St. Josephs and Hoag Hospital In the OC Form New Healthcare Network Combining Hospitals

<p>The two hospital systems actually announced the plans for the new network, Covenant Health back in August of last year.<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="101" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-PcWHb0mVm90/UTBIQcYuiVI/AAAAAAABGFs/WaxYoumDwVI/image%25255B8%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="171" />  This makes it official and the two systems are the best in Orange county.  The offices will be based in Irvine so I am guessing it’s in the office area of the new Hoag facility.  This will be one large non profit group of 6 hospitals.  The article states that patients should not really see any difference. </p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/08/two-big-non-profits-hoag-hospital-and.html"><font size="2"> <br clear="all" />Two Big Non Profits, Hoag Hospital and St. Joseph Announce An Affiliation For Better Healthcare in the OC</font></a></h4> <p> <br clear="all" />Hoag will keep its Presbyterian affiliation while St. Joseph will remain with it's Catholic affiliation.  Abortions will be done at the Hoag facilities as they have been, where St. Joseph does not participate.  <br clear="all" /> <hr />St. Joseph Health and Hoag Hospital have formalized <img align="right" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-oHQGz5Blprw/UCxwfXdy10I/AAAAAAAA82E/1WN9wQsRaFU/image%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="display: inline; float: right" />a partnership to streamline health care in Orange County with the creation of Covenant Health Network, hospital officials announced Thursday.</p> <p>The state attorney general's office has approved the so-called "affiliation" that will bring together the resources of Hoag's hospitals in Newport Beach and Irvine with St. Joseph's hospitals in Orange, Mission Viejo, Fullerton and Laguna Beach. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <p>The new nonprofit company will result in the six hospitals, and their networks of doctors and outpatient clinics, providing roughly one-third of healthcare in Orange County and more than 2,000 hospital beds.</p> <p>T<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="52" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-Q0xNSjoJTKI/UTBIQid5AiI/AAAAAAABGF0/3hAKxZrxSe0/image%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="199" />he Covenant network, based in Irvine, will focus on preventive health, new services, improved medical outcomes and access for low-income residents. Dr. Richard Afable, who has been chief executive at Hoag since 2005, will become chief executive of Covenant, effective Friday. He will be replaced at Hoag by Robert Braithwaite, the hospital's chief operating officer. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <p><a href="http://www.ocregister.com/articles/joseph-497756-health-hoag.html">http://www.ocregister.com/articles/joseph-497756-health-hoag.html</a></p>

St. Josephs and Hoag Hospital In the OC Form New Healthcare Network Combining Hospitals

The two hospital systems actually announced the plans for the new network, Covenant Health back in August of last year.   This makes it offi...

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New Mobile App Does Urinalysis With the IPhone–Lab on a Phone

<p><img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="298" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-PPkThALeTMs/UTBAyyu37KI/AAAAAAABGFU/GdIBjQqkzWY/image%25255B14%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="175" /></p> This was shown at the TED conference in Long Beach and looks to be quite useful and no you don’t pee on your phone.  The app is being tested at a hospital in India and was developed by an MIT graduate.  It uses time lapsed images to read the dip stick.  You do have to pee in a container and dip for the app to work.  This might be one of those apps if used in the US for the FDA to take a look at for a stamp of approval.  If you look at the images it looks pretty straight forward with a matt and you place on top of the phone.  So far in all tests is has come out being more accurate than just reading the colors on a testing stick.  It will be available soon at the Apple App store.  It also has not web connection to report data so you are in control here if you want to send the results on to your doctor.  BD <hr /> <br clear="all" /> <p>LONG BEACH, California – For entrepreneur Myshkin Ingawale the logic was unassailable. Everybody pees. And everyone has a cellphone. “There has to be something going on there,” Ingawale told a chuckling crowd at the TED conference. </p> <p>For the 29-year-old <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="174" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/--Dig4dxi9WM/UTBAzIYrYbI/AAAAAAABGFc/0KCWyim0D5E/image%25255B15%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="267" />Mumbai-based Ingawale, that something is using the increasingly powerful camera and processing muscle packed in smartphones to run cheap, accurate urinalysis tests. Don’t worry, it doesn’t involved soaking your precious handset, though it does involve peeing in a cup. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" />While it’s being tested in a Mumbai hospital, the app is wending its way through the Apple approval process. Ingawale is optimistic it will be made available to iOS users soon. An Android version is also in the works, though because of all the different cameras in use on all the different Android-flavored phones it will take a bit more time to roll out, he says. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><a href="http://www.wired.com/business/2013/02/smartphone-becomes-smart-lab/">http://www.wired.com/business/2013/02/smartphone-becomes-smart-lab/</a></p>

New Mobile App Does Urinalysis With the IPhone–Lab on a Phone

This was shown at the TED conference in Long Beach and looks to be quite useful and no you don’t pee on your phone.  The app is being teste...

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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…

<p>Yes it’s time once again to review this topic once more to talk about flawed data the the little value these sites have to offer.  <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="76" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-rgLz5LsdHLw/US6lt7Nf-II/AAAAAAABGBE/O4aoWGgGFQI/image%25255B16%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="202" />I have said a couple times the rating are nuts as UCLA and Boston Hospitals never seem to make the top of their listings.  It’s using some type of quantitative formula for these crunched numbers and we keep getting more and more of these popping up.  I have also said well just keep like a Yellow<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="90" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-w_leAJYuH6E/US6lueDimEI/AAAAAAABGBM/OjZhzTh13_c/image%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="239" /> Page listing and darn they can’t get that right either.  So here’s the latest I found and this was national news and in the last few days this <a href="http://www.abc2news.com/dpp/entertainment/celebrity/Michael-Jacksons-skin-medic-Arnold-Klein-avoids-arrest-in-bankruptcy-case_27858171">doctor has been in the news</a> with a warrant out for his arrest relative to returning goods from his bankruptcy case.  You can go to the links on both Vitals and Healthgrades sites and the doctor’s site has been down for a while.  I like this one though, this nice little text to voice from Vitals… <a href="http://www.vitals.com/doctors/Dr_Arnold_W_Klein/video">Watch it now</a> as it may not be here for long… <br clear="all" /><img alt="image" border="0" height="256" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-SRYJsrrs28I/US8F-aojpMI/AAAAAAABGDY/UpwxgsUPG7o/image%25255B8%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="401" /></p> <h4><font size="2"><font size="3"></font> <br clear="all" /></font></h4> <p>I have had about 3 emails this week with different ratings including HealthGrades and you know a few months ago there was this article stating they are seeing fewer reviews.  I can see why.  <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="61" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-BsQe95KN-VM/US6lvCeebbI/AAAAAAABGBU/3TOEIWhLbZU/image%25255B15%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="103" />If the accuracy is failing, people won’t use it.  You can buy insurance off the Vitals site and it says he’s accepting new patients.  A lot of this comes from the data selling epidemic that strangles the US and stifles job growth as companies and banks just sell data instead of doing much in the tangible areas for revenue growth.  </p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/01/physician-rating-sites-are-seeing-fewer.html"><font size="2"> <br clear="all" />Physician Rating Sites Are Seeing Fewer Reviews These Days–Flawed Data Catching Up Along With Loss of Value As Consumers and Doctors Lose Interest?</font></a> <br clear="all" /></h4> <p>Healthgrades has put the doctor on the Honor Roll and both sites still have him listed on staff at a couple hospitals.  It obvious they don’t mine the news and have a small section to where they might update information like what we see on TV and on the web.  I don’t know the doctor and this is just another one of my posts about the lack of accuracy of these sites and to again talk about the flawed data that is growing on the web.  </p> <h4> <br clear="all" /><a href="http://www.healthgrades.com/physician/dr-arnold-klein-xn39r/background-check#BackgroundAwardsAndRecognition_anchor"><img alt="image" border="0" height="109" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-x3ApwLANug0/US6lvV15kuI/AAAAAAABGBc/9DMlsFSN_eE/image%25255B8%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="393" /></a></h4> <p>This doctor here made big national news and how many doctors hide from authorities living on a glacier?  Nope, nothing was updated. </p> <h4> </h4> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2010/10/nose-doctor-on-run-found-living-in-tent.html"><font size="2">Nose Doctor on the Run Found Living in a Tent at the End of a Glacier in Italy, Admitted Fraud Still Listed on Some MD Referral Sites</font></a> <br clear="all" /></h4> <p>I looked way back in my posts and found a <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/07/dr-arnold-klein-talking-about-diprivan.html">2009 blog post</a> about the doctor with Larry King.  So this the latest and looks like around 5 years since any updates were done on both sites.  A couple years back some doctors and myself did some comparisons and we<img align="right" height="69" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/TJcGp1oHKzI/AAAAAAAAhfM/jyY8xKNrAKY/image_thumb%5B4%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="display: inline; float: right" width="172" /> found all kinds of mistakes, dead doctors, listed at hospitals they had never set foot in and so forth.  Right now with insurers cutting doctors pay and many trying to keep a practice open it’s totally bogus that these sites that make money selling data and get advertising revenue want the doctors to update them.  There’s other services that doctors pay for like ZocDoc, totally different as you can make appointments and it’s a service the doctor wants so they do update their profile there, so don’t confuse the two.  </p> <h4>  </h4> <p>In the middle of last year we had this news about HealthGrades joining the board of a company that does market research…huh?  Maybe not on doctors and hospitals, right?  </p> <h4> </h4> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/08/healthgrades-ceo-founder-joins-worldone.html"><font size="2">HealthGrades CEO Founder Joins WorldOne Board–Flawed Data And Broken Algorithms On the Move to Advise Market Research? Algo Duping Society?</font></a> <br clear="all" /></h4> <p>Anybody heard of Dr. Gary Michelson who won a couple billion from Medtronic years ago and retired and listed on Forbes who does a lot of neat <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2008/10/75-million-prize-for-way-to-sterilize.html">philanthropy work for dogs and humans</a>…well he’s on there too…lawsuit I think was won about 8 years ago.  Just doing this post and accessing the websites they are probably catching my IP and scraping data right now.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><img height="264" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-obcJBMljkho/UDz9nzUYKoI/AAAAAAAA9O8/SPKSg3gvTB8/image%25255B5%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto" width="411" /></p> <p>Their algorithms are not working very well and I can’t blame the hospitals and doctors for being outraged.  You see this same technique has run over to consumers with the data sellers wanting all of us to fix on our own dime too and we about the same.  They make their money with the data when sold so where’s the incentive to fix it?  Can someone tell me.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><a href="http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2010/10/18/bica1018.htm">Here’s where the AMA and I had a nice chat</a> about all of this and it’s a blame shifting situation to where these sites rely on the state doctor boards to update, but enough said if they can’t catch stuff that makes national news.  I found my own doctor who had been deceased for 8 years still showing up and not much other than graphics seems to have changed.  Seriously go to the government’s page for better accuracy, they may not have as much information but what is there is much more accurate.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2011/11/healthgrades-to-merge-with-cpm.html"><font size="2">HealthGrades to Merge with CPM Marketing–Will Their Data and Questionable Algorithms Will Be Improved For Consumers?</font></a> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-MdcQ51oZRKs/UDz9pcW4fBI/AAAAAAAA9PM/5H-RdgxYtf8/image%25255B11%25255D.png?imgmax=800" /></h4> <p>Come on when you are talking UCLA and Harvard on the hospital side where you might only find one or two hospitals in the country doing specific procedures and treatments get a high school “C”…please… <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <p>Again I bring this out from time to time to make all aware of how flawed data is becoming a big issue on the web and the selling and marketing of data sellers is adding to it as nobody checks and fixes.  The data is purchased and queries with gosh only knows what other kind of data out there and gee you have some new analytics for sale and lot of it will be of no use. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/02/half-of-analytics-investments-by.html"><font size="2">Half of Analytics Investments By Companies and Banks Will Be a Waste–What Do We Analyze with Big Data and Does It Have Value–Some Algo Fairies Would Do Better at Disneyland…</font></a> <br clear="all" /></h4> <p>The time has come to license and tax data sellers as we could fund the NIH, FDA and more and also have a look federal site to where those who are licensed and sell data list what kind of data they sell and to who.  This has become an epidemic in the US<img align="right" height="89" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-6HDDm04lOwA/Ts0zq-EuFHI/AAAAAAAA4d8/nMT-KL0JEDY/image_thumb%25255B12%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="display: inline; float: right" width="183" /> and it hurts consumers every day and it’s growing, just like these doctor and hospital listings, same thing.  Watch the videos on the left side of this blog for some real enlightenment or visit the Algo Duping Page to view and there’s a couple more on there as well.  I put the 60 Minutes Report on how flawed they found all the credit agencies to be and it’s a mess.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><strong></strong></p> <h4><strong><a href="http://www.ducknet.net/attack-of-the-killer-algorithms/"><font size="2">Algo Duping 101 – Flawed Data and Algorithms Hurting all of us but making huge profits for Corporate USA.</font></a></strong><font size="2">  </font></h4>

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…

Yes it’s time once again to review this topic once more to talk about flawed data the the little value these sites have to offer.  I have sa...

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New York Statewide Health Information Network Has First Hospital Provider Using the Direct Project to Use Direct Messaging

<p>Remember the commitments back in 2011 (link below) with all the EHR vendors and other HIT entities who committed to using the Direct P<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="61" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-iXSPuuUbGmY/US6CqANoRJI/AAAAAAABF_I/pkNaOp9uPbg/image%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="145" />roject, just about all the major players.  You can read at the link below for a refresher.  Also HealthVault was right in there too with the PHR to offer their “Direct Project’ email system.  If you are a consumer with a HealthVault PHR, you can jump in there and get your physicians involved as each needs a email address.  This is cool stuff.  </p> <h5> </h5> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2011/03/direct-project-announces-over-60.html">Direct Project Announces Over 60 Healthcare and Health IT Organizations Committed to the Roll Out</a> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></h5> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2011/02/microsoft-delivers-encrypted-e-mail.html"><font size="2">Microsoft Delivers Encrypted E-mail Using Government “Direct Project” Security Protocols With HealthVault Personal Health Records</font></a> <br clear="all" /></h4> <p>The video below is quite detailed but gives an overall technical presentation on how it works.  If you are not in Health IT, you can skip this one.  BD</p> <br clear="all" /> <h4> <br clear="all" /></h4> <iframe height="375" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/27248218" frameborder="0" width="412" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe> <p><a href="http://vimeo.com/27248218">Getting Started with Direct</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/directproject">Direct Project</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p> <br clear="all" />The members of the New York Healthcare Exchange for Medical Records are bringing on the same capability, doctors can email securely to other physicians.  BD <hr /> <br clear="all" /> <p>Clinician-to-clinician Direct messaging is now available across New York as part of the Statewide Health Information Network of New York, or SHIN-NY.</p> <p>Albany Medical Center, one of the busiest trauma centers in Upstate New York, will be the state’s first provider using the Direct service, which integrates into providers’ <a href="http://www.healthcareitnews.com/directory/electronic-health-record-ehr">electronic health record</a> systems. Vendor certification for Direct messaging will begin this spring through the <a href="http://www.healthcareitnews.com/directory/interoperability">Interoperability</a> Workgroup led by the New York eHealth Collaborative, which oversees SHIN-NY. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" />For Albany Medical Center, the Direct service is being powered by the Healthcare Information Xchange of New York (HIXNY), which serves as greater Albany and northern New York’s regional <a href="http://www.healthcareitnews.com/directory/health-information-exchange-hie">HIE</a>. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><a href="http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/new-york-hie-gets-direct-messaging">http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/new-york-hie-gets-direct-messaging</a> <br clear="all" /></p>

New York Statewide Health Information Network Has First Hospital Provider Using the Direct Project to Use Direct Messaging

Remember the commitments back in 2011 (link below) with all the EHR vendors and other HIT entities who committed to using the Direct P rojec...

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Extormity EHR Anticipates a High Level of Client Suicides For Those Who Can’t Change to Another Medical Records System–And Is Ready To Help the Remaining 40% Get Moving…Humor

<p style="padding-bottom: 0px; line-height: normal; display: block; height: auto; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; padding-top: 0px" align="left"><span style="font-family: "><font size="2">I made sure I put “humor” in the title as of late we have some GOP folks not being able to distinguish the difference:)  If you <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="94" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-HSPwYDRv90Q/US5d2KTb6jI/AAAAAAABF9E/XtFBG9fCqOQ/image%25255B5%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="254" />missed that one here’s the link…and here we have our favorite Health IT satire buddies back at it.  Let’s face it, what choice do you have but suicide if you can’t afford to change or are stuck for other reasons…might as well just put an end to it now:) <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></font></span></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/02/digital-literacy-neededsenator.html"><font size="2">Digital Literacy Needed–Senator McConnell Staff Falls for Parody Blog Post–Everything On the Internet Is Not True, Duped, Duped and Duped Again</font></a> <br clear="all" /></h4> <p><strong>Here’s video they did back in 2011 and with the link above this is worth repeating again as I think it even has more meaning today with the next phase of meaningful use coming along....enjoy.  BD  </strong> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <p style="padding-bottom: 0px; line-height: normal; display: block; height: auto; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; padding-top: 0px" align="left"><iframe style="width: 421px; height: 252px" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/mYZwbtNekS8?rel=0" frameborder="0" width="420" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe><span style="font-family: "><font size="2"> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" />Electronic health record vendor Extormity today announced that nearly 75 percent of its existing customer base reports being dissatisfied, extremely dissatisfied or contemplating suicide based on the decision to implement the Extormity EHR solution. Further, Extormity expects nearly 40 percent of its clients to de-install their solution in 2013 and switch to another vendor. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></font></span></p> <p style="padding-bottom: 0px; line-height: normal; display: block; height: auto; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; padding-top: 0px" align="left"><span style="font-family: "><font size="2">Citing a recent study which indicated that nearly 20 percent of EHR users could be switching out their first choice EHR this year, Extormity CEO Brantley Whittington stated "We are ecstatic that unhappiness levels among our clients clearly outpaces the industry average." <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></font></span></p> <p style="padding-bottom: 0px; line-height: normal; display: block; height: auto; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; padding-top: 0px" align="left"><span style="font-family: "><font size="2">"Even as analysts are expressing concern with these statistics<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="111" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-7OBXvMmBCF8/US5d2sdmzOI/AAAAAAABF9M/KWh_6Qz6b1Q/image%25255B9%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="77" />, these findings have generated incredible buzz about Extormity - resulting in a disproportionate share of media attention," added Whittington. "Better yet, the focus on dissatisfaction levels has obscured questionable financial dealings, several catastrophic medical errors linked to flawed clinical decision support algorithms, and more breaches than you can shake a stick at." <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></font></span></p> <p style="padding-bottom: 0px; line-height: normal; display: block; height: auto; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; padding-top: 0px" align="left"><span style="font-family: "><font size="2">While the projected de-conversion rate could be considered alarming, Extormity officials remain bullish on the company’s future. "While much of our installed base is fleeing the good ship Extormity, we are winning new clients at a record pace as providers head for the exits with other vendors who also made expensive empty promises," added Whittington. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" />"When one considers early termination penalties, exorbitant costs for data conversion and the steep hourly rates we charge clients who are transitioning away from our EHR, we expect record profits which will fund the construction of our new corporate headquarters." <hr /> <br clear="all" /></font></span></p> <strong style="text-align: left; line-height: normal"><span style="text-align: left; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: en-us; mso-fareast-language: en-us; mso-bidi-language: ar-sa"> <p><font size="2"><u> About Extormity</u></font></p> </span></strong><span style="text-align: left; line-height: normal; font-family: ; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: en-us; mso-fareast-language: en-us; mso-bidi-language: ar-sa"><font style="font-size: 12pt"> <br /> <br /><font size="2">Extormity is an electronic health records mega-corporation dedicated to offering highly proprietary, difficult to customize and prohibitively expensive healthcare IT solutions. Our flagship product, the Extormity EMR Software Suite, was recently voted “Most Complex” by readers of a leading healthcare industry publication. <br clear="all" />Learn more at</font> </font><a style="text-align: left" href="http://extormity.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=176d87dd6ba2729f0d63f2fc5&id=17ca3cbe29&e=f90bf707d9"><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="font-size: 12pt" color="#336699">www.extormity.com</font></font></a></span>

Extormity EHR Anticipates a High Level of Client Suicides For Those Who Can’t Change to Another Medical Records System–And Is Ready To Help the Remaining 40% Get Moving…Humor

I made sure I put “humor” in the title as of late we have some GOP folks not being able to distinguish the difference:)  If you missed that ...

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Health Insurance Exchanges–Will State IT Departments Be Able to Meet the Deadlines…A Wait and See, And What About That Flawed Data?

<p><strong>I don’t care where you look in Healthcare IT today, everyone has a lot on their plates.  The Exchanges for each state are supposed to be online and available for consumers in October of this year, but will they make it?</strong>  The federal government is now in charge of setting them <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="204" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-UA2G2nDRR4I/US2sKf9dVeI/AAAAAAABF7I/E59fkfEOuQg/image%25255B6%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="270" />up for a large number of states too.  There are two software programs, one from Oracle and one from Microsoft that appear to be packaged to make the job easier, but as we all know there’s a lot of settings and parameters even if off the shelf software is deployed, ask anyone who has installed a few servers.  Now the feds would be wise to look into one or both of these I would think.  Here <a href="http://spectrum.ieee.org/riskfactor/computing/it/californias-payroll-project-debacle-another-50-million-up-in-smoke">in California we can’t get a payroll software solution working</a> yet that can get it right and $50 million was burned on the project and the total contract with SAP was $87 million and the state remains on the old but dependable Cobol system for now.  Old technology that sometimes reaches scaling limits but solid as a rock.   <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2011/09/oracle-announces-insurance-exchange.html"><font size="2">Oracle Announces Insurance Exchange Platform - Purchasing Health Insurance Platform–Available for State Governments</font></a> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></h4> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2011/02/microsoft-announces-new-low-cost.html"><font size="2">Microsoft Announces New Low-Cost Turnkey State Health Insurance Exchange Technology Solutions</font></a> <br clear="all" /></h4> <p><strong>Now insurers have their work cut out at their end as cross referencing will be needed and a lot of testing back and forth as this is not just new data being entered as people have to be checked for eligibility and make sure they are not already covered under other policies, etc. and a few other details.</strong>  Who thinks they are going to make it without an extension?  I’m looking that way as when you look at the coding and integration work, there’s a lot of it.  We can just slip this in to the ICD10 ongoing projects somewhere along the line:)  We have that going too here in California.  Makes me wonder what the longevity of the state CTO and CIO might be, but HHS says hurry, hurry, hurry…but you can’t rush development as when you do something really goes off the wall.  <br clear="all" /></p> <p> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/02/california-forms-statewide-icd-10.html"><font size="2">California Forms Statewide ICD-10 Collaborative As It Will Have Major Effects on Operations and Revenue Streams–Help and Support for Smaller Providers</font></a></h4> <p> <br clear="all" />Insurers participating in more than one exchange, same thing with data and pricing for each state too. <strong> Doctors worry about payment delays which is nothing new but they don’t want them in addition to other payment delays they incur.  With integrating this much data and the large number of parameters to be covered, I think we stand to see a lot of flawed and mixed up data until they are up and running for a while, and who knows with new technologies added and data formats, it could go on for quite a while</strong>. <img align="right" height="165" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-dbewUrd4URs/UPnf8gAg5uI/AAAAAAABDLA/zCku4CVGWNI/image%25255B5%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="display: inline; float: right" width="216" /> Did I mention a testing period?  Will there be time for it…well someone will have to make some time and this could be a 24/7 hour endeavor by the time October rolls around.  <strong>And if that doesn’t work, will the government be sending us all to Wal-Mart as an outsourced partner?  They want to be an insurance exchange too:)  We have Costco as a PBM now..who knows…BD</strong> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/01/everybody-wants-to-be-health-insurance.html"><font size="2">Everybody Wants to be Health Insurance Exchange, Wal-Mart Considering the Idea for Small Companies And Oracle Can Sell You a Software Exchange Platform</font></a></h4> <p> <br clear="all" /> <hr />Health insurers are embracing the move toward health insurance exchanges, yet they're concerned about IT infrastructure changes, according to a Feb. 20 report by Edifecs, a health care IT software company. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <p>The Obama administration's <a href="http://www.eweek.com/it-management/it-essential-to-accountable-care-organization-success-report/">Affordable Care Act</a> calls for states to implement the exchanges, referred to as HIXes, by October 2013 or have the federal government implement them on their behalf. The Web-based exchanges allow small businesses or uninsured individuals to purchase health insurance. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" />However, 88 percent of respondents are concerned about disruptions to their current IT enrollment infrastructure and processes when they join an exchange. Insurers will have to create new business processes and integration points rather than simply add new data from individuals and small businesses, according to Jamie Gier, vice president of corporate marketing at Edifecs. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <p>"It goes beyond simple data feeds," Gier told <em>eWEEK</em> in an email. "Beyond integrating their systems with federal and/or state exchanges, insurers will need to reconcile their detailed member records with those maintained by the exchange on at least a monthly basis." </p> <p>Insurers must manage and reconcile their membership records between their own insurer systems and HIXes, said Gier. This cross-checking of data will confirm eligibility and credit premiums, as well as ensure correct payments, said Gier. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><a href="http://www.eweek.com/enterprise-apps/health-insurance-exchanges-bring-concerns-of-it-disruptions-survey/">http://www.eweek.com/enterprise-apps/health-insurance-exchanges-bring-concerns-of-it-disruptions-survey/</a></p>

Health Insurance Exchanges–Will State IT Departments Be Able to Meet the Deadlines…A Wait and See, And What About That Flawed Data?

I don’t care where you look in Healthcare IT today, everyone has a lot on their plates.  The Exchanges for each state are supposed to be onl...

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Telus Health Acquires MD Practice Software Which Makes the Company the Dominant Force With EHRs in Canada

<p>Telus has now become the largest EMR vendor in Canada with this acquisition.  They have around 9,000 physicians out of the 50k market of Canadian doctors.  Back in 2010 Telus also licensed the Microsoft Health Vault Platform for personal health records.  </p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2010/06/telus-canada-pilot-phr-goes-online-with.html"><font size="2"> <br clear="all" />Telus Canada Pilot PHR Goes Online with Their Own Employees Using Microsoft HealthVault To Start</font></a> <br clear="all" /></h4> <p>What is interesting is to look at this chart to see where both the US and Canada stand compared to other countries and granted both countries have a much larger population than other countries where EMRs are around 90% use.  <br clear="all" /><img alt="image" border="0" height="250" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-3t5u6mZYs84/US2TF0klSzI/AAAAAAABF5M/GPvYjJKvhgg/image%25255B4%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="288" /></p> <p> <br clear="all" /> <hr />Telus Health, a division of telecommunications giant Telus Corp., announced today it is acquiring  Ontario’s largest  electronic medical records company, making Telus the dominant provider of online health records in Canada.  </p> <p>The acquisition, which is due to close March 4, will more than double the number of Canadian doctors using Telus Health’s EMR service and give Telus more than 50 per cent of the market share among doctors who use electronic health records instead of paper charts.</p> <p>Financial details of the acquisition of MD Practice Software LP, a member of the MD Physician Services Group and a subsidiary of the Canadian Medical Association, were not released.  The announcement is the third EMR acquisition for Telus Health, building on earlier acquisitions of the British Columbia-based Wolf Medical Systems and Quebec’s KinLogix. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><a href="http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2013/02/26/telus-health-acquires-ontarios-largest-electronic-medical-records-company/">http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2013/02/26/telus-health-acquires-ontarios-largest-electronic-medical-records-company/</a></p> <p> <br clear="all" /></p>

Telus Health Acquires MD Practice Software Which Makes the Company the Dominant Force With EHRs in Canada

Telus has now become the largest EMR vendor in Canada with this acquisition.  They have around 9,000 physicians out of the 50k market of Can...

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FDA Approves Non Estrogen Based Pill for Post Menopausal Women

<p>This is a pill this time and not a cream or lubricant that is taken <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="47" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-90vIxCgLusI/US2OW2wHeqI/AAAAAAABF3Q/tu6nGe-eqhs/image%25255B2%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="112" />once a day.  It is to help restore and strengthen vaginal wall tissues that cause pain during intercourse.  The medication binds to the receptors and activates some of the mechanisms that shut down during menopause.  It also raises breast cancer risk.  BD <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /> <hr />It's not the pink <a href="http://www.latimes.com/topic/health/drugs-medicines/viagra-%28drug%29-HEDAR00000137.topic">Viagra</a> many women have been waiting for, but a pill approved by the <a href="http://www.latimes.com/topic/health/food-drug-administration-ORGOV0000136161.topic">Food and Drug Administration</a> on Tuesday aims to help women who have passed through <a href="http://www.latimes.com/topic/health/physical-conditions/menopause-HEPHC0000026.topic">menopause</a> with a distinctly libido-killing problem: painful sex. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <p>The <a href="http://www.latimes.com/topic/health/food-drug-administration-ORGOV0000136161.topic">FDA</a> has <a href="http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm341128.htm?source=govdelivery">approved</a> a pill, Osphena, meant to be taken daily by post-menopausal women experiencing dyspareunia, or pain during sexual intercourse. Taken once daily, Osphena helps strengthen and build vaginal tissues, which respond to decreases in estrogen after menopause by becoming thin and more fragile. For roughly 32 million women in the United States, the result is discomfort, pain and tearing during intercourse. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><a href="http://www.latimes.com/health/boostershots/la-heb-fda-pill-sex-menopause-20130226,0,3473428.story">http://www.latimes.com/health/boostershots/la-heb-fda-pill-sex-menopause-20130226,0,3473428.story</a></p>

FDA Approves Non Estrogen Based Pill for Post Menopausal Women

This is a pill this time and not a cream or lubricant that is taken once a day.  It is to help restore and strengthen vaginal wall tissues t...

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Aetna Creates a Branding Name for the Health IT Companies They Have Purchased, Healthagen

<p>It’s a mouthful, Healthagen.   The company has been buying up IT companies for a while, basically following what United has done for a long tim<img align="right" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-fMJt549Ja2w/UMIlaGHhcuI/AAAAAAABA78/ufGZsD32Cn4/image%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="display: inline; float: right" />e and they are nowhere near the huge daisy chain they have.  As a matter of fact the company is finally paying up on the 15 year short pay of hospitals and doctors where they licensed the algorithms that United Healthcare (Ingenix) designed and used.  So we have Best Buy hawking software for Aetna, Costco selling their insurance and all kinds of other stuff going on.  BD <hr /> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/01/aetna-payment-of-120-million-to-settle.html"><font size="2">Aetna Payment of $120 Million To Settle 15 Year Ingenix/United HealthCare Out of Network Erroneous Payment Algorithms Cuts Income for 4th Quarter</font></a> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></h4> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/08/ingenix-data-base-has-some-long.html"><font size="2">Ingenix Data Base Has Some Long Reaching Legal Tentacles with Aetna, Blue Cross, Blue Shield, Humana</font></a> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></h4> <h6></h6> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/07/california-doctors-sue-aetna-for.html"><font size="2">California Doctors Sue Aetna For Routinely Denying Out of Network Patient Access–Grading on the Curve Algorithms Versus Individual Patient Assessments?</font></a></h4> <p> <br clear="all" /> <hr />HARTFORD, Conn.--(<a href="http://www.businesswire.com/">BUSINESS WIRE</a>)--Aetna (NYSE: <a href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aetna.com%2Finvestors-aetna%2Findex.html&esheet=50573659&lan=en-US&anchor=AET&index=1&md5=5cf8172aeaae703a9b780da8879cc5c1">AET</a>) today introduced a new business unit brand called <a href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.healthagen.com%2F&esheet=50573659&lan=en-US&anchor=Healthagen&index=2&md5=410420298e0c62d1ac02cb557d1250ed">Healthagen</a> that advances its provider collaboration and consumer empowerment strategy. Healthagen is a portfolio of innovative and growing businesses that tackles the fundamental needs of greater value, coordination and transparency in health care. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" />Healthagen unifies Aetna’s population health management solutions and health information technologies from businesses that include ActiveHealth Management, iTriage and Medicity. Healthagen also develops new businesses to address provider and consumer needs. Accountable Care Solutions (ACS) from Aetna combines Healthagen capabilities to deliver integrated population health management, advanced technology and health plan services. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><a title="http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20130222005680/en/Aetna-Introduces-Healthagen-Brand-Division-Health-Technology" href="http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20130222005680/en/Aetna-Introduces-Healthagen-Brand-Division-Health-Technology">http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20130222005680/en/Aetna-Introduces-Healthagen-Brand-Division-Health-Technology</a> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p>

Aetna Creates a Branding Name for the Health IT Companies They Have Purchased, Healthagen

It’s a mouthful, Healthagen.   The company has been buying up IT companies for a while, basically following what United has done for a long ...

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Code.Org, The Video Coming to a Theater, or School Near You Soon Starring Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and More..An Outreach for Education

<p>This is great and there are all different levels of writing code.  I’m old one that wrote from the bottom up with VB6 and today we have platforms and even dot net from Microsoft where part of the code you will need is already done for you, so you write application on top of what has already been done.  This means getting new applications out there faster.  There’s challenges of course to make sure that what you are building on has been done properly too.  In all due respect Facebook can probably tell you all about it and of course Microsoft over the years has not been without hiccups, it’s the way the business works.  <strong>Complexities are all around us and we are light-years away from where it all started with Bill Gates and Microsoft in the early days.</strong>  Bill Gates wrote a program to play Tic Tac Toe he says.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><strong>Bill Gates in an interview himself reflecting back <img align="right" height="189" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-fpaB8yOE0io/USv18tNlXUI/AAAAAAABFxM/25MkrAmeTq8/AlgoFairy1%25255B11%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="display: inline; float: right" width="225" />on the early days that he had to finally realize he could not go home at night and be able to be a lone developer and write an update for Windows 95:)</strong>  Complexities have grown tremendously since then.  You keep hearing me hammer on this blog about how I try to bring some of this understanding down to layman's terms, and the fact is you will probably never have the same perceptions as I do or anyone who has written any bit of extensive code, because you can’t when you don’t know the mechanics.  That is what I try to bring forward and it’s not an opinion at all, it’s fact, its what it is, code is written and algorithms run.  I know I scare a few folks here and there but reality is what this is all about and I’m trying to help differentiate what is real and what is written just for profit with flawed data only to make money.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><strong>That is also a source of some of my rants when those who do know or understand the mechanics come out with these ridiculous perceptions and statements…huh???</strong>  What cabbage<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="153" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-6-kSrRNRxVo/US0MHoPFPXI/AAAAAAABF1E/NmIj6mGOA04/image%25255B15%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="230" /> leaf did they emerge from, stay quiet if you don’t know:)  The more people that are a little educated it will definitely <a href="http://www.ducknet.net/attack-of-the-killer-algorithms/"><strong><u>have some impact on Algo Duping</u></strong></a> with weird and feared perceptions that is taking place.<strong>  In government though we know figureheads are still stuck on that old paradigm of “it’s for those guys over there”.</strong>  The problem is, and listen to this film is you have people like me and thousands of others that think we are smarter, and we are in our own field where we understand the mechanics.  <strong>As I keep saying<u> </u><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/02/24/1189518/-US-Needs-To-Hire-Technologists-To-Fight-Crime#"><u>we need technologists running government departments today</u></a><u> </u>so they can walk and chew a little code and get an “accurate” perception with knowledge of know how the mechanics of code works and not the Algo duping fairy effect.</strong> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/02/no-more-unsubstantiated-blame-shifting.html"><font size="2">No More Unsubstantiated Blame Shifting on EHRS, Doctors, Hospitals, Developers, Patients Or Whatever Your Role Happens To Be–Government Executives Wake Up On How Corporate USA Eats Your Lunch With Models, Math, and Formulas for Profit (Algorithms)</font></a> <p> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><iframe style="width: 430px; height: 281px" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/nKIu9yen5nc?rel=0" frameborder="0" width="560" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> </h4> <p>Sunshine Foundation is right on here…and we talk about it all the time but some just remain at levels of being “non participants’ and we get those weird perceptions and it gets amplified by all the OMG stuff in the media too, and we sit at home and watch Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert and laugh like crazy.</p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/02/congress-needs-bigger-brainrestore_18.html"><font size="2"> <br clear="all" />Congress Needs a Bigger Brain–Restore the Office of Technology Assessment And Truly Assess What is Useful And Remove The Algo Duping Permeating In Government–Fantasy Perceptions That Are Not Real Can Be A Dangerous Thing</font></a> <br clear="all" /></h4> <p>When you watch the video listen to people at all different levels <img align="right" height="48" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/TJcGp1oHKzI/AAAAAAAAhfM/jyY8xKNrAKY/image_thumb%5B4%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="display: inline; float: right" width="113" />and see what they have to say.  There are a lot of interfaces that making writing code easy, let’s say for kids and I remember the early Microsoft auto code, a big help for writing routine expressions.  Now when this become more main stay we won’t have to have all these start ups around to the degree they exist today.  We will have more people who can see when code is written<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="107" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-EUEFz9fQ68A/US0MIhD7ZrI/AAAAAAABF1M/6yLbyqmMU7g/image%25255B9%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="167" /> just to make a buck or if they really have something useful for mankind.  There’s both out there and the selling of data is an epidemic and actually standing to ruin a lot of good programming too when exploited.  Write something that you can use yourself and you will hear almost everyone one in here using their own stuff, unlike what some do, write code to just to make a buck, you have to have part of you in it.  You can pretty much tell on the web with the content as to who has themselves in it and who’s just writing code and queries to make a buck.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" />One more thought here too in the case of white collar code crimes, where do you find a jury today of peers…hard…Goldman tried it and his crime was reversed.  Microsoft is paying to have the video shown at movie cinemas starting at the end of this week…good move on their part and teachers across the US will be getting word as well.  <strong>I didn't see anyone on the list for Washington DC, but they have have personal visits with testimonials from Bill Gates for years and it never sinks in there anyway, sadly.  Very nice!  BD</strong> <hr /></p> <p> <br clear="all" /><strong>It’s the first big outreach by Code.org, a nonprofit formed by entrepreneurs Hadi Partovi and Ali Partovi to expand computer literacy and improve education in America.</strong> They recruited Lesley Chilcott, producer of documentaries “Waiting for Superman” and “An Inconvenient Truth,” to direct the film, which may reach 500,000 teachers and <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="176" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-cQ295jtVBSU/US0MI01AZEI/AAAAAAABF1U/w1uzvW4kQRs/image%25255B16%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="320" />10 million students over the next few weeks.</p> <p>Then there’s the social media outreach through the project’s supporters, who combined have more than 100 million followers, Hadi Partovi said. </p> <p>The film is part of a broader effort by Code.org to encourage more schools to offer programming classes and give students who study computer science credit toward graduation, comparable to the credits provided for the study of math and other sciences. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><em><strong>“The programmers of tomorrow are the wizards of the future. You’re going to look like you have magic powers compared to everybody else,” Newell said in the film. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></strong></em>Microsoft is also paying to have the film shown before movies at Regal Cinemas starting on Friday, according to Hadi Partovi, who was an MSN manager before he left to start the music business iLike in Seattle. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><a href="http://blogs.seattletimes.com/brierdudley/2013/02/26/new/?cmpid=2628">http://blogs.seattletimes.com/brierdudley/2013/02/26/new/?cmpid=2628</a></p>

Code.Org, The Video Coming to a Theater, or School Near You Soon Starring Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and More..An Outreach for Education

This is great and there are all different levels of writing code.  I’m old one that wrote from the bottom up with VB6 and today we have plat...

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California Forms Statewide ICD-10 Collaborative As It Will Have Major Effects on Operations and Revenue Streams–Help and Support for Smaller Providers

<p>Ok this is getting a little more attention as the time comes near.  The collaborative is being lead by St. Josephs and a few other larger <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="92" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-setm_DeCO2s/USwKWX4r97I/AAAAAAABFzI/_iT3RTCH2z0/image%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="133" />institutions.  Holy Moly if this gets implemented on time.  I do wonder if deadlines might be extended here too.  It was done once and we do have those insurance exchanges on the plate too.  All of this is one heck a lot of coding and integration work in Health IT at one time.  How many CIOS might consider retiring this year or maybe just walking?  The top IT folks at the VA have already announced they are out of there in DC.  Folks not in this side of the business still don’t get it, “the short order code kitchen burned down years ago and there was no fire sale”.  I heard rumblings from various vendors about that, more at the link below. Helps when you have technologists at the top who understand this and then you don’t get statements as such.  BD  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/02/speed-up-rate-of-change-in-health.html"><font size="2">Speed Up Rate of Change in Health IT?–“Short Order Code Kitchen Burned Down a Few Years Ago and There Was No Fire Sale”..IT Infrastructure Chance and Revisions Takes a Lot of ”Code”, “Time” and “ Most Importantly Money”</font></a></h4> <p> <br clear="all" /> <hr /> <br clear="all" />OAKLAND, Calif.--(<a href="http://www.businesswire.com/">BUSINESS WIRE</a>)--A statewide consortium of California healthcare providers and payers have formed the California ICD-10 Collaborative to increase efficiencies and significantly reduce implementation time and costs associated with ICD-10 compliance. Benefits of converting to the ICD-10 coding system by October 2014 as required by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) include increased specificity in clinical information that can lead to more accurate and timely reimbursements. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" />As part of its launch, the Collaborative is holding an educational webinar for current members and non-members on February 27, 2013 at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Standard Time. The webinar will include an introduction and overview of the Collaborative and updates from three core workgroups: testing, education and training, and communications and outreach. California stakeholders may register for the membership community and informational webinar at <a href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.CAICD-10.org&esheet=50576251&lan=en-US&anchor=www.CAICD-10.org&index=1&md5=60f49af998b5411d5be1ba7daffad733">www.CAICD-10.org</a>. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><a href="http://eon.businesswire.com/news/eon/20130225006830/en/Statewide-ICD-10-Collaborative-Launches-California?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter">http://eon.businesswire.com/news/eon/20130225006830/en/Statewide-ICD-10-Collaborative-Launches-California?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter</a> <br clear="all" /></p>

California Forms Statewide ICD-10 Collaborative As It Will Have Major Effects on Operations and Revenue Streams–Help and Support for Smaller Providers

Ok this is getting a little more attention as the time comes near.  The collaborative is being lead by St. Josephs and a few other larger in...

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

<p>This is a great article and some folks who have some foresight here.  I write the Medical Quack to bring some understanding to the layman<img align="right" alt="AlgoFairy1" border="0" height="167" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-fpaB8yOE0io/USv18tNlXUI/AAAAAAABFxM/25MkrAmeTq8/AlgoFairy1%25255B11%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="AlgoFairy1" width="202" /> level as best I can and already I’m seeing this in some of the stuff in healthcare.  You can’t turn linear data into non linear and expect to find relationships that have value.  CEOs will squash their Quants to the max though to come up with something they can sell.  Boy have we seen that and it just doesn’t work.  I keep touting the videos on the left hand side of this blog and if you want some answers and explanations, watch them.  These are people smarter than me and in my time of developing software it’s the same mechanics with queries and developing analytics software, just bigger today and more headaches to find that one in a million model that “may” be correct and “may” work.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" />When you see all these stats thrown at you day in and day out, it’s the old bait and switch as anyone who has any kind of a sales or marketing background knows that’s the oldest trick in the book to start firing back with statistics whether they are correct or not.  Money drives this of<img align="right" height="72" src="https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRp9TBlvWqtr16ku9oa-uGY_yLITLV9hYmtozmPi5XdbJ5RW7Sm" style="display: inline; float: right" width="152" /> course and if you have bunk stats and the person at the other end sucks in, then you have made a sale and put money in your pocket.  I like accurate data and how it makes me smarter and how I can use my human brain based on good research with good clean data to make decisions.  We are not getting that anymore out there all the time and it’s getting difficult to tell the difference as everyone has some really nice marketing campaigns that are done so well, it’s almost hard not to believe.  Well let’s see that math formula looks good, it even has a square root in it and I’ve seen it all week, so it must be good, right…not always.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><strong>The article says around 50% and I think that’s a fair estimation and one man said it was 40% being good data.</strong>  This is one of the better posts I think I have done to explain how this works as you have big companies, NASA and others in a forum discussion on what in the heck are we doing with our big data.  The gal from T-Mobile is my favorite as she comes right out and says what we are doing is “silly”.  Hats off and kudos there.  First part of fixing anything is recognizing there’s a problem:)  Watch the video at the link below for more insight as to how this works and the discussion as it’s a good one.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/11/big-dataanalytics-if-used-out-of.html"><font size="2">Big Data/Analytics If Used Out of Context and Without True Values Stand To Be A Huge Discriminatory Practice Against Consumers–More Honest Data Scientists Needed to Formulate Accuracy/Value To Keep Algo Duping For Profit Out of the Game</font></a></h4> <p> <br clear="all" />We had in the news the big TIME article about the expenses of healthcare and there was <u>no mention of Health IT</u>, so how can you leave that out?  It was a good article but left out the math and formulas and it’s the latest link in what I call my <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.hk/2012/09/quants-alchemists-of-wall-street-video.html"><strong><u>Attack of the Killer Algorithms</u></strong></a> series.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/02/why-medical-bills-are-out-of.html">Why Medical Bills Are Out of Control–Steven Brill From Time Magazine “The Bitter Pill” With Jon Stewart…Killer Algorithms Part 55 (Videos)</a> <br clear="all" /></h5> <p>I probably read too much but occasionally I take on the<img align="right" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-K1o4j65QeXM/USKdyCUkMnI/AAAAAAABFRI/_fd174NJuUY/image9.png?imgmax=800" style="display: inline; float: right" /> garbage stats that appear when they get to the point to where they are claiming savings that “nobody” can predict.  When I start seeing “trillions” in savings claimed, red flag:)  I realize that I see things a little different than how how the average consumer does but keep in mind, perception is everything and I get right down to the reality of how this works as I’ve done some of this and someone who has never written a stick of code has no clue on the mechanics and thus so their perceptions will be all over the place as you just don’t know.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/12/media-and-press-releases-in-healthcare.html"><font size="2">Media and Press Releases In Healthcare That Go Nowhere–Marketing to Sell You Analytics With Using Fear and Misplaced Guilt Overtones As a Theme</font></a></h4> <p> <br clear="all" /><strong>There’s plenty of folks out there much more versed in areas than I am because that’s their area of work or focus, been that way for years so I don’t know everything but the mechanics of how this works with selling data is black and white as I intend to present it, no algorithm fairies just mechanics on how it is written and how it works.</strong>  Politicians and others can talk all they want but until changes are made at this level, nothing changes. <br clear="all" /></p> <p> <br clear="all" />If all of what you see out there, and let’s use the markets as an example, were so good, we could fire every analyst off the <img align="right" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/TKYXI9HNaQI/AAAAAAAAh1M/7da7_nnWx-c/image_thumb%5B7%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="display: inline; float: right" />Street, right?  Point made here is there’s still levels of errors and in linear calculations, machines do it better and they the human with machine assistance can come to some “educated” conclusions, hopefully, if they are not Algo Duped if the answers don’t look quite right:) <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><strong><em>We see a lot of “strange” perceptions too from those in Congress and a big part of this is a low or no level of participation with consumer technologies and that old paradigm of “its for those guys over there” just won’t go away.</em></strong>  They say they participate but come on if they did, we would not be hearing some of the idiotic stuff we hear today..<strong><u>non participants stick out like a sore thumb,</u> especially when they are really reaching out to gain some control over some issue and that’s why we have this deal on woman’s health that comes up, digital illiteracy.  I should have started a series on the “those guys over there” as there’s certainly enough of it (grin).</strong>  Those folks making laws certainly need help understanding technology for sure and the Sunshine Foundation is right here.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/02/congress-needs-bigger-brainrestore_18.html"><font size="2">Congress Needs a Bigger Brain–Restore the Office of Technology Assessment And Truly Assess What is Useful And Remove The Algo Duping Permeating In Government–Fantasy Perceptions That Are Not Real Can Be A Dangerous Thing</font></a></h4> <p> <br clear="all" />So coming back around on topic here, the analytics that you see out there do not all have value but developers, quants and others who have this big pressure on them to make money are getting very creative today and you about likely to see any and all kinds of analytics out there.  The one big farce that I see is the <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2011/06/fico-analytics-press-release-marketing.html"><strong><u>FICO medication compliance</u></strong></a> <img align="right" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-9ZJ55VFx1aI/USf3N9dyuoI/AAAAAAABFrQ/Ruo3LtD0E8U/image%25255B7%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="display: inline; float: right" />analytics, this is being sold to make money only.  They are doing one heck of an effort to market though but they are using both credible and non credible data together and sure you crunch numbers to trend as that is helpful but not when you take it to the limit they have with individual scoring and these bogus results, kind of <u><strong>like the old grading on the curve if you are old enough to remember…yeah…you don’t' get your real score (grin),</strong></u> that’s the name of that tune.  </p> Remember that company Accretive and their analytics?  <br clear="all" /> <p> <strong>How do you like these business analytics at the link below?  Which 50% area of Business Analytics should this fall in?  I guess that depends if you are a consumer or a big corporation trying to make some millions selling data.  <br clear="all" /></strong> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/02/latest-from-health-insurance-business.html"><font size="2">Latest From Health Insurance Business Intelligence Analytics For Avoiding Risk and Saving Money, Break Up Marriages and Dump the Spouse Coverage</font></a></h4> <p> <br clear="all" /><strong><em>I agree with this article, some folks with some smarts who are not afraid to speak out, even if it is in Australia, it all works the same world wide.</em></strong>  So you can read what I suggest to help this out because folks are just running wild with analytics and not all of it is good and manufacturing can use a boost and this is the way to do it with weaning folks of the algorithm for lunch trail and at least make some take a look at “junk” if that is what they are anticipating selling for profit when they know “real” value is not there or if they have had their quants fictionalize the risk.  That happens.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/02/time-has-come-to-license-and-tax-data.html"><font size="2">Time Has Come to License and Tax the Data Sellers of the Web, Companies, Banks, Social Networks..Any One Making a Profit-Latest Microsoft/Google Privacy War Helping the Cause –Consumers Deserve to Know What Is Being Sold and To Who in a Searchable Format</font> <br clear="all" /></a></h4> <p> <br clear="all" />An now for a little satire…Data addition and abuse, the next upcoming 12 step program?…<a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2010/08/data-addiction-and-abuse-up-and-coming.html"><strong><u>I said this in August of 2010:)</u></strong></a>  BD <br clear="all" /></p> <hr />Organizations have a 50-50 chance of yielding any benefits from their business analytics investments, according to Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) manager of information systems and frontline analytics David Tanis. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" />During a panel discussion at the Gartner Business Intelligence & Information Management Summit 2013 in Sydney, SAP innovation evangelist Timo Elliott said all businesses will gain something from every business analytics investment they make, since there is a lesson to be learned even in a failed project. But Tanis, who was also on the panel, was not so optimistic. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" />The third panellist, QlikView vice president of global marketing Henry Seddon, was even more pessimistic, tipping the failure rate of investment into analytics to be about 60 percent. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" />Big data has commonly been defined by the three Vs: Variety, velocity, and volume. Many organizations are attempting to harness the potential of big data for a number of uses, from gaining meaningful business intelligence to targeting marketing strategies. Each face their own challenges in analysing the vast amounts of unstructured data that are available, which can come from many different sources, including social media and video content. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><a href="http://www.zdnet.com/au/half-of-analytics-investments-will-be-a-waste-commonwealth-bank-7000011758/">http://www.zdnet.com/au/half-of-analytics-investments-will-be-a-waste-commonwealth-bank-7000011758/</a> <br clear="all" />

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

This is a great article and some folks who have some foresight here.  I write the Medical Quack to bring some understanding to the l...

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Crescent Healthcare, A Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Walgreens–Security Breach With the Personal Health Records, Again Time to License and Tax the Data Sellers Out There To Help Regulate Data Flow & Profits

<p>Not too long ago Walgreens made the news that pharmacists <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/08/walgreens-expands-take-care-ehr-medical.html"><strong>and all involved in clinical patient treatment areas would have access to a patient’s personal health record</strong></a>, used via their retail clinics. <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="58" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-FHt495uv7qg/USuo-oahX1I/AAAAAAABFvI/OdPf4CCC1Pw/image%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="183" /> I don’t know if this is the specific information relating to those data bases or not as discussed in this article as is appears that the information relates to those patients.  Back in 2010 Walgreens and Omnicare swapped businesses to where Walgreens took over the home infusion business, so of course this meant some data IT work had to be done to integrate with those records owned by Omni.  Omnicare has had issues in the past with <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2010/01/omnicare-johnson-johnson-risperdal.html">whistleblower legal cases</a> with Johnson and Johnson over the years which was pretty highly publicized.  <br clear="all" /></p> <p> <br clear="all" /></p> <p><em>“<a href="http://www.crescenthealthcare.com/">Crescent Healthcare,</a> a Walgreens company, manages and delivers integrated pharmacy and nursing solutions in alternate site settings.  Accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Health Care (ACHC), we are committed to delivering exceptional quality care that is both clinically appropriate and cost effective. </em></p> <p><em>Crescent Healthcare, a Walgreens company, is part of Walgreens Infusion Services, the leading provider of infusion therapies for over 30 years.</em> “ <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2010/09/walgreens-and-omnicare-swap.html"><font size="2">Walgreens and Omnicare Swap Businesses–Giving Long Term Pharmacy Care to Omni and They Get Omni’s Home Infusion Business</font></a></h4> <p><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2010/09/walgreens-and-omnicare-swap.html"><font size="2"> </font></a> <br clear="all" /><strong>The article states that “paper” was stolen as well and perhaps this was information that was yet to be input?</strong>  The “hardware” was stolen, so we don’t know if this was a single computer or did they get away with some servers.  <strong> So if one was a patient with their infusion drug areas, well it looks like that’s the information to include names, addresses dob, and clinical diagnoses that were lifted.  You know Walgreens as well as so many other healthcare entities makes a ton of money selling data (like around short of $800 million in 2010, SEC Report on intangible income) and it has to be formatted and cleaned up for use with ensuring data integrity is present before it can be sold too, so one wonders what was being done with this data possibly?</strong>  Was it work in progress to format data for sale?  It could have been and then maybe not, but a good question to ask today with the huge epidemic of data being sold today and the surmounting flaws that keep growing at a rapid pace too.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" />Chances are few of those affected probably even know the potential amount of their data being sold, much less being stolen now too.  It’s a tough world out there for consumers today and again breaches as such along with a federal website where consumers could look up who sells what kind of data and to who would be extremely helpful in times when breaches occur as well.  Otherwise nobody knows until they get “that letter”.   Right on the website the infusion drug page for Walgreens states they have experts to help you work with your insurers too.  Their listed 98% satisfaction rate might drop a little after the breach, maybe?  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><img align="left" alt="image" border="0" height="148" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-6ErL3NouIRQ/USuo-xyh8sI/AAAAAAABFvQ/ALNMNIGnUR0/image%25255B7%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="440" /> <br clear="all" />So again when items like this happen it would make sense to have all banks, companies, etc. licensed and excise taxed on the data they sell as billions and billions of profit are made, running on servers 24/7 and you as a consumer are completely blind to the process, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.  The US government needs to hire technologists to fight crime anyway.  You might want to read what I said over at the weekend at the <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/02/24/1189518/-US-Needs-To-Hire-Technologists-To-Fight-Crime#"><strong><u>Daily Koz</u></strong></a><strong><u>.</u></strong>  This is just my opinion here and based on all that has been in the news related to making money on selling data and breaches perhaps this calls for a new focus of putting security with <img align="right" height="135" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-wOXxMLSsw8g/TrtQmdA2xWI/AAAAAAAA4P8/FU3qnBNcXLo/image_thumb%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="display: inline; float: right" width="220" />data ahead of making money selling data.  <strong>The data selling has just gone hog wild out there and when a company has to make a decision today to expand and build a factory versus hiring a few technologists to set up data mining and selling with little or no federal regulation and the millions come in from selling it off the servers, where’s the incentive for companies to create jobs when this very profitable option is available?</strong>  It’s definitely something to give some thought too as when it is used out of context, and we seeing some of this along with the good, it hurts consumers.  Again we don’t know what the status was on the data stolen or where it was being directed but this is a good question we might all be asking more today from all of those banks and companies selling our data.  So what would one think the thieves are going to do with the data, sell it of course, so wake up time.  BD <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/02/time-has-come-to-license-and-tax-data.html"><font size="2">Time Has Come to License and Tax the Data Sellers of the Web, Companies, Banks, Social Networks..Any One Making a Profit-Latest Microsoft/Google Privacy War Helping the Cause –Consumers Deserve to Know What Is Being Sold and To Who in a Searchable Format</font></a> <hr /></h4> <p> <br clear="all" />A Walgreens healthcare company has notified patients and employees of a data breach after computer hardware and other paper records containing the personal health information and Social Security numbers of patients was stolen. </p> <p>Anaheim, Calif.-based Crescent Healthcare mailed out letters to patients and employees Feb. 21, notifying them of the theft which occurred Dec. 28, 2012. According to the letter, an unknown person or persons broke into Crescent's billing center and stole the hardware, which may have contained patient names, addresses, phone numbers, Social Security numbers, health insurance data, dates of birth and clinical diagnoses. The group notified authorities three days later.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><a href="http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/walgreens-company-announces-data-breach?topic=18">http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/walgreens-company-announces-data-breach?topic=18</a></p>

Crescent Healthcare, A Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Walgreens–Security Breach With the Personal Health Records, Again Time to License and Tax the Data Sellers Out There To Help Regulate Data Flow & Profits

Not too long ago Walgreens made the news that pharmacists and all involved in clinical patient treatment areas would have access to a patien...

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FDA Approves New Late Stage Breast Cancer Drug From Roche, Life Extending Kadcyla

<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="158" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-8k7Q0YHmHLs/USlxgY2DuaI/AAAAAAABFtQ/W5QNVvffLDo/image%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="164" />TDM-1 was the name given to the drug during the clinical trial.  One thing that’s not any different is the price of another life extending drug, about $9800 a month and will be available in a couple of weeks.  Kadcyla is a combination of a current cancer drug, Herceptin and a chemotherapy drug named DM-1.  It is to be prescribed when Herceptin is no longer effective on it’s own.  DM-1 on it’s own is way too toxic to delivery into the bloodstream alone.  A normal course of treatment is about 9  months so you can do the math here to see at the price listed above, it is expensive.  Of course they do have a hardship program where some might be able to get the drug for free.  BD <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><iframe height="288" src="http://live.wsj.com/public/page/embed-6D55C1F3_27D4_4D2F_BD72_B09F4EEEFCC1.html" frameborder="0" width="412" scrolling="no"></iframe> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /> <p><a href="http://live.wsj.com/video/fda-approves-powerful-new-breast-cancer-drug/6D55C1F3-27D4-4D2F-BD72-B09F4EEEFCC1.html#!6D55C1F3-27D4-4D2F-BD72-B09F4EEEFCC1">http://live.wsj.com/video/fda-approves-powerful-new-breast-cancer-drug/6D55C1F3-27D4-4D2F-BD72-B09F4EEEFCC1.html#!6D55C1F3-27D4-4D2F-BD72-B09F4EEEFCC1</a></p>

FDA Approves New Late Stage Breast Cancer Drug From Roche, Life Extending Kadcyla

TDM-1 was the name given to the drug during the clinical trial.  One thing that’s not any different is the price of another life extending d...

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Doctor Who Helped US Find Bin Laden Sits Jailed in Pakistan–Will Zero Dark Thirty Nominated for an Oscar Help Free America’s Abandoned Hero?–Update

<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="131" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-pEcuKT9IA9g/USZZ_6Rfy4I/AAAAAAABFhA/F8Sr3p16sZk/image%25255B16%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="149" />We all know the Oscars are up and coming and that the movie has been nominated for an award.  This is sad that the doctor now sits imprisoned sentenced to 33 years after helping the US.  I don’t know all the details on why he was not given an opportunity to leave the country but sitting in prison for helping the US find Bin Laden doesn’t seem to where he should be by any means.  The RHL group is working to bring some recognition and help to see if there’s anything that can be done.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><a href="https://www.mymedicalrecords.com/">MMRGlobal, MyMedicalRecords.com</a> is a sponsor of the Medical Quack and is part of the RHL Group and has underwritten this effort.  Below you can watch the interview with Bob Lorsch and the efforts being made by the foundation.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" />More information and how to get involved can be found here at <a href="http://www.freeafridi.com"><strong><u>www.freeafridi.com</u></strong></a> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><script type="text/javascript" src="http://video.foxnews.com/v/embed.js?id=2182790400001&w=426&h=263"></script><noscript>Watch the latest video at <a href="http://video.foxnews.com">video.foxnews.com</a></noscript> <br clear="all" /><script type="text/javascript" src="http://CBSLA.images.worldnow.com/interface/js/WNVideo.js?rnd=356344;hostDomain=video.losangeles.cbslocal.com;playerWidth=420;playerHeight=316;isShowIcon=true;clipId=8443330;flvUri=;partnerclipid=;adTag=News;advertisingZone=CBS.LA%252Fworldnowplayer;enableAds=true;landingPage=;islandingPageoverride=false;playerType=STANDARD_EMBEDDEDscript;controlsType=fixed"></script> <p> <br clear="all" /><a href="http://foxnewsinsider.com/2013/02/23/new-call-for-hollywood-to-push-for-release-dr-shakil-afridi-pakistani-doctor-who-helped-cia-find-usama-bin-laden-at-oscars"><font size="3"><strong><u>More videos at Fox news...</u></strong></font></a><font size="3"> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></font><a href="http://video.foxnews.com/v/2182976591001/couple-urges-hollywood-not-to-forget-hero-doctor"><font size="3"><strong><u>Fox News Additional Coverage</u></strong></font></a> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" />MMRGlobal was pretty much an unknown entity in the news world until the Hollywood connection with Taylor and Russell Armstrong taking money from the firm was made public upon the death/suicide of Taylor Russell.  <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/12/mmrglobal-patent-portfolio-bob-lorsch.html">Last year I sat down with Bob</a> to ask questions and get a better idea of what his companies do in healthcare.  Back on topic with this story though it hardly seems fair that the doctor,  Dr. Shakil Afridi, who helped the US find Bin Laden faces a future in jail.  BD  </p> <h4><font size="2"></font></h4> <p><strong></strong></p> <hr />BEVERLY HILLS (CBSLA.com) — “Zero Dark Thirty” is a contender to bring home an Academy Award for Best Picture this weekend, but first, local activists are joining forces to free a doctor who helped the United States find Osama bin Laden. <p>Arguably playing the most critical role in the 10-year hunt for bin Laden is Dr. Shakil Afridi, who is currently being held in a Pakistani prison. If Beverly Hills businessman Bob Lorsch has his way, Afridi’s story will steal the show at the Academy Awards on Sunday.</p> <p>He calls Afridi a patriot who’s been left behind.</p> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /> <p>Pakistan, which is officially an ally of the United States and receives billions of dollars in aid from America every year, claims Afridi was arrested for other charges, unrelated to identifying bin Laden.</p> <p>However, the people fighting for his freedom don’t buy it and want Afridi freed now. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><a href="http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2013/02/20/can-zero-dark-thirty-oscars-help-free-imprisoned-doctor-who-helped-find-bin-laden/">http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2013/02/20/can-zero-dark-thirty-oscars-help-free-imprisoned-doctor-who-helped-find-bin-laden/</a></p>

Doctor Who Helped US Find Bin Laden Sits Jailed in Pakistan–Will Zero Dark Thirty Nominated for an Oscar Help Free America’s Abandoned Hero?–Update

We all know the Oscars are up and coming and that the movie has been nominated for an award.  This is sad that the doctor now sits imprisone...

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Digital Literacy Needed–Senator McConnell Staff Falls for Parody Blog Post–Everything On the Internet Is Not True, Duped, Duped and Duped Again

<p>You know I saw this and I had to laugh too one one side and on the other end it scares the daylights out of me.  I’m one of those out here <a href="http://www.ducknet.net/attack-of-the-killer-algorithms/"><img align="right" height="74" src="https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRp9TBlvWqtr16ku9oa-uGY_yLITLV9hYmtozmPi5XdbJ5RW7Sm" style="display: inline; float: right" width="169" /></a>with a few others that would just love to “help” educate some of these folks as that would save them from themselves.  The world is moving quick today and it is hard, sometimes to figure out what is real and what is not.  Watch my series of videos I have curated from folks smarter than me and you’ll get it.  It’s called <a href="http://www.ducknet.net/attack-of-the-killer-algorithms/"><strong><u>Algo Duping 101.</u></strong></a><strong><u> </u></strong> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" />You will understand a bit more about how stats are used to sway you and the error factors that are inherent.  Most of the same videos are also on the left hand side of this blog if you scroll down.  You get a dose of it every day in the news.   Video number one helps dispute that there’s an algorithm fairy for the perfect butt, a friendship algorithm, etc.  If you are on the web enough, there’s plenty of material that debunks and laughs at the thought of someone even thinking they could create them:)   I like part when Charlie on the clinical trial data tells us the the information was no good as “the fish was dead”.  Learn up if you have the time.  Here’s the video from MSNBC and it is a little lengthy and he could have cut off a few minutes of this but you get the point…..<strong>DIGITIAL ILLITERACY AND ALGO DUPING DELUXE.</strong>  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=10,0,0,0" height="245" id="msnbc25027f" width="420"><param name="movie" value="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640" /><param name="FlashVars" value="launch=50898314&width=420&height=245" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent" /><embed name="msnbc25027f" src="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640" width="420" height="245" FlashVars="launch=50898314&width=420&height=245" allowscriptaccess="always" allowFullScreen="true" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"></embed></object> <p style="text-align: center; margin-top: 5px; width: 420px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; background: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; color: #999; font-size: 11px">Visit NBCNews.com for <a style="border-bottom: #999 1px dotted; height: 13px; color: #5799db !important; font-weight: normal !important; text-decoration: none !important" href="http://www.nbcnews.com">breaking news</a>, <a style="border-bottom: #999 1px dotted; height: 13px; color: #5799db !important; font-weight: normal !important; text-decoration: none !important" href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032507">world news</a>, and <a style="border-bottom: #999 1px dotted; height: 13px; color: #5799db !important; font-weight: normal !important; text-decoration: none !important" href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032072">news about the economy</a></p> <br clear="all" />It is any wonder that the Sunshine Foundation says we should restore the Office of Technology Assessment, they need brain help.  This goes for both sides too as we have the other party looking for <strong><u>“Algorithm Fairies”</u></strong> too, thinking that a formula will fix all evils too. <img align="right" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/TKYXI9HNaQI/AAAAAAAAh1M/7da7_nnWx-c/image_thumb%5B7%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="display: inline; float: right" /> We need cabinet heads that have a little tech in their background.  I think the biggest problem is the perception that permeates in DC with what I see as “its for those guys over there” pass those laws, “for those guys over there’.  Sometimes you see that in software development too with developers that don’t even touch their own consumer software they write, just in it for the money. <strong>Part of that too goes back to the Aneesh Chopra days with way too many talks about “write code and get rich” and at the time he was good cheerleader but the need changed and <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/06/us-cio-steven-vanroekel-and-cto-todd.html">we have a better US CIO with some real tech knowledge now</a> in place and boy does he have a big job to do as well.  Watch the video below in just reading this blog post, don’t there’s some truth to Congress needing a bigger brain?  <br clear="all" /></strong> <br clear="all" /> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/02/congress-needs-bigger-brainrestore_18.html"><font size="2">Congress Needs a Bigger Brain–Restore the Office of Technology Assessment And Truly Assess What is Useful And Remove The Algo Duping Permeating In Government–Fantasy Perceptions That Are Not Real Can Be A Dangerous Thing</font></a></h4> <br clear="all" /><strong>Why do we like and need satire?  Well (grin) sometimes they get it right and they are not even trying.</strong>  Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert have a no ending supply of material when foot in mouth appears and again most of it is education related with technology that is lacking somewhere along the line.  <strong>The Onion got this one right, (link below) the CIA is using Facebook and maybe this is what happened when the McConnell letter went out, the young staff member thought that that there’s more truth with satire today:)</strong> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/02/when-satire-becomes-realitycia-admits.html"><font size="2">When Satire Becomes Reality–CIA Admits to Full Monitoring of Facebook and Social Networks Just As the Onion Satirically Published Last Year..Not A Joke Any Longer It Appears With Privacy</font></a> <br clear="all" /></h4> <p>Ok now that we know digital illiteracy is alive and well and permeates the news media so let’s take a serious look<img align="right" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-K1o4j65QeXM/USKdyCUkMnI/AAAAAAABFRI/_fd174NJuUY/image9.png?imgmax=800" style="display: inline; float: right" /> at what happens…this allows consumers to get hurt because corporate USA uses items as such and creates models, formulas, etc. that take data out of context to make money.  I’ve written about that for quite a while now and will provide a link below to where you can see a business discussion about “value” in the analytics being thrown out there today.  Don’t get sucked in if it doesn’t sound right, ask questions.  This may be a little technical but you can get something out out it for sure..it’s the math and models folks so listen up here if you can, the OMG soap operas aren’t getting you anywhere other than being entertained and frustrated.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/11/big-dataanalytics-if-used-out-of.html"><font size="2">Big Data/Analytics If Used Out of Context and Without True Values Stand To Be A Huge Discriminatory Practice Against Consumers–More Honest Data Scientists Needed to Formulate Accuracy/Value To Keep Algo Duping For Profit Out of the Game</font></a> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></h4> <p>Ok so what’s next on the digital illiteracy list to appear in <img align="right" height="135" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-6C7Hbj3Ewo0/UScOvXLlaXI/AAAAAAABFnQ/6pSZp47X4is/image%25255B7%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="display: inline; float: right" width="209" />the news?  Will they read up?  Who knows.  This week we have yet another issue with digital illiteracy making news…the next governor vying for “Governor Ultrasound” recognition.  It’s digital illiteracy breaking out at the seems as we wouldn’t see stuff like this if they were not lost in the world of technology.  It gives MSNBC a ton of material to work with as well.  Don’t these guys ever think about how the “educated” world sees them?  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/02/mike-pence-of-indiana-wants-to-be.html"><font size="2">Mike Pence of Indiana Wants to Be Governor “Ultra-Sound Number Two”– Wants 2 Ultra-Sounds, Before and After the Taking Abortion Pill…Digital Illiteracy Keeps Enacting Vaginal Legislative Discussions</font></a></h4> <br clear="all" />Everyone complains about MSNBC at times with their coverage but why don’t these lawmakers and their staff smarten up and quit giving them such “rich” material as they share it with all of use and we laugh our fannies off at one point and at the other side we get angry in seeing the ineptness of what and who elected sadly.  I try to again help educate as when this is all that permeates the news with soap operas and OMG stories and it allows big smart corporations to continue controlling most of the money in the US as all this runs on servers 24/7 with models and code written while we get left with this crap.  BD 

Digital Literacy Needed–Senator McConnell Staff Falls for Parody Blog Post–Everything On the Internet Is Not True, Duped, Duped and Duped Again

You know I saw this and I had to laugh too one one side and on the other end it scares the daylights out of me.  I’m one of those out here w...

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Why Medical Bills Are Out of Control–Steven Brill From Time Magazine “The Bitter Pill” With Jon Stewart…Killer Algorithms Part 55 (Videos)

<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="122" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-Bng0y0ZXo0g/USgM42ooniI/AAAAAAABFrY/m_rIOsK_6DA/image%25255B4%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="110" />Jon Stewart does a pretty good job with this serious topic.  There are 3 parts to the interview.  The point out that non-profits do make money.  MRIs are one of the first topics discussed and that has been in the news of late with the various charges and prices you get.  All the pricing is done with IT infrastructures that build on itself.  They don’t even touch the Health IT expenditures and how some of that goes.  I do that enough here.  Today saw this article about start ups and almost everyone of them looks like it has a model to sell data.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /> <div style="background-color: #000000; width: 420px"> <div style="padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 4px; padding-right: 4px; padding-top: 4px"><iframe height="288" src="http://media.mtvnservices.com/embed/mgid:cms:video:thedailyshow.com:424058" frameborder="0" width="412"></iframe> <p style="text-align: left; padding-bottom: 4px; background-color: #ffffff; margin-top: 4px; padding-left: 4px; padding-right: 4px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12px; padding-top: 4px"><b><a href="http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-february-21-2013/exclusive---steven-brill-extended-interview-pt--1">The Daily Show with Jon Stewart</a></b> <br />Get More: <a href="http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/">Daily Show Full Episodes</a>,<a href="http://www.indecisionforever.com/">Political Humor & Satire Blog</a>,<a href="http://www.facebook.com/thedailyshow">The Daily Show on Facebook</a></p> </div> </div> <br clear="all" />Here’s part two…the Charge Master…the complexities…Jon Stewart says this should be “required reading”…and I’ll add my 2 cents in the fact that all the money is made with models and algorithms… <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /> <div style="background-color: #000000; width: 420px"> <div style="padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 4px; padding-right: 4px; padding-top: 4px"><iframe height="288" src="http://media.mtvnservices.com/embed/mgid:cms:video:thedailyshow.com:424059" frameborder="0" width="412"></iframe> <p style="text-align: left; padding-bottom: 4px; background-color: #ffffff; margin-top: 4px; padding-left: 4px; padding-right: 4px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12px; padding-top: 4px"><b><a href="http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-february-21-2013/exclusive---steven-brill-extended-interview-pt--2">The Daily Show with Jon Stewart</a></b> <br />Get More: <a href="http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/">Daily Show Full Episodes</a>,<a href="http://www.indecisionforever.com/">Political Humor & Satire Blog</a>,<a href="http://www.facebook.com/thedailyshow">The Daily Show on Facebook</a></p> </div> </div> <br clear="all" />The US doesn’t use it’s buying power he states.  Medicare for example is the best paying insurer in town in Florida.  Here’s a recent story that talks about complexity and the discounts the insurers negotiate..a carrier paying less than Medicare… <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-aafp-confronts-united-healthcare-on.html"><font size="2">The AAFP Confronts United Healthcare On Reimbursements, Some Are Below Medicare Rates In Parts of the US–Payment Algorithms/Formulas Calculated Deep Within IT Infrastructures Do the Job</font></a> <br clear="all" /></h4> <p>In Part 3 we are getting to the core,<img align="right" height="145" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-nyFsMPDDLgk/UDEQa31432I/AAAAAAAA86o/sscFDo2n0LE/image%25255B21%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="display: inline; float: right" width="173" /> a lot of what I talk about government snowed by corporate USA business models and the complexities they build, to make money.  If you want to see more about how it works, watch the videos in the left hand side of this blog or visit the<strong><u> “</u></strong><a href="http://www.ducknet.net/attack-of-the-killer-algorithms/"><strong><u>Algo Duped”</u></strong></a> page.  </p> <h4> </h4> <p>The high costs are due to excessive outsourcing in many areas.  When you outsource remember those on the other end want to make money.  </p> <h4> </h4> <div style="background-color: #000000; width: 420px"> <div style="padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 4px; padding-right: 4px; padding-top: 4px"><iframe height="288" src="http://media.mtvnservices.com/embed/mgid:cms:video:thedailyshow.com:424060" frameborder="0" width="412"></iframe> <p style="text-align: left; padding-bottom: 4px; background-color: #ffffff; margin-top: 4px; padding-left: 4px; padding-right: 4px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12px; padding-top: 4px"><b><a href="http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-february-21-2013/exclusive---steven-brill-extended-interview-pt--3">The Daily Show with Jon Stewart</a></b> <br />Get More: <a href="http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/">Daily Show Full Episodes</a>,<a href="http://www.indecisionforever.com/">Political Humor & Satire Blog</a>,<a href="http://www.facebook.com/thedailyshow">The Daily Show on Facebook</a></p> </div> </div> <br clear="all" />Now for the other side of this too in how analytics used out of context get more of your money, read this article and watch the video and I tell you how analytics are written just to make money sometimes and how it further squeezes you as a consumer and the doctors.  Again watch the videos on the left on this blog to see how you get duped and how the profiteering is flawing the data.  They didn’t touch on the data selling aspect here but did you know Walgreens made short of $800 million in 2010 selling data only? <strong><em> </em></strong><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/02/time-has-come-to-license-and-tax-data.html"><strong><em>Read more here.</em></strong></a>  More profits made on top of what is discussed here.  We are under the <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/02/attack-of-killer-algorithmsdigest-links.html"><strong><u><em>Attack of the Killer Algorithms.</em></u></strong></a>  BD <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/11/big-dataanalytics-if-used-out-of.html"><font size="2">Big Data/Analytics If Used Out of Context and Without True Values Stand To Be A Huge Discriminatory Practice Against Consumers–More Honest Data Scientists Needed to Formulate Accuracy/Value To Keep Algo Duping For Profit Out of the Game</font></a> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-kBA-dLfLLGU/UIepz3XA3GI/AAAAAAAA_Kk/8WllR3a7ChM/image%25255B7%25255D.png?imgmax=800" /></h4>

Why Medical Bills Are Out of Control–Steven Brill From Time Magazine “The Bitter Pill” With Jon Stewart…Killer Algorithms Part 55 (Videos)

Jon Stewart does a pretty good job with this serious topic.  There are 3 parts to the interview.  The point out that non-profits do make mon...

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Latest From Health Insurance Business Intelligence Analytics For Avoiding Risk and Saving Money, Break Up Marriages and Dump the Spouse Coverage

<p>Surcharge are becoming more well known for spouses and when the numbers are crunched, risk assessments<img align="right" height="108" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/S3bkkWAILGI/AAAAAAAAcfY/lA8EB4RKFJ0/image_thumb%5B3%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="display: inline; float: right" width="156" /> are performed along with any other type of risk numbers such as mortality rates, etc. and the results must be saying “dump the spouse” according to this article in Market Watch.  This is pretty much talking about employer provided insurance.  There are people out there that marry for this, well almost but it certainly is a big consideration, and maybe they really do.  A couple years ago we had this story on the web. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2010/02/will-marry-for-health-insurance-web.html"><font size="2">Will Marry For Health Insurance Web Site – Nobody Cares, Responds, The Reality of A 30 Second Attention Span</font></a> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></h4> <p>Some companies have policies that discourage spouses and some just make it too expensive to add them.  The problem too is that some individuals can’t get insurance otherwise.  The surcharges can be as much <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="152" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-9ZJ55VFx1aI/USf3N9dyuoI/AAAAAAABFrQ/Ruo3LtD0E8U/image%25255B7%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="140" />as $100 a month and depending on income that can be a big issue or an inconvenience.  In 2014 we shall how this works as there will be exchanges for spouses to get insurance outside the company with the next provisions of the healthcare reform kick in.  Some companies will only allow the spouse added on if they already have their own insurance.  If plans are different and cover different doctors then both can’t see the same doctor.  Risk assessments and costs are working on all budgets today.  In some cases with Medicaid as this link below states, people get divorced to get coverage and it all comes back to income and how the numbers work out.  This sure doesn’t do much for keep the American tradition of family together.  BD <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2008/09/divorce-for-medicaid-and-marry-for.html">Divorce for Medicaid and Marry for Insurance – The American Healthcare System</a> <hr /></h5> <p> <br clear="all" />By denying coverage to spouses, employers not only save the annual premiums, but also the new fees that went into effect as part of the Affordable Care Act. This year, companies have to pay $1 or $2 “per life” covered on their plans, a sum that jumps to $65 in 2014. And health law guidelines proposed recently mandate coverage of employees’ dependent children (up to age 26), but husbands and wives are optional. “The question about whether it’s obligatory to cover the family of the employee is being thought through more than ever before,” says Helen Darling, president of the National Business Group on Health <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" />Such exclusions barely existed three years ago, but experts expect an increasing number of employers to adopt them: “That’s the next step,” Darling says. HMS, a company that audits plans for employers, estimates that nearly a third of companies might have such policies now. Holdouts say they feel under pressure to follow suit. “We’re the last domino,” says Duke Bennett, mayor of Terre Haute, Ind., which is instituting a spousal carve-out for the city’s health plan, effective July 2013, after nearly all major employers in the area dropped spouses. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" />About a fifth of companies had policies to discourage spouses from joining their health plan in 2012, according to Mercer, though most just charged extra—$100 a month, on average—to cover spouses who could get insurance elsewhere, rather than deny coverage entirely. Indeed, large firms including generics maker Teva and supply chain manager Intermec have spousal surcharges costing $100 a month, or $1,200 annually, while Xerox charges $1,000 for the year <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" />Some companies drive spouses away using other tactics, such as making spousal coverage prohibitively expensive through higher surcharges or by making reimbursement rates so low that spouses can’t afford the plans. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><a title="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-your-boss-is-dumping-your-wife-2013-02-22?link=sfmw" href="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-your-boss-is-dumping-your-wife-2013-02-22?link=sfmw">http://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-your-boss-is-dumping-your-wife-2013-02-22?link=sfmw</a></p>

Latest From Health Insurance Business Intelligence Analytics For Avoiding Risk and Saving Money, Break Up Marriages and Dump the Spouse Coverage

Surcharge are becoming more well known for spouses and when the numbers are crunched, risk assessments are performed along with any other t...

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