FDA Approves New Tamper Proof Oxycodone Painkiller From Purdue Pharma - Targiniq

<p>This is a new tamper proof drug which means if it is crushed it looses it affect, but of course <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="70" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-FXqWhW0fZKQ/U9CrbWaelNI/AAAAAAABK40/bcTIdAMKgS4/image%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="207" />people can still swallow the pills.  Purdue will have to conducted follow up studies on rates of abuse, addiction and death as that’s a standard anymore for any Opioid drugs.  BD</p> <p> <hr /></p> <p>Washington • The Food and Drug Administration has approved a new combination pain pill from the maker of OxyContin that is designed to discourage abuse by painkiller addicts.</p> <p>Purdue Pharma’s new drug Targiniq ER is an extended release tablet that combines oxycodone — the active ingredient in OxyContin — with the drug naloxone. FDA regulators approved the drug for daily, round-the-clock pain that does not respond to other medications.</p> <p>Stamford, Connecticut-based Purdue has often been cited by public health advocates as a key contributor to the overprescribing of opioids. In 2007, Purdue Pharma and three of its executives paid $634 million and pleaded guilty to charges of misleading the public about the safety and addictiveness of OxyContin.</p> <p><a href="http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/money/58216959-79/abuse-fda-drug-oxycontin.html.csp">http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/money/58216959-79/abuse-fda-drug-oxycontin.html.csp</a></p>

FDA Approves New Tamper Proof Oxycodone Painkiller From Purdue Pharma - Targiniq

This is a new tamper proof drug which means if it is crushed it looses it affect, but of course people can still swallow the pills.  Purdue ...

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Multi Millionaire Robert Durst Pees On A Candy Counter at Texas CVS Store After Filling His Prescription

<p>Is this a great story or what?  Listen to the video and read below about his past, pretty grizzly so he’s off his rocker to begin with.  He earned his money the old fashioned way, he inherited it.  He was recognized as a regular patron at the store.   BD  </p> <p> </p> <script type="text/javascript" charset="UTF-8" src="http://www.nbcbayarea.com/portableplayer/?cmsID=268173642&videoID=qWRjC_rsSk0w&origin=nbcbayarea.com&sec=news&subsec=national-international&width=440&height=360"></script> <hr />A New York City real estate heir acquitted of his neighbor's murder a decade ago is back in trouble, this time for a bizarre <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="187" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-_PHMiO59KI0/U9CoQxdNz9I/AAAAAAABK4o/iN3tDm58OhE/image%25255B2%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" title="image" width="167" />outburst in which police say he urinated on a rack of candy at a Texas drug store. <p>Police say multimillionaire Robert Durst unzipped his pants in a Houston CVS, exposed himself and then urinated on a cash register and candy before walking away from the store just after noon Sunday, <a href="http://www.click2houston.com/news/real-estate-heir-accused-of-urinating-on-candy/27084824">Houston NBC affiliate KPRC reported</a>.</p> <p>He had left the scene by the time police arrived, but on surveillance video he did not appear to have been agitated or argumentative before the incident, police said.</p> <p>Durst had been arrested in 2001, jumped bond, was found in Pennsylvania trying to steal a sandwich and a Band-Aid from a grocery store and eventually faced trial in the murder. He claimed he had shot Morris Black in self-defense during a struggle over a gun, <a href="http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Durst-accused-of-urinating-on-drugstore-candy-5637119.php">according to the Houston Chronicle</a>.</p> <p><a href="http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/national-international/Robert-Durst-Urinates-Houston-CVS-Candy-268180742.html">http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/national-international/Robert-Durst-Urinates-Houston-CVS-Candy-268180742.html</a></p>

Multi Millionaire Robert Durst Pees On A Candy Counter at Texas CVS Store After Filling His Prescription

Is this a great story or what?  Listen to the video and read below about his past, pretty grizzly so he’s off his rocker to begin with.  He ...

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Walgreens Closing Distribution Center in Flagstaff Arizona - 345 Jobs Lost While Senator Durbin of Illinois States They Are Turning Their Backs On the US Should They Move Their Headquarters Outside the US

<p>Flagstaff is located in northern Arizona and now the center will be closing.<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="144" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-jL7ymNHYxvc/U9CkHAImchI/AAAAAAABK4c/rqvLkvpB4To/image%25255B2%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="187" />  There has been a lot of speculation if Walgreens will stay headquartered in the US or move to the UK or Switzerland. </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/06/so-what-avenue-will-walgreens-take-tax.html">So What Avenue Will Walgreens Take, A Tax Inversion and Move to the UK or Reduction in Costs, Which Means Lay Offs And/Or Closures To Bolster the Value of The Stock?</a></h5> <p>Last year Walgreens had 75.2 billion in revenue and 2.8 billion in profits.  Remember too these folks bring in about 1 - 2 billion in revenue from selling data which would be part of of the 75 billion in revenue.  In addition Senator Dick Durbin wrote a letter to the chairman of Walgreens  stating they were turning their backs on the US should they decide to move.<strong>  Well they have to finance their stock buy backs and reductions and cut backs are part of that as they are pretty leveraged these days if they stay in the US</strong>.  The company is also suing <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/03/walgreens-suing-cvs-rite-aid-wants.html">CVS and Rite Aid</a> over IP software patents.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/10/walgreens-cashing-in-big-in-data.html">Walgreens Cashing in Big In the Data Selling Epidemic Arena–Incentives Connected to Apps and Devices That Sell, Re-Query and Re-Sell Our Data And Data Profiles</a></h5> <p>In addition to save money last year all employees were moved to a private health insurance exchange for their benefits that is run by an investor relations firm.   Sounds like things are headed to be a little toxic around Walgreens.  BD  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/09/walgreens-plans-to-move-180000.html">Walgreens Plans to Move 180,000 Employees Over to Insurance Exchange Managed By AON Consultants, Risk Management, Re-Insurance, Kidnap and Ransom Coverage…And So On</a></h5> <p><object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,47,0" height="290" id="flashObj" width="440"><param name="movie" value="http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isSlim=1" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><param name="flashVars" value="videoId=3689669704001&playerID=2868544859001&playerKey=AQ~~,AAAABvZFMzE~,IXjx0MpOF0rs6Zj6tTY84DVV4TqsG9K-&domain=embed&dynamicStreaming=true" /><param name="base" value="http://admin.brightcove.com" /><param name="seamlesstabbing" value="false" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="swLiveConnect" value="true" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><embed src="http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isSlim=1" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" flashVars="videoId=3689669704001&playerID=2868544859001&playerKey=AQ~~,AAAABvZFMzE~,IXjx0MpOF0rs6Zj6tTY84DVV4TqsG9K-&domain=embed&dynamicStreaming=true" base="http://admin.brightcove.com" name="flashObj" width="640" height="390" seamlesstabbing="false" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullScreen="true" swLiveConnect="true" allowScriptAccess="always" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"></embed></object></p> <p> <hr />Walgreens</p> announced it will be closing its distribution center in Flagstaff, leaving 345 people wondering what they're going to do as the company slowly lays them all off by April of next year. <p>The community is now scrambling to do what it can to keep as many of those workers in town.</p> <p>"This is the biggest one we've ever had in Flagstaff," said Coconino County Career Center Director Carol Curtis.</p> <p>The distribution center in Flagstaff was once thought to be an employer that would be around for good. The city even named the road it's on Walgreens Street.</p> <p>Curtis says the news made the Coconino County Career Center's rapid-response team spring into action.</p> <p><a href="http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona/2014/07/21/12news-walgreens-closes-distribution-center/12972023/">http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona/2014/07/21/12news-walgreens-closes-distribution-center/12972023/</a></p>

Walgreens Closing Distribution Center in Flagstaff Arizona - 345 Jobs Lost While Senator Durbin of Illinois States They Are Turning Their Backs On the US Should They Move Their Headquarters Outside the US

Flagstaff is located in northern Arizona and now the center will be closing.   There has been a lot of speculation if Walgreens will stay he...

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HHS With New Burwell Appointment Adds A Little Splash of Wal-Mart to the United Healthcare Model Being Used for Just About Everything We See And Read Today…

<p>We have another new one added today in the form of Wal-Mart Senior VP Leslie Dach to be Burwell’s senior counselor to help manage the health insurance exchanges.  As I have said before I think HHS and CMS has nowhere else to turn with the lack of building their own models over the years.  A former CMS employee told me that for years when they go stuck they <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="181" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-j1hUtThuwgM/U9BBInrX4JI/AAAAAAABK4M/gA37KlpM8ZQ/image%25255B2%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="187" />just called in United to provide and create a model for them so I think this study is really true from Plos One, the fear of math gives people real physical pain:)  Of course we know this doesn’t apply to Wall Street either but it could alive and well at HHS and CMS these days:)</p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/10/algo-duping-plos-one-journal.html">Algo Duping” – PLOS One Journal Publication Explains Why The Fear of Math Plays a Big Role As One Underlying Reason We All Get Duped And Those Who Don’t Fear Math Take All the Money, Gradually, Using “Mathematical Formulas & Algorithms</a></h5> <p>Of course we know that we don’t have any real experts anymore either so half dozen of one and six of another, <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/04/modeling-for-inequality-with.html">it’s modeling for inequality using segmentation</a> anyway with the <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/04/world-privacy-forum-report-scoring-of.html">“Scoring of America’</a> that denies access.  As  I said below we are all busy as consumers being chased by corporate profit algorithms all the time with our data by all means and in time the glut will come out as it is beginning to show that all the models are not accurate and many are flawed or just cheat as what happened with the <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2010/04/ama-has-online-assistance-and-forms-for.html">AMA and Ingenix, while the current Andy Slavitt who’s the #2 person  in control now at CMS was CEO over that subsidiary</a>.  If you read the article, Andy Slavitt has officially been forgiven for anything he’s done or will do maybe.   So far the focus has been on the QSSI incident, but how about the AMA suit, he was CEO then of Ingenix…</p> <p>This is the guidance we can look forward to I guess as I don’t know about you but I do get suspicious about leopards changing their spots, a few do but you can base your own opinion here.    There’s still a bunch of unsettled Ingenix (Optum) lawsuits out there unsettled.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/06/healthcare-policy-experts-and.html">Healthcare Policy Experts/Politicians - They Really No Longer Exist and Consumers Are Too Busy Being Chased by Algorithms Anymore to Care About You Anyway…</a></h5> <p>Of course we all might remember Steve Larsen who left CMS to work for Optum as well a couple years ago who was responsible for a big part of the ACA law.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/06/us-health-insurance-regulator-leaving.html">US Health Insurance Regulator Leaving to Take a Job at UnitedHealth Care As Vice President of the Optum Division – Moving to the “For Profit Side” With Business Intelligence Algorithm Dollars To Review</a></h5> <p>I said back in 2009 that these two would run over by insurers duping them and well, what do you think:)  I just visualize and said what I felt in 2009 and sad but it’s what happened and we have issue at the SEC going right now too.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/03/nancy-ann-deparle-and-kathleen-sebelius.html">Nancy-Ann DeParle and Kathleen Sebelius – Business Intelligence?</a></h5> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/02/kathleen-sebelius-kansas-governor-for.html">Kathleen Sebelius, Kansas Governor for HHS – Please not! Put the “Smart” People in these key positions</a></h5> <p>The mess we have right now is all credited to the insurers and their companies that’s how they make <img align="right" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/Tb3In3KU2vI/AAAAAAAAwPQ/k4-f5id3unk/image_thumb%5B6%5D.png?imgmax=800" />money with complexities just like Wall Street and the government sucked it all in and I’m far from the first on the web to state this fact.  So we can add a new “sprinkle” of Wal-Mart here, who by the way has a pretty big technology lab up in the Silicon Valley too in case you were not aware.  I like good data and it makes us smarter and we do need it but<strong> there’s so much room for one heck of a lot of Algo Duping which works well on the </strong><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/03/virtual-worlds-real-world-we-have.html"><strong>folks living in “The Grays”</strong></a><strong> who can’t tell the difference between virtual and real world values and that’s a real problem in the US.</strong>.all you have to do is recall the Facebook study a few weeks ago, and there you are:)</p> <p>So it’s going to be pretty miserable indeed as the White House themselves has been caught with being duped with some junk science numbers so HHS and CMS unless something changes will as I see it keep sucking in what ever models they are presented with, and I did a post on some of that too, <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/12/quantitated-justification-for-believing.html">“quantitated justifications” for things that are not true</a> and one by one all over today we’re seeing numbers and models fail.  For an easy reference look at all the money spent with Lewin <a href="http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/731766/000119312503075552/dex21.htm">(another United subsidiary)</a> that gave us a steady diet of of studies with “how much much money would be saved with this or with that”.  You can go research and find them on the web too that claims billions and sometimes even trillions would be saved, while banks of data bases were built that scrape and sell our data for billions all the time to which we have absolutely no say or the ability to even see who they are.  World Privacy Forum called that out perfectly “What going on with the secret scoring of US consumers”…we all watching.  Sadly that’s what a lot of these models for better care are built around when it comes out in the wash, not better care, just more algorithms and more scoring to deny access.  BD </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/04/world-privacy-forum-report-scoring-of.html">World Privacy Forum Report - The Scoring of America: How Secret Consumer Scores Threaten Your Privacy and Your Future - One Big Element that Fuels the Continued Attack of Killer Algorithms & Demise of the Middle Class Creating Profiteering And/Or Denial of Access</a></h5> <p> <hr />Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell on Wednesday announced the appointment of WalMart Senior Vice President Leslie Dach to be her senior counselor and help manage the health insurance exchanges under the Affordable Care Act.</p> <p>“Leslie’s experience, which spans the business, government and civil society sectors, will further enhance our ability to deliver impact for the American people,” Burwell said. “We want to not only retain, but also recruit, talented individuals to our mission of ensuring every American has access to the building blocks of a healthy, productive life.” </p> <p><a href="http://www.govexec.com/management/2014/07/hhs-makes-personnel-moves-better-manage-obamacare/89489/">http://www.govexec.com/management/2014/07/hhs-makes-personnel-moves-better-manage-obamacare/89489/</a></p>

HHS With New Burwell Appointment Adds A Little Splash of Wal-Mart to the United Healthcare Model Being Used for Just About Everything We See And Read Today…

We have another new one added today in the form of Wal-Mart Senior VP Leslie Dach to be Burwell’s senior counselor to help manage the health...

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Bill To Restore Office of Technology Assessment Was Defeated Again This Year As Congress Chooses to Remain In the Dark With Technology At A Time When Private Industry Is Doing Just the Opposite - “The Grays” Live On…

<p>This non partisan agency existed for years and at a time when we are living in the most absolute complex times ever, well these folks think they don’t need any help and maybe that’s true as we have the most non productive Congress ever because they are lost.  Due to this fact and not acknowledging technology and working from a verbiage standpoint only and not looking at the<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="195" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-0uYxyjnEZEM/U8_UziEVWBI/AAAAAAABK30/8jhFku4xJPg/image%25255B10%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="162" /> “data” side and impact as a partner with all laws today, we sink.  Congress is just head on letting private industry dupe and dupe them again and they don’t even know they have been duped as some money shuffles in somewhere along the lines.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/09/jon-stewart-discusses-little-paper.html">Jon Stewart Discusses “Little Paper Senator Cruz”–Yet More Startling Proof For the Need to Restore the Tool Congress Needs–The office of technology assessment</a></h5> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/09/senator-john-mccain-another.html"><strong>Senator John McCain: Another Demonstration of Why Congress Should Reinstitute the office of technology assessment, When Education Takes Place, Less Distractions With Boredom And More Respect for Consumers…</strong></a></h5> <p><strong>The only physicist in Congress created the latest bill</strong> as he more than anyone understands the need but again we have a do nothing Congress with technology slapping them in the face with almost every law today and they seem to just want to be bliss and do nothing.  <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/03/virtual-worlds-real-world-we-have.html">I talk about “The Grays” all the time</a> where folks can’t tell the difference between virtual and real world values and there’s nothing more than this situation that makes it stick out like a black eye.  When you have one of the smartest men in Congress and he can’t make a move on this, well what does that tell you?  It’s not good.  </p> <p>Princeton still has the <a href="https://www.princeton.edu/~ota/">old website</a> hosted to show what the Office of Technology Assessment did.  </p> <p><em>“The Office of Technology Assessment occupied a unique role among the Congressional information agencies. Unlike the General Accounting Office, which is primarily concerned with evaluation of ongoing programs, and the Congressional Research Service, which provides rapid information on legislative topics, OTA provided a deeper, more comprehensive, and more technical level of analysis. Through eleven Congressional sessions, OTA became a key resource for Congressional members and staff confronting technological issues in crafting public policy. Its existence brought a healthy balance to the analytical resources available to the executive and legislative branches of government.</em></p> <p><em>The agency's legacy is found in the many items of legislation it influenced and in the channels of communication its staff helped foster between legislative policymakers and members of the scientific, technical, and business communities.”</em></p> <p>So again it is scary that many don’t recognize a very important tool Congress needs today and chooses to remain bliss and we all suffer from their lack of action and being bliss.  Anyone in technology has the same opinion as myself on this and so the whole world of technology is looking at a Congress that fails to recognize even the basic tools they need to do their job.  Actually the agency still does exist, they just don’t fund it.  Lack of technology impact is why we get laws like this, which is better than nothing but are low tech solutions for high tech problems.  There’s so much more fraud going on that what Glass-Steagall will help so why not get a high tech solution as banks and other fi<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="300" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-segFdQ-gZ5s/U8_U0cOB4QI/AAAAAAABK38/maJb38v6xSY/image%25255B11%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="368" />nancials will just “code” around the low tech solutions, been going on for years.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/07/glass-steagall-revival-presents-low.html">Glass-Steagall Revival Presents a “Low Tech” Partial Solution for an Industry that Needs “High Tech” Regulation-Consumers Get 5 More Years of Bank Modeling For Inequality With Segmentation - No Real Regulation In Sight</a></h5> <p>It’s not just limited to Congress either as we have the <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/06/junk-science-appearing-everywhere-even.html">White House as well living in a virtual world</a> and some of the stuff that comes out from the email bot is scary too with folks using “junk science” numbers that nobody can predict and they expect a buy in.  Sad as the White House seems to be doing the same thing and not looking at reality as well.  </p> <p><strong>We’re screwed as there’s no digital literacy hardly to be found anymore and worst case is they can’t even see that they need the help.</strong>  You don’t have to look much further for the judicial system too than yesterday for their role in all of this too as they make a ruling about Obamacare and think the IT Algo Wizards with magic wands will just run out there an change all this code and programming that’s been done for the insurance system…what a joke that is as well.  </p> <p>I don’t care whether you are pro or con on Obamacare, it’s time to look at the real world here and see the amount of time an work needed for any kind of change and of course making changes to what we have.  Judicial system lives in a fantasy world as well and their magic wand of ruling isn’t cutting it anymore either.  Again the same thing, “let’s just work on all this verbiage” as that’s what counts.  In the private world it’s not that way at all as they find loopholes to run their IT infrastructure code right around it, sub prime or high frequency trading anyone?   BD  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/07/dc-circuit-court-of-appeals-now-rules.html">DC Circuit Court of Appeals Now Rules The Obama Administration Can’t Subsidize Insurance Premiums As Stated in the ACA - “Sebelius Syndrome” The Gift That Keeps On Giving..</a></h5> <p> <hr />The House rejected an attempt May 1 to resuscitate the Office of Technology Assessment, the legislative branch agency that once offered advice on scientific and technical matters to lawmakers but has been shuttered for almost 20 years.</p> <p>An amendment to the fiscal 2015 legislative branch spending bill by retiring New Jersey Democrat Rush D. Holt, the only physicist in Congress, to provide $2.5 million to restart the OTA failed on a vote of 164-248. </p> <p>Officially, the OTA still exists, as the law that created it was never repealed. "It still exists on paper, it just hasn't been funded," Holt <a href="http://www.federalnewsradio.com/108/3613937/Measure-to-reboot-Congress-tech-think-tank-to-get-a-vote-Thursday">told</a> Federal News Radio this week. "They turned out the lights almost 20 years ago now." </p> <p>Various attempts to fund the OTA, which was created in 1972, have failed over the years, including one led by Holt in 2011. </p> <p><a href="http://fcw.com/articles/2014/05/01/ota-still-doa.aspx">http://fcw.com/articles/2014/05/01/ota-still-doa.aspx</a></p>

Bill To Restore Office of Technology Assessment Was Defeated Again This Year As Congress Chooses to Remain In the Dark With Technology At A Time When Private Industry Is Doing Just the Opposite - “The Grays” Live On…

This non partisan agency existed for years and at a time when we are living in the most absolute complex times ever, well these folks think ...

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Tucson, AZ Healthcare System To Form a Partnership With Not One But Three Hospital Systems, Tenet, Ascension, and Dignity, Maybe Getting That Care 360 Subsidiary In Place For Income Too?

<p>The hospital will maintain it’s Catholic affiliation and Tenet looks like they are just an investor from what I read here with controlling interest over the assets.  We have due diligence going here for sure and who’s going to participate in who’s accountable<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="51" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-9_7jF6-t2Jk/U87kHNs1CDI/AAAAAAABK3k/77LkrXW8xa8/image%25255B2%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" title="image" width="187" /> care organization?  Will it be Tenet’s or Dignity, or both.  Dignity of course would be in place with their partnership with Optum a subsidiary of United Healthcare in which United is the controlling party.  <strong>You can see the ads all over the place as Dignity and United are putting in new employees that are not employed by either United or Dignity</strong>, but rather by the Optum 360 subsidiary.  From what I was told back at CMS folks about fell on the floor when the Optum 360 company was created.</p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/10/united-healthcare-adding-yet-one-more.html">United Healthcare Adding Yet One More Subsidiary to the Very Large Number of Subs They Already Own/Operate-Optum and Dignity Healthcare (A System Wide Cerner EHR Client) Form New Venture Called Optum 360–Subsidiary Watch</a></h5> <p><strong>In addition if Dignity is in control here then United Labs might get a hold of some additional medical records to add to their collection of Mayo and McLaren too.</strong>  <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/05/boston-scientific-joins-optum-united.html">Boston Scientific</a> is the first paying data miner I believe they have.  Dignity is an owner in the Labs deal so they would get to participate in revenue returns. </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/02/united-healthcare-adds-mclaren-care.html">United Healthcare Adds McLaren Care Health System Into the Shared Clarity Data Mining And Selling Venture Along With Dignity Health</a></h5> <p><strong>Again from what I can see here Tenet looks like an investor from a business side of all of this as Ascension is transferring part it’s ownership to let Dignity move into action</strong> as mentioned above.  Why else would they being doing it?  This is what I speculate anyway after following the <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/07/health-insurance-business-under-radar.html">massive subsidiary creations of United</a> over the years who by the way looks to be selling some more ACO software as they just announced their affiliation yesterday with Banner Hospitals.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/07/united-healthcare-and-banner-health-in.html">United HealthCare and Banner Health In Arizona Form An ACO (Accountable Care Organization) - ACO Software Sales Must Be Booming For United…</a></h5> <p>If you look anymore at the models being used by HHS/CMS and those in the annual report from United you see the same<img align="right" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-tijkSzKtJCo/UlyAMU3pkJI/AAAAAAABIIQ/Snjq2bIa4hg/image%25255B7%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="float: right; display: inline" /> things in one place and then over at the other with a few small modifications and we all know <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/06/how-hard-did-united-have-to-lobby-to.html">the #2 man at CMS is a long time former United executive</a>.  Someone mentioned to me the other day they thought this long term United Healthcare relationship goes back to the Lois Quam days of her working for Hillary and John Kerry later, with needing to make a quick escape from the US Department of Justice investigation which ended up with the prior CEO of United being fined and I guess all the other charges against the current CEO, Lois Quam (who ended up as the #2 person at United) and others were dropped on back dating stocks, but all were named as defendants on legal documents.  </p> <p><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/07/tenet-cancels-contracts-with-orthopedic.html">Tenet in the meantime</a> is exploring a national group contract with doctors and cut some contract in California recently with orthopedic surgeons in the desert area and <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/05/tenet-hospitals-announces-rebranding.html">recently rebranded their urgent care centers</a> which <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/01/united-healthcare-now-entering-urgent.html">competes with what United is</a> doing on that level.  Ascension is the largest Catholic hospital system in the US and <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/09/catholic-health-initiatives-to-invest.html">created a VC fund</a> a while back and also has their Cayman Island ownership with <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/05/health-city-cayman-islands-opened-this.html">Health City.</a>  </p> <p>So once again attempting here to connect the subsidiary dots with United and the the possible reasoning for Dignity to swing into action with running the hospitals.  Time will tell once due diligence is done and if we begin seeing Optum 360 folks being hired there and EMR records going to Optum Labs.   It should also be noted that the Carondelet Health Network had combined operating losses of $90 million last year.  BD</p> <hr />A Tucson health network is in initial stages to join ventures with health provider companies based off Texas and California. <p><a href="http://www.carondelet.org/">Carondelet Health Network</a> and its parent company, <a href="http://www.ascensionhealth.org/">Ascension Health</a>, have signed a letter to form a partnership with <a href="http://www.tenethealth.com/pages/home.aspx">Tenet Healthcare Corporation</a> and <a href="http://www.dignityhealth.org/index.htm">Dignity Health</a>, a press release from Carondelet said. </p> <p>"We are excited to pursue the relationship with Tenet and Dignity Health," said James K. Beckmann, president and CEO of Carondelet, in the release. "Like Carondelet, Tenet and Dignity Health are committed to providing high quality, low-cost, person-centered care. This relationship is an opportunity to strengthen those efforts, enhance healthcare across Arizona..."</p> <p>"The people of Tucson and Southern Arizona will continue to benefit from the tremendous dedication and talent of Carondelet's associates and physician partners," he added.</p> <p><a href="https://news.azpm.org/p/bus-econ-news/2014/7/22/40078-st-marys-hospital-parent-in-takeover-bid/">https://news.azpm.org/p/bus-econ-news/2014/7/22/40078-st-marys-hospital-parent-in-takeover-bid/</a></p>

Tucson, AZ Healthcare System To Form a Partnership With Not One But Three Hospital Systems, Tenet, Ascension, and Dignity, Maybe Getting That Care 360 Subsidiary In Place For Income Too?

The hospital will maintain it’s Catholic affiliation and Tenet looks like they are just an investor from what I read here with controlling i...

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DC Circuit Court of Appeals Now Rules The Obama Administration Can’t Subsidize Insurance Premiums As Stated in the ACA - “Sebelius Syndrome” The Gift That Keeps On Giving..

<p>Of course this will be appealed and you know who’s behind this, it’s the lobbyists for insurance companies as they know how to play the game from every angle as they have very sophisticated math quants they hire to model all of this.  It’s been going on for years and years and the government either with perceptions or with total denial has been behind the 8 ball.  I applauded<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="208" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-RRY6kn_KZjs/U86LGDv5C0I/AAAAAAABK3U/J7T7hPkKwsk/image%25255B4%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="287" /> the administration and the project for sure with trying to get more people insured and and in their ignorance of how the other side works, the intentions were good but they didn’t see this battle coming and it’s war with code intelligence as well as interjecting legal questions at the the opportune moments, like what we have here.  Again nothing personal but the folks hired to run most government agencies were behind the 8 ball going in with no data mechanics logic and thinking to see the real story with IT Infrastructures.  Sadly, link below, we have ended up with this.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/07/congratulations-to-us-government-you.html">Congratulations To The US Government - You Have Successfully Created a Complex Healthcare System Built With Little Or No Trust Where Nobody Wants to Engage With Your Current Broken Model..</a></h5> <p>Insurers know how to work it.  It’s all code hosing and nobody questions the models.  So now we have more legal battles and we have to wait for the appeal and again it goes back to how the law was written with little involvement in how the IT Infrastructures would work as “those grow on trees” don’t they?  The bliss lives on and we all pay the price.  If you want to learn more about how this works, <a href="http://www.ducknet.net/attack-of-the-killer-algorithms/">visit the Killer Algorithms page</a> and you can watch some videos on how math modeling, quants, and business models when they play via complex IT infrastructures that are built to support laws impact all of us.  <strong>Again as I keep saying lawyers only look at verbiage while computer code “runs hog ass wild” if you will and that’s the story here.</strong></p> <p>You can choose to believe whatever you want but I prefer to go right to where the control is with algorithmic formulas running on servers 24/7 making life impacting decisions about all of us versus a <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/04/secretary-sebelius-at-hhs-resigns-wrong.html">search for some algo fairies.</a>  I have been saying of late that both the White House and Congress as well as a lot of other folks have been confused with virtual and real world values and this how it plays out sadly and we have the same thing going over at the <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/04/markets-are-not-rigged-spoken-like-true.html">SEC with Mary Jo White, no data mechanics logic.</a>  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.hu/2014/03/virtual-worlds-real-world-we-have.html">Virtual Worlds, Real World We Have A Problem And It’s A Big One With A Lot of Gray Areas Finding Where The Defining Lines Exist, Confusing Many With A Lot of Weird Values And Strange Perceptions…</a></h5> <p>We have witnessed the sublime to the ridiculous at at times as well with things like like <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/09/hhs-and-doj-send-letters-to-hospital.html">HHS/DOJ sending a letter to medical organizations</a> accusing them of cheating, again not understanding the Health IT portion of our system here and data mechanics, to <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/02/speed-up-rate-of-change-in-health.html">“hurry up with Health IT”,</a> and again those with a full understanding on how the IT infrastructures work would have never reacted in this fashion by all means.  Folks in technology just kind of shake their heads when you the strange and weird things like that rolling out and make excuses for them too with the full lack of understanding how it all works.  I said from day one back in 2009 (links below) what I felt about all of this and again without some data mechanics logic, I was scared and turns out now I had good cause to be, as again the perceptions were wrong and everything does not work with verbiage alone as you have these big IT monsters that run everything, the part they all leave out.  Of course we know that <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/08/nancy-deparle-returns-to-what-she-knows.html">Nancy DeParle made an early departure</a> when she things were over her head and is now back in private equity and sitting on the board at CVS.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/03/nancy-ann-deparle-and-kathleen-sebelius.html">Nancy-Ann DeParle and Kathleen Sebelius – Business Intelligence?</a></h5> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/02/kathleen-sebelius-kansas-governor-for.html">Kathleen Sebelius, Kansas Governor for HHS – Please not! Put the “Smart” People in these key positions</a><img align="right" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/Tb3In3KU2vI/AAAAAAAAwPQ/k4-f5id3unk/image_thumb%5B6%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="float: right; display: inline" /></h5> <p>So now what?  Are we going to nit pick all the verbiage once more and ignore the IT side of things, while insurers go full speed ahead with their modeling?  Again the ignorance here is astounding and the fact they still live it, in the White House, in Congress, etc. and then they wonder why things don’t work?   I’m going to use a little satire here with the link below as I’m beginning to put more faith in this study as we move forward with people running for the hills when math models for business come up.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/10/algo-duping-plos-one-journal.html">Algo Duping” – PLOS One Journal Publication Explains Why The Fear of Math Plays a Big Role As One Underlying Reason We All Get Duped And Those Who Don’t Fear Math Take All the Money, Gradually, Using “Mathematical Formulas & Algorithms</a></h5> <p>I have even complained of late with the <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/06/junk-science-appearing-everywhere-even.html">White House using “junk science”</a> in some of their “bot” emails as there are numbers quoted that nobody can predict and after a while you start to wonder “how algo duped are they” at the other end and it scares me to no end as this rationalization is 100% letting business models run the country and our government sits by idle.  I couldn’t even watch the correspondent’s show this year as sure there was humor and I like to laugh but what they were laughing at this year was not only themselves but their own ignorance on the data world and how their lunch is getting eaten right and left and they couldn’t see it, so again it was too depressing and when I saw the Obama and Biden “selfies” too, well I kind of figured there’s more showing this “lost” format and living in <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.hu/2014/03/virtual-worlds-real-world-we-have.html">“The Grays”</a> to where the confusion of virtual world values are mixed up with the real world.  </p> <p>So here we go again, question on whether or not your healthcare will be covered and the political battles of digital illiteracy of the government being run by private industry.  Take a look at the <a href="http://www.unitedhealthgroup.com/Health Reform/Default.aspx">United Healthcare annual report and see the pdfs and</a> it’s not hard at all to figure out where HHS and CMS are getting their models and who’s in control, and that’s scary as we have an insurer playing the IT and Algo Duping cards to their favor and basically running most all of the models you see drifting out of HHS and CMS.  I think this got it’s start back with Lois Quam in the Hillary days and it has continued to grow from there and at some point too I wonder when other insurers are going speak up too with a lack of competition too some day?  So again we know where the lobbying comes in here as the insurers play the game and they would love to be able to sell more policies outside of the insurance exchanges by all means, so don’t kid yourself on the politics here.  </p> <p>In the meantime with all the technology advances and the data selling epidemic<img align="right" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-BcES4lN-2Ro/UzCw2NjarSI/AAAAAAABJuY/GQXWw2QAyV0/image%25255B30%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="float: right; display: inline" /> taking place too, consumers, <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/07/taking-back-medicine-maintenance-of.html">doctors and others are busy running for the exits</a> as we have nothing in the way of any privacy protection or transparency as even now it’s becoming more obvious to the every day consumer they don’t understand what’s going on in DC, but we feel it every day, and thus when government live in the bliss and does little, what other choice do we have but to run for the exits as marketing and data selling have taken priority versus better care for us and again they can’t see it.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/06/healthcare-policy-experts-and.html">Healthcare Policy Experts/Politicians - They Really No Longer Exist and Consumers Are Too Busy Being Chased by Algorithms Anymore to Care About You Anyway…</a></h5> <p><strong>The link below shows a story on exactly how this works with “data flippers” and making money as having all the Acxiom and MasterCard data is not getting better care delivered but it’s rather people attached and addicted to having to know every dirty detail about you and they “think” that can predict and create better care, when in fact it does not.  </strong></p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/06/oh-crap-now-hospitals-are-now-buying.html">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…</a></h5> <p>So again stay tuned as the legal system and their decisions once more forget that there’s a whole IT infrastructure that runs the country today and see what words of wisdom show up next and the in the meantime, hopefully we can survive some additional government bliss without losing too much more democracy, as even the <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/04/world-privacy-forum-report-scoring-of.html">World Forum on Privacy</a> is watching as well.  BD</p> <p> <hr />A federal appeals court has ruled the Obama administration cannot subsidize insurance premiums for nearly 7 million Americans, dealing a serious blow to the <a href="http://www.modernhealthcare.com/section/healthcare-reform">Affordable Care Act</a>. The ruling sets up an almost-certain appeal to the <a href="http://www.modernhealthcare.com/section/articles?tagID=5805">U.S. Supreme Court</a>.</p> <p>Two judges with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington ruled Tuesday that the text of the reform law clearly forbids income-tax subsidies to go to low- and middle-income Americans who use one of the <a href="http://kff.org/health-reform/state-indicator/state-decisions-for-creating-health-insurance-exchanges-and-expanding-medicaid/#map">34 federally run insurance exchanges</a>. The tax subsidies have been flowing since the beginning of the year, based on a 2012 interpretation of the law by the IRS. </p> <p>The actual text of the law says the sliding-scale tax credits are only available for coverage purchased “though an exchange established by the state,” which only 16 states did. IRS officials had claimed the imprecise wording of the law contradicted Congress' overall intent to expand insurance coverage as widely as possible. But that argument did not win the day Tuesday. <br />“Because we conclude that the ACA unambiguously restricts the section 36B subsidy to insurance purchased on Exchanges 'established by the State,' we reverse the district court and vacate the IRS's regulation,” the two-member majority wrote. </p> <p><a href="http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20140722/NEWS/307119923?AllowView=VDl3UXk1TytDUGFCbkJiYkY0M3hlMFNvamtVZENPVT0=&utm_source=link-20140722-NEWS-307119923&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mh-alert">http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20140722/NEWS/307119923?AllowView=VDl3UXk1TytDUGFCbkJiYkY0M3hlMFNvamtVZENPVT0=&utm_source=link-20140722-NEWS-307119923&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mh-alert</a></p>

DC Circuit Court of Appeals Now Rules The Obama Administration Can’t Subsidize Insurance Premiums As Stated in the ACA - “Sebelius Syndrome” The Gift That Keeps On Giving..

Of course this will be appealed and you know who’s behind this, it’s the lobbyists for insurance companies as they know how to play the game...

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Tennessee Is the Latest State Hit with United Firing 500 Plus Medicare Advantage Doctors

<p>It just keeps rolling and this woman has been through 7 doctors in the last year.  She’s not even complaining at all about the coverage but she is uprooted over and over.  This makes it hard to keep a relationship with a<img align="right" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/TXCfvYCDCBI/AAAAAAAAsv0/8biVjC7dBI0/image_thumb%5B1%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="float: right; display: inline" /> doctor.  This is what you get when you become a senior “algorithm says” and poof on to the next, and this should not be.  Here’s a couple more recent examples below.  You just can’t keep uprooting people like this over and over, especially seniors.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/06/united-healthcare-round-two-with-more.html">United Healthcare Round Two With More Medicare Advantage Doctors Being Fired in Massachusetts and Tennessee- Expansion of the Business Intelligence Killer Algorithms Keeps Growing</a></h5> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/05/united-healthcare-medicare-advantage.html">United Healthcare Medicare Advantage “Narrow Networks” Moves On To Virginia Next, More Patients Will Need To Find New Doctors</a></h5> <p>Even outside of Medicare Advantage they are getting bigger and bigger and here’s another example.</p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/05/express-scripts-to-lay-off-400-people.html">Express Scripts To Lay Off 400 People Tampa As UnitedHealthcare Moves Patients To Their Own Pharmacy Benefit Management Company-Subsidiary Watch</a></h5> <p>Here’s a couple links below that show all their subsidiaries, they are huge and becoming too powerful I feel.  My blog is getting consumed with their news as that’s all that’s out there with shuffling and inconveniencing people today.  BD  </p> <h5><a href="http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/731766/000119312503075552/dex21.htm">http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/731766/000119312503075552/dex21.htm</a> </h5> <h5><a href="http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/731766/000119312510027229/dex211.htm">http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/731766/000119312510027229/dex211.htm</a></h5> <p> <hr />Patsy Wilkins had cycled through seven different primary care physicians in the past year, primarily due to changes within her health coverage.</p> <p>Wilkins, 63, and a resident of Nashville Christian Towers senior living home, has been a member of United Healthcare's Medicare Advantage plan for the past four years.</p> <p>She loves her plan, and says it covers most of her medical needs, which are substantial – considering she was diagnosed with Type II Diabetes six years ago. But now, United is re-structuring the provider network for its Medicare Advantage plan in Tennessee, and Wilkins feels a little lost.</p> <p>Specifically, United is cutting 500 Tennessee physicians from its Medicare Advantage network, and an additional, undisclosed amount from its TennCare product in 2014. According to the Tennessee Medical Association, these doctors were not cut because of performance issues or poor conduct, but unrelated network changes</p> <p>But Wilkins said that she has felt helpless. She said that she recently lost her favorite doctor, who had been with her for two and a half years.</p> <p>"The last visit I had with her, I cried like a baby," Wilkins said. "Because I had worked so hard for so long to find a network of providers who would work with my medical issues."</p> <p><a href="http://www.tennessean.com/story/money/industries/health-care/2014/07/15/united-cuts-providers-medicare-medicaid-patients/12689833/">http://www.tennessean.com/story/money/industries/health-care/2014/07/15/united-cuts-providers-medicare-medicaid-patients/12689833/</a></p>

Tennessee Is the Latest State Hit with United Firing 500 Plus Medicare Advantage Doctors

It just keeps rolling and this woman has been through 7 doctors in the last year.  She’s not even complaining at all about the coverage but ...

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United HealthCare and Banner Health In Arizona Form An ACO (Accountable Care Organization) - ACO Software Sales Must Be Booming For United…

<p>We keep hearing about accountable care models and they all differ a bit but the one thing everyone says which is the same is that they all require software and IT to track everything so this is no different except United has their own or via a subsidiary such as Optum to come with their plan.   Where I’m at in the OC the company is real tight with Memorial Care and owns<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="129" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-zQoZGuA9M2k/U83QIry9Y9I/AAAAAAABK3E/gIYitEak_Gk/image%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="204" /> all the big physician's groups or owns the company either directly or via a subsidiary that managed them, i.e.. Nautilus that even manages the doctors group at Cedar Sinai as well as the Greater Newport Doctor’s Group.  <strong>In the OC area the doctors tell me that to be in the ACO they get paid at rates less than Medicare pays.</strong>  </p> <p><a href="http://accountablecareanswers.com/accountable-care-101/">From the website,</a> you can read between the lines and figure out the software models for an ACO is ready for the organization to select to use.  It’s what Optum, the old former Ingenix division of the company does.  You can also read where it says it’s been around for 30 years in part (this is just software building on itself as it does everywhere) so guess where CMS and HHS might get all their models and ideas…and this makes it a bit uneasy to have <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/06/how-hard-did-united-have-to-lobby-to.html">the #2 person at CMS being a former Ingenix/Optum CEO who’s been around there for a long time</a> and we have a too big to fail insurer going here, the scary part.  </p> <p><em>“UnitedHealthcare’s accountable care platform is not a pilot – it is a foundation built from over 30 years of developing and refining payment reform strategies. UnitedHealthcare can demonstrate with real experience the meaningful value that its programs can deliver.</em></p> <p><em>Rather than focusing on just one model, such as an ACO, UnitedHealthcare has implemented a suite of innovative value-based contracting models that reward care providers for improvements in quality and cost-efficiency. UnitedHealthcare recognizes that care providers are at various stages of readiness to move toward a risk-based contract where they are accountable for cost and quality outcomes. One size doesn’t fit all, so UnitedHealthcare developed a flexible suite of value-based incentive programs that can be customized to meet care providers where they are at in terms of readiness to take on greater risk.”</em></p> <p>Long and short of its is that folks crank out code day and night and are just about everywhere in healthcare as I believe I remember Cerner even licensed their Revenue Cycling so every time a system gets sold there’s royalty money coming in there too.  Like I have said, too big to fail and here you have for profit hospice services as well.  I can’ say for sure of course as I’m not there but I do see developing patterns and the hospice ruling on drugs and access this week looked like what come<img align="right" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-GPn1iE76d3k/T5D3QJ8PWFI/AAAAAAAA6jk/kMvDzt1Smc0/image_thumb%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="float: right; display: inline" />s out of United or Optum.  A former CMS employee told me that when CMS gets stuck that Optum/Ingenix has been around building models and helping them with their math for a number of years.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/07/optumunited-healthcare-opening-new.html">Optum/United Healthcare Opening New Hospice Care Facilities In Birmingham & Macon, Hospice For Profit-Evercare Subsidiary to Gets Rebranded To Optum Palliative and Hospice Care</a></h5> <p>Doctors of course are all into better patient care but again you do have to watch insurers with double edge swords at time and that’s what happened with Sebelius as they do code and numbers well and can adjust and raise risk as needed for profits with sophisticated algorithmic formulas.  I’m just being smart as I would be anywhere but when you have a company with history like this one, you can’t trust everything that comes out as the gospel as they are in business to make money.  We are starting to see some of the United models fail here and there as they were exaggerated to begin with but they know how to market well too.  </p> <p>It does get interesting to see the company being an ACO partner on one end and then fire Medicare Advantage doctors on the other side not to mention where they might be <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/07/health-insurance-business-under-radar.html">operating with other subsidiaries too.</a>  They don’t have their act together 100% either <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/01/howard-county-school-board-in-maryland.html">as they wouldn’t be bidding and winning contracts where they cut the networks down to where there were no doctors.</a> </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/04/pre-existing-conditions-with-health.html">Pre-Existing Conditions With Health Insurance May Be Gone But Narrow Networks Are Providing The Same End Result For Many Ill Patients With Not Being Able To Get Care - Extreme Cases Of New Killer Algorithms Popping Up With Insurance Business Models…</a></h5> <p>So again more money for the ACO software of course and the analytics for performance and who knows, maybe firing more doctors as it’s all an algorithmic business formula for this company.  Ethics are always second to money.  BD </p> <p> <hr />Health Network and UnitedHealthcare are launching an accountable care organization (ACO) initiative to provide improved care coordination and enhanced health services to nearly 50,000 UnitedHealthcare plan participants in the region.</p> <p>Banner Health Network's (BHN) partnership with UnitedHealthcare will help shift Arizona's health care system from one based on volume of care to one that rewards quality and value. Banner Health Network and its affiliated physicians will manage all aspects of patients' care, providing the right care in the right place at the right time. Primary care physicians in the ACO will receive regular patient updates, enabling them to monitor all of the care each patient is receiving, and to maintain all clinical information about each patient in a secure patient registry.</p> <p>UnitedHealthcare employer-sponsored plan participants who are currently served by BHN's care providers will not have to do anything differently to receive the benefits of this new model, which include enhanced care coordination and follow-up. </p> <p><a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20140721-907435.htmlBanner">http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20140721-907435.htmlBanner</a></p>

United HealthCare and Banner Health In Arizona Form An ACO (Accountable Care Organization) - ACO Software Sales Must Be Booming For United…

We keep hearing about accountable care models and they all differ a bit but the one thing everyone says which is the same is that they all r...

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VA Hospital Declares Patient Dead Who Is Still Alive - Wife Discovers Him Alive With Going Back For A Final Visit, Now He’s Being Transferred to Another Hospital

<p>Ok here’s one more to add to the VA Saga.  He was unconscious and flown to a Lexington VA facility.  He’s only 46 years old.  His wife was given an official time of death but he’s still alive.  The hospital said he had no pulse, so she goes back inside<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="128" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-3iFhffHgbnI/U8x8ISdZWWI/AAAAAAABK20/DSKny08gMCA/image%25255B5%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="187" /> and he’s alive.  She also abided by her husband’s wishes to take him off life support so did the hospital just decide at that point to declare him dead before he had a chance to die?</p> <p>Four days later he’s still alive, squeezing his wife’s hand, blood pressure is holding well and opened his eyes when she asked him to.  </p> <p>They can’t get a straight answer from the hospital other than a canned statement that makes no reference to the situation.  I could maybe understand if they didn’t expect him to live and would be telling the family such, but to give a time of death when he had not died yet?  This is a strange one for sure with the wife going back in and seeing a heartbeat on the devices and blood pressure going strong.  The human body can do some strange things including short of miracles too so again why give out an official time of death when it had occurred.  Now the VA has had its issues all over but I’ll like to see what the real story was here on this one.  bD</p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/07/one-more-va-problem-emerges-outside-of.html">One More VA Problem Emerges Outside of Appointment Scheduling - Employees Were Told to Change the Date On Veterans’ Claims From the Start-”The Grays” Continue to Haunt And Do Harm…</a></h5> <p><iframe height="230" src="http://player.theplatform.com/p/2E2eJC/nbcNewsOffsite?guid=nc_mandeclare_140717" frameborder="0" width="435" scrolling="no"></iframe></p> <p> <hr /></p> <p>A central Kentucky family says the V-A hospital in Lexington made a major mix-up when it declared their loved one dead. The man was and still is alive and the family now wants answers. WLEX's Josh Breslow reports.</p> <p><a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/watch/nbc-news-channel/va-hospital-mistakenly-declares-live-patient-dead-306825283554">http://www.nbcnews.com/watch/nbc-news-channel/va-hospital-mistakenly-declares-live-patient-dead-306825283554</a></p>

VA Hospital Declares Patient Dead Who Is Still Alive - Wife Discovers Him Alive With Going Back For A Final Visit, Now He’s Being Transferred to Another Hospital

Ok here’s one more to add to the VA Saga.  He was unconscious and flown to a Lexington VA facility.  He’s only 46 years old.  His wife was g...

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Town in Ohio Trying to Fine and Tell Wounded Veteran “He Can’t Have His Therapy Ducks”!

<p>In the very same town residents are allowed to have one pot bellied pig, so does he have too<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="143" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-UJI49Bi38sc/U8wqEUYub0I/AAAAAAABK2k/C4S3D44-ywM/image%25255B2%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="187" /> many ducks maybe?  Is the city trying to make a few dollars.  Maybe then can come to some type of agreement that will make everyone happy.  You can see the ducks have their area to where they are maintained and just sit there and quack along.</p> <p>Sure it makes me feel good to see a human hug a duck as I think all folks could hug a duck, why not.  Maybe if he could reduce the number of ducks?  I don’t know how much noise they are making or if that’s  part of the problem but heck they’re in the wild and are everywhere.  </p> <p>The vet was injured in war and under the care of the VA and it’s motivating the Vet to do something and the vet was in Iraq and came home with a major back injury and has had surgery and has some depression related to pain.  I do have to say the ducks look happy!   He even picks them up as well.  From what you can see in the video there’s plenty of room and it’s not like keeping 14 ducks in an apartment if you will.  Here’s a story from a couple years back, this truck driver takes his duck on the road with him and every loves it:)</p> <p><strong><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/01/everyone-should-have-duck-to-ride.html">Everyone Should Have a duck to Ride Shotgun!</a></strong></p> <p>The VA even sent a letter recommending he keep the ducks as they are good therapy.  Why do people have to be such pain in the ass?  Why don’t they come visit the ducks?  BD  </p> <p><object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,47,0" height="290" id="flashObj" width="440"><param name="movie" value="http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isSlim=1" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><param name="flashVars" value="omnitureAccountID=gpaper235,gntbcstglobal&pageContentCategory=NEWS&pageContentSubcategory=NEWS01&marketName=Marion:marionstar&revSciSeg=&revSciZip=&revSciAge=&revSciGender=&division=newspaper&SSTSCode=&videoId=3681986870001&playerID=3087496387001&playerKey=AQ~~,AAAACfRtI_k~,tKrSzmQYufAT9vH0MPUkj-j7afTXk6my&domain=embed&dynamicStreaming=true" /><param name="base" value="http://admin.brightcove.com" /><param name="seamlesstabbing" value="false" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="swLiveConnect" value="true" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><embed src="http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isSlim=1" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" flashVars="omnitureAccountID=gpaper235,gntbcstglobal&pageContentCategory=NEWS&pageContentSubcategory=NEWS01&marketName=Marion:marionstar&revSciSeg=&revSciZip=&revSciAge=&revSciGender=&division=newspaper&SSTSCode=&videoId=3681986870001&playerID=3087496387001&playerKey=AQ~~,AAAACfRtI_k~,tKrSzmQYufAT9vH0MPUkj-j7afTXk6my&domain=embed&dynamicStreaming=true" base="http://admin.brightcove.com" name="flashObj" width="440" height="290" seamlesstabbing="false" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullScreen="true" swLiveConnect="true" allowScriptAccess="always" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"></embed></object><strong></strong></p> <hr /> <p>WEST LAFAYETTE</p> — Darin Welker is facing a citation and a hearing in Coshocton Municipal Court for owning 14 ducks, as they are in violation of a village ordinance. <p>Welker, who lives on Grandview Street in West Lafayette, was cited June 23 with a minor misdemeanor. He said he uses the ducks for therapy after being wounded in 2005 in Iraq and should be allowed to keep them.</p> <p>Welker said he has a letter from the Mental Health Department of the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs recommending he keep the ducks.</p> <p>“I came back (from Iraq) with a major back injury, and between the back injury and the (post-traumatic stress disorder) that I also brought home, there were numerous problems,” Welker said.</p> <p>In 2012, the VA paid for a surgery to Welker’s back but did not approve the physical therapy recommended by his surgeon, nor did it provide mental therapy, Welker said.</p> <p>Welker acquired his ducks in March when they were just days old. He had first heard the idea of using ducks as therapy weeks before and thought it wouldn’t hurt to try, he said.</p> <p><a href="http://www.marionstar.com/article/20140720/NEWS01/307200006/Village-says-veteran-s-therapy-ducks-aren-t-allowed">http://www.marionstar.com/article/20140720/NEWS01/307200006/Village-says-veteran-s-therapy-ducks-aren-t-allowed</a></p>

Town in Ohio Trying to Fine and Tell Wounded Veteran “He Can’t Have His Therapy Ducks”!

In the very same town residents are allowed to have one pot bellied pig, so does he have too many ducks maybe?  Is the city trying to make ...

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Oracle Ties Their SRM (Social Relation Management) Software to LinkedIn Complimenting Oracle BlueKai Marketing Aggregation Services

<p> <p>In case you missed it a couple months ago, Oracle purchased BlueKai which aggregates data on consumers, yes<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="172" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-cBsHXvoMcy0/U8tYC5ESVhI/AAAAAAABK2M/OwsYuIEUJmk/image%25255B7%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="306"> that data that’s out there about all of us.  BlueKai ties in data from over 200 locations and yes includes Acxiom too as one of the sources.  You can, however, <a href="http://bluekai.com/consumers.php#optout">as a consumer opt out of BlueKai</a> and as always Oracle’s use is for business and marketing.  So basically you as a consumer unless related to your business may not show up in a search.  I checked myself and did an opt out and BlueKai had nothing to report on me and for that services you go here to <a href="http://bluekai.com/registry/">check the registry.</a>  </p> <p>BlueKai, Compendium, Eloqua, and Responsys are the Oracle products that make up the Oracle marketing cloud.  Marketers can now send personalized push notifications to mobile devices via Oracle Responsys component.   These are all part of the <a href="https://cloud.oracle.com/social_network">Oracle Social Cloud</a> with their recent integration.  </p> <p>The video below will give you an idea on how the entire Oracle Social Relation Management tool works.  It’s pretty interesting the way it captures all the internal and client chats.  In addition it can integrate with Outlook.  I have used as an individual Xobni for a while to help search out the web but that is very limited by comparison and they just shut down their servers so now it’s only a desktop application without the LinkedIn and other social networks.  I mention this as having that side bar is very powerful and very helpful with getting things done as that’s what Xobni had and I kind of miss it a bit.  </p> <p><iframe style="height: 252px; width: 447px" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/P9by4oRkI6A" frameborder="0" width="560" allowfullscreen></iframe></p> <p>It’s really a pretty powerful set of tools for the enterprise.  Here’s another video that shows the integration with Outlook with more detail.  I’m so used to writing about servers with Oracle it almost seems odds talking about apps but they have a lot of them and most all integrated via Oracle Fusion that is the middleware that pretty much connects everything.  </p> <p><iframe style="height: 280px; width: 450px" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/sOAJs88BEbI" frameborder="0" width="560" allowfullscreen></iframe></p> <p>Since I have a great number of consumers reading here that may not be familiar with Larry Ellison as they are with Bill Gates and the late Steve Jobs, here’s a video that is a documentary on how Larry Ellison and Oracle got started.  Sorting information, was how Oracle was started.  As you hear in the video you are connecting all over the place all the time.  See the competition with IBM.  Larry Ellison is both a coder and a marketer.  The CIA was the first Oracle customer.  In 1986 Oracle went public and was a huge hit.  The next day Microsoft went public.  When you have time, it’s interesting as it does the entire history of Ellison and Oracle in a nutshell.  </p> <p><iframe style="height: 247px; width: 458px" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/mB2V0BXH608" frameborder="0" width="560" allowfullscreen></iframe></p> <p>When they talk about selling products before they had products, well they are not alone out there but the size of Oracle made it stick out.  It’s definitely a come back company.  At any rate here when think about insurance companies, pharmaceuticals, and banks, they are all using Oracle.  BD </p> <p> <hr> Oracle has hooked up its <a href="http://www.oracle.com/us/solutions/social/overview/index.html">SRM (social relationship management) software suite</a> to LinkedIn, a move to give marketing and customer support staffers a way to reach the business-oriented social network’s 300 million users.</p> <p>The LinkedIn integration provides the ability to publish LinkedIn Company and Showcase pages, which can be targeted according to factors such as geographic location, company size and industry, Oracle said in its announcement on Wednesday.</p> <p>It will also be possible to interact with commenters on these pages, Oracle said. There’s a degree of analytics as well, such as reports on the number of comments a particular posting generated, according to Oracle.</p> <p>Oracle SRM is just one component of the company’s bevy of software tools aimed at reaching customers <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="205" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-0dicJ7--w-o/U8tYDxv282I/AAAAAAABK2U/StL6UVqg1S4/image%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="395">and prospects through multiple channels, which it built up through a string of acquisitions over the past couple of years.</p> <p>To that end, also Wednesday Oracle announced a series of enhancements to various components in its marketing cloud product family.</p> <p>One major update focuses on so-called “look-alike” modeling. This sort of modeling lets marketing teams looking to find new prospects do so by building models based on customers with desirable attributes.</p> <p>Marketers can then apply the models to <a href="http://bluekai.com/about-us.php">Oracle’s BlueKai platform,</a> which aggregates customer profile information from more than 200 data providers. The marketers can sift through the hundreds of millions of profiles BlueKai gives access to and find matches for their look-alike models.</p> <p><a href="http://www.cio.com/article/2454922/oracle-ties-its-social-intelligence-apps-to-linkedin.html?utm_campaign=sflow_tweet#tk.rss_all">http://www.cio.com/article/2454922/oracle-ties-its-social-intelligence-apps-to-linkedin.html?utm_campaign=sflow_tweet#tk.rss_all</a></p>

Oracle Ties Their SRM (Social Relation Management) Software to LinkedIn Complimenting Oracle BlueKai Marketing Aggregation Services

In case you missed it a couple months ago, Oracle purchased BlueKai which aggregates data on consumers, yes that data that’s out there abo...

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CVS Buys 33 Store Drug Chain in Florida - Navarro Discount Pharmacy And Begins Signing Contracts With Major Healthcare Concerns In Other Parts of the Country

<p>Navarro is a Hispanic owned drug chain that has been in business for many years in the Miami-Dade area of Florida.  The names of the stores will not change due to branding and loyalty from mostly Hispanic customers.  Interesting that the<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="143" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-dmr1X_tZycQ/U8oFdn4KREI/AAAAAAABK14/7ViYjyMUN5w/image%25255B2%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="187"> chain also offers compounding services and a club for people with diabetes.  CVS in other recent news has been having some other issues.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/03/cvs-faces-lawsuit-filed-by-employee.html">CVS Faces Lawsuit Filed By Employee Over Privacy Violations And Charging a $600 Fine For Non Participation In Wellness Program - The Term “Human Capital” Should Absolutely Be Abolished As Well Anymore..</a></h5> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/03/cvs-drug-stores-could-face-29-million.html">CVS Drug Stores Could Face $29 Million in Fines For Losing Track of Prescription Pain Killers At California Stores - Don’t Worry About Tobacco So Much And Go Hunt Down That Missing Vicodin..</a></h5> <p>It’s like a race with Walgreens as CVS is also working to buy a very large drug store chain in Brazil.  As you may or may not be aware Nurse practitioners are on staff at the clinics to see patients, not doctors.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/05/cvs-working-to-acquire-brazilian-drug.html">CVS Working To Acquire Brazilian Drug Store Chain DPSP - $4.5 Billion Offered, Refused, Still Working</a></h5> <p>Texas Health Resources is also working on a contract with CVS who has 800 retail clinics across the US compared to Walgreens who has 400, half the number and Walgreens is partnering with Baylor.  CVS is also said to be working on additional affiliations in other parts of the US.   BD <p> <hr> Navarro Discount Pharmacy, the drugstore chain that has operated in Miami-Dade for more than 50 years, will be acquired by retail giant CVS Caremark.</p> <p>CVS, a New York Stock Exchange-trade company based in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, unveiled the definitive agreement to acquire Navarro after the stock markets closed Monday.</p> <p>Navarro, the country’s largest Hispanic-owned drugstore chain, has annual sales of more than $340 million.</p> <p>Once the deal closes, the 33 stores will continue to operate under the Navarro Discount Pharmacy name, a well-known brand in South Florida that draws a loyal customer following, especially among Hispanics. </p> <p><a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/07/14/4236285/cvs-to-buy-miami-based-navarro.html">http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/07/14/4236285/cvs-to-buy-miami-based-navarro.html</a></p>

CVS Buys 33 Store Drug Chain in Florida - Navarro Discount Pharmacy And Begins Signing Contracts With Major Healthcare Concerns In Other Parts of the Country

Navarro is a Hispanic owned drug chain that has been in business for many years in the Miami-Dade area of Florida.  The names of the stores ...

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Why Patients Cannot Trust Their Insurer, Government, Hospital or Credit Card Company - Guest Post

<p>Today we have a guest post from <strong>Dr. Arvind Cavale,  endocrinologist</strong> and he makes some good points  about trust, <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="183" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-rxuVJ3fDMzY/U8jHBHG-pvI/AAAAAAABK1o/uR33tA_Axa0/image%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="234" />yes where is the trust?  I ask that question myself as it’s relates to mostly data.   If you read here often enough then you have probably read one of my opinion based posts on this topic.  I used to be a developer and data base person, so my words are based on hands on and not hear say.  A few days ago I made a post <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/06/oh-crap-now-hospitals-are-now-buying.html">“Taking Back Medicine”</a> that might be of interest as well to hear more from doctors who are now speaking up.</p> <p>We want trust and safety as patients but we’re not getting it and it’s not the fault of the doctors, but rather the system pushing too much, too fast, and numbers, numbers, numbers instead of care first.  The doctor  <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/06/oh-crap-now-hospitals-are-now-buying.html">references the same article I spoke about with a hospital collecting your MasterCard and Acxiom data</a>, it’s just a bad model just for making money selling data.  Doctors don’t want to be rummaging through your credit and other personal data <strong>not related</strong> to your medical records, and would rather focus on practicing medicine.  BD  </p> <p> <hr /></p> <p><strong><u>Why Patients Cannot Trust Their Insurer, Government, Hospital or Credit Card Company</u></strong></p> <p>The relationship between patient and physician should be an iron-clad, private one. Over the years, the federal government instituted HIPAA, which supposedly ensures patient privacy. However, those of us who deal with this law daily, know that the only thing HIPAA accomplishes is to reduce access to needed medical information, and diminish a physician’s ability to care for their patient.</p> <p>A recent report in <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-26/hospitals-soon-see-donuts-to-cigarette-charges-for-health.html">Bloomberg News</a> documents the ongoing data collection efforts by large hospital systems and insurers, with the help of our friendly credit card companies (based on mutual financial benefit, of course). In fact, a new term has been coined just for this – <em>Data Brokers</em> – how appropriate indeed! I also love the concept of <em>“risk scores”</em> for patients, that large hospital systems can use to pressure doctors employed by them, to confront their patients, armed with information collected via snooping.</p> <p>Beware, you donut-shoppers or burger-devourers; make sure you don’t scan your credit card or store loyalty card when you buy these items, or be ready to be confronted at your next office visit.</p> <p><strong>My advice to patients – please choose a doctor in independent practice for all your health care needs, using large hospitals only for those episodes of care which require in-hospital treatment; and always question your insurer & credit card company about their data-sharing practices, perhaps get this policy in print.</strong></p> <p>For those of us opposed to the concept of “population health” and “ACO’s”, this is further vindication that “Big Brother” is now so powerful and ever-present around you, the patient, that you are not allowed to get yourself in trouble by picking up a cigarette or a hot dog.</p> <p>An astute patient interviewed for this article, said:<em> Most of these things you can find out just by looking at the patient and seeing if they are overweight or asking them if they exercise and discussing that with them,” Murry said. “I think it is a waste of time.”</em></p> <p>How basic and profound! But, I’d like to remind my patients that this can be much more than just a waste of time – it is a brazen attempt to strip the last vestiges of individual liberty from the people, in the name of “population health”. Of course, we all know what it is about – MONEY AND CONTROL! When hospitals become insurers and vice versa, it is in their best financial interest to control the population that depends on them for their health care.</p> <p>The article ends with this quote – <em>The strategy “is very paternalistic toward individuals, inclined to see human beings as simply the sum of data points about them,” Irina Raicu, director of the Internet ethics program at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University</em> – the sooner we recognize this trend, the better.</p> <p>Where is HIPAA when we need her?</p> <p><em>Arvind Cavale MD is an endocrinologist in private practice, you can follow Dr. Cavale on Twitter </em><a href="http://twitter.com/endodocPA"><em>@endodocPA</em></a><em>.</em></p> <p><em><a href="http://rebel.md/why-patients-cannot-trust-their-insurer-government-hospital-or-credit-card-company/">Originally published at Rebel MD</a></em></p>

Why Patients Cannot Trust Their Insurer, Government, Hospital or Credit Card Company - Guest Post

Today we have a guest post from Dr. Arvind Cavale,  endocrinologist and he makes some good points  about trust, yes where is the trust?  I ...

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United Healthcare Plans to Operate in as Many as 24 Insurance Exchanges - 2nd Quarter Revenue Still Keeps Rolling in With Medicaid Contracts Representing A Large Increase - Overall Net 2% Drop in 2nd Quarter

<p>I had to laugh as somewhere else on the web I read a title of “United embraces Obamacare”, well heck they practically run it so at this point embrace is a funny description to me.  We all know that the company lives off constant business intelligence algorithms that dissect each operating area of the company, along with subsidiary actions as well.  Sometimes it’s hard to see what a subsidiary is contributing to the bottom line as they are located under a few tiers of the massive complex structure.<strong><em>  </em></strong><a href="http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/731766/000119312510027229/dex211.htm"><strong><em>The SEC filings will give you a good idea to where most of them are.</em></strong></a><strong> </strong> Of course the company would want to see Medicaid expanded as that means more money and revenue.  </p> <p>Total member ship declined, and in California at the end of last year they pulled out of the individual policy business all together and rely mostly on their Medicare Advantage and Medicaid contracts along with employer insurance revenues.  In one area their networks were so narrow that <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/01/howard-county-school-board-in-maryland.html">United bid and won a contract, but had to give it back</a> as they had no providers for the Medicare Advantage business.  Recently in California United found they <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/04/lawsuit-in-california-with-united.html">had no in network Urgent Care Centers</a> and that presented a small lawsuit as well as <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/03/united-healthcare-gets-sued-over.html"><img align="right" border="0" height="156" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/TXCfvYCDCBI/AAAAAAAAsv0/8biVjC7dBI0/image_thumb%5B1%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" width="154" />a suit for refusing to pay for lap band surgery</a>.  In other states such as Texas United aka <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/01/united-healthcare-now-entering-urgent.html">Optum is building their own Urgent Care centers</a> that are branded, maybe right across from hospital ERs:)</p> <p>Their drug business was up as Optum RX, formerly known as Prescriptive Solutions grew 23% and a bit of this was due to replacing Express Scripts in for member drug benefits.  In addition, it looks like the company is growing their “hospice for profit” group with adding new facilities.  To me this is a strange item to have a hospice company owned by an insurer as there are other for profit companies but they are not owned by an insurance company.</p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/07/optumunited-healthcare-opening-new.html">Optum/United Healthcare Opening New Hospice Care Facilities In Birmingham & Macon, Hospice For Profit-Evercare Subsidiary to Gets Rebranded To Optum Palliative and Hospice Care</a></h5> <p>In addition this week in California we have United suing the State of California over botched up issues that go back to the purchase of PacifiCare, the one where they gave the former CEO a new as a parting gift.  With all their lawsuits, the company a couple years ago hired the former Assistant US Attorney in Minnesota as their general counsel.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/07/united-healthcare-files-legal-suit.html">United Healthcare Files Legal Suit Against State of California - Stemming Back to PacifiCare Acquisition</a></h5> <p>Also in California doctors don’t get a break on the new “doctor rating” analytics and of course we know this is done to reduce payments to doctors and most that I talk to in the OC area tell me due to complex contracts they have to sign to be in network, their net pay from United is less than what Medicare pays.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/07/cma-asks-united-healthcare-in.html">CMA Asks United Healthcare in California To Delay Premium Designation Program With “Scoring” Doctors for A Few Months, But “No Give”, Its Starting in August, Algorithm Says…</a></h5> <p>In addition we now have a former United Executive as the number 2 person at CMS who was a former CEO for the old Ingenix technology end of United Healthcare who was there during the time of the settlement of the big <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2011/01/new-fair-data-base-slated-to-be.html">AMA class action lawsuit to</a> where the company and other insurers who licensed their data base formulas and paid doctors and patients short for 15 years.  It’s one of those things that make you say hmmm, but anyway a former CMS employee somewhat told me that then they need numbers and studies, one division of United or another has been there to help them with their reports over the last few years as well.  In addition there’s more potential legal woes again with the same or related issues once again with claim payments in New York being under-reimbursed as what was settled in the AMA lawsuit a few years back. </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/06/law-firm-investigating-unitedhealthcare.html">Law Firm Investigating UnitedHealthCare Claim Payments in New York Stating Under-Reimbursement By Manipulating Algorithmic Benefit Calculations…</a></h5> <p>I don’t know how this happened but if one is the wife of a banker in New York, I guess the out of network payments are pretty good as a check rolled right out for over <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/03/17509880-to-fix-hammer-toe-billed-by.html">$175,000 for a hammer toe procedure</a> a couple months ago.  </p> <p>It is kind of scary as you do wonder if we are now building “insurers too big to fail” as if you visit the page with their SEC filings, you’ll find quite a bit and that doesn’t even include all subsidiaries that are not considered “significant” by SEC rules or those to where a subsidiary, such as Monarch as an example has a 51% controlling interest in other companies.  I still the company maintains the largest derivatives fine on record from the government going back to 2008.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/06/how-hard-did-united-have-to-lobby-to.html">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…</a></h5> <p>When you see reports like this from the company about telling the government to aggressively manage medical care, does this mean we want more government contracts too?  In addition the company has a military division that works to either manage or acquire more government contractors, such as LHI for one that provide services to both the DOD and VA.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/01/united-healthcare-issues-another-study.html">United HealthCare Issues Another Study, This One Telling Government To Aggressively Manage Medical Care For Seniors-An Area Where A Large Chunk of Their Revenue Comes From Today, Managing Care</a></h5> <p>Also there’s the <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/06/united-healthcare-expands-into-more-low.html">low income housing project investments</a> that continue to grow with the company and we still have the <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/06/hhs-and-hud-match-housing-and-health.html">old Lewin subsidiary of United kicking out reports and studies</a>, one here for HUD and HHS so they can get more data on the health of the folks in HUD housing, so they make money going to the bottom line with these types of efforts and why this is needed I don’t know by all means.  </p> <p>At the <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/05/boston-scientific-joins-optum-united.html">Optum Labs division</a> where McLaren Health system and Mayo send their medical records for data mining, there’s now a paying customer, Boston Scientific to mine and look for data in the patient EMR files to gain insight into their product performance.  AARP became a supporting partner of the Labs too and what they do, I don’t know other than maybe talk folks who have a PHR with them to share with Optum labs?  That’s just a guess so I really have no clue in putting that relationship together.  <img align="right" height="120" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/TD65vGVwerI/AAAAAAAAfqE/zp5DvN-k928/image_thumb%5B9%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="float: right; display: inline" width="194" /></p> <p>There was another purchase or I should say 90% I think of a another data mining company by United, <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/02/unitedhealthgroup-buys-majority.html">Audax which does gamification stuff</a> to get you to enter your data and have fun while they mine it.  In addition there’s the issues of United firing a lot of doctors who take care of Medicare Advantage patients too and that’s not going over real well.</p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/12/us-appeals-court-refuses-interim-stay.html">US Appeals Court Refuses Interim Stay Requested By United Healthcare In Connecticut & Refers Matter to 3 Judge Panel While Other State Medical Boards (California and Texas to name 2) Signed On To The Brief To Support The Connecticut State Medical Society</a></h5> <p>The company hopes to earn money supporting major EMR vendors as they advertise they want to be the Integrators, you know kind of like the jobs they are doing for HHS in overseeing all the website work for the insurance exchanges.  Cerner a few years ago licensed the then called Ingenix Revenue Cycling software so I assume the company makes some licensing money there too every time a Cerner system is sold and revenue cycling comes with it.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/11/united-healthcare-optum-insight.html">United Healthcare (Optum Insight Subsidiary) Wants To Be Your Allscripts, Epic And GE Centricity EHR Consulting Service Starting With Implementation And Beyond</a></h5> <p>I don’t know how much revenue is coming from the <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/07/unitedhealthcare-expands-their-cheap.html">cheap hearing aids.</a>  Lawsuits may be tougher ahead as last year United lost after fighting for years a case where <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/06/us-supreme-court-rules-physicians-can.html">the company wanted to maintain that doctors could not collaborate to litigate with insurers</a> but the Supreme Court told them they could do that anymore so now it’s not just one doctor up against a corporation any longer.  Again staying under the radar with subsidiaries  that are tiered, people just may not realize they are doing business with a United/Optum entity and they all put money to the bottom line.  That makes it easier to entertain selling insurance in more states and I understand that 2/3 of the company profits come from the insurance end of their business and 1/3 comes from Optum the tech/analytics/software and data selling side of the company. Link below has a bunch of links to their various businesses and that’s how they make money.  BD </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/07/health-insurance-business-under-radar.html">Health Insurance Business Under the Radar With Tiered Subsidiaries–Where All the Action Takes Place With Mergers, Acquisitions and Profit Centers-Subsidiary Watch</a></h5> <p> <hr />The overhaul also is helping UnitedHealth outside the public exchanges. The insurer said Thursday that its Medicaid enrollment jumped nearly 19 percent to about 4.7 million people compared with last year’s quarter. About half of that growth came from Medicaid coverage expansions called for in the law.UnitedHealth Group said Thursday that it will participate in as many as 24 of the law’s individual health insurance exchanges in 2015, up from only four this year.</p> <p>Medicaid is the state-federal program that covers the poor and elderly people. States hire insurers to administer the coverage.</p> <p>To be sure, major insurers don’t see the overhaul as a pure growth driver. The customers they gain from the law known as the Affordable Care Act generally make up a small slice of their overall business. The Medicaid business that UnitedHealth added also delivers a thinner profit than private coverage.</p> <p><a href="http://www.boston.com/business/news/2014/07/17/largest-insurer-move-signals-industry-shift/L9HIwrVSgc9trwX81UqU3K/story.html">http://www.boston.com/business/news/2014/07/17/largest-insurer-move-signals-industry-shift/L9HIwrVSgc9trwX81UqU3K/story.html</a></p>

United Healthcare Plans to Operate in as Many as 24 Insurance Exchanges - 2nd Quarter Revenue Still Keeps Rolling in With Medicaid Contracts Representing A Large Increase - Overall Net 2% Drop in 2nd Quarter

I had to laugh as somewhere else on the web I read a title of “United embraces Obamacare”, well heck they practically run it so at this poin...

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Signature MD Concierge Medicine Provider Files Suite Against Another Concierge Provider, MDVIP

<p>We have had everyone else go to court so it’s time for the concierge doctor services to duke it out.  MDVIP is the largest in the country and was purchased by Proctor and Gamble a few years ago. </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2010/02/proctor-and-gamble-buys-mdvip-physician.html">Proctor and Gamble BuysMDVIP – Physician Boutique Practice Company</a></h5> <p>Remember too the new chief appointment to run the VA is a former CEO of Proctor and Gamble.  I also read somewhere that P and G was slated to be selling MDVIP in the future.   Anyway back to the case what else<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="77" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-vibXVxFaIxs/U8c-1bNKPuI/AAAAAAABK1Y/3A8OGiFkTTE/image%25255B2%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="187" /> would a law suit be about today but contracts and Signature MD states MDVIP locks their doctors into contract that has provisions that does not allow them to change or cancel, such as no more than 600 patients and it’s working a squared model at MDVIP you could say, but that’s what they pay for.  </p> <p>Signature says MDVIP has a monopoly on the market.  MDVIP also requires doctors to sever relationships with patients who are not part of the program and paying a fee to have a boutique doctor where as Signature MD does not.  In addition, Signature MD states that doctors with MDVIP have to renew for the rest of their practice life and don’t have a chance to make a change and this has impacted their business.  BD</p> <p> <hr />LOS ANGELES (CN) - A Marina Del Ray medical provider claims that the largest concierge medicine provider in the United States illegally squeezes out competitors by tying physicians to exclusive agreements. <br />Signature MD sued MDVIP of Boca Raton, Fla. in a federal complaint of violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act, and violation of California's antitrust and unfair competition statutes in the Cartwright Act. <br /></p> <p>According to the July 14 lawsuit, MDVIP membership program boasts 700 physicians and 200,000 members in 43 states, making it the largest concierge medicine program in the nation. <br />A patient enrolled in an MDVIP concierge program enjoys significant benefits for an annual fee of $1,500 to $1,800, including same-day or next-day care, SignatureMD says. Longer doctor visits are understood to be part of the program. <br />Signature claims that MDVIP enjoys a 70 percent share of the concierge medicine membership program market and a 65 percent to 100 percent share in major cities and local markets across the country. <br />Physicians who sign up with MDVIP are required to limit their practices to 600 patients and must exclusively deal with MDVIP members, the lawsuit states.</p> <p><a href="http://www.courthousenews.com/2014/07/16/69540.htm">http://www.courthousenews.com/2014/07/16/69540.htm</a></p>

Signature MD Concierge Medicine Provider Files Suite Against Another Concierge Provider, MDVIP

We have had everyone else go to court so it’s time for the concierge doctor services to duke it out.  MDVIP is the largest in the country an...

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Medical Journal Says Pre-Diabetes Diagnosis Is Not Needed- It’s Turning Healthy People Into Patients with “Pre-Diabetes”…

<p>I don’t know a doctor who’s really been a big supporter of this since it came around.  As<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="185" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-GnuO6F7YSE8/U8cej2zerJI/AAAAAAABK1I/MTCMWbF49EQ/image%25255B2%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="187" /> mentioned the only folks that benefit are the ones that sell drugs or data on people that take the drugs.  I had to get that in there as you know that’s an epidemic as there will be lists of folks diagnosed with Pre-Diabetes somewhere out there for sale, we’ve seen it for everything else.  You can <a href="http://www.bmj.com/content/349/bmj.g4485.full.pdf+html">read the journal entry</a> here from the BMJ that also discusses the politics of it all.  </p> <p>The study was conducted  at the University of Florida in collaboration with the University of Leicester in the UK.  </p> <p>I mentioned earlier on Twitter too that you have insurance companies that own pharmacy benefit management companies that sell drugs, like United so there’s another influence to have pushed this diagnosis.  This video is worth repeating from Dr. Ivan Oransky who gave a TED talk on this subject and he makes some good points, like we are all as risk for death, so we are all “pre-death”.   </p> <p>His doctor said to him, “go out and lose some weight” which Ivan says he needs to do.  This has impact too on all the “predictive analytics” we are seeing out there today with insurance companies trying to determine what we “might” get.  There’s even a website that talks about <a href="http://prediabetescenters.com/blog/2013/03/27/89-of-people-with-prediabetes-dont-know-it/">pre-diabetes “centers”.</a>  So how it rolls with marketing and making money from this as well.  Even the CDC was in on this with promoting.  </p> <p><iframe style="height: 252px; width: 462px" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/IUtrYjIGdaE" frameborder="0" width="560" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/06/previvor-if-you-develop-disease-you-get.html">“Previvor, If You Develop the Disease You Get Off the Island”–Subclinical Illnesses Leading to Overtreatment And Possibly Death–Ivan Oransky From Reuters Video</a></h5> <p><em>“The scourge of preposterous "pre-conditions:" Ivan Oransky, Executive Editor of Reuters Health, says labeling too many patients with subclinical illnesses leads to overtreatment, with potentially fatal results.</em> “</p> <p>Again the study says promoting exercise is always good as well as talking about healthy habits which we do hear all the time.  This is a good example of being “medicalized” and we still need to stay on the battle against diabetes 2 but we should be able to leave at least this “pre”diagnosis in the dirt let’s hope.  BD  </p> <p> <hr />Millions of people are being unnecessarily labeled pre-diabetic, increasing their likelihood of being prescribed drugs which will at best briefly delay the onset of the illness, say experts.</p> <p>Writing in the British Medical Journal, scientists argue that the diagnosis is of little benefit and carries huge medical and social costs. What is needed is a public health strategy to tackle the problems in the food, health and educational environment which have led to widespread obesity and inactivity – the main causes of the rapidly increasing number of cases of type 2 diabetes.</p> <p>The only winners from classifying vast numbers of people with pre-diabetes are the pharmaceutical companies, say the authors from University College London and the Mayo Clinic, Minnesota, US. A recent study suggested that a third of the adult population of the UK has pre-diabetes and half the population of China – a vast market for drugs.</p> <p>They and the whole population need help to tackle the underlying lifestyle causes of type 2 diabetes, says the paper. "We need a shift in perspective," the authors write. "It is critically important to slow the epidemic of obesity and diabetes. Rather than turning healthy people into patients with pre-diabetes, we should use available resources to change the food, education, health and economic policies that have driven this epidemic."</p> <p><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jul/15/millions-unnecessarily-labelled-pre-diabetic-health-experts?linkId=8926500">http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jul/15/millions-unnecessarily-labelled-pre-diabetic-health-experts?linkId=8926500</a></p>

Medical Journal Says Pre-Diabetes Diagnosis Is Not Needed- It’s Turning Healthy People Into Patients with “Pre-Diabetes”…

I don’t know a doctor who’s really been a big supporter of this since it came around.  As mentioned the only folks that benefit are the one...

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Medicare Penalties for Hospitals To Take Effect Later This Year With Patient Safety - Can We Learn From the VA On Not Being “Stat Rats” And Attain The “Desired Virtual Numbers” In The “Real World”?

<p>I’m all for things that make the environments safer by all means and the program for controlling items like MRSA and other items as such are good but I’m looking at this model overall and I think it needs a bit of a fix.  We have hospitals that are barely making it, rural hospitals closing right and left and then we have the quality metrics.  Those with the worst rates automatically lose 1 percent of their Medicare payment, so 25% of the hospitals are in the barrel every month as this begins in October.  It can make budgets hard to project and meet as well for those on the line.  </p> <p>Public hospitals and some non profits will get hit hard as well as some teaching hospitals, so<a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/03/virtual-worlds-real-world-we-have.html"><img align="right" alt="image73" border="0" height="104" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-PwIEC5PP2qU/U8XeRjva-NI/AAAAAAABK04/DaCxAciMrUQ/image73%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" title="image73" width="204" /></a> what are they going to do if the penalties rank up there due to “teaching” errors, get rid of residents.  <strong>I hate to say it but we could be headed right down the same path as what we have been seeing at the VA as we are a nation of “Stat Rats”.  People will hide stuff and cheat if it means the continued operation of the hospital and jobs.</strong>  </p> <p>With the numbers cited here one out of eight have experienced a potentially avoidable complication, but let’s take into effect the disruptions that also add to all of this.   People forget that hospitals have things flying at them from all directions, new procedure changes occur frequently so that adds to it.   The article says that government targets are not being met. <strong> Well where did the government get those targets?  A little bird that used to work for CMS kind of told me that when CMS got stuck they could always depend on United Healthcare/Optum to crank out some numbers for them to bail them out, so maybe if that’s true, maybe that’s the reason the attainment is set too high</strong> as we see it a lot with doctors and their quality measurements that United sets.  That company lives off of analytics without enough human balance in their business plans for the most part anyway.   Here’s a post from a couple years ago on how they lay off people, instant message, report to the lobby, bus take them to a hotel and they are given walking papers, nice huh?  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2011/03/unitedhealthcare-lays-off-180-employees.html">UnitedHealthcare Lays Off 180 Employees In Orange County-Initial Notification Sent By Instant Message to Those Affected</a></h5> <p>In reading the article it states even infection rates are not decreasing fast enough so it is humanly possible to meet these goals.  I write about this too with models that don’t work in the real world and it sounds like we have a bit of that here as people are going to work hard and diligently as people like to help people and do the right thing but again think about this and are we headed down the same path as the VA? </p> <p>When we have the mis-distribution of money that we have today, do penalties work?  In better  time maybe.  So let’s take a listen here to a Quant that develops financial models and he’ll tell you straight up that things change all the time and there are variations so “it’s never going to be 100 bottles of beer”…the patients and illnesses are going vary.  <strong>You don’t just multiply one by a hundred and as Paul Wilmott says “that’s not the real world”. </strong></p> <p><object height="300" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://swf.tubechop.com/tubechop.swf?vurl=ed2FWNWwE3I&start=149&end=235&cid=2520036"></param><embed src="http://swf.tubechop.com/tubechop.swf?vurl=ed2FWNWwE3I&start=149&end=235&cid=2520036" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="300"></embed></object></p> <h5><em>This somewhat unwelcomed phenomena that exists today…”The Grays”…. </em></h5> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/03/virtual-worlds-real-world-we-have.html">Virtual Worlds, Real World We Have A Problem And It’s A Big One With A Lot of Gray Areas Finding Where The Defining Lines Exist, Confusing Many With A Lot of Weird Values And Strange Perceptions…</a></h5> <p>So again CMS might want to reconsider this model and think about it.<strong>  Reducing infections is pretty straight up and I think all can live and understand those metrics we know what they are.</strong>  It’s going to get pretty gray out there though when you start awarding bonuses for quality metrics and again look what the VA did.  If the patient’s condition doesn’t meet the coding and needs another night, they work around it to help the patient and it just adds more disruption with meeting provisions rather than taking care of the patient.  </p> <p>We just had the latest hospital ratings out today, and nobody cares except the CEOs that run the hospitals.  I saw the report and then almost every CEO or PR Department had to go run to Twitter to brag…who cares.  We saw the report already.  Enough is enough.  <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/04/cms-plans-to-begin-five-star-hospital.html">We have this stupid 5 Star Quality program at CMS too</a>, again nobody cares as we want to know what facilities are left and in network where we can go when you look at the consumer side of it.  Everyone has a #1 award for something today and frankly we don’t care anymore as consumers, we have too much else going on in our lives.  </p> <p><strong>I want good care when I go to a hospital but what I don’t want to see is doctors and nurses so frazzled that they get distracted with all their quality measures to give me the care that went there for in the first place and we are seeing some tell tale hints of this already.</strong></p> <p>How unbearable are going to make getting healthcare to meet metrics?  It should be a people friendly effort and not numbers first.  I have friends and some of them seniors asking me of late “what’ wrong with doctors anymore” and of course they know little or nothing of this side of the scenario.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/05/va-crisis-just-tip-of-iceberg-as-us.html">VA Crisis Just The Tip of the Iceberg As US Needs a Full On Healthcare Culture Change Everywhere To Get Back In Touch With the Real World of Patients…</a></h5> <p>As we are finding out in other areas of life “people don’t’ work that way”.   Goals have to be attainable and not just what one “thinks” it should be and it’s driving everyone crazy to be over nit picked and be able to perform their jobs.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/people-dont-work-that-way-world-of.html">People Don’t Work That Way” A World of Broken Software Models That Don’t Align To the Human Side,Too Much Push At Times With Only A Proof of Concept That Fails in the Real World..</a></h5> <p><strong>CMS has been sucking down somebody’s Kool Aid of late as I mentioned above</strong> and they should take a look at their model here as some is fine but some really needs a human touch and and a little escape from the “Stat Rat” routine if you ask me.  We are not going to save all the money that Lewin, United, McKinsey and others touted for the last 10 years on the internet.  All you have to do is look back and see how erroneous their predictions were, not even close and were more fiction than fact, usually created to market something anyway.  BD    </p> <hr />By the time they operated on her again, she was so weakened that she was placed in a medically induced coma at Vidant Medical Center in Greenville, N.C. On a respirator for six weeks, she contracted pneumonia. <p>"When they stopped the sedation and I woke up, I had no idea what had happened to me," said Handron, 60. "I kind of felt like Rip Van Winkle."</p> <p>Because of complications like Handron's, Vidant, an academic medical center in eastern North Carolina, is likely to have its Medicare payments docked this fall through the federal government's toughest effort yet to crack down on infections and other patient injuries, federal records show.</p> <p>A quarter of the nation's hospitals -- those with the worst rates -- will lose 1 percent of every Medicare payment for a year starting in October. In April, federal officials released a preliminary analysis of which hospitals would be assessed, identifying 761.</p> <p>When Medicare sets final penalties later this year, that list may change because the government will be looking at performance over a longer period than it used to calculate the draft penalties. Vidant, for instance, says it lowered patient injury rates over the course of 2013, and Handron praises its efforts.</p> <p>Medicare's penalties are going to hit some types of hospitals harder than others, according to an analysis of the preliminary penalties conducted for Kaiser Health News by Dr. Ashish Jha, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health. Publicly owned hospitals and those that treat large portions of low-income patients are more likely to be assessed penalties. Preliminary penalties were assigned to more than a third of hospitals in Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Wisconsin and Wyoming, Medicare records show.</p> <p>The biggest impact may be on the nation's major teaching hospitals: 54% were marked for preliminary penalties, Jha found. The reasons for such high rates of complications in these elite hospitals are being intensely debated. </p> <p><a href="http://www.keyt.com/news/money/hospitals-face-major-government-crackdown-for-injuring-patients/26944864">http://www.keyt.com/news/money/hospitals-face-major-government-crackdown-for-injuring-patients/26944864</a></p>

Medicare Penalties for Hospitals To Take Effect Later This Year With Patient Safety - Can We Learn From the VA On Not Being “Stat Rats” And Attain The “Desired Virtual Numbers” In The “Real World”?

I’m all for things that make the environments safer by all means and the program for controlling items like MRSA and other items as such are...

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