=provider&search.type=&entityCode=&method=&loc=Amarillo%2C+TX+79109&pt=35.1643%2C-101.889&isNeighborhood=&locType=%7Cstate%7Ccity%7Czip&locIsSolrCity</em></a><em>=</em></p> <p><em>Out of the 150 'Best Matches' , I did a quick (probably undercounting here) check and found 7 retired doctors (one retired 18 years ago), 2 doctors with licenses revoked, 1 hospital administrator who has not seen patients in almost 25 years, and many others that moved as long as 10 years ago. </em></p> <p><em>Bloating the provider list to 2,121 was accomplished by adding dentists, nurse practitioners, counselors, plus doctors who are practicing hundreds of miles away in other states.</em></p> <p><em>IMO, Healthgrades is a bad joke for an authoritative web site. It is sad to think people use it for important health decisions.”</em></p> <em> <hr /></em> <p>It’s been 4 years and you can’t do anything better than this?  I’m a patient person and used to write software and worked with data bases myself an understand the data mechanics and what need to be done and these two sites are not doing much except collecting ad revenue with little concern about the integrity of what they put out there, don’t you agree?<strong>  I just hope the VA is not naïve enough to look at these credentials when hiring doctors and does a little more extensive research maybe.  It might be nice to tell us that you are <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/10/healthgrades-updates-their-hospital.html">working on your algorithms at Healthgrades</a> but that was two years ago..nothing yet?  </strong>  </p> <hr />MIAMI (AP) — A top physician for the Miami <a href="http://www.westport-news.com/?controllerName=search&action=search&channel=news&search=1&inlineLink=1&query=%22Veterans+Affairs%22">Veterans Affairs</a> healthcare system surrendered his medical license in New York and faced sanctions in Florida one year before he was tapped for his current position. The 2010 sanctions resulted from the case of a patient with a torn large intestine, who died under the care of Dr. <a href="http://www.westport-news.com/?controllerName=search&action=search&channel=news&search=1&inlineLink=1&query=%22Vincent+A.+DeGennaro%22">Vincent A. DeGennaro</a>, at a <a href="http://www.westport-news.com/?controllerName=search&action=search&channel=news&search=1&inlineLink=1&query=%22Fort+Lauderdale+hospital%22">Fort Lauderdale hospital</a>. <p><a href="http://www.westport-news.com/?controllerName=search&action=search&channel=news&search=1&inlineLink=1&query=%22The+Miami+Herald%22">The Miami Herald</a> reported Saturday that a 2008 complaint filed with the <a href="http://www.westport-news.com/?controllerName=search&action=search&channel=news&search=1&inlineLink=1&query=%22Florida+Board+of+Medicine%22">Florida Board of Medicine</a> by Florida's department of health alleges that DeGennaro misinterpreted his patient's x-rays and failed to do proper follow up (<a href="http://hrld.us/1tU4rs8">http://hrld.us/1tU4rs8</a> ), resulting in the patient's 2003 death.</p> <p>DeGennaro, 68, did not answer a phone listed for his home in Pompano Beach Saturday. A recorded greeting said messages would not be returned.</p> <p>A spokesman for the Miami VA told the Herald in a statement that DeGennaro's selection in 2011 as the senior executive physician for the Miami VA healthcare system had been approved by the Veterans Affairs office in Washington, D.C. DeGennaro oversees dozens of doctors at one Miami hospital and several community clinics. He still performs surgeries and sees patients.</p> <p>In 2010 DeGennaro surrendered his medical license in New York in an agreement stemming from the 2003 case. He agreed never to reapply for a physician's license or again practice medicine in the state. DeGennaro could have had his license also suspended in Florida, but instead the Board of Medicine censured him and fined him $5,000, as well as charging him legal costs and 50 hours of community service.</p> <p><a href="http://www.westport-news.com/news/article/Top-Miami-VA-doctor-lost-medical-license-in-NY-5536199.php">http://www.westport-news.com/news/article/Top-Miami-VA-doctor-lost-medical-license-in-NY-5536199.php</a></p>

Top Doctor For Miami VA Healthcare System Lost Medical License in New York, Had Issues With Florida Board of Medicine, But On the Internet He Still Works and Takes New Patients in New York With Plenty of Insurers…

Without knowing all the exact details here of each case it’s hard to comment and people deserve a second chance by all means.  The second is...

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United Healthcare Round Two With More Medicare Advantage Doctors Being Fired in Massachusetts and Tennessee- Expansion of the Business Intelligence Killer Algorithms Keeps Growing

<p>This is yet another expansion of the Medicare Advantage Killer Algorithms as the insurer business intelligence methodologies used are designating that these are additional areas that are having an impact on over all profit strategies.  This is a process that all companies do today; however when it comes down to the personal with health insurance it causes patients and doctors to have to make changes that can in fact have an impact on the care patients get and with doctors, where they get care. <strong>Patients again will have to shift and choose to <img align="right" height="92" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-GPn1iE76d3k/T5D3QJ8PWFI/AAAAAAAA6jk/kMvDzt1Smc0/image_thumb%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="float: right; display: inline" width="206" />make other arrangements</strong>.  Let’s go back to “you can keep your doctor” with Obamacare and shut out the fact that was created by the government as it was not, this is done with business analytics with insurers to keep profit margins and dividends flowing to investors.  United just raised their dividend if you missed it.  </p> <p>The <a href="http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2014/06/06/unitedhealthcare-cut-hundreds-bay-state-doctors-from-its-medicare-advantage-network/ZK9ipRZ9KKVtIyGV87XXNI/story.html">Boston Globe</a> reports the situation in Massachusetts to where around 700 doctors will be fired from being Medicare Advantage in network participants.  This means again patients have to look into a couple alternatives which is changing doctors or moving on to straight Medicare coverage if they want to keep their doctor.  At least there’s little more warning this time with the change taking place on September 1st.  I love the stats quoted here as we are a nation of stat rats and if it’s you and your doctor affected, than stats mean absolutely nothing.  As the CEO of United said a few years ago at United “our shareholders will prosper”.  Doctors began getting  notices last week.   Here’s a back link again where I basically said the same thing.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/10/united-healthcare-firing-thousand-of.html">United Healthcare Firing Thousand of Doctors Caring For Medicare Advantage Plan Patients in Connecticut, Florida and Rhode Island-Attack of the Business Intelligence Killer Algorithms…</a> </h5> <p>Now over here we have the <a href="http://insurancenewsnet.com/oarticle/2014/06/07/some-united-healthcare-patients-may-lose-doctors-a-515026.html#.U5NDDnZWgWN">same thing happening in Tennessee.</a>  About 4 percent of the doctors will be cut from being Medicare Advantage providers here as well.  One little kind note is a small exception for Cancer patients being able to maintain their current doctors if they are under treatment so those folks may have to watch their claims as you might see items such as “what a treatment” questioned with claims or is this “an experimental treatment”, both very commonly used by insurers all the way around today with medical claims.  It’s interesting how the article goes the extra mile to say “doctors are not the bad guys here” in essence as I mentioned above it’s all about business intelligence algorithmic formulas that shuffle out to be “Killer Algorithms” with patients and doctors.  It’s strange as here in California United pulled out of the individual policy business but I see ads running like crazy on TV for their Secure Horizons Medicare plans here.  </p> <p>When you have an insurer that is so large and has <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/07/health-insurance-business-under-radar.html">armies of subsidiary companies</a> you have to think that even they can’t manage all their data and costing today as shown in contrast where there was no problem letting a <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/03/17509880-to-fix-hammer-toe-billed-by.html">$175,000 claim for a hammer to procedure</a> for a banker’s wife in NYC just slide on through.    United makes 1/3 of their revenue today from Health IT efforts and 2/3 comes from the actual insurance side.  I have been posting about other states where United has also cut Medicare Advantage doctors and it’s even gone to a lawsuit in Connecticut.  <img align="right" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-nyFsMPDDLgk/UDEQa31432I/AAAAAAAA86o/sscFDo2n0LE/image%25255B21%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="float: right; display: inline" />This is an odd contrast to where United did bid and win for a Medicare Advantage plan in Maryland only to find their narrow networks too narrow and there were no providers to see the patients in the contract they had just won.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/01/howard-county-school-board-in-maryland.html">Howard County School Board in Maryland Rescinds United Healthcare Contract As Retirees Didn’t Want the Medicare Advantage Plan, No Providers Available..</a></h5> <p>The Supreme Court last year did give doctors a small give in the fact that they are now allowed to group to litigate legal claims and they are using it.  The Supreme Court ruling went against the Oxford United Healthcare group which was tied up in courts for years over the use of not allowing doctors to group.  In the Connecticut case, medical associations have done a “me too” all the way from California, Texas and more as they are grouping to support the lawsuit.  A company the size of United though has a large team of lawyers on staff and a couple or three years ago hired the former US Assistant Attorney General for the State of Minnesota to come on board as general counsel. </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/06/us-supreme-court-rules-physicians-can.html">US Supreme Court Rules Physicians Can Work As A Group To Fight Unfair Business Practices of Health Insurers–Victory Over United Healthcare (Oxford Subsidiary)–Context Once Again With Contracts</a></h5> <p>I find it weird too in the northeast to where United bought a chunk of the <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/07/unitedhealthcare-buys-portion-of-health.html">Health Insurance business formerly owned by Health Net</a> too as this all took place during the big Tri-Care bids when Health Net originally lost the northeast contract but got it back as Aetna cheated.  During the time before the re-award Health Net is  not that big and with potentially losing Tri-Care in the northeast money wise had to sell off some business.  Strange when you go to Health Net today you still see them <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/09/united-healthcare-purchase-of-healthnet.html">represented as the insurer,</a> but United owns it and I guess never switched clients over to Untied policies.  I just looked at it the other day on the Health Net page.  Just from the consumer end it makes is confusing to figure out where your actual bottom line dollars go.</p> <p>As the Tri-Care bidding moved forward, for a little more history here we know that United sued the DOD to get the contract in the west.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2011/06/update-unitedhealthcare-sues-department.html">Update: UnitedHealthcare Sues Department of Defense Over Tri-Care Contracts–They Said They Would Do This – Is This A Case Of My Algorithms Are Better Than Yours?</a></h5> <p>I have seen a few articles like the one below too when United contests contract awards too and takes people to court as shown for the state of Georgia. </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/09/united-protesting-yet-another-contract.html">United Protesting Yet Another Contract Award–State of Georgia Where They Claim “It Was Rigged”…</a></h5> <p>In addition insurers are now beginning to compete with hospitals too and here’s a little bit about that where United is now setting up their own urgency care clinics with a couple Texas for starters.  It’s a weird situation here as they have to work together on some levels of healthcare but in other areas there’s competition.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/01/united-healthcare-now-entering-urgent.html">United Healthcare Now Entering the Urgent Care Clinic Business To Help Keep Patients Out of the ER, Two More Opening In Houston–Subsidiary Watch </a></h5> <p>These processes are all business analytics and they just cut and chop and doctors and patients are being left to fend for themselves as the systematic process to keep profits for shareholders prevails.  The old saying of follow the money still holds true but you also have to follow the data today and somewhat think like a jerk to project how data burns a hole in the pocket of a business that has some to sell, as it’s an epidemic in the US and your real articles all over the web, besides this blog about United and the money they make selling data, they’ve been doing it for years and years.  </p> <p><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/02/kathleen-sebelius-kansas-governor-for.html">I was worried back in 2009 when Kathleen Sebelius was nominated</a> as I feared she was no contest for the extreme analytics used by health insurers and sadly it turns out I was correct as I don’t have to tell you what happened there as it played out over and over on main stream media, one foot in mouth or weird perception after another, and it was nothing personal but just myself notice clean hard fact that you can’t have non data mechanic logic folks running agencies that have to deal with very complex technologies and business intelligence algorithms that make profit for insurers.  She’s not alone though as we have <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/04/markets-are-not-rigged-spoken-like-true.html">Mary Jo White at the SEC</a> White at the SEC and <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/05/richard-cordray-yet-one-more-algo-duped.html">Richard Cordray</a> at the Consumer Protection Agency suffering from the <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/04/secretary-sebelius-at-hhs-resigns-wrong.html">Sebelius Syndrome</a> as well, not personal at all.  </p> <p><strong>I recently had a doctor tell me here, who is not happy with his complex contract with Untied that now pays him less than Medicare, that he actually bought some of their stock as he was just so overly impressed with how brazen the company is and just ram rods everything through that they want and later said he would probably sell his United stock</strong> as he realized he was kind of betting against himself in the end.  <img align="right" height="170" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-q1ZlYU3i__8/UnXCngdfnNI/AAAAAAABIbk/HRJc-_5HyMI/image%25255B9%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="float: right; display: inline" width="243" />He was tired of the fact that claims were not getting paid on bought a few share of stock to get even in essence for the low pay contracts and all his office’s administrative time spent.  We had a merger of a couple big doctor’s groups here recently in California and it’s kind of worth a note that the doctors and patients being moved to the other group in <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/05/memorial-healthcare-ipa-in-southern.html">verbiage were just called “inventory”</a> if you will.  What really galls doctors though  and <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/05/with-claim-denials-how-well-do-insurers.html">here’s an example is that they do a lot of chasing around to find out that United doesn’t have claims people familiar enough with their own policies, i.e</a>. tell us it’s not covered now instead of reams of paper and faxes later.  </p> <p>A few years ago it was all over the papers in the OC when United shut down a division and the method used to terminate people with getting an instant message on their computer, asking them to report to the lobby where a bunch of busses were waiting that took them to a hotel and gave them their walking papers. </p> <p><strong>I tell people all the time and have for years to look at health insurance companies as whole to include all the subsidiary companies they own and what they do as it too is very complex as you also have a lot of different interests</strong> that are not direct health insurers operating entities or you may find 51% controlling interests by the insurer or by one of their subsidiaries.  <strong>I had a hospital CEO a while back who read some of my archives and he said he was floored to find out how many different subsidiaries his hospital had with portions of United Healthcare,</strong> as again he had never looked at the entire company as a whole and of course he approved contacts and payments to those subsidiaries or companies that are 51% controlled by the insurer.  Also it’s interesting to note where folks from HHS end up going who were responsible for writing part of the healthcare law, link below.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/06/us-health-insurance-regulator-leaving.html">US Health Insurance Regulator Leaving to Take a Job at UnitedHealth Care As Vice President of the Optum Division – Moving to the “For Profit Side” With Business Intelligence Algorithm Dollars To Review</a></h5> <p>A couple years ago I wrote a post about agreeing with a banker that banks are pretty much just software companies anymore and noted the same can be said for health insurers too, so are you getting this message yet?  If not you might give it some thought.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/04/banks-are-actually-just-software.html">Banks Are Actually Just Software Companies and the Same Can Pretty Much Be Said for Health Insurance Companies As Well-5 Unspoken Reasons Tech Projects Fail</a></h5> <p>Here’s a post I did a while back (link below) with a partial listing of some of the United Healthcare subsidiaries and where they function and you could be come aware of the fact that they own a bank, sell electronic medical records, own clearinghouses, invest in low income properties, sell Chinese made hearing aids, consult with device and drug companies for FDA submissions, run hospice services, a lot of military contracts and more.  I did this as information as I like to know where my bottom line dollars go to the ultimate corporate till.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/07/health-insurance-business-under-radar.html">Health Insurance Business Under the Radar With Tiered Subsidiaries–Where All the Action Takes Place With Mergers, Acquisitions and Profit Centers-Subsidiary Watch</a></h5> <p>We do have a big case of <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/03/virtual-worlds-real-world-we-have.html">“The Grays”</a> as I feel with folks not coming to the reality of all the complexities we have out there today and you see things like this where people have had enough with the bliss perceptions we read about with government.  We do have Killer Algorithms out there operating on servers 24/7 that make life impacting decisions about all of us and in this case it’s Medicare Advantage doctors and patients. <strong>We have virtual values that are analytics, etc. that come out of virtual world and have impact and affect “the real” world</strong>, so important that virtual and real world models work together today as we are beginning to see a big failure of all types of models and it’s not only in software.  </p> <p>Shoot three years ago I suggested devaluating some algorithms for the purpose of balance but as you can see it has not worked that way and the imbalance and folks being too far stuck in virtual values is killing us as they can’t tell the difference anymore half the time, the VA is right there and staring us in the face with this <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/05/va-crisis-just-tip-of-iceberg-as-us.html">unwanted scenario.</a>  By the way too a subsidiary of United, LHI contracts to do disability exams for Vets all the across the country and does a lot of work for DOD as well as United has a specific “government” subsidiary they created for that purpose.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/04/complexities-are-winning-medicare.html">Complexities Are Winning - Medicare Principal; Deputy Administrator Calling It Quits - Time For Folks To Come Out of “The Grays” And Look at the Reality of the Complex Systems We Built - Beyond Humans And Even the Machines To Handle At Times-IT on Overload</a></h5> <p>In short, every time  new risk analytics come out with cost associations, both doctors and patients have to disrupt their current medical care, their relationships with doctors and go scramble so they can be assured of care. <img align="right" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-0izDRTg1eiA/Uxp9aXgWCUI/AAAAAAABJig/-_UkQEa6MGE/image%25255B4%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="float: right; display: inline" /> How long is this going to keep happening one might wonder?  Which comes first the human or the algorithms?  </p> <p>The machines will never have ethics as that’s purely human and there’s a great abstract that addresses this so as smart as machines can get, you will never get ethics input unless you ask a human, which you do hope has ethics.  <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/05/over-reaching-with-algorithmic.html">Nurses too are worried and concerned</a> about the over reach of algorithmic medicine and who better to ask than those folks on the front line.  Doctors and nurses deal with the “real world” every day and there’s a name for that: patients.  Analytics and costs numbers are virtual values that help us make decision and we need them; however the balance is off and only the dollars and share holders call, we have problems.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/04/limitations-and-risks-of-machine-ethics.html">Limitations And Risks Of Machine Ethics (That Really Don’t Exist) - Abstract Basically Substantiating the Existence of What I Coined As “The Attacks of the Killer Algorithms”…</a></h5> <p>At this point we have all pretty much figured out that “pre-existing risk” has now been replaced by “narrow networks” and they are showing up everywhere.  This again is a model being used to risk assessments along with gosh only knows what else gets in there as <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/03/insurance-companies-are-buying-up.html">insurers now buy up our MasterCard and Vista records</a> along with some stealth voice analytics to get every tiny stick of data they can to allow or deny care or service.  Of course insurers are at the top of the list as pointed out by the World Privacy Forum on the <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/04/world-privacy-forum-report-scoring-of.html">“Scoring of America’,</a> which in itself outside of healthcare is impacting inequality.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/04/pre-existing-conditions-with-health.html">Pre-Existing Conditions With Health Insurance May Be Gone But Narrow Networks Are Providing The Same End Result For Many Ill Patients With Not Being Able To Get Care - Extreme Cases Of New Killer Algorithms Popping Up With Insurance Business Models…</a></h5> <p>Again we are a nation of “Stat Rats” and they are failing in many areas.  A few years ago I was getting tired already of the the Levin Reports (another subsidiary of United) that talked about billions and trillions in healthcare with technology and those as we have seen were untrue as we have today and were more or less there for marketing purposes. So again look at where your information comes from and where the bottom line dollars go as every subsidiary is expected to put money to the bottom line, unless it’s one in the Caymans that doesn’t have any key executives named and yes that have one of those too I found right off their SEC listing.  So many of those Lewin reports seemed to end up as Quantitated Justifications for things that were not true.  If you read the link below and watch video you can see the automation that is being used today with “data news” and again we really have to look at what is addressed with reports out there today, especially with healthcare.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.ru/2013/12/quantitated-justification-for-believing.html">Quantitated Justification For Believing Things That Are Not True And Using Mathematical Processes To Fool Ourselves-The Journalistic Bot Functionality Debuts As Media Can’t Resist the Formulas…</a></h5> <p>I understand companies are in business to make a profit but how large does that profit need to be?  How about when it impacts care for patients and the doctors income that take care of the patients?  You can keep “scoring” and running risk assessments and use segmentation and inequality and access for the average consumer gets impacted and I might add too we have no way of seeing what data and where.  We don’t see the data here with these Medicare Advantage doctors being fired by United, do we?  It’s proprietary models and coding that we are just expected to assume they are correct, but again there’s that shareholder side that wants money too.  </p> <p>The company has a huge amount of power and control and I do have to say it sure looks like we are headed down the same path as we did with banks with “too big to fail” or “too big to jail”..take your choice of which ever one you prefer.  Take in some educational videos at the <a href="http://www.ducknet.net/attack-of-the-killer-algorithms/">Killer Algorithm page</a> when you have time or just scroll down and watch the 4 videos in the footer of this blog for starters,  created by folks much smarter than me, but you will get the idea of the models and algorithmic controls used today to allow or deny access and ask<strong> “who’s algorithms are they” and “will I benefit”.</strong>   <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/04/local-arizona-television-station.html">A local Arizona TV news station</a> seems to be keeping pretty busy with helping consumers settle their claim differences with United too.   The Medicare Advantage folks in Massachusetts and in Tennessee might be asking this question today as the doctors continue to be fired by Untied Healthcare.  BD  </p>

United Healthcare Round Two With More Medicare Advantage Doctors Being Fired in Massachusetts and Tennessee- Expansion of the Business Intelligence Killer Algorithms Keeps Growing

This is yet another expansion of the Medicare Advantage Killer Algorithms as the insurer business intelligence methodologies used are design...

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Sylvia Burwell Confirmed As New HHS Secretary, Hope She’s Not Like So Many Out There Afflicted With the “Sebelius Syndrome” As Some Serious Data Sleuths Are Needed To Stop the “Code Hosing” That’s Entangled Healthcare

<p>There’s many more suffering from the “Algo Duping” syndrome we have seen at HHS than just Sebelius, she just got the name as she was so very publicly visible in just stumbling all over her repeatedly.  There are many in the White House, Congress and other government executive positions stuck with the affliction as well.  For an simple example, you can look at Mary Jo White at the SEC who’s trying to use verbiage<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="145" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-Yo4nLe01n_4/U5HV3iaxn3I/AAAAAAABKiY/Bl2wIjdRWBU/image%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" title="image" width="146" /> to run an agency with very high tech regulations to administer.   She’s becoming a runner up to Kathleen Sebelius with what’s been reported in the news and clearly give the very visual impression as yet one more afflicted by the <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/04/secretary-sebelius-at-hhs-resigns-wrong.html">“Sebelius Syndrome”.</a>    Lawyers just suck at regulations as far as being the leaders, and of course lawyers are needed with regulation but not in the top spot as they have no “data mechanics” knowledge and it shows when technology  issues come up.  </p> <p>People in technology just tear those digital illiterate folks up when their perceptions are voice in public that we know are not functionally true with the way computer code and algorithms work.  I do it here at this blog and there’s bigger folks than me that do it too as we get tired of folks just chasing stats and embellishing themselves in “virtual values”.  So when you look at Mary Jo White, you see the same thing…nada upstairs with any data mechanics knowledge and folks that don’t have it just stumble over themselves while it hurts consumers.  They are in such virtual capsules and so entrenched by their perceptions, they keep doing the same nonsense rationalization over and over.  I report on healthcare here but when it gets so obvious, it’s hard not to blog about it as it sticks out like a sore thumb.  By perspective here’s the best that Mary Jo has to offer, pretty sad is it not. </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/04/markets-are-not-rigged-spoken-like-true.html">“Markets Are Not Rigged” Spoken Like A True Data Mechanics novice, It’s Like Sebelius at HHS All Over Again, Looking For Algo Fairies at The SEC, One More Government Agency Wrapped Up in “The Grays”…</a></h5> <p>So now we have a new leader taking over at HHS and of course we know there’s no miracle workers around and hopefully we won’t have another one like <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/09/sebelius-has-bees-in-her-bonnetgiving.html">Sebelius search for “Algo Fairies”</a> to come in and save the day.  That got so old over and over and over.  One of the classics was “hurry up Health IT” which again showed the wishing and hoping for some magical algorithms to run in and fix things with the complete inability to look at the “real world”.  We got very tired of it and you saw the likes of Jon Stewart even put it out on major media circuits as it was just so obvious and at the same time, very sad.  I braced myself back in 2009 as I study and research Health IT and could that one coming and <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/02/kathleen-sebelius-kansas-governor-for.html">suggested we get a “smarter person in place with some data mechanics logic”</a> with their thinking and about got my head chewed off,but it came to pass.  You need this balance and non fairy tale look at reality of how the world functions today with so much decision making running on servers 24/7.</p> <p>The reality here is what I wrote below, complexities are winning and when they win, insurers make money.  I’m not the first one to say this and I won’t be the last so again this is why the search for “Algo Fairies” with executive perceptions is so deadly to our existence.  We’ve already lost Elizabeth Warren as another example so it was good while it lasted but she too is off in book land and little interest do we have in videos testifying any longer in front of Congress as <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/07/glass-steagall-revival-presents-low.html">she’s only able to go after low hanging fruit</a>, which is a little better than nothing as again she too lacks any data mechanics logic.  The book  signing side show with Piketty this week was something else to just shake your head at.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/04/complexities-are-winning-medicare.html">Complexities Are Winning - Medicare Principal; Deputy Administrator Calling It Quits - Time For Folks To Come Out of “The Grays” And Look at the Reality of the Complex Systems We Built - Beyond Humans And Even the Machines To Handle At Times-IT on Overload</a></h5> <p>Time will tell if Burwell has any new thinking or if she ends up being afflicted with the “Sebelius Syndrome” which seems to grow by the day with government executives.  How long before we are next burdened with a Sebelius autobiography I wonder (grin).  All these folks who were government workers writing books are pretty useless too as we have already lived it once, who wants a book drag it all up again as we lived <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/03/virtual-worlds-real-world-we-have.html">“The Grays”</a> already.  </p> <p>Yes indeed hopefully we have maybe come to the reality that folks in government need some data mechanics logic or hire a second in command who does and listen to them.  When the <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/06/update-on-healthcaregov-its-always-work.html">Healthcare.Gov website</a> came out and we had to listen to Obama pleading ignorance <img align="right" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-4yKeXZOGJWY/U2hj_S1gpvI/AAAAAAABKL4/8L1D77wzoQY/image%25255B20%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="float: right; display: inline" />and not being able to write code himself, well there you go, folks living in virtual worlds that better wake up and pay attention as algorithms are created by the wealthy and run on servers 24/7 and sure decision impact the parameters of what the servers do and that’s where this little bit of data mechanics logical thinking comes in.  Maybe Burwell might consider some protection efforts too with the <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/07/mhealth-why-battle-over-where.html">ONC of moving them over to the FDA</a> as I said a while back that Congress would be out looking at that agency too as models are failing, look for someone to put the blame on for medical records.  You can just predict that type of behavior from those in Congress too with no data mechanics logic and the agency exists for a purpose.  So far the good news here is one less battle in Congress duking her appointment out but there’s more to is than just one magical executive appointment.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/05/people-dont-work-that-way-world-of.html">“People Don’t Work That Way” A World of Broken Software Models That Don’t Align To the Human Side,Too Much Push At Times With Only A Proof of Concept That Fails in the Real World.. </a></h5> <p><strong>So what’s up with Burwell?  We shall soon find out</strong> what she’s made of and again hopefully not one one more drowning in the “Sebelius Syndrome” as we have enough of those and they are reasons we have so much bliss and digital illiteracy growing out there, and yet in the news nobody pays much attention to complexities as designed with algorithmic formulas, it’s just us “dumb consumers” again that need more education..duh?  Slowly but surely as frustration arises, us “dumb consumers” are getting more educated and for that reason I keep my <a href="http://www.ducknet.net/attack-of-the-killer-algorithms/">“Killer Algorithm” page</a> going to help that effort.  People don’t know how to address an algorithm that denies them access..what you say..that’s the reality and <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.ca/2012/02/attack-of-killer-algorithmsdigest-links.html">why the Occupy movement occurred in the first place</a>.  Now’s a time to pay attention to some of the old time technology veterans as well as there’s your knowledge and maturity as they can tell you when virtual values dupe everyone and have very publicly if anyone listens.    BD  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/02/larry-ellison-ceo-oracle-hcm.html">Larry Ellison, CEO Oracle, HCM Conference Keynote–”Be Careful About Virtual Relationships With Artificially Intelligent Pieces of Software That’s Smarter Than You“, It’s Really All About People”–Algo Duping and the Killer Algorithms Living Amongst Us…(Update) Video</a></h5> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/11/bill-gates-internet-is-not-going-to.html">Bill Gates: The Internet Is Not Going To Save The World, As A Priority It’s A Joke, But Eradicating Disease Might..</a></h5> <hr />In her new role, the 48-year-old veteran of the Clinton administration’s economic team will oversee 11 far-flung agencies that make up HHS, including the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and the enormous public insurance programs, Medicare and Medicaid. <p>But Burwell’s early focus is almost certain to center on the work that absorbed her predecessor, Kathleen Sebelius, during much of her five-year tenure at HHS: implementing the Affordable Care Act in a climate that remains politically polarized and could become more so, depending on the outcome of congressional elections this fall.</p> <p>On a bipartisan vote of 78 to 17, senators approved Burwell to lead the government’s largest domestic department, ending a quick confirmation process that was devoid of the bitter partisanship surrounding the 2010 Affordable Care Act and the changes it is bringing to the U.S. health-care system.</p> <p><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/senate-poised-to-confirm-burwell-as-new-secretary-of-hhs/2014/06/05/bbd79400-ec06-11e3-9f5c-9075d5508f0a_story.html">http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/senate-poised-to-confirm-burwell-as-new-secretary-of-hhs/2014/06/05/bbd79400-ec06-11e3-9f5c-9075d5508f0a_story.html</a></p>

Sylvia Burwell Confirmed As New HHS Secretary, Hope She’s Not Like So Many Out There Afflicted With the “Sebelius Syndrome” As Some Serious Data Sleuths Are Needed To Stop the “Code Hosing” That’s Entangled Healthcare

There’s many more suffering from the “Algo Duping” syndrome we have seen at HHS than just Sebelius, she just got the name as she was so very...

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Update on Healthcare.Gov It’s Always Work In Progress - Programming Is Freaking Hard And Takes A Long time If You Have Not Figured That Out Yet..

<p>This is nice to get an update on what’s happening.  This will always be as is any major IT project, work in progress.  The article here does a pretty job of telling the story of where things have moved up and actually includes some technical information.   I like that as it helps me make sense of the entire scenario here too.  </p> <p>The front end will be redone and as originally constructed it used an Oracle module connected<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="270" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-VbW3AyBS0sc/U5Ehp3fpQtI/AAAAAAABKiA/aTvx5du4Ews/image%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="208" /> with open source code modules to allow people to log on and create accounts, which mean some java code and various other apps to be written to all integrate and work together.  Now with the short time frame and and not a lot of time to pay folks to write code from scratch to where there are perhaps limited libraries, an obvious solution is to put in more modules from Oracle that have been engineered to work with this module but can’t say for sure. </p> <p>Actually Oracle took 6 yeas to rewrite all their software from ground up to work this way and there too it’s ongoing.   So hey, this is a lot less time than 6 years if you are going to talk “realistic” builds here.   The state of California used a ton of modules instead of trying to write code from the bottom up as any smart engineer knows the time element required and there’s nothing going to be perfect.  In addition there’s a new contractor as well in place.  Accenture is a Gold Oracle partner as well, so they do a lot of work with Oracle and open source code too.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/01/healthcaregov-changes-contractors-again.html">Healthcare.gov Changes Contractors Again-Accenture Is Now To Be Named The Top Dog-IT Infrastructure Complexities and Talent Needed Is A Daunting Task…</a></h5> <p>In addition Amazon is the new host instead of Verizon and we’ve already heard that update a while back.  There’s been a ton of engineering work done from what I am reading here too.  We have the 834 insurance modules getting ready to be added and whether or not that will be ready we just have to wait and see.  Again the original contractor wanted the money and thought they could write enough custom code in the time allowed, not.  The state of Oregon is going through that too with their situation with the Governor being a little digital illiterate if you will.   As I wrote a while back we have ton of busted algorithms here outside of the website with all kinds of other data not matching up.   </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/01/obamacare-for-2014-how-in-world-are-all.html">Obamacare for 2014, How In the World Are All Those Algorithms Going To Play Together, World of Complex IT Infrastructures That Are Attached To Almost Every Law On the Books Might Pose Some Issues To Recently Generated House Bills…</a></h5> <p>In addition you still have the complexities with insurer side doing their thing too.  Insurers are working to get their new pricing done as well. </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/11/insurance-business-still-clashing-with.html">Insurance Business Still Clashing With ObamaCare Relating to Policy Cancellations, Quantitative Driven Analytics and Pricing Collisions: “ACA Static Law” Versus “Non Static” Mathematical Insurance Profit Models…</a></h5> <p>In the beginning of the mess there was just so much lying or maybe I should say digital illiterates trying their best to understand and communicate what the problems were.   In addition we have this former Goldman Sachs derivatives analyst in the boat.  I might guess her part is to look after the insurers part of this entire law.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/05/white-house-aid-appointed-deputy-chief.html">White House Aid Appointed Deputy Chief of Staff To Oversee Affordable Care Act And Other Policies, A Former Goldman Sachs Credit Derivatives Analyst & Civilian Pentagon Official</a></h5> <p>Its kind of hard telling by the the way the article was written about the identity manager but Oracle identity manager is pretty much the choice of the enterprise but not the only one out there so it makes sense to use modules already built by Oracle that work.  Kaiser Permanente uses it for example for their large system. It really just depends on what you can put in there that will work with what you are going to keep in essence.  It also looks like the load has been split for folks that have more complex information to be se<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="97" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-pIdiRWPvTV4/U5EhqvLuDPI/AAAAAAABKiI/z1Kfz2r2Q1k/image%25255B7%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="266" />nt to another leg on the site.  The small business end kicks in in November as well.  </p> <p>Capacity, bandwidth and other things that caused issues have pretty much been resolved from an engineering standpoint and now it’s pretty all code.<strong>  It’s unclear about the additional Amazon features at the back end from reading this as to how they will function but it states it has to do with payment generation associated with enrolling sicker patients.  If you read the World Privacy Report on “The Scoring of America’ you can see this “scoring procedure as one of the item they cover.  </strong><u>The government scores you here as well</u> as all the the other data sellers out there too.  The report is very interesting and addresses a ton of “not needed’ scoring that occurs out there with us with proprietary code outside of the government’s scoring formula.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/04/world-privacy-forum-report-scoring-of.html">World Privacy Forum Report - The Scoring of America: How Secret Consumer Scores Threaten Your Privacy and Your Future - One Big Element that Fuels the Continued Attack of Killer Algorithms & Demise of the Middle Class Creating Profiteering And/Or Denial of Access </a></h5> <p>It shouldn’t be as bad as last time, but there will be new glitches this time as there always is but maybe not as bad.  I read another article say it will work this time but that’s a little over confident to me as I always expect the unexpected.  We have more working parts this time around and more variables than the first time, but again the hardware part is taken care of.  BD </p> <p> <hr />The Obama administration is revamping HealthCare.gov and scrapping significant parts of the federal health-insurance marketplace in an effort to avoid the problems that plagued the site's launch last fall, according to presentations to health insurers and interviews with government officials and contractors.</p> <p>But the makeover—and the tight timeline to accomplish it—are raising concerns that consumers could face another rocky rollout this fall when they return to the site to choose health plans. Some key back-end functions, including a system to automate payments to insurers, are running behind schedule, according to a presentation federal officials made to health insurers. </p> <p>Adding to the pressure, HealthCare.gov is still in the midst of transitioning to new government contractors to manage basic functions.</p> <p>Among the changes in the new version of HealthCare.gov: a revamp of the site's consumer-facing portion including the application for coverage most people will use, as well as the comparison tool that lets them shop for plans, according to slides from a May 20 meeting for insurers held by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees HealthCare.gov.</p> <p>For consumers looking to sign up for 2015, the site will have a new home page, visual design and tools to help them learn about the program, window-shop without registering and find local assistance. It will be optimized for mobile devices and run on Amazon.com Inc.'s cloud computing service.</p> <p><a href="http://online.wsj.com/articles/administration-overhauls-federal-health-care-website-1402012011">http://online.wsj.com/articles/administration-overhauls-federal-health-care-website-1402012011</a></p>

Update on Healthcare.Gov It’s Always Work In Progress - Programming Is Freaking Hard And Takes A Long time If You Have Not Figured That Out Yet..

This is nice to get an update on what’s happening.  This will always be as is any major IT project, work in progress.  The article here does...

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The Impact of Self Driving Cars on Healthcare (Humor)

<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="129" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-_i1CxRX3LSg/U5EQ7NTdlqI/AAAAAAABKhw/PfdQmX4NzVs/image%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" title="image" width="134" /> <p>This is too funny and from the Conan collection.  Hey turn these things loose and fill up the ERs.</p> <p>What does it really mean to have a self driving car?  </p> <p>There’s nothing that makes you feel the least bit threatened.    </p> <p>We have problems now with cars that don’t drive themselves, whoops this is not GM.  </p> <p><iframe height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/HI5wcPryXOs" frameborder="0" width="560" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p> <p>Great for seniors too:)  BD  </p> <p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HI5wcPryXOs">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HI5wcPryXOs</a></p>

The Impact of Self Driving Cars on Healthcare (Humor)

This is too funny and from the Conan collection.  Hey turn these things loose and fill up the ERs. What does it really mean to have a se...

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HHS and CMS Are Going to Be Digging Their Graves With Flawed Data-Inconsistencies With Obamacare Insurance Information-Lots of Flawed Data, Payback For Opening Healthcare.Gov Before It Was Done..

<p>Payback is  bitch and here we have what I would call “data payback” and of course system admins who are in on the details of all of it probably knew this was coming as well.  When you deal with data and and matching records it’s a pain and time consuming.  </p> <p>I have flawed data when people look me up and I can’t get rid of it and I’m not in this mess but my issue is with folks selling data and giving me alias names I’ve never used and boy I can’t get rid of it and I don’t even know the names<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="161" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-jPtSbjPj7uc/U4_xvVrPdVI/AAAAAAABKhc/L8GBwPjUJ34/image%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="269" /> the flawed data tagged on to me.  I mention this as this is what you probably have going on here as the article said there was updated data on those who applied.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/02/those-damn-killer-algorithms-keep.html">Those Damn “Killer Algorithms” Keep Screwing Up Obamacare, One more Delay Added for Small Businesses, Static Text Laws and Digital Technology Crossing Hairs, We Continue To Endure the Constant Rise And Fall Of The Machines… </a></h5> <p>So again whey applications were made, there was a verification process so that apparently is very flawed too as Experian was one of the contractors hired to do some of this work, but heck they can’t even do due diligence when they acquire another company a bought a thief themselves that the Secret Service found, and it was a huge exposure.  Here go again, the Sebelius Syndrome continues to haunt…</p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/04/one-really-good-reason-to-license-and.html">One Really Good Reason to License and Excise data sellers, Huge Breach As the “Data Selling Epidemic” Both Legally and Illegally Continues To Grow-All We Have Are Lawyers Who Only Do Verbiage While “Code Runs Hog Ass Wild” -Due Diligence is Dead</a></h5> <p>In Nevada when many enrolled the state government queries and data were off and denied many the ability to enroll as it showed quite a number of people incarcerated too, and they were not and they were people with no criminal records at all.</p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/03/couple-applying-for-health-insurance.html">Couple Applying for Health Insurance Through Exchange Encounters a Nightmare Due to “Flawed Data” With Husband’s Background Check-Said He Was Incarcerated - One More Attack of the Killer Algorithms Related Back to the Data Selling Epidemic in the US</a></h5> <p>This is what’s making everyone unhappy with the way things don’t work together with all the algorithms that process information and yes Obamacare is one big Attack of the Killer Algorithms. </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/03/obamacare-one-big-attack-of-killer.html">Obamacare - One Big “Attack of the Killer Algorithms” No Matter Which Direction You Turn, Compounded With a Lot of Government and Consumer “Algo Duping”….</a></h5> <p>Have all consumers and those in government finally come to terms with the fact that<a href="http://www.ducknet.net/attack-of-the-killer-algorithms/"><img align="right" border="0" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-6HDDm04lOwA/Ts0zq-EuFHI/AAAAAAAA4d8/nMT-KL0JEDY/image_thumb%25255B12%25255D.png?imgmax=172" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" /></a> programming with today’s complexities is freaking hard?  Now that we have seen this, look what the next government data mechanic logic novice is doing…wait until Richard Cordray gets done with having a data base of all US Consumer credit data…here we go again in the halls of digital illiteracy.  BD</p> <h5><strong><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/05/richard-cordray-yet-one-more-algo-duped.html">Richard Cordray Yet One More “Algo Duped” Government Executive Sucked In To Virtual Values and Unable to Locate the “Real World” Now Creating Huge Data Base Of All US Consumer Credit Information… </a></strong></h5> <p> <hr />Republicans, who have made the law known as Obamacare a top issue for November's midterm congressional elections, pounced on the disclosure as fresh evidence that it poses an unworkable burden for Americans. </p> <p>But officials denied that the data issues rise to the level of problem enrollments, saying consumers in many cases included data on income, citizenship and immigration that is more up to date than federal records show. They said most of the problems will be sorted out by the end of the summer.</p> <p>The data discrepancies, first reported by the Associated Press, surfaced a day before the U.S. Senate is scheduled to take up a final confirmation vote on Obama's nomination of Sylvia Mathews Burwell as Secretary of Health and Human Services, the official chiefly responsible for Obamacare implementation.</p> <p>Consumers experience regular changes in income and various life circumstances and the law accounts for these kinds of situations," CMS sad. "It is not surprising that there are income discrepancies given that this is a brand new process."</p> <p><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/06/04/us-usa-healthcare-discrepancies-idUSKBN0EF29820140604">http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/06/04/us-usa-healthcare-discrepancies-idUSKBN0EF29820140604</a></p>

HHS and CMS Are Going to Be Digging Their Graves With Flawed Data-Inconsistencies With Obamacare Insurance Information-Lots of Flawed Data, Payback For Opening Healthcare.Gov Before It Was Done..

Payback is  bitch and here we have what I would call “data payback” and of course system admins who are in on the details of all of it proba...

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US “Data Selling Epidemic”-Privacy, mHealth and More Is Not Going Anywhere Until We Require All (Banks, Corporations, Insurers, Brokers, Etc.) To Buy A License to Distribute Data-You Need An Index Stupid To Identify Who to Regulate And Where…

<p>I have been watching this somewhat “stupid” scenario for about 3 years now.  Oh you see all sides of it and banks, companies, insurers snaking around the fact that they buy and sell your data with or without your permission.  It’s getting old with the non data mechanics logic novices trying to think they can dream up some kind of algorithms to help the situation.  The reality is, you can’t. <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="226" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-JTcMBJzAwL0/U4_iTE5-gUI/AAAAAAABKg8/E-DX8yyDIgw/image%25255B4%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" title="image" width="192" /> We hate reading 2-10 privacy policies that are legally correct but we don’t understand.   <strong>The privacy statements certainly keep me at a distance because I used be a query monster</strong> and I know how it goes.  When you do queries as an occupation, it’s like an addiction as you look for value with data bases queried all the time and you have to be the wise one to determine if there’s value.  Anymore, people just query just about anything and market to have value whether it does or not.</p> <p><strong>We have some offerings on the web as far as “do not follow” etc. to help ease off a “little” data mining but folks work around that too.</strong>  Heck I have so many bots crawling my blog that are stealth, the old “robots.tex” to keep them out doesn’t work anymore hardly.  In addition to what we already deal with we have this, our non data mechanic logic consumer financial protection agency convinced he needs to build a data base of all our consumer credit information.  He’s just lost.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/05/richard-cordray-yet-one-more-algo-duped.html">Richard Cordray Yet One More “Algo Duped” Government Executive Sucked In To Virtual Values and Unable to Locate the “Real World” Now Creating Huge Data Base Of All US Consumer Credit Information… </a></h5> <p><strong>We have so many data sellers hiding under the carpet with this that sell your data and just keep quiet about it until someone like me comes out and says “they sell data”..</strong>what do you think all these mHealth apps and devices do, they collect and sell data.  Try and figure out how they do it by reading a privacy statement sometimes, some are worse than others. <strong>We need to create a law that requires every data seller, banks, companies, device companies, insurance companies, pharma, data brokers and so on that distribute and sell data get a license.  You can’t do a damn thing until you identify the folks you are trying to regulate.</strong>  I have read so many ridiculous articles on this until I’m blue in the face with novice data mechanics folks “thinking” they can come up with an idea to help solve some of this, but they can’t, as they are not tech folks and don’t know the mechanics of data logic and all they can picture is the end use consumer side, that’s it.  You need folks who can create systems that can make it work.</p> <p><strong>I go get a haircut and that person who cuts my hair need a license and is regulated and the biggest risk there that could possibly happen to me is I get  a bad hair cut, and that too fixes itself as hair grows.</strong>  </p> <p>We have a non transparent data selling epidemic problem in the US and data ignorance is allowing it to continue and it hurts people too as more and more data is getting flawed.  Consumers end up being the perfect serfs here as we get stuck with denied access to something and thus the buyers and the sellers could care less, they just sell, sell, sell.   <strong>I’m tired of reading how “wearables” are going to take over, because they are not, one we have data selling issues and two, well not many will be able to afford them.</strong>  Solve privacy and affordability and then you may see an increase but not before those two things occur.  Dream on and keep the bogus marketing and reports rolling I guess.  You could also give this some thought <a href="ttp://ducknetweb.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/people-dont-work-that-way-world-of.html">“people don’t work that way”.</a>    <strong>We are too busy trying to make people work like an algorithm instead of creating tools that assist us and make us smarter.</strong>  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/05/wearables-news-glut-give-us-break-and.html">“Wearables” News Glut, Give Us A Break And Cut Some Noise- “They Going To Take Over The World But Have Privacy Issues”, How Many More Times Do We Have to Hear This? (Opinion)</a></h5> <p>The White House did a big privacy and big data report, but could they once address the data selling epidemic..nope..they might get uncomfortable as they are like the other novices looking at the end user perception only and don’t want to admit the reality here.  I had to laugh as someone said with privacy that HIPAA laws should apply everywhere and if you are in healthcare you’re having good chuckle right now reading that as health can’t even get all of the new complex HIPAA requirements correct all the time so let’s lump some more folks into the oblivion.  That’s what it would be, and to expand it, yikes, it’s just like Meaningful Use getting so complex that people have a hard time explaining all the provisions<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="143" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-XTTeIQipdWk/U4_iUPhcPOI/AAAAAAABKhE/dYSW-ssmRsU/image%25255B12%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" title="image" width="215" />.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/05/white-house-privacy-report-privacy-bill.html">White House Privacy Report , “Privacy Bill of Rights”Vague & Complex Verbiage, No Mention of Creating An Index to Identify All data sellers Or The Fact That It’s an Epidemic Leading To Privacy Violations & Flawed Data, Hurting Many Consumers As It Actively Contributes to Inequality</a></h5> <p><strong>This is a good post below as Experian, who buys and sells a ton of data bought a data thief nicely embedded in the company they bought and didn’t know he was there until the Secret Service found him.</strong>  He had 1300 regular customers he sold data too that he stole out of a data base and ran about 3 million queries from a data base that holds information on 200,000 million US citizens, and that’s about 2/3 of the US population if you want the math. <strong>They don’t even do any real due diligence, just get the data to sell.</strong>  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/04/one-really-good-reason-to-license-and.html">One Really Good Reason to License and Excise data sellers, Huge Breach As the “Data Selling Epidemic” Both Legally and Illegally Continues To Grow-All We Have Are Lawyers Who Only Do Verbiage While “Code Runs Hog Ass Wild” -Due Diligence is Dead</a></h5> <p><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/03/60-minutes-blasts-data-sellers-ftc.html">60 Minutes has done two stories</a> on the data brokers but again it doesn’t end there either, we need ALL data distributors to have a license so we have an index on who the hell they all are and drag them out in the open.  Everyone told the FTC that “claim your data was a farce” as we busy consumers in the 99% and those with money don’t have to deal with what we do with being scored right and left.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/06/ftc-reclaim-your-name-campaign-not-good.html">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</a></h5> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/07/corelogic-buys-symbility-solutions.html">CoreLogic Buys Symbility Solutions, Cloud Based Claims and Analytics Technologies for Property and Health Insurance–More 3rd Party Consultants and data sellers Getting Bigger and Stronger With No FTC Regulation In Sight</a></h5> <p><strong>Re-identifying data, sure ask any expert it’s a matter of fact for them doing this as they do it all the time.</strong>  It just depends how much is in it with selling the data is the deciding factor.  I know you read the crap in the news like this is some new finding here, it’s been going on for years and easier now that there’s so much on the web to be mined (and so much is getting flawed) there’s no stopping the data selling epidemic.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/06/re-identifying-medical-records-all.html">Re-Identifying Medical Records All Depends on the Query Master and How Much Money Can Be Saved or Made With Adjusting Risk, Up or Down</a></h5> <p>New tools are here with facial recognition too, hey we can math more data and make bigger revenue streams.  Back at the ranch, consumers don’t have a clue on how their data got out there, who did it and how many queries down the road is this from the initial <img align="right" height="210" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/Tb3In3KU2vI/AAAAAAAAwPQ/k4-f5id3unk/image_thumb%5B6%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="float: right; display: inline" width="247" />sale of your data?  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/05/licensing-and-excise-taxing-data.html">Licensing and Excise Taxing data sellers, Facial Recognition Yet One More Tool Used To Secure & Match Data - The Epidemic, Billions in Profits for Banks and US Corporations Using Killer Algorithms to Further Erode Consumer Privacy</a></h5> <p><strong>This freaks everyone out to read that insurers are buying up your MasterCard and Vista data</strong>.  Blue Cross said they like to watch and see if any of their insured start to buy clothes a size larger, and you can’t make that up.  Well I don’t think that could be all of it of course as we are fatter than ever and none of their clothes monitoring via our charge cards are doing a thing.  There’s a lot of other data on those charges I think they are more interested in.  Insurers all score your voice and make a file of it at their call centers…<a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/05/this-call-may-be-recorded-for-quality.html">read this one.</a> </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/03/insurance-companies-are-buying-up.html">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</a></h5> <p>In addition to requiring all data sellers to maintain an updated listing on a Federal website I think we should entertain excise taxing them as there’s big money there with <strong>the likes of Walgreens and CVS making a billion or more each every year selling data</strong>…see the big numbers and just think of what banks make..billions out there being made getting their data for nothing and the profits for free just about.   I just wish for all the time spent here <strong>we could quit being so stupid about this and get the licensing and indexing rolling</strong> and get a law in place.  It would give law enforcement a leg to stand on as well to levy fines and revoke licenses with abuse or not following the laws.  </p> <p>Let’s drag this E-scoring company out in the public as they sell your data all over the place and due to how he classifies his business he’s not regulated as a credit agency…people can code all around some laws with their algorithms to have verbiage interpreted to be “legal”, and make big money.  I wrote a series called “The Attack of the Killer Algorithms” and that’s a big part of the data selling epidemic.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/08/e-scoring-credit-algorithms-invisible.html">e-scoring Credit Algorithms Invisible To Consumers Used to Market and Evaluate, Does Not Fall Under Federal Law And Such Are Used by Insurance Companies - How Will This Work With Exchanges –Attack of the Killer Algorithms Chapter 42</a></h5> <p>The rest of the world is watching this total insanity of choking off consumes with proprietary scoring methodologies <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="110" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-uSiI_lxIX0c/U4_iUppA4tI/AAAAAAABKhM/9hQIh9MiMsk/image%25255B8%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" title="image" width="244" />as the World Forum on Privacy created a lengthy report on this.  We wanted jobs to help rebuild failing infrastructure and all we got we were a bunch of “scoring” algorithms that deny us access right and left.  They are proprietary and we can’t see the models and how much duped can the government get!  That’s why we have no jobs as they believe all this stuff!  Watch video #1 in the footer and Professor Siefe will explain it to you on how easily everyone gets duped.  He’s got some great examples and it will make you think a bit.  Below is the report if you want to read it.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/04/world-privacy-forum-report-scoring-of.html">World Privacy Forum Report - The Scoring of America: How Secret Consumer Scores Threaten Your Privacy and Your Future - One Big Element that Fuels the Continued Attack of Killer Algorithms & Demise of the Middle Class Creating Profiteering And/Or Denial of Access </a></h5> <p><strong>In closing can we quit being so damn stupid here and get this rolling and do something about the Data Selling Epidemic?  I have never seen so many folks thinking that there’s some algorithm fairies that can be created to fix this.</strong>  The fact of the matter here is that there’s really a lot of algorithm demons out there that know how to pull the wool over your eyes and make money and could give a crap on whether your data is accurate or not as it sells either way, accurate or flawed!  </p> <p>Come out of the virtual values and look at the data mechanics here and come to terms with the fact that we need and index and that would be in the form of buying a license.  <strong>Congress needs to get on this.</strong>  I’m not touching any apps or health devices that have these legal privacy policies I don’t understand and neither are a lot of other people and I’m tired of the game and the stupidity as the longer this goes on, the more inequality grows too, and that’s a real bad side effect.  BD  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/03/virtual-worlds-real-world-we-have.html">Virtual Worlds, Real World We Have A Problem And It’s A Big One With A Lot of Gray Areas Finding Where The Defining Lines Exist, Confusing Many With A Lot of Weird Values And Strange Perceptions… </a></h5> <p><strong>Data Selling is an epidemic in the US!</strong></p>

US “Data Selling Epidemic”-Privacy, mHealth and More Is Not Going Anywhere Until We Require All (Banks, Corporations, Insurers, Brokers, Etc.) To Buy A License to Distribute Data-You Need An Index Stupid To Identify Who to Regulate And Where…

I have been watching this somewhat “stupid” scenario for about 3 years now.  Oh you see all sides of it and banks, companies, insurers snaki...

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Poland’s Medical Tourism Clinics Having Fire Sale - All Surgical Treatments Half Off For the World…

<p>It’s been kind of quiet on the medical tourism news but it’s not gone away.  Poland now is aggressively offering surgical procedures here at half price.  In the article below it states that bypass heart surgery will cost $15,000.00.  That’s huge in dollars saved with a nine hour flight.  Of course there’s a lot more that goes with it as far as taking a flight, etc.  Poland is now trying to work with the UK to encourage more government participant and to recognize Poland as a full medical tourism destination.  <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="172" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-dnXAxb3qvuw/U4_ECwyyycI/AAAAAAABKgs/w-Cy_-hzU9c/image%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="238" /></p> <p>I just wrote about the Ascension Health Cayman Island hospital that just opened and so far Ascension is only an investment partner as I understand it but who’s if and when that could change.  We all probably know that in the Caymans is where <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/01/aetna-completes-200-million-dollar.html">Aetna takes out their re-insurance</a> polices and has for a few years and you can find a subsidiary of United Healthcare that has no listed executives named H  & W Indemnity Limited in the Cayman Islands.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/05/health-city-cayman-islands-opened-this.html">Health City Cayman Islands Opened This Year - A Partnership With Ascension Health In Medical Tourism</a></h5> <p>Back to Poland, they said the have state of the art facilities and realize they have to work around their “old world” perceptions at times.  In Romania over 70k patients were treated and a lot of dental work there.  People in Russia are flocking to South Korea to save money and don’t need a visa.   Of course in the US many travel to Mexico for surgical procedures and dental care.</p> <p>What adds to our costs in the US, Health IT and technology.  When you look at the costs and I’m not saying go without it by any means, but it’s a lot and keeps growing.  At some point decisions have to be made as to how much do you buy and where as software keeps building on itself too.  We are a nation of <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/05/va-crisis-just-tip-of-iceberg-as-us.html">“Stat Rats” and that’s exactly what got the VA in big trouble</a> as people can’t tell the difference in what’s a real value and what’s virtual out there anymore too.  BD  </p> <p> <hr />The facilities would make any NHS manager envious. The doctors are experts with world-class success rates. The prices are often half what you'd pay at home. Why, then, are more of us not travelling to <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/poland">Poland</a> to have routine medical treatments carried out?</p> <p>For several years expat Poles have been returning home to get expensive dental work, plastic surgery and procedures such as hip replacements done at 30% to 60% of the cost they would pay in their adopted country.</p> <p>Now a Polish government-backed initiative is promoting medical tourism into the country, targeting non-Poles from across the world, particularly those in Scandinavia, Germany, eastern <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/europe-news">Europe</a> – and the UK. Those behind the plan hope Poland's location at the heart of Europe – along with its plethora of low-cost flights, cheap accommodation, and attractive tourist cities such as Krakow – will be enough to tip the increasingly competitive battle for medical tourism in Poland's favour.</p> <p>"We offer clients the complete package – we pick them up at the airport and they can stay in our apartments next to the clinic," he says. "They can visit the beautiful city of Krakow while getting their treatment done by staff, who are absolute experts in their field. The treatment plan is designed to fit entirely around the customer."</p> <p>"We understand that people have outdated images of Polish medical facilities but we are here to say we now have world-class facilities," she says.</p> <p>"It amazes me that people can be asked to pay $100,000 for heart bypass surgery in the US, but they can fly nine hours to us, they can have as good or better treatment, and pay just $15,000."</p> <p><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/jun/01/poland-medical-tourism-half-price">http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/jun/01/poland-medical-tourism-half-price</a></p>

Poland’s Medical Tourism Clinics Having Fire Sale - All Surgical Treatments Half Off For the World…

It’s been kind of quiet on the medical tourism news but it’s not gone away.  Poland now is aggressively offering surgical procedures here at...

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Dutch Doctors Protesting Potential Laws Allowing “Narrow Networks” - Short Strike of GPs To Bring Awareness Around

<p>Looks like some of our broken stuff is finding its way over to the Netherlands and they don’t like it.  Insurers want to do contracts with specialists to drive their cost down, we know what that is very well here in the US.  They have some “cheaper” policies too that end up with patients not being covered fully for surgical costs and they don’t like it.  <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="255" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-qBNRwAcj064/U4-4qWIHPOI/AAAAAAABKgc/QywLsl5oplQ/image%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="222" /></p> <p><em>"Insurers’ contracts are not purely based on quality; they also protect their vested interests. Soon there will be no initiative able to occur independently in an existing hospital," he said.”</em></p> <p>The proposed law would not cover anything at all if a patient went to a doctor where an arrangement is not in place with an insurers.  I did a post a couple years ago to where in Germany they did a rating of the worst bottom feeder jobs and insurance salesman was number one.  I don’t know if that still holds true or not but a friend in the UK said the same thing.  If a patient goes to a “Dutch Hospital” though where the inexpensive policies are in place, they could get 50% coverage with using a doctor who is not an insurance partner.  BD  <p> <hr /></p> <p>General practitioners in the Netherlands</p> are planning to strike on Wednesday, June 4, in order to make their patients aware that adjustments to the Health Insurance Act currently being mooted will prevent them from choosing their own medical specialist.</p> <p>Currently in the <a href="http://www.iamexpat.nl/expat-page/official-issues/insurances/health-insurances/dutch-health-insurance">Dutch health insurance system</a>, insurers are required to pay a certain amount to patients who go to a specialist or facility that is not partnered with the <a href="http://www.iamexpat.nl/expat-page/official-issues/insurances/health-insurances/dutch-health-insurance">insurance company</a>, offsetting at least part of the cost of treatment for the patient.</p> <p>If the amendment to Article 13 of the Health Insurance Act passes in Parliament, however, that obligation to pay even part of the cost will be scrapped, and insurers will only cover the costs of those patients who go to practitioners with whom they have a contract.</p> <p>Not all GPs are planning to strike for one hour on Wednesday, only the ones from industry group Vereniging Praktijkhoudende Huisartsen (VPH), which has about 700 members.</p> <p>Specialists such as physiotherapists have already been put under pressure to lower their fees by insurance companies. Now, the amendment could allow insurers to refusing to offer contracts to specialists if they find their fees too expensive or even if they think there are too many in one area. - </p> <p><a href="http://www.iamexpat.nl/read-and-discuss/expat-page/news/dutch-doctors-strike-health-insurance-change#sthash.ic22Rz5R.dpuf">http://www.iamexpat.nl/read-and-discuss/expat-page/news/dutch-doctors-strike-health-insurance-change#sthash.ic22Rz5R.dpuf</a></p>

Dutch Doctors Protesting Potential Laws Allowing “Narrow Networks” - Short Strike of GPs To Bring Awareness Around

Looks like some of our broken stuff is finding its way over to the Netherlands and they don’t like it.  Insurers want to do contracts with s...

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Medical Quack Welcomes Two New Certified EHR -Medical Records Software Companies…

<p>Today I am adding two new Medical Records vendors!  When you have time take a few minutes and take a look at what each vendor has to offer.  Both Sevocity and Cyfluent  are certified medical record vendors to allow participation in the Federal Stimulus Plan so you can qualify for Meaningful Use.   Sometimes the biggest is not always the best and it’s important to purchase and review medical records system  “that work for you”.  In addition today we have “cloud” sharing capabilities and many vendors do and can work with other software systems too, so there’s one more barrier that’s being removed from inter-operability today.  </p> <p>Below I have included a couple short “clips” from their respective websites and both companies are now listed at the Medical Quack as sources to consider when making an electronic medical records purchase..welcome to Sevocity and Cyfluent!  BD   </p> <hr /> <p><a href="http://www.sevocity.com/">Sevocity Electronic Medical Records</a></p> <p>Affordable and Easy to Use! </p> <p><em>“Our vision<img align="left" alt="image" border="0" height="65" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-1g9wXigTx3A/U49Fy5CM3wI/AAAAAAABKf0/IK32CbIi6lA/image21.png?imgmax=800" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" title="image" width="221" /> for EHR is simple:  Electronic Health Records should be easy to implement, easy to use and affordable.  You should be able to call for support 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and talk live with an expert based in the United States. </em></p> <p><em>You depend on your EHR so your EHR company should have years of experience and be<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="93" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/--4FKs6b2Usc/U49Fzj-9LeI/AAAAAAABKf8/HgUaQ2wNOqY/image17.png?imgmax=800" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" title="image" width="116" /> reliable and secure.</em></p> <p><em>Our Guarantee:</em></p> <p><em>Because we do it right, we can also guarantee it! Use Sevocity for at least 100 encounters and at the end of the first 60 days of use if you wish to discontinue, receive 100% of your fees back.  That's EHR Made Easy®.</em></p> <p><em>Sevocity also guarantees compliance with </em><a href="http://www.sevocity.com/government-incentives"><em>ARRA/Stimulus Requirements</em></a><em>. <br />Read more about our solutions, visit our </em><a href="http://www.sevocity.com/Blog/"><em>blog</em></a><em> or </em><a href="http://www.sevocity.com/contact-us"><em>contact us</em></a><em> today to learn more about Sevocity, Healthcare Solutions Made Easy®.”</em></p> <hr /> <p><a href="http://www.cyfluent.com/">Cyfluent “The Language of Healthcare”</a> </p> <p><em>“Our approach represents so much more than "software for physicians." Our design, delivery, and support represent<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="77" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-BZiKKMXKQcY/U49F0TVE54I/AAAAAAABKgE/BpKVxlpNBFM/image16.png?imgmax=800" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" title="image" width="173" /> the evolution of practice management services. <img align="left" alt="image" border="0" height="69" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-EzAgL24cOVY/U49F01c4O_I/AAAAAAABKgM/KktQBzjx9wA/image15.png?imgmax=800" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" title="image" width="230" />We redefine market expectations by combining 2nd Gen EHS and cloud-based computing for total practice management with old fashioned choices, service, and VALUE.</em></p> <p><em><a href="http://www.cyfluent.com/about.aspx">Cyfluent</a> provides easy-to-use electronic health record (EHR), practice management (PM), and personal health record (PHR) solutions and more delivered as a service through any internet browser to healthcare providers in practices of all sizes and specialties.</em></p> <p><em>For too long, providers have been forced to pay costly fees for software, hardware, training, and support that add up to more per hour than what some physicians earn per year. <a href="http://www.cyfluent.com/about.aspx">Cyfluent</a> recognized the need to provide better solutions with little to no upfront costs to position physician practices for the 21st century and beyond.</em> “</p>

Medical Quack Welcomes Two New Certified EHR -Medical Records Software Companies…

Today I am adding two new Medical Records vendors!  When you have time take a few minutes and take a look at what each vendor has to offer. ...

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Junk Science Appearing Everywhere, Even The White House “PR Templated” Correspondence Creates Spurious Correlations…

<p>I have to blog this as it just irritated me to see this correlation here with numbers.  Sure people are on board as far as modernization of power plants, and I don’t hear anyone complaining that loud about cleaning up energy plants, but the numbers on this email flyer, junk.  Who made them up?  I call most of the correspondence I get anymore from the White House a “template” as that’s what it looks like, just another version of some email that comes from company with no imagination and sometimes folks promoting their “selfies”.  If you want to make a case to get the EPA work done, don’t make things look bad with fake numbers on heart attacks, etc.  </p> <p>Oh yes it was on Twitter too with Sebelius retweeting some of the stats, so no change there, same <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/04/secretary-sebelius-at-hhs-resigns-wrong.html">Sebelius Syndrome</a> keeps rolling even though she has resigned…or whenever that day might appear:) </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/05/va-crisis-just-tip-of-iceberg-as-us.html">VA Crisis Just The Tip of the Iceberg As US Needs a Full On Healthcare Culture Change Everywhere To Get Back In Touch With the Real World of Patients… </a></h5> <p>I cut part of this off with a screenshot but it also said at the bottom that there will be fewer visits to the ER rooms…come on.  This is just bad and doesn’t the White House think that people will look at it and laugh or be disgusted?  When I said the VA is just the tip of the iceberg with the US being a nation of “Stat Rats” I didn’t have long to wait but I’ll make that correlation that this is same thing, stats, stats, and stupid stats here.  There’s kind of a fun website, <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/05/spurious-correlations-per-capita.html">Spurious Correlations</a> that I swear some of the studies we see originate there and this looks like could reside there too.  This line below…well what do you think?  </p> <p><em><strong>“That means Americans will be taking fewer trips to the emergency room, spending less time away from school or from work, and enjoying longer, healthier lives.”</strong></em></p> <p>The banks like to blame everything on the weather and we he haw it up about that so here’s some new spurious content to look at.  You can’t predict that 100,000 asthma attacks will be avoided!  How about heart attacks…well they kind of changed their numbers and I guess one set is just a heart attack and the other is a heart attack requiring visiting the hospital.  3300 visits going to the hospital over a heart attack can be avoided?  Huh?  Heart attacks have many causes and someone just made these numbers up as any mathematician or quant will tell you that you can’t predict items like this.  We ended up with <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/12/quantitated-justification-for-believing.html">Quantitated Justifications</a> for things that are just not true. It is disappointing to see the White House dive into the world of Junk Science and live virtual values, but that’s what we seem to have going on, and on, and on, and on…..  John Podesta, the author might want to take another look at the junk science numbers here.  </p> <p><strong>Be sure to watch video #1 in my footer, “It’s all about Context”</strong> and you’ll clearly see how ridiculous these numbers are.    I just hope some of those folks soon come out of <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/03/virtual-worlds-real-world-we-have.html">“The Grays”</a> as us middle class folks are absolutely out here feeling it as we want jobs and help build decaying infrastructures but all our government has been able to give us is a bunch of data mining algorithms that deny us access right and left and flaw up the data we have.  BD  </p> <p><img align="left" alt="WhiteHouse" border="0" height="547" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-7T4N9eveehQ/U41RptrzUOI/AAAAAAABKes/I46asIKCq8o/WhiteHouse4.png?imgmax=800" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" title="WhiteHouse" width="494" /></p>

Junk Science Appearing Everywhere, Even The White House “PR Templated” Correspondence Creates Spurious Correlations…

I have to blog this as it just irritated me to see this correlation here with numbers.  Sure people are on board as far as modernization of ...

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Tucson University Medical Center Racks Up Over $28 Million in Debt Due to Medical Records Implementation

<p>It was something they had to do and of course the cost was there.  Most of the $28 million of debt is attributed to installing an Epic Medical Records system.  They began in 2012 and have received a little over a million for meeting their meaningful use incentives.  The one million is kind of over shadowed by the over all expense you could say.  <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="145" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-yK_QuOndd_c/U407RnleDKI/AAAAAAABKec/X3Te9pCJ0G4/image%25255B4%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="236" /></p> <p>There are hopes to bring the debt down and folks sound optimistic but it’s a big one to crawl back from.  The facility has also had a rise with uninsured patients as well.  Something in the Health IT area that doesn’t get discussed too often is “hospital inequality” but it’s there.  </p> <p><strong><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/03/hospital-inequality-yet-one-more.html">“Hospital Inequality” - Yet One More Growing Issue With Healthcare In the US..</a></strong></p> <p>In rural areas of he US, many have closed and it’s still happening and we just hope there’s enough left to serve us, and thus so hospital ratings have pretty much died out there as far as consumer information is concerned.  It’s more about who’s left and where can they do in network, etc. </p> <p>So all those studies you read the last couple of years with technology saving money, well you can forget it as it’s not the case.  We had oodles of them out there, some even predicting national savings in the trillions with technology saving money and truth is that technology costs money so efficiencies created are eaten up quickly by the next Health IT or Medtech devices.  Here’s a couple recent posts about hospitals in California.  BD</p> <li><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/04/layoffs-coming-to-kern-hospital-in.html"> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/04/layoffs-coming-to-kern-hospital-in.html">Layoffs Coming to Kern hospital in Bakersfield - Return of Desperate Hospitals</a></h5> </a></li> <li><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/04/palm-drive-hospital-in-santa-rosa-shuts.html"> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/04/palm-drive-hospital-in-santa-rosa-shuts.html">Palm Drive hospital In Santa Rosa Shuts Down, No Money</a></h5> </a></li> <p> <hr />Southern Arizona’s largest health network is $28.5 million in the red so far this fiscal year, and officials say a costly electronic medical records system is largely to blame.</p> <p>The operating loss is unprecedented for the four-year-old University of Arizona Health Network, which includes two local hospitals.</p> <p>The electronic records system, from Wisconsin-based Epic Systems, has cost an estimated $115 million, including $32 million in unbudgeted costs for the first eight months of the fiscal year, which ends June 30, financial documents show. The extra costs are due primarily to a delay in getting the system live and funding additional training and support, officials said. It was supposed to be up and running by Sept. 1, but wasn’t operational until Nov. 1.</p> <p>“This is the biggest operational change this organization has ever undertaken,” said <strong>Dan Critchley,</strong> who started working with the UA Health Network as a consultant last July and has been chief information officer since Feb. 1.</p> <p>The network also lost federal dollars from a program that helped bridge the funding gap created by Medicaid rate cuts and a rise in uninsured patients. The Safety Net Care Pool, which also included Maricopa Integrated Health System and Phoenix Children’s, pumped $33 million into the UA hospitals for the first six months of the fiscal year. But that infusion ended Dec. 31 to coincide with greater health insurance availability through the Affordable Care Act.</p> <p>The UA Health Network, which began its Epic implementation in 2012, receives a little over $1 million per year in incentive payments, Critchley said.</p> <p>Adoption of electronic records is voluntary, but hospitals that don’t make the switch by October face Medicare payment cuts of about 1 percent, and increasing reductions each year.</p> <p><a href="http://azstarnet.com/news/science/health-med-fit/tucson-area-s-largest-health-network-racks-up-nearly-million/article_44d05d04-0acf-5fbc-8561-68d4bef3b577.html">http://azstarnet.com/news/science/health-med-fit/tucson-area-s-largest-health-network-racks-up-nearly-million/article_44d05d04-0acf-5fbc-8561-68d4bef3b577.html</a></p>

Tucson University Medical Center Racks Up Over $28 Million in Debt Due to Medical Records Implementation

It was something they had to do and of course the cost was there.  Most of the $28 million of debt is attributed to installing an Epic Medic...

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Tenet Exploring A National Contracted Company To Provide Medical Services Which May Include Local Doctor Medical Groups To Save Money In Part or All of California

<p>This is a big deal for doctors here in California as there are quite a few local medical groups that contract with Tenet and according<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="109" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-MwINHuCjm9E/U40z_dYhFtI/AAAAAAABKeM/cKYiu3_6VaQ/image%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="216" /> to this story in the middle of the state some doctors have already been told that their contracts may change, so doctors either leave or join the new group and see what changes lie ahead.  Emergency room doctors and hospitalists are among the services they are looking at.  National contractors use their own doctors so perhaps some may be allowed to join?  We don’t know yet. </p> <p>Two big physician outsourcing companies just merged via an acquisition of one by the other just a few days ago.  BD</p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/05/sheridan-physician-outsourcing-service.html">Sheridan Physician Outsourcing Service Bought by Amsurg Surgical Services for $2.35 Billion </a></h5> <p> <hr />Physicians at Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center have been notified that Tenet Healthcare Corp., the hospital’s owner, may contract with a national company to provide some medical services.</p> <p>The plan would affect Sierra Vista in San Luis Obispo, Twin Cities Community Hospital in Templeton and an unknown number of other Tenet-owned hospitals in California.</p> <p>According to several sources, Tenet is considering ending contracts with local medical groups providing anesthesiology, emergency department and hospitalist care. Tenet would contract with a single national company to provide those services at a lower rate to some or all Tenet hospitals in California, several physicians told The Tribune. </p> <p>In response, the committee, which represents the 400 physicians who use the hospital, held an emergency meeting and took a position opposing the plan, he said. </p> <p>“We have not received anything official in writing or a date when this would start,” said Voge, who is not on the executive committee, “but I think it’s being presented by the administration as a done deal. It was announced as a sort of fait accompli. I can say that among the medical staff, I don’t know anyone who is not on board with opposing this.” </p> <p><a href="http://www.sanluisobispo.com/2014/06/01/3091417/doctors-tenet-healthcare-may-end.html#storylink=cpy">http://www.sanluisobispo.com/2014/06/01/3091417/doctors-tenet-healthcare-may-end.html#storylink=cpy</a></p>

Tenet Exploring A National Contracted Company To Provide Medical Services Which May Include Local Doctor Medical Groups To Save Money In Part or All of California

This is a big deal for doctors here in California as there are quite a few local medical groups that contract with Tenet and according to t...

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Kaiser Permanente Opening New Hospital in San Leandro-Two More Scheduled for Oakland and Redwood City This Year As Well

<p>This is the first of 3 new facilities scheduled to open this year and the cost for all three is $ 2 Billion.  We all have probably read by now about the $21 billion Kaiser has in reserves and it has ruffled some feathers with nurses recently. <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="94" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/--9718pgzRL0/U40weFvzucI/AAAAAAABKeA/Hy8icyAzFK8/image%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="262" /> Building facilities will certainly work as far as getting more care available when so many others have closed.  Below is a past link that tells about how the work with their doctors to allow them time to use mHealth with patients to bring everything full circle.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/03/kaiser-permanente-study-with-mhealth.html">Kaiser Permanente Study With mHealth Efforts Yields Better Communication and Care But Physician Schedules Had To Be Revised To Give Them Time for Their “Desktop Medicine”, So You Can Forget Half of What You Read Out When The Big Billions In Savings Are Predicted…</a></h5> <p>In addition in some parts of the US, Kaiser does have some retail stores.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/11/kaiser-permanente-opens-retail-stores.html">Kaiser Permanente Opens Retail Stores In California And Oregon Inside Malls And A Bus With Navigators to Assist Enrollment With State Exchange Programs</a></h5> <p>Here was another hospital that opened and it focused on the dual monitors so patients could also see their chart information.  Kaiser has done a good job brining the patient/doctor relationship together to where it works as patients have their own PHR where they can log on to view information and communicate with their doctors as well.  BD  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/03/kaiser-permanente-opens-new-medical.html">Kaiser Permanente Opens New Medical Center in Gaithersburg, MD With Dual Monitors So Patient Views Same Chart Information as Physicians in Real Time</a></h5> <p> <hr />SAN LEANDRO -- When Kaiser Permanente opens its new hospital on Tuesday, visitors will find a six-story building filled with work by local artists, natural-light-filled rooms and the latest medical technology.</p> <p>The nonprofit health care provider is shutting down its Hayward hospital, which did not meet new state seismic safety standards, and moving its inpatient care and emergency room to a campus west of Interstate 880 near Marina Boulevard that at one time housed a grocery distribution center. </p> <p>The new 435,900-square-foot hospital is designed to accommodate more patients later if needed. The top floor is vacant, and the 216-bed hospital has the capacity for 264. </p> <p>All patient rooms are private, with pullout guest beds for family members. Patients are no longer just separated by a curtain in the emergency room, which has 40 individual treatment rooms.</p> <p>Dr. Robert Greenberg showed off some of the hospital's tech features on Thursday. At the patient entrance near the emergency room, visitors can find directions to the department they're looking for on an interactive touch screen. In addition to a map, the screen has a QR code that gives them access to directions they can carry on their smartphones.</p> <p>Every floor has a negative pressure treatment room that allows air to flow in but not escape. "If someone gets off a plane in Oakland who we think may have a contagious infection, for example, we can isolate them in here right away," he said.</p> <p>Kaiser also is building hospitals scheduled to open this year in Oakland and Redwood City. The three hospitals cost a combined $2 billion. </p> <p><a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_25872611/kaiser-open-san-leandro-hospital">http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_25872611/kaiser-open-san-leandro-hospital</a></p>

Kaiser Permanente Opening New Hospital in San Leandro-Two More Scheduled for Oakland and Redwood City This Year As Well

This is the first of 3 new facilities scheduled to open this year and the cost for all three is $ 2 Billion.  We all have probably read by n...

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FDA Approves Testosterone You Can Snort

<p>This might be a big improvement over the testosterone you can run in like a cream as I see all kinds of warnings on those products as if you have a little on your hands, you can transfer it to another person, like a child who doesn’t need it. <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="153" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-F0Bvce5FKws/U4vVs_7q5zI/AAAAAAABKds/p5qiC5voIw8/image%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="149" /></p> <p>Like anything you sniff it could give you a scab, noted as one of the side effects.  You can read the full list of side effects below.  Wonder how long before we see snortable Viagra maybe (grin).  BD </p> <p> <hr />The FDA has okayed an inhalable formulation of testosterone (Natesto) to treat hypogonadism, according to <a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/trimel-receives-fda-approval-for-natestotm-nasal-gel-to-treat-men-with-low-testosterone-261022581.html">drugmaker Trimel Pharmaceuticals</a>.</p> <p>The drug, previously known as CompleoTRT, comes as a nasal spray taken in two spritzes three times a day. Each spray contains 5.5 mg of testosterone, bringing the daily total to 33 mg.</p> <p>Trimel Pharmaceuticals is also exploring the use of its nasal testosterone in female orgasmic disorder, releasing top-line data earlier this week. A phase II trial lasting 84 days reported more orgasms with nasal testosterone than with placebo: 2.3 versus 1.7.</p> <p>The most common adverse reactions were an increase in prostate specific antigen (PSA), headache, rhinorrhea, epistaxis, nasal discomfort, nasopharyngitis, bronchitis, upper respiratory tract infection, sinusitis, and nasal scab, the company said.</p> <p><a href="http://www.medpagetoday.com/Endocrinology/GeneralEndocrinology/46052">http://www.medpagetoday.com/Endocrinology/GeneralEndocrinology/46052</a></p>

FDA Approves Testosterone You Can Snort

This might be a big improvement over the testosterone you can run in like a cream as I see all kinds of warnings on those products as if you...

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