Medical Quack: 10/01/2014

Microsoft Launches the “Smart Band” To Work With the Microsoft Health Platform–Much More than Just A Fitness Band

Here’s the answer to the Apple Healthkit and watch and does quite a bit and the video below from tells you all about it with a hands on beginning with the unboxing. It was announced last night and it’s already in the stores. This was nice and not having to wait. It comes in 3 sizes, small, medium and large. You can also order one online. The cost is $199 and there’s an extra charger available for $19.95.

It has a 48 hour battery life to begin with and there’s some additional perks here than just another band that monitors your heart rate. The magnetic charger looks neat too. It is water resistant but not water proof so don’t shower or swim with the Band. You turn it on and download the app and it connects to your phone and does the Blue Tooth pair up.

The app works on Windows Phone, IOS, and the Android phones so all phones are covered. The touch screen on the Band looks nice and you can scroll through the icons. It does text messaging. You get your heart rate and it will check out the quality of your sleep. It has a UV sensor and that’s a first that I have seen on any device. All the social networks are there. It uses machine learning technologies to coach you along and eventually HealthVault will be in the to synchronize.

You get a lot more here than just the standard fitness band. Good marketing to include emails, etc. There are guided work outs. You create your profile and enter some basic information. You can customize the look of the band and there’s Microphone Cortana to use as well. There’s a total of 20 sensors in the unit and room for the extra battery too.

Did you like that video? Ok here’s one that uses a journobot, just for fun and see how long you can stand it:) Long Tail is the name of some patented software that does some of this. I sure hope the nightly news doesn’t turn into this.

Overall this is probably the best Fitness Band I have seen because it does much more than just sensors. BD

http://www.microsoft.com/Microsoft-Health/en-us

Health Insurance Companies Exceed Predictions on Profits Hitting All Time Records For the 3rd Quarter of 2014–While The Data and Information Systems Decline In Consumer Value As Flawed Data Is On the Rise..

We are seeing this in other industries too but nowhere is it more visible than with health insurance. It’s been said many times over on the web that insurance companies profit on complexities and if you look at the past year that seems to hold very true. Many do not understand their policies today, what’s covered and what’s not and “is my doctor in network” is the new big question for many. They maybe in network today and gone tomorrow. This constant influx is what helps health insurers make money. Just yesterday I wrote about how the insurance companies themselves can’t keep an accurate listing of this as well.

Here Come the Dead Doctors Again Located In Flawed Directories–Now It’s From Insurance Companies Who Can’t Produce Semi Accurate Listings And They Pay These People…

Insurers pay these people to take care of us and if they can’t get it right, who can? I don’t think anyone can as we are now subjected to a new business modeling atmosphere in health insurance and everyone hates the “not knowing” and that part of coverage is growing all the time. Just look at the classifieds and see how many analysts and Quants/Data Scientists insurers have hired, it’s a lot and they can’t seem to get enough. This seems to want to tell you where the focus is and patient care does not appear to top the list, rather shareholder values have crept up to the #1 spot. So with this article about the health insurers profits breaking all records for this quarter, it’s all about what I call the Killer Algorithms and there’s more and more math modeled provisions being loaded up and used by health insurers every day and we end up with little consistency.

Data Scientists/Quants in the Health Insurance Business–Modeling Beyond the Speed and Capabilities of Humans To Keep Up With The Affordable Care Act–Turning Into A World of Killer Algorithms That We All Hate..

The government too is over their heads with efforts in trying to manage and communicate with such and it shows. In areas such as CMS, over the years they too have given in to pretty much being mentored by United Healthcare with their models and there’s a bit of heat over there right now too as what are you seeing at CMS today, a lot of the same things with inconsistency you see with health insurers, so it’s not hard to see where the mentorship comes from when you start looking at some of their failed models when it comes to quality reporting. Healthcare prices are up and we are not spending as much as consumers. The predictions are that spending will increase, but that’s only if consumers have the money to spend in my estimation and it’s just not there.

In short, insurer profits have been carved out with using crafty math models that keeps most of us in a general stir all the time of not knowing what we do have and what we don’t have and it’s subject to change at any moment. Certainly there are more insured in the US, but quality and security of what we have is worse as it changes all the time, so did we make progress with insurance? I wonder but there’s no going back at this point, but the insurance exchanges and the way the health insurance business “sold” the government was far from accidental as this is what they do and have done for years. They produce many studies and reports by paying think tanks sometimes to substantiate material they need to lobby or make changes and that is very prevalent anymore.

Another great article from a journalist who sees this as well. Felix Salmon can’t make it any clearer with this quote from his article…so there you go, models that encourage cheating…anyone ever going to ask about the models and code? Probably not, there’s too much verbiage to look at to think about this side that executes everything (grin). He’s telling you the same thing so again this is what’s directing all the action at health insurers today and again they don’t know when to stop. Here’s an excerpt from a past post here and it’s well worth a quick read it’s correct as this observance from Felix Salmon, a journalist and mathematician hits the nail on the head and cheating is running wild out there with algorithms for profit, again all you need is one study to tweak the numbers and the context and via news media all of a sudden much of the public opinion can switch in one day and swing over some profits.

“Once quants disrupt an industry, they often don’t know when to stop—and they create systems that encourage cheating.”

“On a managerial level, once the quants come into an industry and disrupt it, they often don’t know when to stop. They tend not to have decades of institutional knowledge about the field in which they have found themselves. And once they’re empowered, quants tend to create systems that favor something pretty close to cheating. As soon as managers pick a numerical metric as a way to measure whether they’re achieving their desired outcome, everybody starts maximizing that metric rather than doing the rest of their job—just as Campbell’s law predicts.”

“Campbell’s law: “The more any quantitative social indicator is used for social decision-making,” he wrote, “the more subject it will be to corruption pressures and the more apt it will be to distort and corrupt the social processes it is intended to monitor.”

So this is the system we have today with health insurers, just like Wall Street as I said was developing 5-6 years ago and it’s here now. In 2009 when Sebelius was nominated this was my biggest fear as having seen both sides of this, I knew she would be “no contest” for all the mathematical wizards known as Quants and Data Scientists already employed by insurers so this is the end result, less care for us and more profits for health insurers.

Kathleen Sebelius, Kansas Governor for HHS – Please not! Put the “Smart” People in these key positions

We have the same pattern almost here as what the banks received, a bail out from the government and we know how that story ended as well. This looks like another repeat here with government totally outfoxed and outdone with math models and a very short focus on how analytics and models work today. This is one of the outfoxed examples below that I caught with “hurry up those coders” at the time which indeed referenced a deep level of misconception and perceptions of how the healthcare system complexities really work. So the big profits, it’s all done like Wall Street, modeled and that’s how inequality keeps growing as well, this is all modeled by very intelligent Quants and mathematicians working for health insurers. BD

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”

To learn more about how this works, scroll on down to the footer of this blog and watch the 4 videos and for even more videos, visit the Killer Algorithms page. BD

Attack of the Killer Algorithms…

The nation's biggest health insurers entered last fall cautious about a major coverage expansion initiated by the health care overhaul, the federal law that aims to cover millions of uninsured people.

Investors and company executives were worried because they didn't know how expensive new customers from the overhaul would be for insurers. They also were concerned about added costs from the law and funding cuts to government-sponsored Medicare Advantage plans, a key growth area.

But a year later, these challenges are starting to appear manageable, and investors see much less uncertainty ahead for the sector. Insurers have cut costs and raised prices to help mitigate added expenses from the law. They've also added new business.

As a result, Aetna, UnitedHealth and the Blue Cross-Blue Shield insurer WellPoint all posted third quarter results that trumped Wall Street estimates and raised their forecasts for 2014. Shares of those companies -- the nation's three largest health insurers -- have all repeatedly hit all-time highs this year, their growth easily outpacing broader trading indexes.

Insurers also are being helped now by extra funding from the overhaul that aims to give them some financial cushion if their new customers from the law's expansions wind up being more expensive than anticipated. Some of that funding will go away over the next couple years.

Even so, UnitedHealth CEO Stephen Hemsley felt comfortable enough about his company's prospects to say earlier this month that he thinks all of UnitedHealth's businesses are better positioned than they were entering 2014. He added that he expects growth across the board next year, a relatively bold statement coming from the nation's largest health insurer.

http://www.mercurynews.com/health/ci_26822980/health-insurance-companies-soaring-under-new-health-care

Feds File Lawsuit Against Honeywell For Tactics Used With Company Wellness Program With Mandated Screening of Employees and Spouses…

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in response to employee complaints filed a lawsuit against Honeywell for their tactics and the company says the testing and screenings are voluntary but the penalties that could hit is what the problem is and penalties can go up as high s $4000.00.

This will be interesting to see how this one plays out. The EEOC has requested a temporary injunction to stop the employee testing. Honeywell employees around 50,000 people in the US. This is the third suit in three months that the EEOC has filed accusing companies of setting up “involuntary” employee medical or wellness programs.

I think this could also sound like an implementation issue and that has a lot to do with things as well as the penalties. BD

Reuters) - The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has sued Honeywell International Inc to stop the company from imposing penalties on employees who refuse to undergo testing under its corporate wellness program.

The lawsuit is the third case since August filed by the federal agency challenging a corporate wellness program, with Honeywell the biggest company to be targeted. Wellness programs that encourage healthier habits have become increasingly popular in Corporate America, as they promise to improve productivity, cut absenteeism and reduce medical costs.

Such programs are also encouraged under President Barack Obama's healthcare law, the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

Honeywell employees could be penalized up to $4,000 each, through surcharges and lost contributions to health plans, if they or their spouses do not comply with the biometric testing, according to the lawsuit, filed on Monday in U.S. District Court in Minnesota.

According to the lawsuit, employees and spouses are screened for blood pressure, cholesterol, blood-sugar levels, waist circumference and nicotine. Honeywell had informed employees that testing was to occur from Oct 22-31, the lawsuit said.(

http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/10/29/us-honeywell-intl-eeoc-idINKBN0II2GI20141029?feedType=RSS&feedName=health&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FINhealth+%28News+%2F+IN+%2F+Health%29

Here Come the Dead Doctors Again Located In Flawed Directories–Now It’s From Insurance Companies Who Can’t Produce Semi Accurate Listings And They Pay These People…

Ok so now we are at the top of the heap when insurers themselves can’t produce accurate listings, but …..they pay most of them so I would think if anyone could get it right insurers would, well that would be wrong. In this article they examined dermatologists but I would guess there’s not a lot variance with accuracy through all listings and types of practice. They found 9% were retired or dead. In the past if you have read here long enough then you know about my conversation a few years ago with finding my former doctor on Healthgrades who had been dead for 8 years and that’s how I stumbled into this world of flaws and Vitals and a couple other were not any better and still about 4 years later, the sites have had a face lift but data is still flawed.

Even facilities were not accurate on Healthgrades either so you can still go visit the hospital where fake screws were put in patients backs and where the CEO of the hospital who bribed a state Senator is still listed and the case has been so very public. The sites can’t even get those right.

Operation Spinal Cap-Former Owner of Orthopedic Hospital Admits He Bribed California State Senator Calderon-Hospital Closed And Sold But Still Listed on Healthgrades

Speaking of dermatologists, you can even go see Michael Jackson’s old bankrupt dermatologist as not too long ago, he’ still listed on Healthgrades too. So if you see news about these sites improving, well I would not hold my breath and doctors are too busy today to go fiddle around with the sites to fix their mistakes. There are also sites like ZocDoc where doctors pay to be on there and the site actually lets you make appointments with them and I would say the accuracy is a lot better as those doctors “want to be on that site” and they pay for it.

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…

So what does this tell you about looking up a doctor on one of those sites if the insurance companies don’t get it right, yes indeed flawed data on Healthgrades and Vitals too. A while back a doctor and I did a comparison between these sites and Medicare and believe it or not, Medicare didn’t include as much data but what they had was far more accurate, so much for punching the government on this one, as there’s plenty of other areas to go after, but doctor listings is where they have done a better job than private industry. Also there’s another reason for all of this and that has to do with the “Secret Scoring of America’s Doctors” to where the armies of Quants that have been hired by insurers use pure analytics of some type to determine risk, costs, etc. and knock them off the network. The link below has more on the number of quants that have been hired by insurers. They want us as doctors and patients to move like algos and the result is flawed data.

Data Scientists/Quants in the Health Insurance Business–Modeling Beyond the Speed and Capabilities of Humans To Keep Up With The Affordable Care Act–Turning Into A World of Killer Algorithms That We All Hate..

This is what I call the Killer Algorithms at work as that’s what runs on the sites and puts the list together for you and it’s getting worse all the time. Below is another post that discusses the Secret Scoring of Doctors, primarily by United Healthcare and when they try to find a patient a new primary care doctor, they are matching up Medicare Advantage patients with OBGYNs and brain surgeons to see as their primary care doctors. See what I mean about flawed data and the Killer Algorithms. Of course those are errors to be fixed. Read more about those problems at the link below.

“The Secret Scoring of America’s Physicians” - Algorithmic Math Models For Insurance Network Contractual Exclusions, Relating to MDs Who See Medicare Advantage Patients..

However when you call up with issues, oh no the insurer is always right? Not any more with what’s on the screens as again those Quants hired are rearranging their models and data bases all the time and now even the insurers can’t keep up with their own models anymore. I have heard about doctors being matched to work together that have never worked together before. Geriatric doctors have been fired by United and we’re talking Medicare Advantage here, so what’s up with that? This issue is so bad that United couldn’t even keep track of what doctors were in network and went out and bid and won a Medicare Contract to find out they had fired all the doctors already in that area and lost the contract. What a waste of time. At least they didn’t get assigned to dead doctors and I have not heard that one yet but with the flawed data out there, it’s bound to come up.

Howard County School Board in Maryland Rescinds United Healthcare Contract As Retirees Didn’t Want the Medicare Advantage Plan, No Providers Available..

Again insurers are paying the doctors so of all folks you would think could create an accurate listing it would be there. Now on the other side, with the insured there’s a reason to keep good tabs as they get to sell our data and granted there’s some doctor selling data going on, but nothing like what insurers sell on consumers. As a matter of fact it’s like an addiction and you can truly see this playing out now with insurers driving themselves over the cliff with collecting non relevant data, just because it’s there and they can. Yes indeed we have some insurers looking for a big data pot of gold that’s just not there.

Health Insurance Business Is Driving Itself Off a Cliff & Doesn’t Know When to Stop With Collecting, Analyzing and Processing Non Relevant Data With Little Or No Impact On Giving Good Care..

I know there is certain level of information and data needed by all means but they don’t know when to stop, like buying up all the insured credit card transactions? How does that deliver better care? It’s doesn’t and it’s part of that non relevant data addiction thing. We have Medicare doing the same thing in a lot of their analytics being they have been mentored by United Healthcare for so long with models like or very close to being the same they use. Where do you think population health came from, United.

I saw it on a doctor’s desk about 8 years ago wanting the doctor to join up. Population health if done in moderation can give you some real wisdom, but insurers and others stop when they need to? Nope got to have those credit card transactions and other non relevant data to score up now that the flawed social network data is out there as we just might miss one tiny detail. It’s going to eat them up as the ROI won’t be there as the cost do to all of this will kill it. When I say moderation, yes it’s good to know where handicapped people are and live, that’s a plus and keep in house and don’t repackage it and sell it to everyone else.

Anyway, ask your doctor if they are in network I would say as their information might be the most current and forget all the flawed data out there beyond using the websites for more than a Yellow Pages look up.

(Reuters Health) - More than half the dermatologists in Medicare Advantage plan directories were either dead, retired, not accepting new patients or specialized only in specific conditions, researchers found when they tried making appointments.

Inaccurate directories of doctors covered by an insurance plan may lead to people having very few options and to the U.S. government approving plans that don’t meet standards regarding provider availability, the study team writes in JAMA Dermatology.

http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/10/29/us-dermatology-insurance-providers-idINKBN0II2FQ20141029?feedType=RSS&feedName=health&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FINhealth+%28News+%2F+IN+%2F+Health%29

Health Exchange Patients Have Trouble Finding Doctors Who Accept Their Insurance–Reimbursement Makes A Huge Difference

You can read below what the insurers said in their comments. Cigna and Aetna pay the doctors the same on whether or not the plan is sold on the exchange or not. In California Aetna doesn’t sell any more individual policies any longer and before the exited last year they were already the lowest paying. I don’t know much about Cigna.

Now look at United Healthcare, they pay doctors at rates “above Medicaid” but “below Medicare”. United also pulled out of California for individual policies last year so that doesn’t apply here unless they happen to jump back in but I have not heard anything to that effect. Doctors in California on other United plans already complain here in California that due to complex contracts with employer and other insurance such as Medicare Advantage, that they too get paid at rates less than Medicare. So in states where United insurance is purchased via an exchange, you know your doctor is being paid somewhere between Medicaid and Medicare rates, and that may be why it could be difficult to find a doctor as that’s pretty low.

There’s also the issue of the cheapest plans requiring more out of pocket to be paid for the patient as well and doctors are having to take more time to explain and help patients in that area as well. Also sometimes patients find their doctor in network but then the hospital where they practice is not covered and that issue is one that is growing as there are separate contracts for both. BD

Now that some people finally have health insurance through the Affordable Health Care exchanges, many are running into a new problem: They can't find a doctor who will take them as patients.

Because the exchange plans often have lower reimbursement rates than commercial plans, some doctors are limiting how many new patients with the policies they will take, physician groups and other experts say.

To prevent discrimination against ACA policyholders, some insurance contracts require doctors to accept their exchange-plan patients along with those on commercial plans unless the doctors' practices are so full they can't treat any more people. But lower reimbursement rates make some physicians reluctant to sign on to some of these plans or accept too many of the patients once they are in the plans.

Kleinman says his members complain that rates can be 50 percent lower than commercial plans. Cigna and Aetna, however, say they pay doctors the same whether the plan is sold on an ACA network or not. UnitedHealthcare spokeswoman Tracey Lempner says it's up to their physicians whether they want to be in the exchange-plan networks, which have “rates that are above Medicaid.” Medicaid rates are typically below those for Medicare, which in turn are generally lower than commercial insurance plans.

Plans sold on the exchanges with the lowest premiums require consumers to pay the most out of pocket. Many of these customers have insurance for the first time and don't understand how much they have to pay, so doctor's offices have to spend a great deal of time explaining benefits packages, says Ripley Hollister, a primary care doctor in Colorado Springs.

http://triblive.com/usworld/nation/7043076-74/plans-doctors-patients#axzz3HVsf4duq

Pope Says God Did Not Create Algorithms, Mankind Does That And They Don’t Conflict With The Idea of Creation

So there you have it, so when you see magical stuff on your computer screen, it was a human and not a magic wand that made everything happen. He says the Big Bang theory doesn’t conflict with the creative intervention of God. What he didn’t address are those who “sin” with their code for profit and there’s a lot of that out there and we can start with banks and go from there. Watch video #2 in the footer of this blog to learn about how cheating with code by quants at banks works if you like. We do have some folks that think there’s algo fairies out there and I’ve written about them quite a bit. Sebelius former secretary of HHS was a great one for thinking there were algorithm fairies with wands that came down from the sky at times.

Senator Grassley and Kathleen Sebelius Duking It Out Over Hospitals Paying Patient Premiums–A Case of One “Who Believes In Algorithm Fairies” Talking To Another…

We have these folks too over on the hill that think there’s magical algorithm fairies out there too and thus they too are afflicted with what I called “The Sebelius Syndrome”, the belief in algo fairies.

Committee Struggling To Understand Where Virtual Software Models Begin and Leave Off Relative to Health Insurance Exchanges–Continued Strong Belief That “Technology And Algorithm Fairies” Exist In The Real World, The Sebelius Syndrome Proving To Be Very Contagious…

I said this a couple years ago (link below) about half of the analytics sold out there will be a waste of investment and strangely enough a banker who was being pretty honest totally agreed with me and we are now seeing it now with everyone chasing the big data train, looking for some magical algorithm fairies to come up with a math model to make everything ok again, but it’s not going to happen. Instead we get algorithms and formulas that are dirty and take and move our money instead. In finance, they don’t change the portfolio, they just change the math which becomes the models for building the algorithms. You can’t see them, talk to them or have any impact so maybe that’s why some folks confuse algorithms with fairies too.

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…

So in closing here this was actually pretty cool for the Pope to come out and talk about virtual and real worlds as they mix, don’t mix and have to mix in the world we live in today. BD

Big Bang theory and evolution in nature "do not contradict" the idea of creation, Pope Francis has told an audience at the Vatican, saying God was not “a magician with a magic wand.” The Pope’s remarks on Monday to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences appeared to be a theological break from his predecessor Benedict XVI, a strong exponent of creationism.

“The beginning of the world is not the work of chaos that owes its origin to something else, but it derives directly from a supreme principle that creates out of love,” Pope Francis said. “The Big Bang, that today is considered to be the origin of the world, does not contradict the creative intervention of God; on the contrary, it requires it. Evolution in nature is not in contrast with the notion of [divine] creation because evolution requires the creation of the beings that evolve.”

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/pope-francis-evolution-big-bang-theory-are-real-n235696

HCA Holdings Buys CareNow Urgent Care Centers in Dallas Fort Worth Area of Texas

60 urgent care centers were purchased. In addition there’s a bit of competition in Texas going on right now too with Optum (United Healthcare) who has also opened up a couple urgent care centers. Tenet also has their rebranded Urgent Care Centers named MedPost.

Big Boom With Hospital Stand Alone Emergency Rooms Continues Along With Insurers Getting Into the Game As Well With Urgent Care Centers…

Now with both free standing ER centers and urgent care centers, people are getting confused too and the charges are much higher at a free standing ER room.

Which Is It, A Free Standing ER Or An Urgent Care Center, Or Both?

We keep seeing hospitals close and the impact of both free standing ER and Urgent Care centers I’m sure are having an impact. BD

(Reuters) - HCA Holdings Inc (HCA.N), the largest U.S. hospital operator, on Tuesday announced a deal to acquire a Dallas-based provider of urgent-care services and said its board authorized the repurchase of up to $1 billion of its outstanding shares.

HCA, which previewed its third-quarter results earlier this month, also said its quarterly profit rose 42 percent from a year ago as it admitted more patients to its hospitals.

HCA said it was acquiring CareNow, a privately held operator of 24 urgent-care centers in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Nashville-based HCA operates 165 hospitals and 113 surgery centers in 20 states. With the CareNow acquisition, it will have 60 urgent-care centers in various markets.

HCA said admissions increased 2.8 percent in the quarter compared to the prior-year period at its facilities open at least one year.

http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/10/28/us-hca-holdings-results-idINKBN0IH1BJ20141028?feedType=RSS&feedName=health&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FINhealth+%28News+%2F+IN+%2F+Health%29

United Healthcare Under the Optum Subsidiary Buys Alere Health And All of Their Subsidiaries–”Too Big To Fail” Health Insurer Acquisitions Continue To Gain Additional Consumer Monitoring Assets…

Alere is a consumer and professional medical diagnostic products maker and Optum will buy Alere Health and all of it’s subsidiaries to add to the army of subsidiaries Optum/United already owns. United Healthcare has been hiding in plain sight for years scooping up one company after another and it’s amazing that people seem to be oblivious to this fact and if you read here often enough, then you know better. The link below from 2013 has a ton of their subsidiaries listed along with others you may not be aware of to where either directly or via a subsidiary they own 51% controlling interest.

Health Insurance Business Under the Radar With Tiered Subsidiaries–Where All the Action Takes Place With Mergers, Acquisitions and Profit Centers-Subsidiary Watch

It’s an $600 million cash transaction here and at this point one might begin to wonder how leveraged the company is and remember the largest shareholder that sits on their board is the CEO of the largest HMO system in Brazil they bought a 90% interest in last year. Alere’s shareholders don’t even need to approve this either. Alere has two sides of their business and as I read this, Optum is buying up the management side, you know the same old thing, more analytics to manage people and they have contracts with big corporations to do so and the other side which remains are the real clinical diagnostics services and devices the company markets and sells. I am guessing the Alere Connect Home monitoring comes with the deal since it it shown separate on the Alere website from their actual real diagnostic tools.

Again the number of companies and control United has seems to be a sleeping giant as there’s no area of healthcare where they don’t have a subsidiary anymore and I’m surprised other insurers have not complained, not to mention the close relationship that has existed with CMS since the Hillary days when she hired the #2 executive from United, Lois Quam and the doors have been open since that time and many more have made their way to CMS/HHS/ONC. Here’s a recent example of a United corporate attorney hired recently at the ONC to do privacy.

ONC Hires New Privacy Head, A California Corporate Lawyer From United Healthcare, One of The Biggest Operating Data Selling Companies In the US

Also worth noting is that the Center for American Progress, a big think tank in DC is now writing so much of the Healthcare policy and everyone’s favorite to hate, Zeke Emanuel works there and he’s a walking talking United Healthcare commercial that recently wrote the article about how we have served out our purpose in life at 75 and thinks we should all agree with him. Again keep in mind this is where policy is coming from today from stat rat folks that forget that it’s humans and not just numbers that make up healthcare.

United wants everyone hooked up to a device so they can get more data to sell and we all probably know they are one of the biggest data selling corporations and make a lot of money doing so out there. That’s all they do and drill down stats. As a matter of fact if you look at the United annual report and what CMS is doing with their modeling, the resemblances are striking and former CMS folks have told me this has gone on for years with United helping them with their quantitated math models for business intelligence. Of recent we have seen the secret scoring of doctors by the company as well where in many states MDs are being “fired” by United with being in network who see Medicare Advantage patients and are given no explanation or choice at all for the most part and again these are models created by Quants that health insurers are hiring by the groves today, some who used to work a hedge funds.

“The Secret Scoring of America’s Physicians” - Algorithmic Math Models For Insurance Network Contractual Exclusions, Relating to MDs Who See Medicare Advantage Patients..

If it seems like things are impossible to work within with health insurance and wellness today, that’s because it is sometimes and we are being score, shuffled around to accommodate profits and we as humans don’t work like shuffling algorithms on markets, but that’s what we have and it’s also creating it’s own source of endangering patient are, but with United/Optum it’s more like “algo says” and you don’t have a choice. So again you can thank all the quantitative analytics and quants insurers, and especially United for all of this disruption as they have to pay shareholders their money.

Data Scientists/Quants in the Health Insurance Business–Modeling Beyond the Speed and Capabilities of Humans To Keep Up With The Affordable Care Act–Turning Into A World of Killer Algorithms That We All Hate..

If that isn’t bad enough, they want young folks out there to write code for free for them with unlimited web recognition and well, we all need to make money so it’s going to be hard to find the free developers out there who need to pay rent too, and I call it cash for code as many big companies are doing this as well. What we end up with a lot of times are “flawed proprietary math models” that don’t work but they save money so they crammed down the throats of consumers as “you have to do this” and we end up with models that don’t work, a lot like the “Bloomberg Big Gulp Project” where all the money and influence pushed a broken model that failed, and they didn’t know when to stop.

AARP and United HealthCare Form “Longevity Network”–Time To Find Some More “Cheap Code” Looking For Millennials Still Living At Home Who Can Afford The Time To Write…Cash For Code Again

It was just a few weeks ago that the Optum division in Texas bought control of a lot more doctors in Texas.

United Healthcare Buys Another Company in Texas That Manages Physician Practices With Software-Hiding in Plain Site, Accumulating More Subsidiaries Furthering a “Too Big To Fail” Insurance Company - Big Focus On Money Ball Analytics Versus Quality of Care

We have survived years of what is now called fictional studies from the Lewin group on projected savings and patient outcomes now to track back, and by the way Lewin is owned by United Healthcare too, so when you see such studies now more than ever be a skeptic and don’t soak in everything you read. There’s good stuff out there too and the difficulty here is knowing when you are getting snowed for shareholder profits today. The products may not be bad but you need to look at how the company manages them and the data that is sucked to sell for additional profits with the invasion of the “data snatchers” out there today. You can search this blog if you like as I have 7 years into this and writing about health IT and all the acquisitions of United and what they do.

United Healthcare Rolls Out Mobile App For Consumers To Address Transparency With Shopping for Medical Treatments, Fine But What About Transparency With Data Selling Which Is Still Non Existent for Consumers, What’s Being “Mined” With this App for Predictive Behavioral Analytics?

You can read below about the number two person at CMS who was the CEO of the Ingenix division of United (now name changed to Optum) and see what you think about that. The AMA sued United and had a class action settlement for algo duping on out of network charges to where they short paid against Ingenix. Again we are talking the use of algorithmic scoring with United once again.

How Hard Did United Have to Lobby To Get Someone In The Deputy Administrator Job at CMS? Sebelius Syndrome Lives On With Burwell, In Good Company With Mary Jo White and Richard Cordray To Name A Couple Others…

In California there’s a lot of doctors who are not happy with United/Optum as they use very complex contracts that end up netting them reimbursements that are less than what Medicare pays and in the OC where I am, they call it the United Manifesto with owning all the major physicians groups as well and their close relationship with MemorialCare. The only thing doctors did get was a ruling from the Supreme Court a year ago to where they can group now to litigate with insurers as for years it was always one doctor against the big corporation and Untied/Oxford for years spent tons of money fighting that one.

US Supreme Court Rules Physicians Can Work As A Group To Fight Unfair Business Practices of Health Insurers–Victory Over UnitedHealthcare (Oxford Subsidiary)–Context Once Again With Contracts

There’s other lawsuits out there as well including one where the Feds are ready to file suit against Optum Hospice and to me a health insurance company owning a hospice network just doesn’t seem to fit well. So now with the purchase of Alere consumer products who know how it will be managed and what they will do with the data they get. Again this all gets sold as population health which if used in moderation for basic information is not a bad thing, but United does not have a history of moderation and will go to extremes much of time and again shove some more studies out to Lewin to produce more than likely. Basically the company is getting to be so large that I think even their corporate lawyers have a hard time know what they do and I’ll reference the Lap band case as an example.

Lap band Surgeries Go Full Circle With Lawsuits–Now United Who’s Being Sued, Files Case Against Company Who Provided the Advertising and Services

The lawyer used a victim type of defense here with the claims and having to rely on accuracy from doctors and facilities , I guess either doing it on purpose or not knowing that Optum sells more anti-fraud software and services than Carter has pills:) BD

Press Release from Website:

Optum, Alere Health to Combine to Help Health Plans, Employers and States
Improve Population Health, Reduce Health Care Costs

Waltham, Mass, Oct. 28, 2014 – Optum and Alere today announced that Optum has entered into a
definitive agreement to acquire Alere Health and its subsidiaries, which provide leading condition
management, case management, wellbeing, wellness and women’s and children’s health services to
more than 200 regional and local health plans, 89 Fortune 500 employers and 29 states. Alere Health’s
services are offered to more than 22 million people across the U.S.

The $600 million cash transaction is subject to customary regulatory approval and other closing
conditions. Such conditions for Alere include consent of the required lenders under Alere’s senior
secured credit facility. The transaction does not require the approval of Alere’s shareholders.

Alere Health’s health management capabilities will broaden and strengthen the value Optum provides
to health care payers, employers and states by improving the health of the people they serve and
reducing overall health care costs. Adding Alere Health’s leading offerings in areas such as tobacco
cessation and home-based obstetrical services to Optum’s broad scope of expertise and health services
will enable delivery of more innovative and comprehensive population health management solutions for
clients of both organizations.

“Alere Health’s expert team and proven health management solutions are a strong fit with our focus on
empowering consumers to make more informed decisions, achieve healthier lifestyles and take greater
ownership of their health,” said Larry Renfro, chief executive officer, Optum. “Adding Alere Health’s
solutions and expertise allow us to be an even more valuable partner to payers, employers, federal and
state governments and consumers in achieving their long-term population health and cost management
goals.”

The sale of Alere Health is an important step in Alere’s execution of its strategy to focus on its core area
of strength in rapid diagnostics and improve its balance sheet. Alere intends to use the proceeds from
this transaction to reduce debt.

Nurses From Hospital in Dallas Tell Their Story About Their Care For Thomas Eric Duncan Who Died of Ebola in the US–60 Minutes

This is good to hear this side as without the nurses and healthcare workers, nothing gets done. Two emergency rooms talked about their reactions with the patient. They also talk about their protective wear. They were very frightened and went to work and took care of their patient.

The part of the nurses risking their lives speaks well here and we have not heard any of that. When you listen to the vomiting that took place, it sounds like it just sprays the rooms as the patients with Ebola have no control when it really kicks in.

The patient didn’t originally tell them what part of Africa he had returned from. The healthcare individuals were not getting the exact stories and that made it even more difficult. One room normally for 24 patients was cleared out and set up just for the patient. The nurses were working 14-16 hours a day. The one nurse cries when he talks about how his family was not able to be with him. He was the nurse that was with him when he passed away and said it was the worst day of his life. BE

October 26, 2014, 8:01 PM|The medical staff who treated Thomas Eric Duncan, the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the U.S., tell the inside story to Scott Pelley; and, while profiling Foo Fighters and their frontman Dave Grohl, Anderson Cooper joins them for an exploration into the roots of American music.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ebola-inside-the-first-united-states-diagnosis-thomas-eric-duncan/

United Expands the “Cheap Hearing Aids” Program to Employers To Allow Workers to Buy Them–Subsidiary Watch

Here’s another United subsidiary you may or may not be aware of but they have been around since2011 and I wrote about them then. In addition, the company Hi Health Innovations has also worked out a deal with for Veterans to be able to purchase their hearings aids. Many who have Medicare Advantage plans with United are finding that this brand is the only hearing aid coverage United offers so other companies are out of luck unless the patient pays for it themselves.

United Healthcare Buys Two HMOs in Florida–More Cheap or Free hearing aids for Seniors Perhaps–Subsidiary Watch

Hi Health Innovations had a online hearing test which I think was killed by the FDA. You get your hearing tested independently and then send Hi-Health the results and they build the hearing aids. They mail them to you and you have to get on the phone with them and work out any fitting problems if they arise, along with your doctor.

So now hearing aids become a part of the employer insurers plans offered and discounts will be offered. The hearing aids can be a single offering or part of a benefits package. I might guess you could possibly read some pitches over at AARP on the products as well and might be financed.

A UnitedHealth Group Inc. venture is launching a program for employers that want to offer low-cost hearing aids to their workers.

Hi HealthInnovations, part of Minnetonka-based UnitedHealth's Optum unit, began selling its own line of low-cost hearing aids in 2011, initially distributing the devices through its Medicare programs.

Eden Prairie-based Hi HealthInnovations' program for employers is free to businesses and will allow workers to buy hearing aids for as low as $699, the company said Thursday. Commercial hearing aids often sell for between $1,200 and $3,000 or more.

Businesses can offer the program as part of a benefits package or independently.

Arden Hills-based IntriCon Corp. supplies the hearing aids to hi HealthInnovations.

http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/news/2014/10/23/unitedhealth-pitching-low-cost-hearing-aids-to.html

CVS and Rite Aid To Stop Using Apple Pay and “Yes” It Circles Right Back To Corporations and Banks Making Money Selling And Collecting Data and Offering Ad Exposure..What Else?

This should come as no surprise and I kind of wondered myself when this would rear it’s ugly head being the privacy advocate this blog forced me to be:) I say that as I never planned on being a privacy advocate but things happen and when you understand data mechanics logic and have spent over 20 years in outside sales, well the left side and right side of the brain unite to visualize the tech and data side, and then second, the marketing side my brain kicks in after that to think about how they are going to sell and market it.

In addition, CVS and Rite Aid are part of another group that uses 2D bar coding called the Merchant Customer Exchange. 2D bar codes work great for authentication and I was talking about that 5 years ago with Microsoft Tags and there’s a ton of posts on this blog as well on that topic. So for a few days, Apple worked great and then it’s gone. Apple Pay is a bit different in their configuration with the use of the one time tokens and they are addressing the idea of privacy.

But guess what, by using that methodology, the only ones getting the data to sell is credit card companies that “love” to sell your transaction. There's quite a market for that and it’s worth reading to see what this nutty hospital came up with too. I pretty much figured a marketing and sales representative from MasterCard and Visa sold them on the idea that they “need” to see the patients transactions so they could check on them and save money.

Oh crap, Now Hospitals Are Now Buying Data From Acxiom - Data Selling Epidemic Continues to Evade on Personal Privacy As “Algo Duped-Stat Rat” People Try to Implement Virtual Models That Won’t Work…

These folks at MasterCard are really into this as selling credit card data helps offset the losses from credit card defaults by all means, have you noticed how much easier they are to get? Think about it. They did when they absolutely bragged about it and I blogged it twice.

MasterCard As Well As Other Financial Institutions Using Big Data To Get Into Your “Online Pants” As Many Consumers Seem To Be Accidentally And Inadvertently Leaving Their “Internet Fly” Open

Rite Aid was the first and then CVS joined in. As you can see below there’s some other big names in the other group too, big retailers like Wal-Mart and Target that also sell data and make a lot of money. Notice too that Google Wallet is also out of the picture too so of course there’s no data for Google either. Again we’re back to the data selling epidemic. As a matter of fact you should read this post from a couple days ago too about Verizon and the Computer Scientist who wrote up his opinion from Stanford.

Verizon Wireless Packaging and Selling Subscriber Information - Acting As One Big Data Broker–Super Cookie Header Explanation

Two years ago I called it a “date selling epidemic” and folks thought I was nuts but the epidemic is growing by leaps and bounds as it’s easy money. Walgreens will still use Apple Pay but they have their own system set up for collecting your data already and make between one to two billion, with a “b” a year selling data. You should see what kind of analytics are run at the Pharmacy Benefit Managers as well, all kinds of behavior analytics as they also try to predict if you will or will not fill your prescription. United Healthcare, Optum, has a subsidiary that does that as well as Milleman to sell your prescription data and IMS I would say is a big buyer there since they have about 90% of the world’s prescription records on file and they sell tons of data and scored analytics, with the data they buy. IMS even had an IPO this year and bought up some other data sellers so tell me this is not an epidemic?

IMS Health Buys Cegedim Information Systems to Include CRM and Intelligence Software - Data Selling Business Gets Healthier and Wealthier But Can’t Say the Same for the Health of US Citizens - It’s All About Making Money Selling Data, The Epidemic

Time, location, and value of your financial transactions are still known to Apple and to your card provider, and to every other business they might share that data with. Re-identifying information comes into play here with looking at data from Acxiom, Equifax, Experian or Datalogix. Sometimes all it takes is just one more piece of data queried and you are re-matched. If and when re-matching takes place depends on how much money they can make and the cost of the queries and algos to perform the functions. If a customer does anything else in the store beyond a purchase where there’s a log made or geo-tagged in a data stream, that can be cross-matched too, so there goes the security with protecting you from data sellers.

So in essence your Apple Pay transactions are not really private if other methodologies are employed. Granted the process of the tokens keeping the data from being hacked is a great improvement, but the data sellers who are not there to profit from hacking, but rather from so far, legal algorithmic escapades can still generate a ton of data for sale. Even Tim Cook said in his interview with Charlie Rose, that data selling should somehow be licensed and that is music to my ears as I have numerous posts about doing just that and started my campaign 3 years ago. All privacy efforts have failed due to lack of data base 101, you need an index on who they all are and what kind of data they sell and to who.

Tim Cook From Apple Talks Privacy, We All Deserve That Dignity, And Our Product Is Not You..

The more complex and diversified the plans all become, the consumer looses as this is a lot to keep up with as it’s not only purchases, but health insurance, banking laws and so on are becoming so complex that the average consumer can’t keep up and we can always look forward to one of those think tanks like Pew or Robert Johnson to fill the news air waves with how dumb we are so the masquerade can continue and billions are made. By the way on a side note, we have Walgreens also suing CVS and Rite Aid over mobile software patents too, so drug store wars are heating up once again and most if it is all about getting a hold of and selling your data. BD

Walgreens Suing CVS, Rite Aid, Wants License and IP Damage Reimbursement, Patent Violations, Software Used For Refilling Prescriptions Via Mobile Phone Scanners…Not Getting Enough Data to Sell?

CVS and Rite Aid are among 220,000 U.S. merchants that already have technology in place to read the short-range wireless signals that enable customers of Apple Pay or similar services to make a purchase by waving their smartphones. The retailers weren’t among those specifically named as accepting Apple Pay when the iPhone maker revealed its system last month.

The drug retailers, which are part of a consortium developing a competing payment system, stopped Apple Pay last week, said a person familiar with the situation who asked not to be named. The website MacRumors.com earlier reported that the stores disabled so-called contactless payment systems, and Slashgear.com published a purported internal memo in which Rite Aid says it is instead focusing on the consortium’s system

CVS and Rite Aid are part of a consortium of retailers called the Merchant Customer Exchange that has been working on its own mobile payment system to help bypass credit card companies. The group’s system, called CurrentC, is in pilot tests in select locations across the country with plans for a national rollout next year, according to a statement on its website. Network members include Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT), Lowe’s Cos. (LOW) and Target Corp. (TGT), the website shows.

“The one who enrolls is the one who controls” the data and the ability to deliver ads and offers, Crone said. “We figure that is worth $300 per active wallet user per year. To put that in perspective, that’s twice the gross revenue that a bank makes on a checking account.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-26/apple-pay-face-challenge-as-cvs-rite-aid-reject-system.html

Australian Surgeons Performed Break Through Transplant Surgery “Dead Hearts”

This is the first time in the world this has been with a heart that had stopped beating. Normally hearts are removed from “brain dead” individuals but not in this case as a “box” has been created to contain and revive the heart to start beating again. This is huge.

There were two transplants done, both with hearts that had stopped beating. So far hearts that have stopped beating for 30 minutes have been revived.

This of course will serve to make more hearts available for transplants. BD

While donor hearts usually come from brain dead patients whose hearts are still beating, the team at St. Vincent's Hospital in Sydney using transplanted hearts that had stopped beating for up to 20 minutes.

The first patient to receive one of the hearts, 57-year-old Michelle Gribilas, said she felt a decade younger and was now a "different person." Gribilias was suffering from congenital heart failure at the time of her surgery.

The hearts were placed in a machine called a "heart-in-a-box." The machine revived the dead hearts by pumping warm blood into them. Cardiologist Peter MacDonald told WebMD, "We removed blood from the donor to prime the machine. We then take the heart out, connect it to the machine, warm it up, and when we warm it up, the heart starts to beat."

MacDonald added, "This breakthrough represents a major inroad to reducing the shortage of donor organs."

http://www.designntrend.com/articles/22979/20141025/australian-surgeons-perform-first-successful-heart-transplant-using-dead.htm

Verizon Wireless Packaging and Selling Subscriber Information - Acting As One Big Data Broker–Super Cookie Header Explanation

Jonathon Mayer, a computer scientist and lawyer at Stanford was kind enough to dig in and write up his explanation and he’s a smarter than me as a computer scientists and lawyer at Stanford. I just included the image on his full report and and a couple lines that briefly tell you what he found out. If you visit his site you can read more details and links to his references used for his research. You may have read an article about this in the LA Times as well. The issues circle around the use of a (UIDH) a unique identifier header to allow Verizon to link to a website visitor to target advertising. This was announced a couple years ago and now it’s coming full circle on how it is used. As a matter of fact, SAP wanted in on some of this action too. I wrote about that as well as they wanted to be the packager and do some analytics to make the data more valuable and split the profits with Verizon.

Data Selling Grows A Bit More Today With Verizon Wanting to Monitor Both Your Mobile and Home Computer Tracks - We Knew This Was Coming As SAP Wanted Some of This Action to Further Define Targets and Broker It…

The UIDH allows tracking to where folks on the web. a UIDH can allow any site de-anonymize you, now is that not great news. In addition there’s a another article at ars technica that gives a few more details as they explored as well as the computer scientists from Stanford did below. It all takes place in the Verizon Header and any website can track a user regardless of cookie blocking and you don’t need to be a client with Verizon. It’s the “super cookie” use you may have already heard about. The question is why is a super cookie still being used to sell it’s advertising and if one has opted out, then again, why is this super cookie still there? Recently Verizon had to pay a fine as they forgot to tell 2 million people they were selling their data. They didn’t get me on that one as I did get my notice there.

Verizon to Pay $7.4 Million Dollar Fine As They Forgot To Tell 2 Million People They Were Selling Their Personal Information For Marketing Purposes..Said It Was A Procedure Glitch–Killer Algorithms

In addition they are one of the big corporations that want developers to write on the cheap. The one below from a couple years ago was a bit better than most I see out there but it was a couple years ago and now the offers are a lot less to write code for them and remember you have to win to collect so if you don’t win you have a lot time spent.

Verizon Latest to Enter “Code for Cash” Prize Format With $1 Million Top Pay Out for Writing Healthcare Apps That Use Their Platform, Is This the New “Corporate Business Model” To Yield Inexpensive Code?

Verizon has a lot of different services going on here and we remember the hosting issues too with Healthcare. Gov that arose. Now you can see why I’m such a privacy advocate as if there’s not one way to “code” skin a cat, there’s always another showing up. With the “big” money made selling data this won’t stop and thus I created my campaign to get a law passed to require all data sellers to be licensed as we need an index as to who they are. In addition a disclosure of what kind of data they sell and to who would be needed so consumers would have a look up when they need to go back and painfully fix the flawed data that’s appearing out there more and more. Even this doctor below made a video about it, he’s in the know.

Orthopedic Surgeon Talks About Data Mining, Privacy, Medical Records and the Importance of the Doctor-Patient Relationship

If you like my idea, visit the campaign and kick in a few dollars if you like, as I said I have been working on it for 3 years with correspondence to the FTC and members of Congress to push this along. It won’t stop data selling but would add transparency and when folks know they could be watched, they tend to behave better if others are watching and that’s the purpose. Banks and corporations are making billions doing this and bad data gets the same price as good data, so don’t forget that. Here’s the campaign below and there’s even more references on my updates with more links on credit cards selling your transaction data to your insurance companies too. BD

Data Transparency Campaign – Index and License Data Sellers so we know who they are…

Below is what the computer scientist said from Stanford and again click here to read it all at his site.

After poring over Verizon’s related patents and marketing materials, here’s my rough understanding of how the header works.

In short, Verizon is packaging and selling subscriber information, acting as a data broker on real-time advertising exchanges. Questionable. By default, the information appears to consist of demographic and geographic segments.² If a user has opted into “Verizon Selects,” then Verizon also shares behavioral profiles built by deep packet inspection.

http://webpolicy.org/2014/10/24/how-verizons-advertising-header-works/

“Ebola”..ZdoggMD Parody Song…(Like Lola From the Kinks)…

This is great if you remember the song from the “Kinks” “Lola”..I don’t even think Dr. ZdoggMD is old enough to have to lived through it the first time:) Ok so I’m feeling old when I hear this song.

The former hospitalist from Berkeley, now in Las Vegas keeps us all entertained for sure! Pretty soon he can give up practicing medicine…maybe? The other partner playing the guitar is hysterical.

His other Garth Brooks is pretty funny too “I’ve got friends with low platelets”….

“I’ve Got Friends With Low Platelets” Video Parody And Humor…

His TED talk is pretty good too about Zombie Doctors and he talks about his career and history. He’s done a lot as I remember the very early videos and they get better all the time. BD

Are zombie Doctors Are Taking Over America- TED Dr. Damania Reinventing Primary Care, Making it Affordable Without Routine Health Insurance Headaches For Care…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVv8VdHReh0&feature=share

Ebola Vaccine Research Sat on the Shelf For 10 Years–Good Reason to Not Over Look NIH Funding As There Was No Money To Be Made for Pharma To Get Involved

The vaccine was already to test and had performed on animals at a rate of 100%, so what took so long even now to bring this out? Researchers said in 2010 a product could be ready for licensing and it never happened. Now it is being tested in humans with a very basics test for safety.

Things have changed now of course and there’s a scramble to get a vaccine out there. BD

GALVESTON, Tex. — Almost a decade ago, scientists from Canada and the United States reported that they had created a vaccine that was 100 percent effective in protecting monkeys against the Ebola virus. The results were published in a respected journal, and health officials called them exciting. The researchers said tests in people might start within two years, and a product could potentially be ready for licensing by 2010 or 2011.

It never happened. The vaccine sat on a shelf. Only now is it undergoing the most basic safety tests in humans — with nearly 5,000 people dead from Ebola and an epidemic raging out of control in West Africa.

Its development stalled in part because Ebola is rare, and until now, outbreaks had infected only a few hundred people at a time. But experts also acknowledge that the absence of follow-up on such a promising candidate reflects a broader failure to produce medicines and vaccines for diseases that afflict poor countries. Most drug companies have resisted spending the enormous sums needed to develop products useful mostly to countries with little ability to pay.

Now, as the growing epidemic devastates West Africa and is seen as a potential threat to other regions as well, governments and aid groups have begun to open their wallets. A flurry of research to test drugs and vaccines is underway, with studies starting for several candidates, including the vaccine produced nearly a decade ago.

A federal official said in an interview on Thursday that two large studies involving thousands of patients were planned to begin soon in West Africa, and were expected to be described in detail on Friday by the World Health Organization.

With no vaccines or proven drugs available, the stepped-up efforts are a desperate measure to stop a disease that has defied traditional means of containing it.

Dr. Geisbert moved on, working on treatments for Ebola and another version of the V.S.V. vaccine. For the vaccine work, his main collaborator has been Dr. Heinz Feldmann, the chief of virology at the Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, Mont., part of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/24/health/without-lucrative-market-potential-ebola-vaccine-was-shelved-for-years.html

Head of the ONC Leaves to Move on to HHS As Acting Assistant Secretary Coupled With the Announcement of the Clinical Practices Initiative Funding For Those Physicians That Have Time To Participate In Additional Government Programs…

Well first of all there was the news that Dr. DeSalvo has left the ONC for a better job at HHS as Acting Assistant Secretary of Health and I have to say she might be a lot happier there as being a doctor, he knowledge and skills are right in there with working on tackling Ebola. So far none of the MD ONC directors have lasted that long and in fairness, I think it’s a tough job as a doctor to come in and head up a Health IT operation and regulation department. Maybe that’s why they don’t stay too long. Myself and others have asked that question a few times but it looks like this was a good stepping stone for her to move up to her new position. They have lost quite a few folks of late at the ONC and right now it’s a tough place to be with the complexities the ONC is facing with updating Meaningful Use regulations and rules. We have had a lot of changes for stage two and the AMA sent in their shopping list as well on what they recommend.

Update: I also read where Dr. Jacob Reider, Deputy Director of the ONC is leaving at the end of November.

Next up on the list is this new “Clinical Practices Initiative” and you can read the press release below. I don’t know how many doctors are going time for yet another program as such and the idea of course sounds great as far as communicating but some of the MDs I am hearing from today are saying when they are done with Meaningful Use two, that’s it, they’re done with the government. Of course they still have quality stats and so forth that are required but anything extra to add on right now gets really hard. Some doctors who have been in Meaningful Use since the start have already thrown in the towel and moved on since the bonus money gets smaller at the end and the complexities along with running their practice are just more than they want to fit in. It all depends where they are at in the program I think and what their schedules look like.

I see this as being yet something for doctors to do and the time their office spend with claims and insurance companies has risen as well and just by their nature most doctors kind of collaborate anyway within their own circles. Again I’m in the real world and sometimes folks in government agencies become a little too virtual with what they think the real world can do when establishing goals and overshoot. CMS has been under that gun for a while now and they have relied on a lot of mentoring from United Healthcare for a number of years. A couple of former CMS folks told me that, need a number fix, go ask United. Furthermore look who’s gone to work at the ONC and CMS, former United Healthcare employees. We all know that Andy Slavitt who is the number two person at CMS right now was the CEO of Ingenix when the AMA sued them in a class action suit a few years ago and now we have a United Healthcare lawyer heading up privacy at the ONC, so coming from a huge data selling insurer, I’m not holding my breath there as HHS/CMS/ONC decide to “lawyer up”.

ONC Hires New Privacy Head, A California Corporate Lawyer From United Healthcare, One of The Biggest Operating Data Selling Companies In the US

Right now most are not happy with Obamacare or the ACA which ever you want to call it as it’s just a bunch of broken algorithms that don’t work together and we have insurers who are hiring quants by the groves and remodeling the plans they offer right and left. That was my big concern back in 2009 with Sebelius being a big duper and she did get duped as she’s no contest to the very smart math modelers insurers use.

Data Scientists/Quants in the Health Insurance Business–Modeling Beyond the Speed and Capabilities of Humans To Keep Up With The Affordable Care Act–Turning Into A World of Killer Algorithms That We All Hate..

When you look at all the doctors being fired as Medicare Advantage providers from United, it’s all algorithms and doctors have told me it’s nuts as they are putting together doctors that have never worked together before. Also it’s getting harder with contract for consumers to find both a doctor and a hospital covered by the same insurer too, again models used by insurers that use numbers and stats don’t take that into account and just low cost routing, along with what other parameters they put in there. Where I am at, many doctors work for big physicians groups that are owned by United Healthcare and their complex contracts they sign to be in network, nets them reimbursements at levels less than Medicare. You can give the image a look and see the number of doctors out there compared to administrators, a bit shocking if nothing else.

Again I just think some of the government agencies spent too much living in virtual worlds and that’s a problem all over when folks are confused and cant’ tell the difference between virtual world values and the real world. We have hospitals shutting down, running out of money all across the US and the entire HHS/CMS group is oblivious to this it seems, just get those stats in here so we can rate you:) I learn a lot from Quants as well and this is what they tell me “People don’t work that way” and they build models and the good ones don’t get lost in virtual values only. Even the White House puts out numbers that nobody can predict and actually it makes them look bad.

People Don’t Work That Way” A World of Broken Software Models That Don’t Align To the Human Side,Too Much Push At Times With Only A Proof of Concept That Fails in the Real World.

Here’s the part that bothers me is that they are pulling numbers out of the sky as nobody can predict this as there’s items out there called “variables’ so here we go with fake numbers to get you all stirred up and who knows if they are going to try and put this in their budget too. This is some quantitated madness here and better looked at in 4 years rather than try to project this now. Again we have some algo duping going on here. If you read the news of late, the Mayor of Chicago came up short with his projected numbers on cameras catching speeders, about $50 million and he put it in his budget. The mayor of Chicago by the way is the former Chief of Staff at the White House, so pretty typical duping there with one lost in the virtual world.

“HHS officials think this initiative can prevent 5 million unnecessary hospital admissions over the next four years, and reduce health care costs by at least $1 billion.”

To save a billion this is way too much hassle for doctors to mess with in my opinion as again doctors collaborate anyway and are adults and do know when they need to do that. After all doctors live and work in the “real” world so I guess you could say this big brainstorm would be typical of those who spend their time in virtual worlds more than the real world, as their perceptions get so out of whack with what we read and see at times. BD

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 23, 2014
Contact: HHS Press Office
202-690-6343
HHS Secretary announces $840 million initiative to improve patient care and lower costs

New initiative will support networks that help doctors access information and improve health outcomes

Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell today announced an initiative that will fund successful applicants who work directly with medical providers to rethink and redesign their practices, moving from systems driven by quantity of care to ones focused on patients’ health outcomes, and coordinated health care systems. These applicants could include group practices, health care systems, medical provider associations and others. This effort will help clinicians develop strategies to share, adapt and further improve the quality of care they provide, while holding down costs. Strategies could include:

    Giving doctors better access to patient information, such as information on prescription drug use to help patients take their medications properly;
    Expanding the number of ways patients are able communicate with the team of clinicians taking care of them;
    Improving the coordination of patient care by primary care providers, specialists, and the broader medical community; and
    Using electronic health records on a daily basis to examine data on quality and efficiency.

“The administration is partnering with clinicians to find better ways to deliver care, pay providers and distribute information to improve the quality of care we receive and spend our nation’s dollars more wisely,” said Secretary Burwell. “We all have a stake in achieving these goals and delivering for patients, providers and taxpayers alike.”

Through the Transforming Clinical Practice Initiative, HHS will invest $840 million over the next four years to support 150,000 clinicians. With a combination of incentives, tools, and information, the initiative will encourage doctors to team with their peers and others to move from volume-driven systems to value-based, patient-centered, and coordinated health care services. Successful applicants will demonstrate the ability to achieve progress toward measurable goals, such as improving clinical outcomes, reducing unnecessary testing, achieving cost savings and avoiding unnecessary hospitalizations.

The initiative is one part of a strategy advanced by the Affordable Care Act to strengthen the quality of patient care and spend health care dollars more wisely. For example, the Affordable Care Act has helped reduce hospital readmissions in Medicare by nearly 10 percent between 2007 and 2013 – translating into 150,000 fewer readmissions – and quality improvements have resulted in saving 15,000 lives and $4 billion in health spending during 2011 and 2012.

Building upon successful models and programs, such as the Quality Improvement Organization Program, Partnership for Patients with Hospital Engagement Networks, and Accountable Care Organizations, the initiative provides opportunities for participating clinicians to collaborate and disseminate information. Through a multi-pronged approach to technical assistance, it will identify existing health care delivery models that work and rapidly spread these models to other health care providers and clinicians.

“This model will support and build partnerships with doctors and other clinicians across the country to provide better care to their patients. Clinicians want to spend time with their patients, coordinate care, and improve patient outcomes, and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services wants to be a collaborative partner helping clinicians achieve those goals and spread best practices across the nation,” said Patrick Conway, M.D., deputy administrator for innovation and quality and CMS chief medical officer.

Practice Transformation Networks. CMS will award cooperative agreements to group practices, health care systems, and others that join together to serve as trusted partners in providing clinician practices with quality improvement expertise, best practices, coaching and assistance. These practices have successfully achieved measurable improvements in care by implementing electronic health records, coordinating among patients and their families, and performing timely monitoring and interventions of high-risk patients to prevent unnecessary hospitalization and readmissions. Practice Transformation Networks will work with a diverse range of practices, including those in rural communities and those that provide care for the medically underserved.

Support and Alignment Networks. CMS will award cooperative agreements to networks formed by medical professional associations and others who would align their memberships, communication channels, continuing medical education credits and other work to support the Practice Transformation Networks and clinician practices. These Support and Alignment Networks would create an infrastructure to help identify evidence-based practices and policies and disseminate them nationwide, in a scalable, sustainable approach to improved care delivery.

By participating in the initiative, practices will be able to receive the technical assistance and peer-level support they need to deliver care in a patient-centric and efficient manner, which is increasingly being demanded by health care payers and purchasers as part of a transformed care delivery system. Participating clinicians will thus be better positioned for success in the health care market of the future - one that rewards value and outcomes rather than volume.

HHS encourages all interested clinicians to participate in this initiative. For more information on the Transforming Clinical Practice Initiative, please visit: http://innovation.cms.gov/initiatives/Transforming-Clinical-Practices/

Orthopedic Surgeon Talks About Data Mining, Privacy, Medical Records and the Importance of the Doctor-Patient Relationship

Here’s a surgeon that’s in the know with data brokers. He’s tuned in and knows how data can be used against you. He talks how the data selling impacts reporting to the type of care patients get.

If you read here often enough, you hear a lot about privacy. He talks about not getting the full story with data.

Dr. Scott Barbour says the tracking has gone too far. This video was generated around the same time the hospital in North Carolina came out with their story on wanting more and more and more data and want doctors to rummage through those records.

Oh Crap, Now hospitals Are Now Buying Data From Acxiom - Data Selling Epidemic Continues to Evade on Personal Privacy As “Algo Duped-Stat Rat” People Try to Implement Virtual Models That Won’t Work…

We all should know by now that selling your credit card transactions has become big business out there and it’s almost to the point to where anyone can buy them in the corporate world. He talks about how this is just “part of the data” that comes from the web. Here’s the campaign at the link below to get a law passed to license data sellers. Why? We don’t know who they all are and they score and sell your data and they are making billions upon billions, a profit making epidemic for corporate America. BD

Transparency With Data Selling -We Need An Index On Who They are

Transparency And Privacy Campaign - Need to License All Who Sell Data So We Know Who They Are - Why All Privacy Laws have Failed, We Have No Index…Please Help..

http://scottbarbourmd.com/media.html