Target to Partner With Kaiser Permanente in Southern California To Staff Clinics With Nurse Practitioners and Telemedicine Options

<p>Well Target is the in to all kinds of business so it would make sense to outsource manning the clinics to be opened new Target Clinics <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="149" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-0PfIB23UhhY/VGq-zcd2KfI/AAAAAAABL0k/n_u-Zap2oFo/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; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="187" />include innovative telemedicine technology, where Kaiser Permanente physicians are available for private videoconference  in southern California to Kaiser rather than have to maintain that in house as medical clinics are a specialty when you compare to their other businesses, when they are not being hacked:)</p> <p>We don’t hear a lot about Target clinics as they are only in 7 states so far and no you don’t get to see a doctor, your get a nurse practitioner for the walk in retail clinics.  Below you can see where the clinics anticipate seeing 50 or more patients a day, or will be prepared to see that many I should say.  Target does have a Medical Director that I would assume covers their other clinics outside of these 4 new ones to open in California.  <strong>New Target Clinics include telemedicine technology, where Kaiser Permanente physicians are available for private videoconferences.  I am guessing that is a back up in case the nurse practitioner can’t handle all, either that or another choice.</strong>  </p> <p>The only clinic I found in southern California is in Fontana and not close to me but they also suggest a couple others in San Diego that have “Fresh Grocery” benefits as well:)  You need to do the co-pay up front and the site says most insurance plans are accepted.</p> <p>Through this collaboration, Kaiser Permanente will provide care to Kaiser Permanente members and non-members.</p> <p>Kaiser Permanente will staff the new clinics with licensed nurse practitioners, licensed vocational nurses, and will have physicians available by telemedicine consultations, giving local Target guests access to Kaiser Permanente’s high-quality affordable health care services. <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="78" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-b_mCSrUhrac/VGq-0E0-s2I/AAAAAAABL0s/HDe3FxDjEpQ/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="227" />The clinics will be located within Target stores and will provide walk-in care, along with the convenience of the Target Pharmacy.</p> <p>As I read there the new clinics will be staffed by Kaiser and will see both member and non member patients.  </p> <p><strong>I look at it this way, what a chance for Kaiser to boost their insurance membership with exposure here at Target as well and maybe sell new policies too</strong>.  You can also see Target is looking for all kinds of partners too.  From the PBM side they are going to get that compliance rate down with all the data they can find and mine to make sure you take your meds:)  Yes they have employee rewards going on there too and I stay away from pretty much all rewards programs myself as it’s a way of capturing and selling data.  Also at the stores, Target is ready to sell you some vacuums and air purifiers and some fruits and vegetables to help you with your health. </p> <p>You know I don’t mind healthy products but with all the data collected what’s to say at some point your are only allowed to purchase certain items at the store by your health plan?  Think I’m crazy, better think again about what they are doing with data and remember the data mining story to where the Target pharmacy knew a patient was pregnant all from data mining and querying data?  BD  </p> <p><img align="left" alt="image" border="0" height="275" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-iA2qy7fB5nY/VGq-0oGs_yI/AAAAAAABL00/brv0ZUnsLYQ/image%25255B7%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="668" /></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> <hr /></p> <p>You know Target as the one-stop shop for anything and everything you might possibly want or need, from yoga pants to milk…or, say, a flu shot, a blood pressure screening, even a physical. That’s correct, even a physical. Surprised? It’s time you got to know Target Clinic. <br />  <br />Target Clinics are currently in seven states and serve as one of the retailer’s most innovative in-store conveniences. Family nurse practitioners and physician assistants staff the clinics and are equipped to handle any minor illness or injury. <br />  <br />More than 60 services can be accessed on a walk-in basis, from skin treatments to testing for tuberculosis to strep throat. Each Target Clinic has the capacity to see 50 – 60 patients per day, which means Target could see close to 2 million patients in one year. <br />  <br />Since the first Target Clinic opened in 2001, Target has continued to look for ways meet the needs of guests. In an effort to improve access to care, Target is teaming up with a leading health care provider, Kaiser Permanente.  This November and December, Target Clinic will open four Kaiser Permanente-staffed clinics in Southern California that will be open to all Target guests, regardless of insurance.</p> <p><a href="https://corporate.target.com/discover/article/Target-Clinic-your-one-stop-shop-for-health-and-we">https://corporate.target.com/discover/article/Target-Clinic-your-one-stop-shop-for-health-and-we</a></p>

Target to Partner With Kaiser Permanente in Southern California To Staff Clinics With Nurse Practitioners and Telemedicine Options

Well Target is the in to all kinds of business so it would make sense to outsource manning the clinics to be opened new Target Clinics inclu...

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CVS to Open New E-Commerce Technology Centers in Boston, New York and Palo Alto– Need “New Code” to Make Bigger Profits While They And Others Continue to Destroy “US Consumer Dignity” With the Exploitations…

<p>These innovation labs are getting to be old news and the bottom line is they want more code to quantitate their business and profits.  Sure there’s always room to improve but <strong>when you see the words “ecommerce center” that’s what this is all about, making money with data.</strong>   I wrote about MasterCard and their<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="173" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/--4raQtEUGAM/VGqvm2BHr9I/AAAAAAABL0U/QyIKmHhaaMg/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="320" /> ecommerce center as they bragged about it and now, look what they are doing, selling consumer data all over the place with a huge marketing focus, even to the point to where this silly hospital in North Caroline bought in and is buying patient credit card data.  Yes, you heard that right and they also are buying Acxiom data to have doctors go over all this stuff with patients!  The ROI is not going to pay off for all this expense and patients are not going to like it as it takes away human dignity.</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><strong>So here comes CVS wanting in on this action too.  Both CVS and Walgreens make between 1 to 2 billion with a B a year selling data, so that’s what you have here.</strong>  Look what they are already doing with this “holier than thou” program to charge people more if they go fill a prescription at a store that sells tobacco products!  This is a rip as people who live in rural communities will be paying more as they may not have a choice in some one horse towns where they fill their prescriptions.  Heck why don’t they just move to where <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/09/optum-labs-add-four-additional-data.html"><strong><em>Optum Labs is and rent server space over in Cambridge</em></strong></a> as they have a lot of data selling going on over there with paying clients mining Mayo, McLaren and other EMR records and who knows what else.  Read this “bull” below and this is an attack of the Killer Algorithms as that’s what puts this all in motion.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/10/cvs-to-charge-consumers-higher-co-pays.html">CVS To Charge Consumers Higher Co-Pays With Prescriptions Filled at Drug Stores That Still Sell Tobacco Products–Killer Algorithms Attacking Once Again To Make Sure CVS Gets the Prescription Revenue And Your Data To Score And Sell</a></h5> <p>If you don’t believe from me, listen to this orthopedic surgeon and he’ll tell you the same thing.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/10/orthopedic-surgeon-talks-about-data.html">Orthopedic Surgeon Talks About Data Mining, Privacy, Medical Records and the Importance of the Doctor-Patient Relationship</a></h5> <p>To refresh your memory on MasterCard ecommerce center, here’s a link with some back links on how they bragged about the money they were going to make getting into consumer data, and CVS is no difference as again they are already selling heaps of our data.  This is what ecommerce is all about folks if you have not figured it out yet.  Sure there’s some improvements with internal software and such too that takes place but the big emphasis is on the money. </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/12/mastercard-as-well-as-other-financial.html">MasterCard As Well As Other Financial Institutions Using Big Data To Get Into Your “Online Pants” As Many Consumers Seem To Be Accidentally And Inadvertently Leaving Their “Internet Fly” Open</a></h5> <p>In addition, CVS will be opening up two other labs in New York and in Menlo Park, again “we need more data to sell” is the calling I hear here.  It’s what they are all doing as today I read about Deutsche Bank partnering up with IBM, the Kings of the Stock buy backs who invest 3 times as much in buy backs as they do their own business and read on the web, it’s biting them today as others have written a few times.  CVS is also getting sued by Walgreens on some intellectual property violations from Walgreens too with some of their mobile software relative to prescriptions.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/03/walgreens-suing-cvs-rite-aid-wants.html">Walgreens Suing CVS, Rite Aid, Wants License and IP Damage Reimbursement, Patent Violations, Software Used For Refilling Prescriptions Via Mobile Phone Scanners…Not Getting Enough Data to Sell?</a></h5> <p>How about all this Vicodin slipping out the doors of CVS stores?  Anyone doing any work on that end of their business?  Maybe they can figure out another way to bone up on some algorithms that make it a little more transparent when they decide to “kidnap” your prescription refills?  That’s still going on without asking the patient if they can move their prescriptions to CVS and there were<a href="http://www.youcaring.com/other/help-preserve-our-privacy-/258776"><img align="right" border="0" height="162" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-WjSMddBKiho/VAJ2n8h7WcI/AAAAAAABLOU/rTfddMqQxlU/GoFundMe%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; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" width="224" /></a> some big legal issues over that with internal emails giving pharmacists “quotas” to meet on securing existing prescriptions that were filled at other stores.  </p> <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><strong>The Boston location in Longwood tells me CVS is working to buddy up with Harvard as that’s where the extension of Harvard Medical is, in Longwood.</strong>  This is really getting competitive as we also have AARP and United Healthcare wanting developers to write code for them for free too.  Probably no place else on the web will tell you that but I used to code and I see right through all this marketing as I’m a privacy advocate and have a campaign doing to pass a law to license all data sellers.  Would you not like to see all the personal data CVS, banks and all the others you don’t even know about sell with your personal information?  I’m curious as CVS makes 1-2 billion a year doing it.  </p> <p><strong>Please see what else is being done with your data, like insurers buying up all your credit card transactions,</strong> so yeah use cash at CVS as all that’s on there too and that’s where the MasterCard ecommerce operation comes in to sell that to almost anyone who has the money and want the data.  </p> <h5><a href="http://www.youcaring.com/other/help-preserve-our-privacy-/258776">Read more about the lack of privacy here and how we need to license all data sellers, so we know who they are.  BD</a>  </h5> <p> <hr />Rhode Island-based CVS Health, operator of Minute Clinics and the country’s second-biggest drugstore chain, is planning to open a technology development center in Boston this winter. Chief Digital Officer Brian Tilzer tells me that the CVS Health Digital Innovation Lab will fit about 100 people — some of whom will move from CVS HQ in Woonsocket, and some of whom will be new hires. “We may not hire all 100 next year, but we’re going to hire a lot,” Tilzer says. The lab’s focus will be on “building customer-centric experiences in health care.”</p> <p>But as CVS continues to explore what Tilzer calls the “digital enablement of health care,” he decided that a location in Boston made sense. The new 15,000-square foot office will be at 116 Huntington Ave., “centrally located to the medical community in Longwood and the tech community in Cambridge,” he says. The Boston presence, he says, “will help us attract additional talent and increase our connectivity to those communities.”</p> <p>Tilzer, who was formerly Staples’ head of e-commerce, says he’ll spend time at the new office, which will be staffed with techies, product managers, digital strategists, and user experience designers. One big goal, he adds, is to connect with startups that are developing new health care-related products and services. “We can be an ideal learning lab for early-stage companies,” he says.</p> <p><a href="http://betaboston.com/innovation-economy/2014/11/17/pharmacy-giant-cvs-health-will-open-digital-innovation-lab-in-boston/">http://betaboston.com/innovation-economy/2014/11/17/pharmacy-giant-cvs-health-will-open-digital-innovation-lab-in-boston/</a></p>

CVS to Open New E-Commerce Technology Centers in Boston, New York and Palo Alto– Need “New Code” to Make Bigger Profits While They And Others Continue to Destroy “US Consumer Dignity” With the Exploitations…

These innovation labs are getting to be old news and the bottom line is they want more code to quantitate their business and profits.  Sure ...

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Actavis Buys Allergan for $66 Billion–Botox Will Be Another Tax Inversion Beneficiary

<p>Allegan had held off for over a year being purchased to include dealing with hostile take overs that have been <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="168" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-F4pvExHLPqA/VGoa7pQsCxI/AAAAAAABLz8/QGUd8psvVxA/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="175" /> ongoing with Valeant and Pershing Square Capital Management, a hedge fund.  This is a huge acquisition and Actavis had already completed their tax inversion deal a while back so they are not subject to the new laws and regulations which means the Allergan division will benefit on not paying some taxes.  Actavis was formerly located in New Jersey and when it acquired Warner Chilcott, it moves it’s headquarters off shore.  It was actually this deal that brought about several other inversions.  </p> <p>If you don’t know how the tax inversions work, the link below has a great documentary that explains how all this works and the diversion routes.  The big four accounting agencies in the US set most of them up and thus they are basically leading regulators around by the nose while there’s little we can do or say.</p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-tax-free-tour-documentary-on-how.html">“The Tax Free Tour” Documentary on How the Tax Havens Work, Who Runs and Owns Them, How Accountants Are Taking Over the Regulators And Not Held Accountable…</a></h5> <p>It’s too bad to see the headquarters move from Irvine, California as I know the location well.  They have escaped the hostile take over attempts of Bill Ackman so I guess he can go back to hassling Herbalife now as a focus?  BD  </p> <p><a href="http://dealbook.on.nytimes.com/public/overview?symbol=AGN&inline=nyt-org"> <hr />Allergan</a>, the maker of Botox, has resisted selling itself to another company for most of the year. On Monday, however, it agreed to be acquired for $66 billion by Actavis, another big drug maker.</p> <p>The deal, <a href="http://www.multivu.com/players/English/7379351-actavis-brand-generic-pharmaceuticals-brent-saunders-paul-bisaro/">worth $219 a share in cash and stock</a>, presents a monumental roadblock for <a href="http://dealbook.on.nytimes.com/public/overview?symbol=VRX&inline=nyt-org">Valeant Pharmaceuticals</a> International and the hedge fund manager William A. Ackman, the unlikely consortium that teamed up in April to start what became a hostile bid for Allergan.</p> <p>Actavis was until recently based in Parsippany, N.J. But last year it agreed to acquire an Irish <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="124" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-rdNFX5VN91Y/VGoa8E4idqI/AAAAAAABL0E/WqKQF_6M8E4/image%25255B6%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" />drug maker, <a href="http://dealbook.on.nytimes.com/public/overview?symbol=WCRX&inline=nyt-org">Warner Chilcott</a>, and relocate its headquarters abroad, striking one of the first big so-called inversions.</p> <p>But because Actavis has already completed its move abroad, it is exempt from the new Treasury Department rules, and will be able to pay fewer taxes on Allergan’s international sales and use Allergan’s overseas cash to help finance the deal. Actavis already took advantage of its newfound financial flexibility as an Irish company this year when it acquired <a href="http://dealbook.on.nytimes.com/public/overview?symbol=FRX&inline=nyt-org">Forest Laboratories</a>.</p> <p><a href="http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/11/17/allergan-agrees-to-be-sold-to-actavis/?partner=socialflow&smid=tw-nytimesbusiness&_r=0">http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/11/17/allergan-agrees-to-be-sold-to-actavis/?partner=socialflow&smid=tw-nytimesbusiness&_r=0</a></p>

Actavis Buys Allergan for $66 Billion–Botox Will Be Another Tax Inversion Beneficiary

Allegan had held off for over a year being purchased to include dealing with hostile take overs that have been ongoing with Valeant and Per...

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Hitler Finds Out It Was Gruber Who Spilled the Beans On Obamacare (video-humor)

<p>It was time for a Hitler humor video return and no matter what your opinion is, this is just plain funny!   <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="174" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-JZzrdDm2Sys/VGg4aynfLoI/AAAAAAABLzs/pzz_bv7psfI/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" />You can find old Jonathon Gruber over at the<strong><em> </em></strong><a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/healthcare/report/2013/10/23/77537/the-affordable-care-acts-lower-than-projected-premiums-will-save-190-billion/"><strong><em>Center for American Progress</em></strong></a><strong><em> </em></strong>where he and Zeke Emanuel help HHS write out healthcare policy anymore because they can’t do it.  Gruber can stay at the think tank if he wants until he’s 75 as that’s when his buddy, Zeke Emanuel says we don’t have any value anymore and he wants to kick off at that age thinks you should think that way too.  There’s quite a few former and current United Healthcare folks that check in and out of that think tank too, so there’s why Gruber’s buddy Zeke, is just a walking/talking commercial for United Healthcare.  Lois Quam is a big one that was at the think tank for a while and probably was the door opener for the rest to walk in over the years so there’s your connection with impact of a big insurer right there with US Healthcare policy, lobbying there too.</p> <p>Read from the page if you like about Gruber’s model he created to try to match the CBO on their projections, so when it comes to models, right there he’s working one to fit the CBO and whether or not it’s a good model or not, we don’t know but it’s what Congress uses so Gruber comes along and replicates it.  There’s the plan from 2013 and it’s not about pursuing a new model, but rather matching one the Congressional Budget already uses, so nobody here is going for accuracy with a model at all, just match up and get things moving. By the time the CBO breaks down the model so members of Congress can understand, it might end up with a very simplistic spreadsheet:)  </p> <p><em>“We used the Gruber Microsimulation Model, or GMSIM, to model the impact of a 16 percent reduction in premiums for plans in the individual market. Microsimulation modeling uses evidence from health economics studies to model how individuals and employers respond to changes in policy or the environment. The Congressional Budget Office uses the same type of modeling.</em></p> <p><em>The GMSIM is designed to closely match CBO estimates that have been released to date. While our estimates are not guaranteed to exactly mimic what CBO would find for a comparable reduction in premiums, our findings should provide a reasonable approximation of CBO’s findings.”</em></p> <p><iframe style="height: 315px; width: 480px" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/DKhkQqA53v0" frameborder="0" width="420" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p> <p>Overall though it’s almost impossible to work with insurers at some levels as they have take segmentation to hilt with hiring armies of Quants as they want their business to be purely quantitative for profits and the whole idea is to take health expenses and share it over a large enough group of people so all share in the cost.  That’s how insurance was created to begin with , but again segmentation with insurers is not letting that happen and I realize they have scrutinize and look at costs and so forth too but they don’t do a darn thing with hammering more on pharmaceutical companies either.  United doesn’t care much on that end as they own their own pharmacy benefit manager subsidiary that sells drugs, which is part of Optum and formerly names Prescriptive Solutions.  So what do you do with that monster in the room, conflict?  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/10/data-scientistsquants-in-health.html">Data Scientists/Quants in the Health Insurance Business–Modeling Beyond the Speed and Capabilities of Humans To Keep Up With The Affordable Care Act–Turning Into A World of Killer Algorithms That We All Hate..</a></h5> <p>Speaking of economists, this is one of my favorite clips on economists from the #1 financial quant/mathematician in the world and Gruber is and economist and put Larry Summers in here too for this definition of “economists”..”they don’t have laws…they build up this theory of what they call a law and they get all the nonsense coming out of it”…who needs economists I say:)  The Hitler video really is pretty funny!  </p> <p><object height="300" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://swf.tubechop.com/tubechop.swf?vurl=ed2FWNWwE3I&start=1962&end=2000&cid=2520137"></param><embed src="http://swf.tubechop.com/tubechop.swf?vurl=ed2FWNWwE3I&start=1962&end=2000&cid=2520137" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="300"></embed></object></p> <p>I prefer to deal with the honest Quants that tell you “exactly what’s in the model” and let others replicate it, so you can see here Gruber was trying to replicate what the CBO would understand or mirror what they had in order to get the law through.  Models are complex and I would like to see Congress themselves get themselves an install of IBMWatson to help their modeling out and I could bet the CBO would love to have that capability too.  BD  </p> <p>Take a trip on over to the<strong><em> </em></strong><a href="http://www.ducknet.net/attack-of-the-killer-algorithms/"><strong><em>Killer Algorithms Page and listen to some Quants/Mathematicians</em></strong></a> and other smart people tell you how you get duped if you want.  It’s a battle out there.  </p>

Hitler Finds Out It Was Gruber Who Spilled the Beans On Obamacare (video-humor)

It was time for a Hitler humor video return and no matter what your opinion is, this is just plain funny!   You can find old Jonathon Gruber...

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Governor Christie’s Chief of Staff to Leave and Go To Work For Cooper University Hospital

<p>Kevin O'Dowd, Christie’s Chief of Staff will be leaving to take a job at Cooper University Hospital.  O’Dowd<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="187" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-RyvYQ9Hmfz8/VGcDPUyBDGI/AAAAAAABLzc/axCK29QawR8/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="130" /> has been with the Christie administration since 2012 and was said to have been the nomination for the state Attorney General but that’s going to happen now. </p> <p>At Cooper hospital O’Dowd will be involved with the relationship the hospital has with MD Anderson and will oversee marketing, human resources and compliance.  It was just in September that the CEO of Cooper Hospital and his wife died in a mysterious house fire which is still under investigation.  O’Dowd’s wife is also well connected with being the current commissioner of the state department of Health.  That would have been interesting if he were stay and become Attorney General, so maybe a good time for a move.  BD</p> <hr /> <p>Gov. Christie's chief of staff, Kevin O'Dowd, will step down this month to work for Cooper University Hospital in Camden, nearly a year after the governor named O'Dowd his pick for attorney general.</p> <p>O'Dowd, whose selection as attorney general never moved forward after controversy arose over lane closures on the George Washington Bridge, will serve as senior executive vice president and chief administrative officer at Cooper, where he will focus on business development, Christie officials said. He will start at Cooper in January.</p> <p>In a telephone interview, Christie said O'Dowd told him two or three weeks ago he had received the job offer from Cooper and was thinking about it.</p> <p>O'Dowd's wife, Mary, serves as commissioner of the state Department of Health.</p> <p>Christie said the prospect that his chief of staff would face questions about the bridge scandal during a confirmation process before a Democratic-controlled Senate "didn't play a role in this at all." He noted that O'Dowd had already faced hours of questions about the matter from a legislative committee.</p> <p><a href="http://www.philly.com/philly/news/new_jersey/20141115_breaking__south_jersey__region__politics_sj.html">http://www.philly.com/philly/news/new_jersey/20141115_breaking__south_jersey__region__politics_sj.html</a></p>

Governor Christie’s Chief of Staff to Leave and Go To Work For Cooper University Hospital

Kevin O'Dowd, Christie’s Chief of Staff will be leaving to take a job at Cooper University Hospital.  O’Dowd has been with the Christie...

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Over 400 Physicians Commit Suicide Every Year–Time for An Awareness For A Sometimes Miserable and Humiliating Profession Created By Our Insanely Over-Quantitated US Healthcare Environment

<p>This was great as I was on Twitter and the doctor,  Dr. Pam Wible sent me the link to her recent video to bring attention to doctor suicide, so I said that deserves a post.   Doctors are under a lot of pressure today and they have administrators just pounding on<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="183" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-vKipe4dpYxA/VGb54Fsee5I/AAAAAAABLzM/przSsj_s9Gg/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" /> them and insurers pushing for production.  It is buried and recently I posted about a couple of interns in New York that jumped to their death and did any major media cover this, no.  It’s still getting many hits with hospitals and others reading the post and I used what information I could find, but as she says this gets buried.  Here’s the link below.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/08/suicides-at-nyu-and-new-york.html">Suicides At NYU And New York Presbyterian–2 Physician Interns Jumped To Their Deaths</a></h5> <p>In addition a few days later another doctor committed suicide with a well established practice that rocked a community. </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/09/prominent-urologist-commits-suicide-in.html">Prominent Urologist Commits suicide In Kentucky–Stabbing Himself</a></h5> <p>Dr. Wible has made it mission to bring attention to the number of doctors we are losing and created the physician suicide challenge (video below).  You can watch as she talks about the bucket challenge and talks about how she’s more challenged by doctor suicide.  Families deny the cause of death and names get hidden she states.  She said she was suicidal in med school and she survived and 3 of the students in school didn’t survive and committed suicide.  With her leadership a physician wellness program with free 24/7 access to psychologists was started in 2012.  Doctors can access services without fear or any worries about privacy as there’s not any notification sent to any credentialing or licensing boards.   The doctor says it’s a place where doctors don’t need to feel alone.  </p> <p>Below are a couple links to a documentary that I have posted a while back called “The Vanishing Oath” that I think are good for everyone to see as the trailer say it all if you don’t get to see the entire movie.  Many med schools and hospitals screen “The Vanishing Oath” so med students know up front what’s coming.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2010/06/vanishing-oath-documentary-about.html">“The vanishing oath” – Documentary About the Diminishing Doctor-Patient Relationships When the Environment Does Not Allow Doctors To Care - Exhaustion As Well As Struggles to Take Care of Themselves Sets In</a></h5> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2010/06/vanishing-oath-documentary-one-md-talks.html">“The vanishing oath” Documentary – One MD Talks About the Process of Being Sued - The Diminishing Doctor-Patient Relationship</a></h5> <p>400 doctors is the size of a medical school to make a comparison as to how many MDs die from suicide.  You can also see <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cvHgGM-cRI"><strong><em>Dr. Wilde’s TED presentation here.</em></strong></a>  </p> <p><iframe style="height: 282px; width: 511px" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/FNoLigQzp5M" frameborder="0" width="560" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p> <p>In addition I try to cover some of the working conditions and what doctors are confronted with today, outside <img align="right" height="194" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-3szEXZPRIqQ/U7qv_R169gI/AAAAAAABKxc/evT7Y_hxGEc/image121.png?imgmax=800" style="float: right; display: inline" width="293" />of being a doctor.  Insurers are probably their biggest nightmare as well as coding as everyone want to tell them how to do their job.  In addition, we have the “Secret Scoring” of Doctors in the US and the subsequent rankings that come out.  The link below will tell you more about how insurers use mathematical numbers to dump MDs from Medicare Advantage networks with no reason or offer to communicate why.</p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-secret-scoring-of-americas.html">“The Secret Scoring of America’s Physicians” - Algorithmic Math Models For Insurance Network Contractual Exclusions, Relating to MDs Who See Medicare Advantage Patients..</a></h5> <p>Look at the picture on the right and see how many administrators there are compared to doctors and that kind of says it all.  Doctors are working with a lot of models for care today and some of those models are in fact broken as <strong>hospitals and insurers are dealing with the “Battle of the Quants’ as hospitals struggle to keep up with all the math and requirements of quantitated healthcare being dished out today.</strong>  If you don’t know what that’s about, check out the link below because this is reality of what’s going on with your healthcare today.  We can’t keep up as humans be shoved like data on markets and that’s a lot of what’s going on. <strong> Keep in mind some of the Quants working at insurers came from hedge funds and banks</strong> so they just look at numbers and meeting goals only and get completely removed from the fact that there are people attached to those numbers as well and that’s a big part of the problem out there today.  We can’t let the mathematical insanity and stat rat mentalities of insurers destroy the doctor-patient relationship.  BD  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/10/data-scientistsquants-in-health.html">Data Scientists/Quants in the Health Insurance Business–Modeling Beyond the Speed and Capabilities of Humans To Keep Up With The Affordable Care Act–Turning Into A World of Killer Algorithms That We All Hate..</a></h5> <hr /> <p>Every year we lose over 400 doctors to suicide. That’s like an entire medical school—gone. I was suicidal. I survived. But I lost both men I dated in med school to suicide. And 3 doctors in my town in just over a year to suicide. Each year over 1 million Americans will lose their doctors to suicide. </p> <p>HOW YOU CAN STOP THESE SUICIDES: </p> <p>1) Physician Suicide Etiquette: What to do when your doctor dies suddenly</p> <p> <a href="http://www.idealmedicalcare.org/blog/...">http://www.idealmedicalcare.org/blog/...</a> <br />2) Physician Suicide 101: Secrets, Lies & Solutions <br /><a href="http://www.idealmedicalcare.org/blog/...">http://www.idealmedicalcare.org/blog/...</a></p> <p><a href="http://www.idealmedicalcare.org/blog/physician-suicide-challenge/">http://www.idealmedicalcare.org/blog/physician-suicide-challenge/</a></p>

Over 400 Physicians Commit Suicide Every Year–Time for An Awareness For A Sometimes Miserable and Humiliating Profession Created By Our Insanely Over-Quantitated US Healthcare Environment

This was great as I was on Twitter and the doctor,  Dr. Pam Wible sent me the link to her recent video to bring attention to doctor suicide,...

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Life Settlement Insurance Contracts Reviving-Like Using Reverse Mortgages, Seniors Need the Money For Their End of Life Care And Assisted Living Expenses-Death Bonds…

<p>One reason for the comeback is there’s more seniors now out there but there’s to it than that.  True many folks have done a reverse mortgage but this goes one step further in now there’s someone waiting for you to die.  How the investments are handled are different, and many are selling their individual life insurance policies, so for the rest of the family if there’s not a lot of money around, there goes any inheritance. <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="171" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-T8sjC0PMcj8/VGauQnYidiI/AAAAAAABLy8/Xlgd1e489w0/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="213" /> </p> <p>The investor assumes the policy, makes the payments and gets the surrender when you die.  Who owns the policy now can be a big deal as with the way the economy is going, nothing is beyond exploitation either.  What is bothersome though now is to see hedge funds in on this action as they are not always known for have the best ethics when it comes to money.  You have pools now of people with diseases to choose from and they need the money to pay for medical care as we all know medical bills is the number one cause of bankruptcy in the US so there’s another reason for the rise in this activity. </p> <p>There will be more need for money for assisted living costs.  These types of policies are also called “Death Bonds”, creepy name I know.  We keep hearing about the expensive costs of cancer drugs and treatments and insurers have figured out even more crafty ways to shift costs back to the consumer so where’s the money going to come from?  </p> <p><strong><a href="http://www.investopedia.com/articles/bonds/08/death-bonds-portfolio.asp">From Investopedia:</a></strong></p> <p><em>“A person looking to sell their life insurance policy usually seeks out a </em><a href="http://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/broker.asp"><em>broker</em></a><em>, who will find three competitive offers from buyers of the life insurance policies. The broker is compensated once the sale is final, and at least a 2% </em><a href="http://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/commission.asp"><em>commission</em></a><em> will be charged. The policies that are being bought have a minimum value of $250,000, but that number has been coming down since the popularity of life-settlement securities has taken off.</em> “</p> <p>Those who buy are in essence profiting from someone’s death.  These are different policies than the “dead peasant” policies that companies basically do the same with and that practice has slowed down a bit due to public criticism.  </p> <h5><strong><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/10/peasant-life-insurance-policies-human.html">'Dead Peasant' Life Insurance Policies - Human Hedge Funds The Next Bond Issues</a></strong></h5> <p>So now that people are strapped for paying for healthcare bills again, life settlements is seeing a revival as it’s one more source to tap for many.  BD</p> <p> <hr /></p> <p>WASHINGTON – The life settlement (LS) market is reviving after a four-year substantive decline, and there is a place for this niche market in the long term, according to an industry expert.</p> <p>One key factor driving LS market growth is the expanding elder age population, which is increasing the potential market for life settlements, said Rajiv Rebello, a principal at Colva Insurance Services in San Diego. He said that the over-65 population, a key LS market, is expected to increase from 42 million in 2012 to an estimated 70 million in 2030. “The expanding elder age population increases the LS potential,” Rebello said.</p> <p>Also important to the LS industry is gaining the trust of both potential investors and owners of life insurance policies after the debacle that followed the 2008 severe economic downturn, when investors found that the mortality projections on which they based their investments were wildly inaccurate. A critical issue here, Rebello said, is accurate mortality predictions based on the policyholder’s age and the investor’s profit expectations.</p> <p><a href="http://insurancenewsnet.com/innarticle/2014/11/12/life-settlement-industry-is-reviving-a-572600.html#.VGakpmftzKc">http://insurancenewsnet.com/innarticle/2014/11/12/life-settlement-industry-is-reviving-a-572600.html#.VGakpmftzKc</a></p>

Life Settlement Insurance Contracts Reviving-Like Using Reverse Mortgages, Seniors Need the Money For Their End of Life Care And Assisted Living Expenses-Death Bonds…

One reason for the comeback is there’s more seniors now out there but there’s to it than that.  True many folks have done a reverse mortgage...

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How Many More “Bloomberg Big Gulp” Failed “Proof of Concept” Models Can We Sustain Before Everyone Splits a Gasket?

<p>I have in my blogging circled around this fact with some of my posts, but now maybe its time to just come right out and say it?  I like to use the Big Gulp model as we all know it was a failed proof of concept that didn’t work.  It further illustrates that no matter how much money and influence one has, Bloomberg, if the proof of concept in the virtual world doesn’t work in the real world, please know when to stop.  As we all read for weeks and weeks, it was just a no go, however the push didn’t stop until it got to the level where lawmaking had to jump in.  Look at the time and money wasted.  This happens as people all over get fooled with a “proof of concept” that may have striking statistical value in the justification, but when you roll it out “people don’t work that way”.  </p> <p>Big Gulp of course is not along and there are many others out there just like it except they<img align="right" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-4yKeXZOGJWY/U2hj_S1gpvI/AAAAAAABKL4/8L1D77wzoQY/image%25255B20%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="float: right; display: inline" /> don’t make the news and may not have the money and influential push behind them to that extreme, but they are out there and it’s making people insane when the folks at the top are “duped” into some virtual values that just won’t work.  We see it every day and look at the wearables for a good place to find a lot of these.  People don’t work that way.  Wearables also have a privacy problem too in the fact that we have the data selling epidemic for profit that keeps growing in the US as it’s easy money.  It’s a bad model too as it removes everyone’s dignity and everyone becomes a “data suspect”.  Such data selling and mining also restricts access to something for consumers and it’s truly a sick world and in healthcare, it’s doing nothing to improve care (I’m not talking clinical wearables used in hospitals here).  </p> <p>Wear a Fitbit and you will get healthy myth lives out there and it’s not only that device but many more.  Sure there’s the case for statistical data and being informed but so far, this is not cutting it and people don’t work that way.  With data selling it becomes more of a push of a broken “proof of concept” that works in virtual worlds but dives in the real world. <strong> </strong></p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/08/wearables-again-consumers-are-going.html">Wearables Again, Consumers Are Not Going There Until We Get Some Transparency and Privacy Efforts As We Know There’s Data Being Collected But We Don’t Know Where It Goes…</a></h5> <p><strong>We just have a ton of “Big Gulp” juniors roaming around out there, many with the hidden data selling profiteering on the back side that consumers can’t see.  You even have the</strong><em> </em><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/08/argus-analytics-produces-share-of.html"><em>head of the US Financial Protection agency, Cordray “duped” into this with data.</em></a>  The answer is not always to build a data base to create “data suspects” with consumers, but rather to create technologies that do in fact help and not be just one more failed proof of concept out there.  Sometimes companies spend a lot of money on development with failed model, so much to the fact that even though internally they may know their model is broken themselves, but they continue to push consumers to use a “broken model with a broken proof of concept” as they want to make some of their money back.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-quiet-and-unspoken-consumer.html">The Quiet and Unspoken Consumer Movement to Stay Off the Radar - Contrary To All You Read About Sensors, Apps and Wearables, More Folks Are Running for the Exit Doors…</a></h5> <p><strong>As a matter of fact on wearables, people are fleeing for the exits with lack of privacy with failed “proof of concept” models.  You don’t read that on the web and get a different story, but venture out into the “real” world and forget some of the fiction you read on the web and you’ll hear it.</strong>  There has to be a balance with virtual and real world values and we don’t have it as “greed” is still very much alive.  I keep saying “doing it for the good” has pretty much died and now its more about “doing it for the good money” that tops all as it is what it is and it’s not the consumers “good money” either, its for the banks and the companies good money.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/09/tim-cook-from-apple-talks-privacy-we.html">Tim Cook From Apple Talks Privacy, We All Deserve That Dignity, And Our Product Is Not You..</a></h5> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/08/want-privacy-dump-your-smart-phone-says.html">Want Privacy? Dump Your Smart Phone Says John McAfee And Stop Being So Lazy And Giving Out All Your Data</a></h5> <p>Maybe others could voice an opinion on this as well but when you see this constant struggle and consumer resistance, we’re not changing to conform to live in virtual values as we have to function in “the real world” and when models and the proof of concept is failed, we head for the exits.  “You can do something about anything with software and create these virtual worlds out there” and that’s a quote from Mike Osinski who by the way farms oysters now and earlier in his career wrote the software that all the banks used and abused for sub prime loans.  You can hear his quote and more words of wisdom by watching the Quant documentary in the footer of this blog, video #2.  </p> <p>This also makes a point to where people who do coding for a long period of time do burn out and the reality of the real world returns and I guess you could say the same thing for me, I burned out, but the knowledge gained gives me insight that is different than a lot of the fiction you read on the web with folks and their perceptions on how it works.<strong>  Most novices in some of what you read get the perceptions wrong and combine trying to jerk your emotional strings with the frustration of data and IT infrastructures.  I see it every day and I’m not saying all news is bad as there are good reporters but the others exists out there, mixed in.  </strong></p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/05/people-dont-work-that-way-world-of.html">“People Don’t Work That Way” A World of Broken Software Models That Don’t Align To the Human Side,Too Much Push At Times With Only A Proof of Concept That Fails in the Real World..</a></h5> <p><em><strong>“We’re getting kind of lost in a world of “software” glut if you will.</strong>  Some of it is very close to a “me too” with a small change in user interfaces or perhaps a few different queries and is that enough to entice people to start or change?  Maybe yes and maybe no.  I’m seeing an awful lot of “virtual” world out there that ease their way over into the “real” world and some of it is not really good as people can’t tell the difference on where priorities lie at times.  I call it “The Grays”…</em></p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/03/virtual-worlds-real-world-we-have.html">Virtual Worlds, Real World We Have A Problem And It’s A Big One With A Lot of Gray Areas Finding Where The Defining Lines Exist, Confusing Many With A Lot of Weird Values And Strange Perceptions…</a></h5> <p>The question here is balance and due to greed and money will we ever see it again or<img align="right" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-aqo3uS7farQ/U2hj_wOvxmI/AAAAAAABKMA/gogv1CfHCUc/image%25255B21%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="float: right; display: inline" /> will the “duping of America” continue with this insane battle of trying to push failed models and proof of concepts down out throats when again “people don’t work that way”?  Software and analytics is a hard business is not everyone is working to create value as it was in the early days, now some use code just to exploit consumers, shake their dignity and make money and they don’t care.  Those who do this know exactly who they are as well and they won’t admit it but after a consumers have been hassled long enough with failed models and proof of concepts, some of them finally have to beg off, as it becomes too costly for them to continue to market “virtual” values that don’t work in the real world.  Seems like some never give up or give it a break.  </p> <p><strong>We don’t need a future of broken “Bloomberg Big Gulps” as it costs time and money and folks need to know when to quit, when the model doesn’t work,</strong> but that’s not what we are seeing and instead too at times we get fake studies that turn the context around to blaming the consumer for the failure of their proof of concepts that don’t work.  I see that a lot, software or analytics not selling, get a study to blame the consumer and that’s the real world of what’ going on out there and it’s growing old and consumers are wising up and again, just start heading for the exits.  </p> <p>I like good technology and what it can do, I used to write, but that also enables me to see when that’s not the case and consumers are abused and take advantage of.  </p> <h5><a href="http://www.youcaring.com/other/help-preserve-our-privacy-/258776">Visit the privacy campaign for more on that topic as relates to the data selling epidemic for profit in the US.</a></h5> <p>So again I ask the question how long must consumers endure glorified marketing, hammering emails and campaigns for broken models and proof of concepts that just don’t work?  We’re tired of the Bloomberg School of failed models, as we have seen way too many times, statistical value does not create value in the real world where people actually live, with and without algorithms 24/7.  BD</p>

How Many More “Bloomberg Big Gulp” Failed “Proof of Concept” Models Can We Sustain Before Everyone Splits a Gasket?

I have in my blogging circled around this fact with some of my posts, but now maybe its time to just come right out and say it?  I like to u...

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The Affordable Care Act Is Run By the Machines–So Now What Do Human Lawmakers Think They Are Going To Do About It?

<p>This is the truth if you have not given a lot of thought to this but IT infrastructures everywhere run the Affordable Care Act and when you make laws that are verbiage only, well there’s much more to be said when you get to the machines for the IT infrastructure that runs it.  </p> <p>I think this should be pretty clear in the minds of all as let’s step back to last year with Healthcare.Gov, <img align="right" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-eOr42zvKZnU/VF2qnyT-0QI/AAAAAAABLvU/LGJW58fwYE0/image%25255B13%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="float: right; display: inline" />what runs it?  Code and the machines are the IT infrastructures that run it all, for that portion of the ACA.  Do you remember what happens when code isn’t ready or is not done?  We all do, glitches and even if you were not a participant there was plenty in the news to read.  </p> <p>You also have to remember that changes in the verbiage of laws leave a lot of open space for the engineering of the machines and code as well as a lot of loopholes and the insurers find them quickly, especially if it means profit with an interpretation and some algorithms that are not deemed illegal.  We don’t know exactly anymore because a lot of algorithms with proprietary code seem to have become the law.  I just wonder when all of this will sink in to the heads of our lawmakers as they don’t have the control they used to when things were not this complex.  </p> <p><strong>Do you remember all the changes last year with Healthcare.Gov?</strong>  Every time verbiage changed, the algorithms and formulas that consumers deal with, which end up being policies, websites, claims, you name it change.  There’s always going to be some of this but we are at the point to where we need to focus on “less” data and analytics to function, otherwise it’s going to blow up one day.  Even the insurers are driving themselves off a cliff with all their data which amounts to more expense and no improvement in care. <strong> Yes we do need measurements and accountability but how hard do you want make it?</strong>  Rich now with Meaningful Use and CMS reporting, it’s ending up cheaper to opt out and not have to deal with the mess.  Doctors are doing this and I’m sure there’s some hospitals that might be in there as well.  Poor hospitals can’t afford all of the IT needed for reporting and go broke and close their doors.  Some hospitals close for other reasons but most are going broke.</p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/09/health-insurance-business-is-driving.html">Health Insurance Business Is Driving Itself Off a Cliff & Doesn’t Know When to Stop With Collecting, Analyzing and Processing Non Relevant Data With Little Or No Impact On Giving Good Care..</a></h5> <p>Then we have these folks who are going to rule on all these complexities who are not well known for their technology skills and knowledge at the Supreme court that could hand down a decision that could just wreak havoc for consumers, again with the IT infrastructures that run the Affordable Care Act.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/11/supreme-court-to-hear-challenge-to.html">Supreme Court to Hear Challenge to Obamacare Subsidies- They Hold the Code In Their Hands That Controls the All the Machines Running the Affordable Care Act..</a></h5> <p>So what’s going to be?  <strong>Complexities mean money for insurers and they love it as they have spent the last few years hiring armies of quants to dissect each part of their business for maximum profits with math models.</strong>  Hospitals are now hiring quants to keep up and not lose all their money but they have one hand tied behind their back though as they have us, patients to take care of in the money and math modeling battle.  It’s the Battle of the Quants that used to be just for markets, but it’s here now and care is not getting any better for patients and neither is engagement.  This has built a wall.  Democrats are giving up on Obamacare as nobody can stand it anymore as the Quants have maximized the variables and segmentation methodologies where it’s too hard for us humans to work with it.  Big data has it’s place in healthcare in genomics and drug research, not making life miserable for people needing care, which is what has been built.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/10/data-scientistsquants-in-health.html">Data Scientists/Quants in the Health Insurance Business–Modeling Beyond the Speed and Capabilities of Humans To Keep Up With The Affordable Care Act–Turning Into A World of Killer Algorithms That We All Hate..</a></h5> <p>So again do our lawmakers even have one single clue as to the complexities involved here and do they still thing making laws with just verbiage is going to be the answer without some better modeling on their part?  I don’t think so as we still the juvenile things like the Ted Cruz coloring book and the other nonsense and we have to read about it over and over as the media is on a big hunt for click bait so they can generate enough ad revenue to stay in business.  </p> <p>I have just never seen anything like this to where nobody wants to lend and effort.  We do need to reduce the software and analytics we use today and thin it out or it’s going to fail as everything will come to a halt.  We don’t have enough room or time for all the software out there and we are getting spread too thin and need more to be on the same path.  We can do this and not stop innovation, and we just won’t have as much “junk” out there making noise.  </p> <p>In addition we have this, the data selling epidemic in the US that needs to be addressed soon.  Everyone ignores it but why do you think we don’t’ do much as a nation anymore?  Everyone’s taking the easy route and become a data mining shop and this accelerates inequality too.</p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/09/data-brokers-are-now-diagnosing.html">Data Brokers Are Now Diagnosing Consumers With Diabetes And Other Chronic Conditions–”Over Rated And Broken Predictive Behavioral Math Models” Providing a Diagnosis That Should Always Be Documented From Your Doctor, Not From The Web</a></h5> <p>If you have less “junk” out there, that’s less data to become flawed.  So again, wake up and realize the Affordable Care Act is in fact run by the machines and we need much better efforts here with some digital centric laws as the system we are using now will continue to discriminate against consumers as the secret scoring of America continues.  BD  </p>

The Affordable Care Act Is Run By the Machines–So Now What Do Human Lawmakers Think They Are Going To Do About It?

This is the truth if you have not given a lot of thought to this but IT infrastructures everywhere run the Affordable Care Act and when you ...

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MMRGlobal (MyMedicalRecords) Reports One of Their Best Quarters Ever- Personal Health Records

<p>As you can read below, licensing had an impact on the company’s revenue.  As you know from reading this blog, MMRGlobal is valued<img align="right" height="147" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-tjnxgm3yGBM/U9xNeckJHPI/AAAAAAABK-o/rixYGIKJOd8/image%25255B4%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="float: right; display: inline" width="237" /> Medical Quack sponsor so please take time and<strong><em> </em></strong><a href="https://www.mymedicalrecords.com/"><strong><em>visit their website</em></strong></a> and explore their PHR offering, which is also available at Drugstore.com as a PHR in a box.  With licensing here’s a couple recent post that give a little more information on where some of those revenue opportunities came from.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/07/mmrglobal-signs-patent-license-with.html">MMRGlobal Signs Patent License With Leading EMR Systems Provider in Australia</a></h5> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/07/mmrglobal-receives-new-clinical-trials.html">MMRGlobal Receives “New” Clinical Trials Patent, Universities Validate Patient Engagement With Trials</a></h5> <p>Here’s also a couple recent past settlements with licensing with a couple of companies I’m sure you will recognize.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/03/mmr-global-and-cerner-reach-patent.html">MMR Global and Cerner Reach Patent Agreement</a></h5> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/03/walgreens-and-mymedicalrecords-reach.html">Walgreens and MyMedicalRecords Reach Settlement Agreement Related to Patent Infringements</a></h5> <p>Below is a clip from the press release which you can read in it’s<strong><em> </em></strong><a href="http://phx.corporate-ir.net/mobile.view?c=178404&v=203&d=1&id=1989342"><strong><em>entirety here.</em></strong></a>  Maintaining a PHR is more important today than ever and it’s about having the “right” medical data available when you need it and Bob Lorsch used their PHR last year when he was out of town to provide information to the physicians.  BD</p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/11/ceo-bob-lorsch-of-mymedicalrecordscom.html">CEO Bob Lorsch of MyMedicalRecords.Com Uses His Company PHR Software With Stored Records And Communication Capabilities To Avoid Surgery And In Turn Gets The Proper Treatment At Hospital…</a></h5> <p> <hr /></p> <p>LOS ANGELES, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 11/13/14 -- MMRGlobal, Inc. (OTCQB: MMRF) ("MMR" or the "Company"), a leading provider of Personal Health Records, MyEsafeDepositBox storage solutions and electronic document management systems for consumers and healthcare professionals, today filed its quarterly financial report on Form 10-Q for the period ended September 30, 2014 with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company announced a 1,584% increase in revenues for the third quarter of 2014, as compared to the third quarter of 2013. During the quarter, the Company recorded revenues of $1,896,271, and gross profit of $1,807,311. The Company also reported cash on hand of $1,491,510 at the end of the quarter. </p> <p>The Company's quarterly revenues were driven by licensing and other sources and represent the highest quarter in MMR's history. The Company also announced that in 2014 it will report its biggest year since its inception. For the nine months ended September 30, 2014, the Company reported revenues of $2,437,095 as compared to $535,146 for the same period last year, an increase of 355.4%. Net cash provided by operating activities for the nine months ended September 30, 2014 was $226,382, compared to net cash used of $2,174,399 in the similar period in 2013. </p> <p><a href="http://phx.corporate-ir.net/mobile.view?c=178404&v=203&d=1&id=1989342">http://phx.corporate-ir.net/mobile.view?c=178404&v=203&d=1&id=1989342</a></p>

MMRGlobal (MyMedicalRecords) Reports One of Their Best Quarters Ever- Personal Health Records

As you can read below, licensing had an impact on the company’s revenue.  As you know from reading this blog, MMRGlobal is valued Medical Q...

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Woman Taken To Wrong Emergency Room (Out of Network) Faces Bankruptcy-Attack of the Killer Algorithms Continue As Quant Modeled Contracts From Insurers Continue to Haunt Consumers And Some Banks Won’t Even Remove Bills After Bankruptcy

<p>I call it the<strong><em> </em></strong><a href="http://www.ducknet.net/attack-of-the-killer-algorithms/"><strong><em>Attack of the Killer Algorithms</em></strong></a> as the machines are running all the billing and what you have access to.  This is where the humans come in to make adjustments, but that’s not happening as once “the machines” put the money on the books, it’s like hell to get it off.  Why?  This is how a lot of business works today with connected data.  Once it’s on the books it becomes part of their profit system reporting, immediately and thus this is why it’s so hard for consumers and this is the downside of everything being connected as even though the bill has not been paid <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="160" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-f_Awv9_frRI/VGTwiBr6FoI/AAAAAAABLys/9NLtfaquwcw/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="280" />they base budgets on the money and make purchases.  Hospitals do this so be aware.  It’s automated and you have folks collecting money on pay for performance on what they collect and thus so they are not really motivated to remove such charges as they get dinged on bonuses.  Removing and helping the consumer is the “right” thing to do of course and we would all want that but again the business models used today in healthcare don’t allow that to happen.  Wake up folks to the world of automation and connected data and realize that’s why stuff like this happens.  </p> <p>Automation means profits every which way you look at it and you have to realize we do have a Battle of the Quants taking place with insurance companies who have hired armies of them to maximize profits.  Realize when they are modeling for profits, they don’t see there’s humans attached to those numbers either an are only focused on making their bonuses and meeting their goals.  Again this the downside of this as layers of business models actually remove the human connection for Quants and modelers who work with numbers all day long, they are living in “number world”, don’t have have any contact with real consumers and thus so are are removed from any ethical consideration.  It’s ugly and I don’t like it either but I’m writing to tell you this is the cause and effect for all of this no matter way you look at it, it is the Attack of the Killer Algorithms as that what the Quants are using to create those models, math and algorithms.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/05/people-dont-work-that-way-world-of.html">“People Don’t Work That Way” A World of Broken Software Models That Don’t Align To the Human Side,Too Much Push At Times With Only A Proof of Concept That Fails in the Real World..</a></h5> <p>Again go run and complain to your local or national lawmaker, and the don’t get or understand most of this sadly and yes indeed we are trapped.  We have a huge problem with lawmakers today who don’t understand data mechanics logic and they still think their verbiage in making laws will fix things.  That is a yes and no as laws may be enacted, but if banks, insurers and so on can code around verbiage and determine they will win a case in a court of law with “verbiage” compliance, they do it.  It’s ugly so wake and smell the stink.   Nothing will change until we have some digital centric laws as this cat and mouse game has gone on forever and the models are getting smarter as a way to mathematically squeeze out profits, no matter who it hurts.  I’ve never seen such resistance with consumers to accept this fact as well as lawmakers, but if you want the real story, that’s it so come out of the bliss and speak up.  Short clip below from Mike Osinski from the Quant documentary, what counts is the real world and this woman being saved and taken care of with hear heart attack.  </p> <p><object height="244" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://swf.tubechop.com/tubechop.swf?vurl=ed2FWNWwE3I&start=2810&end=2845&cid=1746075"></param><embed src="http://swf.tubechop.com/tubechop.swf?vurl=ed2FWNWwE3I&start=2810&end=2845&cid=1746075" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="244"></embed></object></p> <p>So back on track it’s the patient’s fault now that the ambulance took her to where she didn’t have coverage.  Oh boy we have technology answers, right.  Watch and see as to sell more software someone will come out with a way to look up your coverage next or make an attempt at it, “with software you can do something about everything” is the way the old saying goes and that’s a “virtual” answer, but what happens here is the loss of focus in saving the woman’s life.  This is a big problem today as people can’t tell the difference between virtual and real world values and I talk about that frequently as I observe it everywhere, even coming out of the White House.  That’s why they can’t do much either as they and Congress are confused and lost in virtual values and a proof of concept model that does not work in the real world.  </p> <p><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/03/virtual-worlds-real-world-we-have.html"><strong>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…</strong></a></p> <p>Again her insurer has already paid what the Quant generated contract says and she’s stuck and consumers have no outlet.  This is how you get outfoxed all the time and the Killer Algorithms of such contract generate profit.  Again watch the videos at the <a href="http://www.ducknet.net/attack-of-the-killer-algorithms/"><strong><em>Killer Algorithms page</em></strong></a> and see how you get duped day in and day out and when to be a skeptic, or for started just scroll down and watch the 4 videos in the footer for a good start.  </p> <p>Now the next ordeal if the patient can file bankruptcy is the banks who are now charging people to remove such items on their records.  It’s not fair is it that banks can write off billions and be forgiven but the feed on the consumer this way.  So if you file bankruptcy for medical bills, that still may haunt you forever.  What’s the reason behind some of this?  They can still sell this data about you and when folks want to dig deep they can still find it!  This is yes one more adverse affect of the data selling epidemic in the US.  We need a law to license and index all data sellers, and not just data brokers but banks and companies as they are the big unknowns that repackage your data and make billions doing it.  Again it’s the attack of the Killer Algorithms as this is all done with data.  Visit my campaign below and see what else goes on with how all your medical and other data gets sold and listen to a Congressional testimony.  Again this appears to be above the comprehension and the willingness of lawmakers to attain the proper perception that this going on.  </p> <h5><a href="http://www.youcaring.com/other/help-preserve-our-privacy-/258776">Transparency and Privacy – License all Data Sellers So We Know Who They Are….</a></h5> <p>You’re not getting anywhere as a consumer as the models that run the algorithms are locked up, proprietary code and they enforce as written in verbiage while computer code runs hog ass wild to come after you.  This is the disconnect today with lawmakers as they do “verbiage” only and think that is the fix, wrong.  You might want to <a href="http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/11/12/debts-canceled-by-bankruptcy-still-mar-consumer-credit-scores/?_r=1"><strong><em>read this entire article from the New York Times</em></strong></a> about this as we have the banksters and their math models again at work.  Watch video #2 in the footer to understand how they do this.  </p> <p><em>The problem, state and federal officials suspect, is that some of the nation’s biggest banks ignore bankruptcy court discharges, which render the debts void. Paying no heed to the courts, the banks keep the debts alive on </em><a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/your-money/credit/credit-scores/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier"><em>credit reports</em></a><em>, essentially forcing borrowers to make payments on bills that they do not legally owe.</em></p> <p><em>At the center of the investigation, the people briefed on it said, is the way banks report debts to the credit reporting agencies. Once a borrower voids a debt in bankruptcy, creditors are required to update credit reports to reflect that the debt is no longer owed, removing any notation of “past due” or “charged off.”</em></p> <p><em>But the banks routinely fail to do that, according to the people briefed on the investigation,<img align="right" height="100" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-6HDDm04lOwA/Ts0zq-EuFHI/AAAAAAAA4d8/nMT-KL0JEDY/image_thumb%25255B12%25255D.png?imgmax=172" style="float: right; display: inline" width="214" /> as well as interviews with more than three dozen borrowers who have discharged debts in bankruptcy and a review of bankruptcy records in seven states.</em></p> <p>In addition you have the dummies that read and believe everything flawed on credit reports today too and that makes it even more difficult.  It may be part dummy and part company procedure but what’s on that screen, no matter how many errors and what you tell them, is what they use.  Flawed data being used against consumers is a bit problem and I predicted this a couple years ago as well.  If you understand data mechanics and have some sales and marketing in your background you just go through and pick them off.  The Occupy movement was all about this and even the protesters didn’t know what it was but something wasn’t working and now look where we are 3 years later, tons of Killer Algorithms getting your money.  Heck I even had the editor at Forbes write to me at the time and didn’t get this, again the refusal and bliss in acknowledging that all of this decision making is running on servers 24/7, the machines programmed to get your money and deny access.  BD</p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2011/10/occupying-wall-streetits-all-about.html">Occupying Wall Street–It’s All About the “Attack of the Killer Algorithms”–The Unfair and Marketing Exploit of Ethics Using Math–This Could be a Subject for Michael Moore to Explore and Document In a Movie</a></h5> <p> <hr />Megan Rothbauer would rather be discussing an impending engagement, her future marriage and eventually, children. However, the 30-year-old Madison resident is instead scouring the Internet looking for solutions to stave off bankruptcy.</p> <p>A project manager for a manufacturing company, she is one year removed from a cardiac arrest and the subsequent physical recovery is being dwarfed by a near-impossible fiscal recovery. She was sent last Sept. 9 to the emergency room at St. Mary's Hospital, which was out of her insurance network, instead of to Meriter Hospital, three blocks away, which was covered by her insurance. It's the difference between a $1,500 maximum out-of-pocket expense and the now-$50,000-plus she's facing in bills.</p> <p>In Rothbauer's case, her insurer, Blue Cross Blue Shield, said it paid St. Mary's 100 percent of its in-network rate or $156,000 to cover part of the original $254,000 bill that she incurred during 10 days in a medically-induced coma and another six days in the cardiac unit. St. Mary's negotiated with Rothbauer to reduce the remainder of her $98,000 bill by 90 percent. This is separate from the bills she received from the doctors, the ambulance, the therapist and others.</p> <p>Gaines said consumers have little chance to negotiate against the parties in the health care industry as they don't have the necessary tools.</p> <p><a href="http://www.channel3000.com/news/woman-taken-to-wrong-hospital-faces-bankruptcy/29648000">http://www.channel3000.com/news/woman-taken-to-wrong-hospital-faces-bankruptcy/29648000</a></p>

Woman Taken To Wrong Emergency Room (Out of Network) Faces Bankruptcy-Attack of the Killer Algorithms Continue As Quant Modeled Contracts From Insurers Continue to Haunt Consumers And Some Banks Won’t Even Remove Bills After Bankruptcy

I call it the Attack of the Killer Algorithms as the machines are running all the billing and what you have access to.  This is where the ...

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“It’s A Basic Human Right for Individuals to Have Access-One Drop of Blood” Theranos CEO & Founder, Elizabeth Holmes TED Video

<p>This is a great lecture from TedMed this year from Elizabeth Holmes, the CEO of <a href="http://www.theranos.com/"><strong><em>Theranos</em></strong></a> which is a new blood testing technology that requires only one drop of blood.  Her vision is for everyone to have access to healthcare information, when we need it.  </p> <p>Lab information drives 70 to 80% of all treatments today.  She talks about how we can’t order a lab test ourselves <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="266" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-JWarxzjmgbw/VGRcBrdudGI/AAAAAAABLyU/sApJf6XSpvk/image%25255B8%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" title="image" width="236" />and she believes this should be a right.  When individuals have access to things about their bodies they can begin to change outcomes.  Below is a backlink with some additional information.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/06/theranos-on-road-to-expansion-and.html">Theranos On The Road To Expansion and Growth - Changing the Face of Medical Lab Tests, One Small Drop of Blood</a></h5> <p>Diabetes is one of Holmes big topics here and it makes sense as we all pretty much know this is a disease we can attack and change.  Several times she states the timing of access is important, when you need it and when it’s actionable.  The company has used Arizona as their test market with placing wellness stores inside Walgreens stores.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/11/theranos-opens-2-wellness-centers-in.html">Theranos Opens 2 Wellness Centers in Phoenix Walgreens Drug Stores- Express Blood Tests at Half the Cost of What Medicare Pays</a></h5> <p>In addition as a physician you can sign up to use their mail order services and the costs for the lab tests are around half of what Medicare pays.  In addition back to the video she states patients are not compliant because of cost, location to where one needs to go to have a test done, etc.  Everyone should be able to know up front what the cost of the lab test is going to be upfront.  Theranos is making lab tests possible and affordable.  No person should have to go through the fear and pain of not being able to afford a lab test.  I know last time I wrote about Theranos I saw a lot of <a href="http://www.theranos.com/"><strong><em>doctors click through to their website.</em></strong></a>  </p> <p>Further she talks about the process of drawing blood and we all love that with finding the vein but the fear and bruising associated with collecting blood breaks people.  Now for some ridiculous news with the company as Becton Dickinson has filed a patent violation with the use of the word “Nanotainer” stating it would be harmed if Theranos can register that name.  Meanwhile Becton uses the word “Microtainer” as their trademark, so we are getting stupid here with words.  </p> <p><iframe height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/dBvzKp0AERE" frameborder="0" width="480" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p> <p><a href="http://www.theranos.com/our-tools">From the website- New Digital Tools</a> </p> <p>Since I visited the website, Theranos has updated their digital tools.  In addition you can find the <a href="http://www.theranos.com/test-menu?ref=our_solution"><strong><em>Theranos price list here</em></strong></a> for their lab tests.  </p> <p><em>“Your results are delivered to your doctor electronically within minutes after our lab completes your tests. Your doctor will also be able to use theranos.md, our secure digital hub that organizes all your results in easy-to-read graphs. When your doctor releases your results, you’ll also be able to see your data through the theranos.me website and mobile apps. All of which helps you and your doctor visualize your health in a whole new, informative way.”</em></p> <p><a href="http://www.theranos.com/easy-integration"><img align="left" alt="image" border="0" height="179" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-vvis-Oeb9MA/VGRcCJooDjI/AAAAAAABLyY/A3Y9dGu8QQw/image%25255B14%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="485" /></a></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBvzKp0AERE">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBvzKp0AERE</a></p>

“It’s A Basic Human Right for Individuals to Have Access-One Drop of Blood” Theranos CEO & Founder, Elizabeth Holmes TED Video

This is a great lecture from TedMed this year from Elizabeth Holmes, the CEO of Theranos which is a new blood testing technology that requi...

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Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Goes After Some Low Hanging Fruit With Prepaid Credit Card Rules–They Sell Your Data Too But Cordray Didn’t Address Any Of The Privacy Issues At All Here..

<p>Well this is better than nothing and something to be addressed of course, but it’s about all you’re going <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="197" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-yd_ik-SzYLY/VGQzjluncaI/AAAAAAABLyE/9kKKqa3RVMs/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; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="160" />to get from Richard Cordray as just one more afflicted by the Sebelius Syndrome.  It’s the same old thing with a lawyer running the agency and yes lawyers are needed there but not as top job.  We see this over and over again with failures and fears to really tackle the big stuff and he’s no exception and such a huge disappointment.  He has no data mechanics logic and even the White House in their somewhat naïve privacy report they did a while back said this guy has more to learn on financial transactions so here we go again.</p> <p>When I write here I don’t know these people personally and it’s not an attack on that at all but rather to see how naïve they are when it comes to pursuing issues that can “really” help consumers so this is another low hanging fruit item that needs to be addressed and it will help but nothing big.  Look how long it took him since he’s been in office to realize this is a problem with prepaid credit cards.  He can’t keep up with the algorithmic models created by financial agencies and it stuck on his verbiage to solve everything and so we wait and we wait and we wait until he can learn up a bit.  </p> <p>Look at this link below.  Just like every old lawyer out there he thinks you need to build a data base.  Argus sells the heck out of your credit card transactions to banks and health insurance companies so what does he do, starts buying from them, duh?  He’s another “duper” out there confusing the virtual world with the real world.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/08/argus-analytics-produces-share-of.html">Argus Analytics Produces “Share of Credit Card” Data On Consumers - Digs Up The Dirt on Your Credit Card Behavior Patterns-US Consumer Protection Agency Is A Client-We Are Paying for Richard Cordray’s Slow Education Process</a></h5> <p>Just like Sebelius when he was appointed I asked if he had any data mechanics logic and well we are seeing how limited he really is without any as again he’s after the low hanging fruit which is better than nothing but no big strides.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/05/richard-cordray-yet-one-more-algo-duped.html">Richard Cordray Yet One More “Algo Duped” Government Executive Sucked In To Virtual Values and Unable to Locate the “Real World” Now Creating Huge Data Base Of All US Consumer Credit Information…<img align="right" border="0" height="186" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-W9quXtamdGk/U-exY-P2fpI/AAAAAAABLEI/e5OHh-b_JkU/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" width="244" /></a></h5> <p>He can’t even bring himself in anything I have read to admit there’s a big data selling epidemic in the US and what a big problem it is.  For a consumer advocate agency head, he’s very lightweight and naïve.  Maybe he couldn’t even see that Argus is a big money maker selling our personal data?  Argus provides a cross-issuer solution that provides the full view of a customer’s credit card wallet.  Maybe that’s how he found out prepaid card fees were there and some other rules as he could care less about the damage of data selling.  That in itself needs to be tackled and he’s oblivious and lives in a different world.  </p> <p>Companies like Argus are going to buy all this data from the prepaid credit card companies so duh? </p> <p>The biggest areas of relief here are being FDIC insured and a clamp down on some fees and some of them are already insured.  Again we need to index and license all data sellers including these folks, campaign below and listen to the Congressional testimony.  BD  </p> <p><a href="http://www.youcaring.com/other/help-preserve-our-privacy-/258776"><em>Privacy Transparency Campaign – Please Donate!</em></a>  </p> <p> <hr />The nation's top consumer financial watchdog is taking aim at the booming but lightly regulated prepaid card industry with new rules to protect customers from the vagaries of bank-like operations.</p> <p>The proposal to be released Thursday by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau would limit consumer losses to fraud and merchant mistakes, resolve errors more quickly and provide easy access to information about accounts and fees.</p> <p>Companies would have to send regular account statements or let consumers see them free online. They also would have to credit disputed funds back to consumers conditionally if the investigation drags on past a to-be-determined time. Customer liability would be limited to $50 when they report fraud or a lost card promptly.</p> <p>Though similar to bank account cards, prepaid cards often lack safeguards that are standard on debit and credit cards and may have hidden fees, consumer advocates said. Some are not protected by federal deposit insurance — a lacking that has landed them on the advocates' "to be avoided" lists.</p> <p>The proposed rules would cover not only prepaid cards but other new payment techniques that bypass conventional bank accounts, such as mobile and other electronic prepaid systems.</p> <p>The bureau also would require card issuers to provide "know before you owe" disclosure forms listing fees for services.</p> <p>The proposed rules will be open for public comment for 90 days after they are published in the Federal Register. The proposal, including information on how to submit comments, will be available online Thursday.</p> <p><a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-prepaid-card-rules-20141113-story.html?track=rss&cid=dlvr.it&dlvrit=52116">http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-prepaid-card-rules-20141113-story.html?track=rss&cid=dlvr.it&dlvrit=52116</a></p>

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Goes After Some Low Hanging Fruit With Prepaid Credit Card Rules–They Sell Your Data Too But Cordray Didn’t Address Any Of The Privacy Issues At All Here..

Well this is better than nothing and something to be addressed of course, but it’s about all you’re going to get from Richard Cordray as jus...

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United Healthcare Creates “Office of the CEO”–Is This Getting Some Framework Ready to Divest Optum at Some Point?

<p>When you read through one person gets the health insurance side and the other person gets the other side, Optum.  Optum as you know does all kinds of things from wellness, to cheap hearing aids, owns a custodial bank, sells software, integrates EMRs and all kinds of other Health IT consulting.  They makes profitable algorithms over there and have tons of Quants on board on both sides.  </p> <p>You really have to follow this “too big to fail” company along and it’s not easy as they have been hiding<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="174" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-KCjJwNm8SaY/VGQO_O8CJmI/AAAAAAABLx0/eRJYdFp_Fdk/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="225" /> in plain site growing by acquiring one company after another, not to mention the large number of Government Contracting companies they own.  LHI is maybe one you never heard of but they do work for the DOD and do all the immunizations and physicals on troops in the US before the are deployed and that’s a nice chunk of change.  In addition United has a subsidiary just for their military work and it has plenty of subsidiaries tiered underneath it.  </p> <p>The company also has international locations and a big showing in the UK with a former United Healthcare executive that took over running in April.  They are not too happy over there and employees and doctors from the NHS went to the trouble of making a documentary to talk about it and how they all feel that patient safety and care is in danger due to this.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-take-over-and-sell-off-of-nhsby.html">The Take Over and Sell Off of the NHS–By Companies from the United States, United Healthcare and Others - A Documentary</a></h5> <p>The company is so big that the development of so many inconsistencies today is hard to miss as some of their quantitative models are failing to include some of those where they spent the last few years mentoring CMS.  Population health is a good example of one of those mentored models as that was created about 8 years ago by United and it’s not a brainstorm of CMS by a long shot.  You can also find some of the company past and present executives over at the think tank that HHS uses for writing healthcare policy today, <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/healthcare/view/"><strong><em>“The Center for American Progress”</em></strong></a> which also has people from other walks of like such as Zeke Emanuel and Jonathon Gruber, both architects of the Affordable Care Act.  Lois Quam was a former member who was the #2 person pretty much at United back in 2008 and was one of the named defendants in the DOJ case for back dating stocks, so far I think still the largest derivatives case settled.  <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UnitedHealth_Group"><em><strong>Here’s the Wikipedia page.</strong></em></a>   In addition at one point in 2013 I put together a post with several other entities and ownerships at that time.  </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>Legal action at the company seems to be getting busier too and here’s one pending Federal lawsuit relative to their Hospice operation and to me, insurance and hospice just doesn’t mix under the same umbrella.  Anyway this may account for needing a couple more at the top as issues as such increase.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/08/feds-decide-to-intervene-file-their-own.html">Feds Decide to Intervene, File Their Own Lawsuit Against Optum (United Healthcare) Hospice Services Relative to Whistleblower Fraud Cases Already Submitted- Pay for Performance Issues With Hospice Performance and Medicare Fraud At the Core</a></h5> <p>In addition we have the low income housing investments which might require more time as well as the corporation wants rent checks now in time.  Below is another link with some of the insurer quants with a risk fiddler algorithm which charged CMS $70 billion called “said fraud” which could be United or Humana’s work but based on all the algorithmic work done as the company has history of I would it’s pretty good odds that CMS was had here by United but until they come out and verify we don’t know.  There’s only 2 carriers with enough patients to rack up this this kind of revenue with billing Medicare Advantage. </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/08/cms-discovers-that-insurers-offering.html">CMS Discovers That Insurers Offering Medicare Part D “Really Know To Sharp Shoot A Model With Adjusting Risk For Profit”, A Common Everyday Occurrence in Financial Markets…</a></h5> <p>In the quantitation departments things have become busier as well and you probably have read about all the doctors being fired that take care of Medicare Advantage seniors and from what I have read, there’s no reason given so again we assume it’s the extreme modeling from their Quants that’s breaking the pennies down for such decision making.  There’s a Battle of the Quants taking place in the healthcare business with insurers and hospitals who are trying to play catch up to not lose any money with keeping up with insurance quant models.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/10/data-scientistsquants-in-health.html">Data Scientists/Quants in the Health Insurance Business–Modeling Beyond the Speed and Capabilities of Humans To Keep Up With The Affordable Care Act–Turning Into A World of Killer Algorithms That We All Hate..</a></h5> <p>Below is a quote from Felix Salmon, a journalist who is also a mathematician with his observations which pretty much on target and we have this now and again United and Optum are the Kings at quantitation and I’m always talking about doctors, patients, etc. all concerned about patient safety as they lay these things out and people can’t keep up with all of it.  They move us around like data on markets sometimes.  </p> <hr /> <p><strong><em><u>“Once quants disrupt an industry, they often don’t know when to stop—and they create systems that encourage cheating.”</u></em></strong></p> <p><em>“On a managerial level, once the quants come into an industry and disrupt it, they often don’t know when to stop. They tend not to have decades of institutional knowledge about the field in which they have found themselves. And once they’re empowered, quants tend to <u>create systems that favor something pretty close to cheating</u>. As soon as managers pick a numerical metric as a way to measure whether they’re achieving their desired outcome, everybody starts maximizing that metric rather than doing the rest of their job—just as Campbell’s law predicts.”</em></p> <p><em><strong>“Campbell’s law: “The more any quantitative social indicator is used for social decision-making,” he wrote, <img align="right" height="254" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-ACKXu66dgyk/VCrebdIALxI/AAAAAAABLb8/i1RbPT4Ld2g/image%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="float: right; display: inline" width="295" />“the more subject it will<em><strong> be to corruption pressures and the more apt it will be to distort and corrupt the social processes it is intended to monitor.”</strong></em></strong></em></p> <hr /> <p>So this is what we have going on here so no wonder there’s more need at the top to oversee the complex world the corporation has built and part of it is by design as it means profit and I’m the first to say that and won’t be the last.  At some point one does wonder how much conflict of interest will or does exist when you look at the vastly different types of businesses under their umbrella as one subsidiary as a vendor at a hospital might interact with another subsidiary, also a vendor at the same hospital.  This becomes especially questionable here with their company they formed with Dignity Hospitals, read this one and the folks at CMS about fell of their chairs when they saw this.   In addition they have Optum Labs to where Mayo Clinic, McLaren, Dignity and a few others give all their de-identified medical records to Optum labs to where paying clients like Merck, Boston Scientific and others pay a fee to come in and mine data and that revenue is shared in some way with the hospitals providing the EMRs for a revenue stream.  </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>When I see efforts that spoof the public in wanting developers to write free code for them and AARP, it bothers me a bit as developers need to eat and pay rent too so why do this marketing spoof to make developers thing “its for the good” when in fact “it’s for the good money” for more apps to collect more data on the 50+ crowd and I’m sure they can find a way to sell it too as United is one of the biggest data sellers around and I think is #1 seller of data in healthcare.  Be up front and don’t spoof people to get code writing for free when you know it’s going to make money for the corporation I say.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/10/aarp-and-united-healthcare-form.html">AARP and United HealthCare Form “Longevity Network”–Time To Find Some More “Cheap Code” Looking For Millennials Still Living At Home Who Can Afford The Time To Write…Cash For Code Again</a></h5> <p>So again with reading this it appears that it’s likely this might be a framework structure to set up some type of divesture at some point in time and if you read their stock holder meeting notes, usually a shareholder seems to ask that same question every quarter.  Also the company said that doctor reimbursement for those MDs who see patients with policies bought through insurance exchanges will be reimbursed a shade above what Medicaid pays so your availability of doctors as they are doing with Medicare Advantage patients they cover might be limited more than you anticipate as many doctors may opt out as well at those levels.  BD </p> <p> <hr />UnitedHealth Group Inc. announced an executive shuffle that elevates two key leaders, positioning them for a race to succeed current Chief Executive Stephen J. Hemsley.</p> <p>The parent UNH, -0.07%  of the biggest U.S. health insurer said that, effective immediately, it would form a new Office of the Chief Executive, which, in addition to Hemsley, will include David S. Wichmann as president and Larry C. Renfro as vice chairman, as well as executives focusing on legal matters and human resources.</p> <p>Wichmann, 52, will oversee UnitedHealthcare, the insurance arm of the company, as well as “overall UnitedHealth Group performance,” the company said. He will transition out of his current role as chief financial officer over the next 12 to 18 months. Renfro, 60, will remain the chief executive of UnitedHealth’s Optum health-services business, but he will now oversee areas for the parent company, including key client relationships and growth efforts, UnitedHealth said.</p> <p><a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/unitedhealth-creates-office-of-ceo-2014-11-12-12103325?mod=MethodeStories&link=sfmw&cb=logged0.7471325137735423">http://www.marketwatch.com/story/unitedhealth-creates-office-of-ceo-2014-11-12-12103325?mod=MethodeStories&link=sfmw&cb=logged0.7471325137735423</a></p>

United Healthcare Creates “Office of the CEO”–Is This Getting Some Framework Ready to Divest Optum at Some Point?

When you read through one person gets the health insurance side and the other person gets the other side, Optum.  Optum as you know does a...

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Dating Site Fined $16 Million For Sharing User Data With Other Sites Revealing Their STD Status And More..

<p>First clue here when a site has a drop down for you to pick out an STI status (and I guess it would have a choice for none too) leave it blank for the discreet data choice.  According to this article the profiles were shared with other dating sites the company owns or manages and the STI data, your health information went right with it.  This is big fine for a dating site I must say too.  You also need to read below<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="165" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-iEJgtyVwgug/VGL7ZZllVzI/AAAAAAABLxc/JGxyPiGN4E0/image%25255B8%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="230" /> and see the names of the other dating site and the name of the report, Herpesinmouth.  I couldn’t make that up, the name for the report that is.</p> <p>In addition it sounds like we had some flawed data in here too and this goes to what I talk about all the time, the data selling epidemic in the US so sure they sold from one site to another even though under the same umbrella.  Profiles showed people black who were not black, gay who were not gay, HIV positive who were not.  Ok so this is how someone maybe selling the data even though the article says they don’t sell the data.  </p> <p>The argument here was the “privacy policy” that nobody either can read or understand.  The clause “in network” could also be questioned as another dating site could be in network but then actually not owned by the same large group that appears to own several of these sites.  All I have to do anymore is write a post about diabetes for this blog and then the bot crawl and I start getting the “now that your are a diabetic” emails, and I don’t have diabetes, just the bots crawling my blog to match up for junk mailings.  </p> <p>The court also said their privacy policy stunk too.  So here’s the link to my privacy/transparency campaign below to get a law passed that would require all data sellers to be licensed which would provide an index on who all the data sellers are.  Please donate if you can as this stuff is going to keep getting worse and with having to buy a license so we can index and know who they are and what kind of data they sell, it could bring about some accountability with data selling out there if consumers have the ability to have a “look up” reference. </p> <h5><a href="http://www.youcaring.com/other/help-preserve-our-privacy-/258776">The privacy/transparency campaign</a> </h5> <p>So hey, let’s put this stuff on Facebook too (grin) as I had to say that as we have been seeing all these data naïve folks talking that Facebook is going to be a new healthcare platform for people to share.  Well, if data selling bug has hit here, imagine what would happen on Facebook, but the data novices who get duped at times out there were just writing it up all over the web (grin).  Insurance companies buy and sell a lot of data and use the link below to find out more as they buy your credit card data and so on.  That means if you use a credit card for your dating service payments, they see those transactions too and mine data on the web so with data getting so screwed up, who’s to say that some of this garbage will end up flawed and <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="171" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-zbFvb4MTmbo/VGL7aLbi_SI/AAAAAAABLxg/iopLCFK-5Ws/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="254" />where it shouldn’t be and some insurance company starts assuming one has an STD or an STI when they don’t.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/11/insurance-carriers-and-brokers-are-big.html">Insurance Carriers and Brokers Are Big Data Players With Data Mining, Selling and Analytics–Need to License All Data Sellers So We Know Who The Big Profiteers Are..</a></h5> <p>Again with the issues of so much flawed data, they’ll have us all infected whether we are or not (grin).  Here’s a stupid hospital buying up credit card data and data broker information on all their patients so yeah you won’t flawed data filtering in there with some doctor seeing on a dating site an erroneous STD notation as they’ll think you are lying to them:)  The doctors at this hospital don’t want to rummage through this information but some bonehead administrators are pushing it.  BD</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> <hr />Last week a California jury rendered a $16.5 million verdict against a dating site for allegedly sharing user data with more than 1,000 third parties. Dating profiles are always somewhat embarrassing, but the data in question was particularly sensitive to users: their STI status. PositiveSingles billed its site as “100% Anonymous,” with a target audience of single adults wishing to escape the stigma associated with many STIs. Users may select from a dropdown menu of STIs, several of which are—bafflingly—fully treatable. What went wrong?</p> <p>Unbeknownst to many users, PositiveSingles’ parent company, SuccessfulMatch, allegedly shared user data with hundreds of its other dating sites, which include illustrious titles such as RichDateBusty, EquestrianCupid, NudistFriends, and, according to one report, Herpesinmouth.</p> <p>This is also not the first lawsuit brought against SuccessfulMatch. In April, a judge dismissed a federal class action suit after two women claimed that SuccessfulMatch illegally shared their HIV-positive status and other personal identifying information with more than 1,000 other websites. This matter largely centered around the language of the original claims. The BBC reports that the women have filed an amended claim.</p> <p><a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/11/05/successfulmatch_dating_site_has_to_pay_after_sharing_users_sti_statuses.html">http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/11/05/successfulmatch_dating_site_has_to_pay_after_sharing_users_sti_statuses.html</a></p>

Dating Site Fined $16 Million For Sharing User Data With Other Sites Revealing Their STD Status And More..

First clue here when a site has a drop down for you to pick out an STI status (and I guess it would have a choice for none too) leave it bla...

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