Algorithms Rule Us All--Automated Risk Scores…Tons of Error Bars, Bias and More-The US Digital Consumer Scoring System For Corporate Profit Keeps Raging On…VPRO documentary–2018

<p>This is a great watch and lot of information from Cathy O’Neil, author of “Weapons of Math Destruction” and computer scientist Jaron Lanier.   Nobody is minding the shop as you can’t ask a machine for an appeal or know how the machine computed<a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/https/lh3.googleusercontent.com/-HP3tYnrBzQE/XAs2rP220mI/AAAAAAABNQ0/ut3ZRjvmOlU_SaHOV_uJUr9HOPHJVaeYwCHMYCw/s1600-h/image=25255B4=25255D"><img width="383" alt="image" align="right" src="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/https/lh3.googleusercontent.com/-BDj-Vc-1BKE/XAs2rnGUfbI/AAAAAAABNQ4/LLEhJ3c4pdIsFcrbJ1lgX9onj5uWez-jQCHMYCw/image_thumb=25255B2=25255D=3fimgmax=3d800" style="float: right; display: inline; background-image: none;" height="200" border="0" title="image"></a> the results. <strong>“Engagement is just a sanitized term for addiction”…says Lanier</strong>.  <strong>“So when you are giving over control to an algorithm, it’s giving control to a company and until you get clear on that, you’re going to be taken advantage of”.</strong>  That being said, give some serious thought to all these healthcare organizations promoting “engagement” as well as banks, credit cards and so forth.  </p><p>There’s a sector on a man being denied parole by an algorithm and nobody knows how it was computed.  There are cases where judges can’t overrule a decision for algorithms, and it frustrates all.  This is what I have to say about the big data business as relates to black boxes.  Also follow the plight of the “gig” delivery guy and watch for how that ends.  </p><p><strong><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2017/04/one-trick-algo-world-needs-to-be.html">“One Trick Algo World” Needs to be Licensed and Indexed–Spurious Correlations “For Profit” Are Out of Control</a></strong><p><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2015/09/excess-scoring-of-us-consumers-us.html">Excess Scoring of US Consumers, US Citizens-Scored into Oblivion By Proprietary Algorithms and Formulas, Never Duplicated or Tested for Accuracy-Profits of Big Business And A White House Executive Command To Continue the Abuse..</a><p><em>“The mathematicians and programmers begin to realize that the algorithms that are among all these automated decision systems are not neutral and may contain errors. Because the smart code may then decide more quickly than people, the results are not only sometimes defective, but sometimes downright dangerous. Should we be blindly guided by the decisions of the algorithm?</em></p><p><em>Where should they complain if something does not go as it should be? Legislatives are also emerging in<img width="170" align="right" src="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/https/encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images=3fq=3dtbn:ANd9GcRp9TBlvWqtr16ku9oa-uGY_yLITLV9hYmtozmPi5XdbJ5RW7Sm" style="float: right; display: inline;" height="68"> the judiciary. For example, an American prisoner had to sit longer than comparable prisoners because the algorithm, which establishes a risk score, gave him an inexplicably high outcome. And unlike the decisions made by a judge, it turns out to be virtually impossible to challenge the assessment of an algorithm.”</em></p><p><em>“Algorithms don’t just predict the future they cause the future…and are causing winners and losers…built by companies looking to profit”…Algorithms are being used to “commoditize” us.” </em></p><p>Big Data and Artificial Intelligence is not going to save us, the perception of this has turned out to be wrong.  Again this is a good documentary that explains what’s going on out there and how you might want to wake somewhere along the line.  I’ve been writing about the “Attack of the Killer Algorithms” for years.  At one one point a few years back I was over 60 posts tagged as chapters with real life examples.  I issued a warning of this back in 2012.  </p><h6><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/11/big-dataanalytics-if-used-out-of.html"><font size="2">Big Data/Analytics If Used Out of Context and Without True Values Stand To Be A Huge Discriminatory Practice Against Consumers–More Honest Data Scientists Needed to Formulate Accuracy/Value To Keep Algo Duping For Profit Out of the Game</font></a></h6><p><iframe width="560" src="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000101A/https/www.youtube.com/embed/NFF_wj5jmiQ" height="315" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture"></iframe></p><p>Related posts:</p><p><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/05/this-call-may-be-recorded-for-quality.html"><font face="Arial" size="1">“This Call May Be Recorded for Quality Purposes”..Heck Not, Millions of Algorithms Have Been Turned Loose to Listen To and Analyze Your Voice When You Talk To Your Insurance Company As Algorithms Continue To Take Over the World…</font><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2017/11/algorithms-scoring-metrics-privacy-and.html"><br><font face="Arial" size="1">Algorithms, Scoring Metrics, Privacy and more in today’s Healthcare business world–The Healthcare Algo Cartel</font></a></p><p><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2015/03/its-time-to-look-at-some-of-proprietary.html"><font face="Arial" size="1">It’s Time To Look At Some of the Proprietary Code Running in the US–Too Many Companies and Banks Are Playing “Techno-God” Saying “Trust Me” With the Numbers and Stats…</font></a></p><h6><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/08/somebody-needs-to-start-calling-foul-on.html"><font face="Arial" size="1">Somebody Needs to Start Calling “Foul” On Proprietary Predictive Algorithms When They Cannot Be Replicated For Accuracy As This Accelerates Inequality and Promotes Even More Data Selling For Profit</font></a></h6><p><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/06/fico-medication-adherence-scoring.html"><font face="Arial" size="1">FICO Medication Adherence Scoring Should Be Banned As It’s Quantitated Justifications for Profit That Hurts US Consumers Using Proprietary Algorithms That Cannot Be Replicated For Accuracy or Audited</font></a></p><p><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/12/quantitated-justification-for-believing.html"><font face="Arial" size="1">Quantitated Justification For Believing Things That Are Not True And Using Mathematical Processes To Fool Ourselves-The Journalistic Bot Functionality Debuts As Media Can’t Resist</font></a></p><p><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2015/03/cybertopia-dreams-of-silicon-valley.html"><font face="Arial" size="1">“Cybertopia-Dreams of Silicon Valley”-Documentary About Politics, Economics and Debate on Where is the “Real” World Today? The Producers the Takers and the Dupers…</font></a></p><p><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/11/computer-scientist-jaron-lanier.html"><font face="Arial" size="1">Computer Scientist, jaronLanier Explains How Big Data Is Used to Limit Our Freedom–The Value of Your Personal Data…</font></a><p>------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<p><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/https/www.youtube.com/watch=3fv=3dNFF_wj5jmiQ" title="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFF_wj5jmiQ">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFF_wj5jmiQ</a></p>

Algorithms Rule Us All--Automated Risk Scores…Tons of Error Bars, Bias and More-The US Digital Consumer Scoring System For Corporate Profit Keeps Raging On…VPRO documentary–2018

This is a great watch and lot of information from Cathy O’Neil, author of “Weapons of Math Destruction” and computer scientist Jaron Lanier....

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Optum/United Healthcare Quietly Sold Optum Hospice to Compassus in December of 2016-And Compassus Is Now Contracted Under Optum Services to Manage the Facilities, Services and Provide the OptumCare Doctors

<p>Optum certainly kept this very quiet when they sold their hospice facilities to Compassus and I don’t think they even told their own investors.   I could not locate any SEC 10k filings or even a Form D from a search I did and this sale took place a year ago.   Optum is not not out of this business though, they want to manage it instead, just as they manage surgeons and physicians with <a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/scasurgery.com/about-us/overview-history/">Surgical Care Affiliates</a> and <a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/https/professionals.optumcare.com/engagement/ways-engage.html">OptumCare doctors.</a>  The worst nightmare for those in hospice has come true, the thought of Optum utilization managers prowling around Compassus Hospice facilities as they intend now to use Optum Hospice Services to manage them.  The old webpage of Optum Hospice is now gone as well, and has been replaced with <a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/https/www.optumcare.com/services/advanced-care/hospice-care.html">a page featuring “hospice services”.</a>  <p><strong>Hospice care by the algorithms is what we are looking at here</strong> with even <strong>more undue and not proven analytical scoring of patients taking place at their last days of their lives.</strong>  I think the screen from this Compasssus PowerPoint presentation on the revenue growth here tells the story of what this company’s (Compassus) goals are revenue and not patient care being the first priority.  You can see the other hospice services Compassus has acquired as well as Optum.  Their goal here is to create a model (made up of algorithmic functions) to design care for those patients in hospice services.  One might also guess that OptumRX will be the PBM of choice for these hospice facilities as well, all part of United Healthcare.  <p><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/https/lh3.googleusercontent.com/-LSWkyVfbQJs/WkRo6lqLWII/AAAAAAABNLs/IMG1_i-ODDQ0DaBzL6WSN_SaBCrhGYWBwCHMYCw/s1600-h/clip_image001=25255B5=25255D"><img width="484" alt="clip_image001" src="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/https/lh3.googleusercontent.com/-SDAuZcM7UR8/WkRo7LyDOTI/AAAAAAABNLw/LrsMIKAW_sgg5aGPcdTXp8BoVb06Ki8OACHMYCw/clip_image001_thumb=25255B2=25255D=3fimgmax=3d800" style="border: 0px currentcolor; border-image: none; display: inline; background-image: none;" height="375" border="0" title="clip_image001"></a><p>And here’s the management plan as you can see below with touting the Optum Partnership.  Compassus is owned by private equity firms,  Formation Capital and Audax Private Equity.  Private equity firms are currently draining the money out of nursing homes too, look at Kindred and HCR Manor (the one that Carlyle just walked away from as they couldn’t bleed it anymore).   With Kindred being purchased by Humana and two private equity firms, we can just assume that Humana is in there to make money from their Humana PBM from the drugs prescribed with the hospice services and the 2 private equity firms might be looking for any assets they can find to drain to line their own pockets, so that future there for patients and their care seems to look somewhat dim.  The real estate assets seem like they are always the first to be sold off, to leave the hospice and nursing home locations as “renters” for their facilities with high monthly payments, sometimes to another private equity firm held company that owns the properties.  <p><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/https/lh3.googleusercontent.com/-96iGJxvNg3k/WkRo7tDBq1I/AAAAAAABNL0/6l4tab1BWvQO5UUAD2oUoRshBd-O2OubACHMYCw/s1600-h/clip_image002=25255B5=25255D"><img width="493" alt="clip_image002" src="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/https/lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ot6vXGW653M/WkRo8F_lVWI/AAAAAAABNL4/h2LNHKE58xY08HNQr91HmUPTzjNQzYqdACHMYCw/clip_image002_thumb=25255B2=25255D=3fimgmax=3d800" style="border: 0px currentcolor; border-image: none; display: inline; background-image: none;" height="368" border="0" title="clip_image002"></a><p>So after private equity has finished bleeding  US retailers to the point of bankruptcy, is this is the next level, nursing homes and hospice services for the next asset drain?  It certainly is beginning to look like it.  Unlike the retailer asset bleed, this time we are dealing with people’s lives and a big potential for patient endangerment, all for the sakes of the private equity companies being able to put more money in their own pockets.<p>Again, one has to wonder why this was kept secret and given no press at all, and it’s only now that the facilities themselves are making the name changes that this has come to light.  I would search out a non profit for a family member for sure versus this hospice for profit group here, as that’s what hospice should be, for the patient and not come with a profit portfolio at the starting gate.  BD

Optum/United Healthcare Quietly Sold Optum Hospice to Compassus in December of 2016-And Compassus Is Now Contracted Under Optum Services to Manage the Facilities, Services and Provide the OptumCare Doctors

Optum certainly kept this very quiet when they sold their hospice facilities to Compassus and I don’t think they even told their own investo...

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Algorithms, Scoring Metrics, Privacy and more in today’s Healthcare business world–The Healthcare Algo Cartel

<p>This is a video of a recent presentation I did at the 74th Annual AAPS (American Association of Physicians and Surgeons) meeting.  I don’t do too much blogging anymore as I don’t want to be confused with all the “junk” news out there but thought this is worth a look and listen for all.</p><p>The presentation was initially intended for a physician crowd, but after I thought about it, consumers can learn a lot from this as well.  We have too many folks today <a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2015/06/virtual-world-values-and-real-world-we.html">choosing “virtual” values and getting lost in the real world and don’t realize</a> what goes on behind the scenes, and it’s a lot, things you can’t see rising from corporate America to gain control of us lesser valued serfs it seems.<a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/https/lh3.googleusercontent.com/-x9TT-P6Qjsc/WhHuVDVWncI/AAAAAAABM6k/xN1ufLdHrMM8gaJiMxDf4aNpcDKifKFoACHMYCw/s1600-h/Optum_moneyball=25255B4=25255D"><img width="207" alt="Optum_moneyball" align="right" src="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/https/lh3.googleusercontent.com/-NMTC07Amu2I/WhHuVoIroiI/AAAAAAABM6o/74SyRudsU7IGGN1PBCMVEbp4DoYGFY9sACHMYCw/Optum_moneyball_thumb=25255B2=25255D=3fimgmax=3d800" style="border: 0px currentcolor; border-image: none; float: right; display: inline; background-image: none;" height="149" border="0" title="Optum_moneyball"></a></p><p>Every direction you turn today, somebody is <a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2015/09/excess-scoring-of-us-consumers-us.html">mining up some behavior data and scoring you today, so we have so many scores</a>, and many of them secret, who knows what value some big corporation or government is putting on our head today?  I’ve been writing about this for years and unfortunately we have gone beyond just good production software that helps us in life and in doing our jobs into a somewhat digital caste system.  I used to write software and this is my attempt here to let the average consumer know more about what’s really taking place out there.  I thought the Obama administration was getting way too virtual, but it seems the new Trump administration is just as bad with not seeing the real world and embracing virtual world values as well, so I guess it doesn’t matter which person or party is in control out there today, <strong>they don’t like the ugly real world </strong>and keep pushing virtual values on all of us to keep consumers in the dark.</p><p>I call it a <a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2017/04/one-trick-algo-world-needs-to-be.html">“One Trick Algo” world</a> and that’s what you’re getting too often out there today, some algorithms and computer code, written by corporate America to profit that tricks you into things you would rather not do if you knew the whole story.  I call this <a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2015/06/operation-perception-deception-into.html">“Operation Perception Deception”,</a> which was a post I wrote back in 2015 and sadly it’s getting bigger every day.  So take a look and see what’s going on behind the scenes in healthcare, and don’t deceive yourself too badly with virtual values as people can’t seem to be able to tell the difference anymore.  BD</p><p><iframe width="560" src="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000101A/https/www.youtube.com/embed/vKBMXQXWvvs=3frel=3d0" height="315" allowfullscreen frameborder="0"></iframe></p>

Algorithms, Scoring Metrics, Privacy and more in today’s Healthcare business world–The Healthcare Algo Cartel

This is a video of a recent presentation I did at the 74th Annual AAPS (American Association of Physicians and Surgeons) meeting.  I don’t d...

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Pharmacy Benefit Managers Invade Medical Records and Electronically Connect Cash Patients to RX Discount Cards-OptimizeRX-to SingleCare to OptumRX

<p>This should not really come as a big surprise as what hasn’t the pharmacy benefit managment business touched?  So what is <a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/www.optimizerx.com/partners/">OptimizeRX</a>?  Most have probably not heard of this software but it is a connect to EMRs that will send your prescription right to the pharmacy.  Oh, now you say, well <a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/https/lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Z88dYoMA-lE/WUtNjFKWRaI/AAAAAAABM5I/DnLHsZ4f5Kc_UhJvDVujRB362nFI4QcGQCHMYCw/s1600-h/image=25255B26=25255D"><img width="425" alt="image" align="right" src="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/https/lh3.googleusercontent.com/-6all7ydUdJk/WUtNjjNjIqI/AAAAAAABM5M/AsgzJfXMhSUXqgAhw8vBHIPiyG3XG91mQCHMYCw/image_thumb=25255B16=25255D=3fimgmax=3d800" style="border: 0px currentcolor; border-image: none; float: right; display: inline; background-image: none;" height="239" border="0" title="image"></a>the PBMs do that and they do but what they have been missing is a way to collect data on patients who are not using their PBM prescription card or those who do not have one.  It’s all about getting more data about you to “score” and of course sell those scores to insurers and other interested parties.  Once the pharmacy has the transaction, it does not fall under HIPAA rules as it’s a prescription, linked to an EMR to provide a transaction.  As we all know, your medications in an EHR are protected but again, I’ll repeat this for those who still think HIPAA is covered at the pharmacy, it is not.  It’s been a sore spot for years with privacy.</p><p>If your doctor is using one of the medical records systems in the image at the right, they are partners with OptimizerRX.  From the website:</p><p><em>“OptimizeRx® has developed an extensive network of EHR and eRx platform partners*, as well as partnerships with media and creative agencies, making it easy for marketers to achieve excellent reach with their HCP customers. View the partner network information below for details. EHR and eRx partners benefit from the partnership by adding OptimizeRx’s suite of services seamlessly into their platforms, providing relevant patient support, patient education and other services that are welcomed by their HCP customers. Integrating OptimizeRx into an EHR or eRx platform is simple and easy, and can usually be completed in less than eight hours!”</em></p><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/https/lh3.googleusercontent.com/-_fvfQvtrHq8/WUtNkCM3FNI/AAAAAAABM5Q/IpzZdpjtIMI_oogPqj3C48GwrK2kTy9mACHMYCw/s1600-h/image=25255B9=25255D"><img width="485" alt="image" align="right" src="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/https/lh3.googleusercontent.com/-3vUPXlYry8E/WUtNkuod6xI/AAAAAAABM5U/RBTZvIgihuwzV9mJkE-v1WQA66bHnFg4wCHMYCw/image_thumb=25255B5=25255D=3fimgmax=3d800" style="float: right; display: inline;" height="234" title="image"><br></a><p>Did you catch this, it’s about marketing and at least they say as much.  When you look at the executive page, you’ll find most of these folks came from the pharmaceutical business.  Here’s another screenshot to “auto send” the prescription along with the RX pricing information direct to a pharmacy.  What this means is the price is locked in and a pharmacist has to honor that as it’s aready in the data base, precluding the availability to offer a cheaper discount.  Certainly it appears to make it easier for the patient, but is it the best price?  We don’t know.  In addition, the providers can print a coupon for those who say “no, don’t do that’.  </p><p>This RX discount card also can text and email you.  So there you go, it’s all about the data that drug companies and PBMs want on folks not using their PBM discounts.  If you let the MD do the auto send, you’re stuck with that price and can’t compare.  There’s this little item I wrote about a while back about medication adherence prediction compliance and if you are not aware of this game, read the link below and this has been around for a while and was originally created with Ingenix (OptumRX now) algorithms that goes back to 2010 when Express Scripts put out a press release on how they were going to score you, and they all do that now.  This is some real flawed information too as the 300 metrics used have zero to do with taking meds.  You get a bad nick for example if you are a male seeing a female MD and so on.  This is not science, it’s behavior bullshit that at best may show trending.  So this OptimizerRX is software to use the EMR to drag in the so called “Outliers” who pay cash and are not using a PBM discount.  Part of the job of a pharmacist today is to identify their outliers and fix them, but if the data is flawed and they pay cash, it’s just a bunch of flawed data.<a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/https/lh3.googleusercontent.com/-yF_FY0XQgcw/WUtNk1SMpGI/AAAAAAABM5Y/L9MUzQKDY9YARDJsGOc1bhdo3gGyDrX4wCHMYCw/s1600-h/image=25255B14=25255D"><img width="269" alt="image" align="right" src="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/https/lh3.googleusercontent.com/-L0HcjNXeAH4/WUtNlFYX6rI/AAAAAAABM5c/pq3oOHbb70MF6VuyEhQghcUGmK3hkC8ggCHMYCw/image_thumb=25255B8=25255D=3fimgmax=3d800" style="border: 0px currentcolor; border-image: none; float: right; display: inline; background-image: none;" height="64" border="0" title="image"></a></p><p><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2015/07/patients-who-pay-cash-when-filling.html"><font size="2">Patients Who Pay “Cash” When Filling Prescriptions Are Now Called “outliers, Pharmacists Required to Fix outliers as They Show Up As Non Medication Adherence Compliant With 5 Star Systems Full of Flawed Data…</font></a><p><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2015/06/medication-adherence-predictions-enter.html"><font size="2">Medication Adherence Predictions Enter the World of Quantitated Justifications For Things That Are Just Not True, Members of the Proprietary “Code Hosing” Clubs Out There Destroying Your Privacy</font></a><p>So now we have talked about OptimizeRX (which just happens to sound a lot like OptumRX) let’s move to the next step here and talk about the discount card.  Read the press release below, OptimizeRX has a partner called SingleCare, which actually resembles the HealthAllies company that Andy Slavitt and Senator’s Warren’s daughter sold to United Healthcare, except this one is free.  SingleCare includes other available discounts, a few of them but hey well all know it’s about getting the pharma PBM money to support the entire project, not a 20% discount at a gym or free teeth cleaning. <h3><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/https/globenewswire.com/news-release/2017/04/05/954708/0/en/OptimizeRx-Partners-Exclusively-with-SingleCare-to-Bring-Patient-Savings-and-Price-Transparency-to-Healthcare-Providers-at-the-Point-of-Prescribe.html"><font size="2">OptimizeRx Partners Exclusively with SingleCare to Bring Patient Savings and Price Transparency to Healthcare Providers at the Point of Prescribe</font></a></h3><p>SingleCare started out much like <a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/https/scriptrelief.com/">Script Relief</a> (another RX discount card that markets under a ton of names run by Loeb Enterprises in New York) to get some users of the discount so they could collect money from the PBM.  All the Script Relief cards make their money back from OptumRX on the fees and other charges and they pay independent sales people $10 a hit for every patient who activates a card.  Script Relief was originally connected with Catatmaran, which was bought by OptumRX (United Healthcare) and played a big role with Cigna getting sanctioned by CMS for a long time from selling Medicare D policies.  Here’s a couple archived links on tha topic and once the OptumRx purchased Catamaran, who was the in-house PBM for Cigna, all insured had a new PBM called United Healthcare (OptumRX) PBM.</p><p><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2015/07/united-healthcare-having-big-bond-sale.html"><font size="2">United Healthcare Having a Big Bond Sale to Finance Purchase of Catamaran Pharmacy Benefit Management Company, Huge 10.5 Billion</font></a></p><p><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2015/03/united-healthcare-buys-catamaran.html"><font size="2">United Healthcare Buys Catamaran Pharmacy Benefit Manager Just As the PBM Gets Hit With A Class Action Lawsuit For Low Balling Pharmacy Reimbursements..And More Patient Data to Sell and Analyze For Profit</font></a></p><p>So what kind of executives does SingleCare employ?  Well you could probably guess this one easy<a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/https/lh3.googleusercontent.com/-7h3R-J1_DyQ/WUtNlr6rRHI/AAAAAAABM5g/RQZtgW-mYjYu32boLHRTtrJZ-2lqret_QCHMYCw/s1600-h/image=25255B20=25255D"><img width="485" alt="image" align="right" src="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/https/lh3.googleusercontent.com/-mpsJZc1Lnuo/WUtNlzBledI/AAAAAAABM5k/Rbb377ZEkVg7u2C3IPpF0-Yu-pj3WoBaACHMYCw/image_thumb=25255B12=25255D=3fimgmax=3d800" style="border: 0px currentcolor; border-image: none; float: right; display: inline; background-image: none;" height="188" border="0" title="image"></a> enough, former United Healthcare and big time former Catamaran executives.  <a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/https/www.singlecare.com/about-us">Check it out.</a>  In addition the company also says it will bill patients who use their discounted MD, dental cleaning, etc. services.  Yikes as a patient, I would much rather pay the doctor direct and not have some big corporate conglomerate chasing me who also wants my data to score and sell.  Many MDs have already figured out how these virtual credit cards hit them up for big fees anyway, so they keep part of that money for giving you a discount.</p><p><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/06/health-plans-and-claim-clearinghouses.html"><font size="2">Health Plans and Claim Clearinghouses With Virtual Credit Cards-Racking Up Additional Fees From Doctors</font></a><p>So what PBM do you think is supporting this?  My guess would be OptumRX but you can’t find that stated anywhere, but hey put two and two together.  So if you use the card, you are added to a PBM data base with data to score and sell and again, we think it’s OptumRX.  If you noticed above, Allscripts is one of the partners and is it not a coincidence that all OptumCare MDs are required to use Allscripts?  Here’s more on that topic along with a picture I snapped of one of their OptumCare owned MDs in the OC.  Don’t forget too that all the Surgical Care Affiliate outpatient surgery facilities are now owned and will be run by OptumCare, so I might guess Allscripts will be over there too, or OptimizeRX will sign up more EHRs to bring in the SingleCare discount card over there too.  <p><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2016/08/optumcare-doctors-to-get-allscripts.html"><font size="2">OptumCare Doctors to Get allscripts Medical Records EHR–Optum Continues to Buy More Practices and Manage More Doctors Through Independent Physician Associations, Many of Which They Own</font></a><p>We also have this action going on relative to OptumRX and Catamaran with lawsuits being filed over the price of prescriptions when a cash offering is less expensive than what the PBM is offering.<p><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2016/10/cigna-united-healthcare-face-class_16.html"><font size="2">Cigna & United Healthcare Face Class Action Suits-PBM Over Charging Customers for Prescriptions, OptumRX Pharmacy Benefit Management Software-“Front Running” Consumers With Killer Algorithms at the Drug Store</font></a><p><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2016/11/pharmaceutical-wholesalers-inc-file.html"><font size="2">Pharmaceutical Wholesalers Inc. File Legal Complaint Against OptumRx “Aligning Its Interests” with the Big Three Drug Distributors in US, Thus Acting as an Agent of the Government With Accreditation Processes</font></a><p>Bottom line here is to get the algorithms connected to the EHRs now and get that price locked in and get the data from the folks who are not using a PBM price. <p>Also the MedExpress urgent care locations are also connected to, guess who, OptumRX and you might be seeing those SingleCare RX discount cards used there as well.  United Healthcare also <a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/02/allscripts-ends-up-with-loss-for-2013.html">has another service</a> they market where they want to be the EHR integrator for Allscripts and other medical record companies.<p><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2015/04/optum-united-healthcare-buys-medexpress.html"><font size="2">Optum (United Healthcare) Buys MedExpress Urgent Care Business- 141 Full Service Clinics In 11 States–Company Advertises They Are In the Market to Buy Your MD Practice, As A “Too Big To Fail Insurer” Moves Forward With More Acquisitions</font></a><p><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/11/united-healthcare-optum-insight.html"><font size="2">United Healthcare (Optum Insight Subsidiary) Wants To Be Your Allscripts, Epic And GE Centricity EHR Consulting Service Starting With Implementation And Beyond</font></a><p>How convenient to be an EHR integrator and get that OptimizeRX connected in there to the medical records to promote the SingleCare discounts and collect data on folks who are not using their PBM program or are paying cash.  By the way too, Optum is also now doing the billing for Quest Labs in case you missed that one.  Optum does the billing of course for their very close partner, the Mayo clinic, who’s CEO just took a board seat with Merck Pharmaceutical.  Are you seeing some kind of a pattern yet, maybe?  Of course if you are insured by United, you have been told to go to LabCorp for years for actual tests. <p><strong><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2016/09/quants-of-optum-carve-out-new.html"><font size="2">Quants of Optum Carve Out New Outsourced Billing Deal with Quest Labs, Will Also Serve to Enhance The Scoring & Data Selling Business Conducted by Both Companies via Powerful Subsidiaries</font></a></strong><p>The prescription discount game is heating up out there and <a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/https/insiderx.com/"><font size="2">Express Scripts doesn’t want to be left</font></a> out as they too now have an RX discount card, called Inside RX which is a partnership with GoodRX, as they too didn’t want to get left out of the lucrative “fee” business here.  Sounds like <a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/https/lh3.googleusercontent.com/-rceme3WvQ18/WUtNmfQPLgI/AAAAAAABM5o/uYs-qFfPYSgEoycHIw4Le9Yr2GgR9IjDQCHMYCw/s1600-h/image=25255B25=25255D"><img width="207" alt="image" align="right" src="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/https/lh3.googleusercontent.com/-V_gGVhSx4jk/WUtNmmFy6zI/AAAAAAABM5s/201iybyxGIoJwXTD-mM0k_VUFPojcxzOACHMYCw/image_thumb=25255B15=25255D=3fimgmax=3d800" style="border-image: none; float: right; display: inline; background-image: none;" height="118" border="0" title="image"></a>OptumRX was cutting them out of some of the money mabye, so off to Express Scripts they went.  </p><p>Here’s a post I did a while back with some good videos from actual independent pharmacists that tell you the story on how the RX discount cards work and how a lot of time they might still be able to give you a better cash price that doesn’t support all this markeing.</p><p><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2016/06/the-truth-about-pharmacy-benefit.html"><font size="2">The Truth About Pharmacy Benefit Managers and Prescription Discount Cards–Created With Automated Algorithmic Processes That Enable Huge Profits-Consumers at Risk!</font></a><p>So backon topic here with SingleCare benefits, be aware of what’s going on with the algorithms of the PBMs as they are now invading medical records to get that script and and that data about you.  I would be very careful about wanting to use any of the texting and email services they offer as they collect and monitor everything today and will “score” your behavior with their services to toss some kind of risk in a profile about you!  Recently<font size="2">, </font><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/www.bizjournals.com/twincities/news/2017/06/16/optums-vc-arm-backs-startup-that-mines-smartphone.html"><font size="2">VC arm of Optum/United Healthcare invested money in another cesspool Silicon Valley risk assessment company</font></a><font size="2">, </font>Mindstrong to monitor people with cell phone behavior and when they get done scoring all that type of data, we’ll all be at risk for mental health issues if we “hesitate” on responding to text messages.<p>So be aware now as the PBMs have infiltrated medical records and stalking you there, with going beyond just regular PBM plans, they want to get data on everyone who pays cash to “score” and sell a data profile about you and your behavior.  Once you get locked with with your doctor doing an automatic send to the pharmacy, the pharmacist may not be able to offer you a less expensive price if they have one to offer on your medication.  BD 

Pharmacy Benefit Managers Invade Medical Records and Electronically Connect Cash Patients to RX Discount Cards-OptimizeRX-to SingleCare to OptumRX

This should not really come as a big surprise as what hasn’t the pharmacy benefit managment business touched?  So what is OptimizeRX ?  Most...

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“One Trick Algo World” Needs to be Licensed and Indexed–Spurious Correlations “For Profit” Are Out of Control

<p>With prediction tools and apps being all the rage today, their reliability and accuracy are not always there.  Before the word “prediction” took over, we used to have words like “trending” and number crunches used for a lot of what we saw, but today it’s the big buzz word “prediction”.  Machine learning algorithms certainly can be useful but they too make errors.  A while back I connected data selling to lack of privacy and it got some attention, but I think not enough.<img align="right" src="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/lh3.googleusercontent.com/-r3DyQ8OXX8U/VWNXE79B4_I/AAAAAAABMUQ/d7p1kWV6goc/image=2525255B8=2525255D.png=3fimgmax=3d800" style="float: right; display: inline"></p> <p><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2015/09/excess-scoring-of-us-consumers-us.html">Excess Scoring of US Consumers, US Citizens-Scored into Oblivion By Proprietary Algorithms and Formulas, Never Duplicated or Tested for Accuracy-Profits of Big Business And A White House Executive Command To Continue the Abuse..</a></p> <p>Today as companies see revenue streams disappear from their line of business, they turn to the easy solution of buying and selling consumer data, but it just doesn’t end there, they have to do something with it to create value, and <strong><u>that line of business today is called “scoring”.</u></strong>  It’s happening all around you and it’s evolved to what I call “Excess Scoring” as you have data scientists cranking and wrangling statistics and data every which way but loose to find out how to find some data with queries to sell.  <strong>Bloomberg bought a data mining company which they intend to use in house and also sell to their clients so they can predict the behavior of clients.</strong>  Bloomberg of course might be motivated as they stand to lose a lot of money when JP Morgan and Bank of America cut thousands of Bloomberg terminals which rent for $21,000 a year, which has been the life blood of the financial world for years.  Replace that revenue, mine and sell data.  </p> <p>Bloomberg is only one of many examples out there too as you also see IBM pushing this cognitive data mining like crazy, and that’s what 13 quarter of declining sales and too many years of stock buybacks end up producing, where do you make up the lost revenue, mining and selling consumer data.  Sure there are some value areas with mining big data when it comes to “real” research like some in healthcare, but even some of that gets blurred as you end up being marketed to believe some app is a diagnosis tool, when in fact <strong><u>it’s nothing more than another risk assessment</u></strong> that gathers, mines and scores you and sells the data and the scores.  </p> <p><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2015/07/cvs-and-ibm-watson-projectplease-make.html">CVS and IBM Watson Project–Please Make It Stop-13 Quarters of Declining Profits for IBM, Is This Is What We Get, More Algorithms Biting Us Constantly So More Data Can Be Mined and Sold Resulting In Excess “Scoring” of US Consumers..</a></p> <p>Many healthcare companies get around the HIPAA areas with in fact not selling your data that they have, but rather just selling a “score” and there’s little HIPAA help there and with that, so goes any privacy.  <strong>When computer scientists and Quants are under pressure to create a revenue producing model, things go a bit crazy and correlations become spurious and data becomes flawed.</strong>  </p> <p><strong><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2016/01/silicon-valley-is-at-it-again-confusing.html">Silicon Valley Is At It Again Confusing the Public With Calling Risk Assessments a Form of A Diagnosis Tool…</a></strong></p> <p>So what happens when the data becomes flawed?  Are there avenues for consumers to use to correct the flawed data and scores being produced and sold for money, which by the way is a $180 Billion dollar a year business?  Few and limited.  <strong>Argus Analytics is one firm that buys up credit card data</strong> and puts out tons of “scores” about your behavior patterns.  How many of you have heard of that company?  Probably not many I would guess.  <img width="261" alt="BDEX" align="right" src="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/https/lh3.googleusercontent.com/-DShlNMAm5L0/WQS4axawdCI/AAAAAAABM4s/qg2JcGWy908uxC-HE-pH_M09wmJi6r3OgCHM/BDEX3=3fimgmax=3d800" 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" height="260" border="0" title="BDEX"></p> <h5><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/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>There have been some very faint efforts in Congress, they spend a lot of time talking about it, but again you have lawyers selling pixie dust that some magical new algorithms are going to protect consumers and on the deception goes.  <strong>With indexing and licensing data sellers, at least we would know who they are and where go to corrected flawed data.  Do we have that now? No</strong>!  You can find some of them but not all, especially the obscure companies that are taking the data and “scoring” you and selling those results.  </p> <p><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2015/03/senators-create-bill-to-go-after-data.html">Senators Create a Bill to Go After the Data Brokers Selling Our Personal Data But It Doesn’t Go Far Enough-Tons of Companies And Banks Are Also Selling Our Data and Repackaging Information About Us…</a></p> <p><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/www.bigdataexchange.com/">BDEX is a “scoring” and data selling company</a>, you probably never heard of.  Take look over there and see what’s going on with “scoring” you and your data.  They’re getting everything they can get their hands on and also tech and promote (and make money)showing others how to score you as well.  You’ll find Live Ramp from Acxiom over there too as a partner, Acxiom one of the biggest data brokers around.  </p> <p>Most people have no clue that all their electronic transactions are for sale, there’s no privacy so use cash when you can if you want a little bit of privacy.  It’s all over the place and read the link below on now how CMS wants to sell Medicare data (link below).  Andy Slavitt, former director at CMS is a big promoter of “scoring everything and everybody” with a background of being a former Goldman banker and a high ranking United Healthcare Executive that racked everyone over the coals.  His big claim to fame was the error producing Ingenix Algorithms with physician pay and then later with medication adherence predictions with Express Scripts, selling algos to them.  The lawsuits still continue.  CMS wants to “approve” those who get the chance to buy and sell your Medicare data though, but we know how that goes, no regulation there as all as again, we don’t know who all the data sellers are in the US and exactly what they do?  </p> <p><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2016/01/cms-medicare-proposing-more-data.html">CMS Medicare Proposing More Data Selling of Both Private and Medicare Patient Claim Data - A New Dignity And Privacy Attack on Both Consumers and Doctors</a></p> <p><strong>Unfortunately Data Scores get used frequently out of context</strong> and you have no idea how many times and how you have been scored.  When it comes to skewing a correlation to make <img width="393" alt="image" align="right" src="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/https/lh3.googleusercontent.com/-WpY3GYubmgs/WQS4bRn3aAI/AAAAAAABM4w/8yFtFoQAvdgzvQiv6jgJ1TRUX69KTtwPgCHM/image3=3fimgmax=3d800" 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" height="166" border="0" title="image">money, data scientists and quants will stop at nothing if it makes money as their job may depend on it.  So in fairness there’s some outside pressure to keep a job that might make them cheat a bit and go spurious. </p> <p>The <strong>World Privacy Forum</strong> was all over this a couple years ago with their extensive report “The Secret Scoring of America” and it’s a good report.   In virtual worlds everyone gets to be LeBron, but in the real world, there’s only one LeBron.  We can thank <a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/02/larry-ellison-ceo-oracle-hcm.html">Larry Ellison for those words of wisdom</a> as sure he sees it loud and clear as well.  He’s a software engineer by trade and people that write code and create software are all very much aware of the bad side, but choose whether or not to talk about it.  Take note of the Alter egos of software engineers, data scientists and anyone who codes for big profits, i.e. Facebook.  </p> <h5><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/04/world-privacy-forum-report-scoring-of.html">World Privacy Forum Report - The Scoring of America: How Secret Consumer Scores Threaten Your Privacy and Your Future - One Big Element that Fuels the Continued Attack of Killer Algorithms & Demise of the Middle Class Creating Profiteering And/Or Denial of Access</a></h5> <p>As consumers it’s only right that we at least know who’s scoring us and using our data when it gets flawed.  Are we to live out lives out with flawed profile created about us for the sake of corporations making big money selling it? <strong> Why even get out of bed every day when we are “scored” to the hilt with risk assessments that are like a ball and chain around our ankles I ask?</strong>  </p> <p><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/06/junk-science-appearing-everywhere-even.html">Junk Science Appearing Everywhere, Even The White House “PR Templated” Correspondence Creates Spurious Correlations…</a></p> <p>Sure there’s some useful scoring going on out there and we need some of that but there’s a lot of it that’s gone over the top.  Even UCLA this week came out and said they suggested to stop using the BMI to determine a person’s over all health<strong>.  Data Scorers can take that number and wrangle it into a massive amount of other data bases and turn you into a huge “risk” assessment that shouldn’t be allowed to walk on this earth!</strong>  <a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/www.ducknet.net/attack-of-the-killer-algorithms/"><img align="right" src="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/lh3.ggpht.com/-6HDDm04lOwA/Ts0zq-EuFHI/AAAAAAAA4d8/nMT-KL0JEDY/image_thumb=2525255B12=2525255D.png=3fimgmax=3d172" 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" border="0"></a>That’s where we are getting today as more and more bogus risk assessments are created that are nothing more than algorithms and math models to make money.</p> <p><strong>Step one for any real privacy to exist is to determine who all the data sellers are and what they sell.</strong>  I’ve had honest quants and mathematicians alike as well as the World Privacy Forum agree with this as a first step of action versus the whacked out perceptions that are being promoted out there now as privacy efforts.  How about when you get (your data) gets repackaged and sold?  None of the privacy dupes are talking about that and it does exist.  If you don’t think this exists, you have been spending too much time living in some virtual worlds out there that exist.  Look at the recent case with Uber and Unroll.me.  </p> <h5><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2015/02/anthem-data-breachcrooks-want-to-sell.html">Anthem Data Breach–Crooks Want to Sell Data Too–The Impact of the “Data Selling For Profit Epidemic” That Exists in the US With Scoring Consumers Removing Access and Human Dignity</a></h5> <p><strong>Prescription medication adherence scoring turns you into a non compliant Outlier</strong> and that data gets sold<img align="right" src="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/lh3.googleusercontent.com/-KDDBEc3i-I4/VaiE5CvPnTI/AAAAAAABMco/U9a02nrysU8/image=2525255B3=2525255D.png=3fimgmax=3d800" style="float: right; display: inline"> all over the place.  Most have no clue on how much money gets made selling your prescription data.  If you pay cash and they can’t find enough credit card data to prove you are filling a prescription, you default to being a non compliant Outlier.  Nice, huh?  How do you fix that?<em><u>  These scores are all secret and you can’t get them</u></em>, so you now there’s a double whammy, secret scores and secret data sellers you have no access to, can’t fix anything as a consumer that corporations “score” about you for a profile.  </p> <p>The post below was generated by a conversation I had with a real pharmacist with these concerns.  Read it and take a look at bogus metrics being used to substantiate your behavior, which of course as humans is subject to vary every time we change our minds, so a lot of flawed data reported about you here with their scores.  The pharmacies have to make their numbers, not so much worry about how they educate you, just make those numbers using this flawed software.  </p> <h5><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2015/07/patients-who-pay-cash-when-filling.html">Patients Who Pay “Cash” When Filling Prescriptions Are Now Called “Outliers, Pharmacists Required to Fix Outliers as They Show Up As Non Medication Adherence Compliant With 5 Star Systems Full of Flawed Data…</a></h5> <p><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/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></p> <p><strong>Again this is  a calling for those in our Congress to stop and do something for the consumer, give us at least the opportunity to know who’s scoring and selling our data?</strong>  We have to fight years ago to get that right for credit data and it’s gone way beyond that now with bringing in all other types of business entities with their secret scoring.  I guess at some point when the data scientists correlate to the point to where their spurious numbers are too far even for the dupes of hazard society to believe, well who knows what we might see, attacks on data centers?  So here’s my campaign that’s been out there for a few years now and I <a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/11/big-dataanalytics-if-used-out-of.html">predicted this about 3 years ago</a> too that data selling with skewing context about consumers would be the greatest attack on our liberties we’ve ever seen, all for the sake of corporations make money.  Scroll down and watch the 4 videos in the footer for some additional information from folks smarter than me. BD</p> <p><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/https/fundrazr.com/a1E9n8=3fref=3dab_96a2h7">Index and License all Data Sellers- Who Are they?  Put the brakes on this corporate profit making epidemic!</a> </p> <h5>Related Reading from some archived posts:</h5> <h5><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/02/gamificationyou-have-won-and-now-we.html">Gamification–You Have Won and Now We Know All About You - It Didn’t Cost One Cent-Insurance Companies Have Games To Find Out More About You Too– “Attack of Killer Algorithms” Chapter 11</a></h5> <h5><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/07/congress-to-investigate-data-sellers.html">Congress To Investigate the Data Sellers - Need To Create a Law to Tax Them As The Algorithms Used For This Business Generate Billions of Dollars, Partly Why Corporate Profits Are So High - Remove the Medical Device Tax as They Produce Needed Jobs/Tangibles</a></h5> <h5><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/11/plos-one-abstractmethodology-for.html">PLOS One Abstract–Methodology for Detecting Manipulation of “P Values” To Show Significant Statistical Value, “Inappropriate Fiddling” Which Can Lead to “Algo Duping” Situations And Numbers</a></h5> <h5><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/11/big-dataanalytics-if-used-out-of.html">Big Data/Analytics If Used Out of Context and Without True Values Stand To Be A Huge Discriminatory Practice Against Consumers–More Honest Data Scientists Needed to Formulate Accuracy/Value To Keep Algo Duping For Profit Out of the Game</a></h5> <h5><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/12/hiding-falsifying-and-accelerating-risk.html">Hiding, Falsifying, And Accelerating Risk Has Become the Achilles Heel of the US Economy As the “Real” World” Clashes With the Values Created From a World of “Fictional Values” Of Formulas and Math</a></h5> <h5><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/12/data-scientists-oxymoron-is-finding.html">“Data Scientists”– An Oxymoron? Is Finding the Value in Data Bases Queried Together in the Business World To Make Money Actually Science?</a></h5> <h5><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/12/cathy-oneil-mathematicianquant-wall.html">Cathy O’Neil, Mathematician/Quant: Wall Street Quants The Culture, Big Data Mechanics, Algorithms, Data Mining, Lack of Privacy, Web Profiling, Health Insurance Profiles and Modeling Abuse…</a></h5> <h5><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/01/does-us-government-need-department-of.html">Does the US Government Need a Department of Modeling and Algorithms–Is Data Addiction and Abuse the Next Up and Coming 12 Step Program, Some Classic Posts & Topics Revisited</a></h5> <h5><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/03/insurance-companies-are-buying-up.html">Insurance Companies Are Buying Up Consumer Spending Data-Time is Here to License and Tax the Data Sellers-As Insurers Sell Tons of Data, Gets Flawed Data When Data Buyers Uses Out of Context Too</a></h5> <h5><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/03/big-datathe-data-science-code-of-ethics.html">Big Data–The Data Science Code of Ethics-Designed By Those Who Create Models - Don’t Fall Victim To Write Fictitious Code and Models Just to Make Money With Clients Demanding Such</a></h5> <h5><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/04/modeling-for-inequality-with.html">Modeling for Inequality With Segmentation, Insurance Industry Uses Backwards Segmentation As Some Models Stand to Threaten Overall Democracy</a></h5> <h5><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/04/data-floating-around-web-and-you-dont.html">Data Floating Around the Web and You Don’t Know How It Got There? Time to License and Excise Tax Data Sellers–Identify “Flawed Data” Epidemic At The Root of the Problem</a></h5> <h5><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/05/licensing-and-excise-taxing-data.html">Licensing and Excise Taxing Data Sellers, Facial Recognition Yet One More Tool Used To Secure & Match Data - The Epidemic, Billions in Profits for Banks and US Corporations Using Killer Algorithms to Further Erode Consumer Privacy</a></h5> <h5><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/06/ftc-reclaim-your-name-campaign-not-good.html">FTC “Reclaim Your Name Campaign” Not Good Enough–No Path for Regulation Identified–All Data Sellers Including Banks, Insurers, Etc. Should Be Required to Buy a License</a></h5> <h5><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/07/data-selling-game-now-exploits-non.html">Data Selling Game Now Exploits the Non Regulated Billion Dollar Epidemic–”Data Dealer” The Attack of the Killer Algorithms Gamified</a></h5> <h5><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/08/pharma-and-health-insurance-companies.html">Pharma and Health Insurance Companies Pairing Up, Humana’s Analytics Subsidiary and Lilly To Figure Out How to Save (Make) Money and Provide Better Patient Care–Selling Research Data That Competes With FDA Sentinel Initiative</a></h5> <h5><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/10/insurance-company-in-network-complex.html">Insurance Company “In-Network” Complex Erroneous Algorithms Continue to Wreak Havoc With Patients and Doctors When It Comes To Coverage and Purchasing Insurance–Time to Begin “Sniffing Some Data”, To Include Labeling And Identifying Killer Algorithms</a></h5> <h5><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/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> <h5><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/02/white-house-office-of-science-and.html">White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and MIT Co-hosting Public Workshop - Big Data Privacy-Not Possible Unless We License and Excise Tax The Sellers, The Corporate Profit Epidemic Continues to Spread</a></h5> <h5><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/02/big-data-in-farming-back-to-data.html">Big Data In Farming, Back to the Data Selling Business Once Again With Concerns of Where the Data is Sold and Who Uses It To Profit, Paying for IP With the Food We Eat Today</a></h5> <h5><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/03/60-minutes-blasts-data-sellers-ftc.html">60 Minutes Blasts The Data Sellers, FTC Admits They Have Lost Control - Time To License and Excise Tax “ALL” Data Sellers, Banks, Companies, Etc. - Congress Needs to Act On This…</a></h5> <h5><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/04/fraud-algorithms-failing-at-indiegogo.html">Fraud Algorithms Failing at Indiegogo Crowd Funding Site-Some Getting Through With Physicists Claiming the Technology Claimed Is Not Possible-Healthcare Related Apps/Devices</a></h5> <h5><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/04/limitations-and-risks-of-machine-ethics.html">Limitations And Risks Of Machine Ethics (That Really Don’t Exist) - Abstract Basically Substantiating the Existence of What I Coined As “The Attacks of the Killer Algorithms”…</a></h5>

“One Trick Algo World” Needs to be Licensed and Indexed–Spurious Correlations “For Profit” Are Out of Control

With prediction tools and apps being all the rage today, their reliability and accuracy are not always there.  Before the word “prediction” ...

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Pharmaceutical Wholesalers Inc. File Legal Complaint Against OptumRx “Aligning Its Interests” with the Big Three Drug Distributors in US, Thus Acting as an Agent of the Government With Accreditation Processes

<p>This is a pretty interesting lawsuit and it includes named invidituals at HHS and CMS as well as participants.  You can view all the defendants included in the <a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/https/www.law360.com/cases/581cff6a5270e84d59000001">filing here.</a>   Being we are at the end of the Obama administration, the named directors Burwell and Slavitt in this case involvement once out of office may or may not still be included, but OptumRX portion looks like it won’t go away.</p> <p>This is basically collusion with the government giving exceptional regulation controls to OptumRX on <a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/https/lh3.googleusercontent.com/-nTq7yCVQmIU/WDHZppI5bzI/AAAAAAABM2o/Di60u0eZQ1Y/s1600-h/image=2525255B3=2525255D.png"><img width="240" alt="image" align="right" src="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/https/lh3.googleusercontent.com/-lTdcxFwJdc8/WDHZqc4qZgI/AAAAAAABM2s/C4HFa3C1W-Q/image_thumb=2525255B1=2525255D.png=3fimgmax=3d800" 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" height="126" border="0" title="image"></a>the accredited distribution of drugs distribution of drugs in the US with basically setting up shop with only the 3 major distributors, and thus so it is making it harder for the secondary or smaller drug distributors to function and operate.  We know what less competition probably means, even higher prices at the drug store.  </p> <p>The lawsuit also points out that United Healthcare is a Medicare Part D insurer and with that fact it appears to be an “agent of the government” will also having the OptumRX subsidiary, the PBM manager having the authority to use the accrediting program called VAWD to basically let other smaller drug distributors in the game.  It would seem to make more sense to have pharmacies be accredited than distributors since they are the ones selling the drugs. </p> <p>OptumRX might be working to drive independent pharmacies out of business to and convert those customers to their mail order pharmacy or to Walgreens, their preferred pharmacy partner.  Recently there was a big partnership created there as well to allow higher profits via Walgreens.</p> <h5><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2016/03/walgreens-signs-agreement-with-pbm.html">Walgreens Signs Agreement With PBM OptumRX (United Heatlhcare) and Anthem Then Sues Express Scripts</a></h5> <p>The fear is that secondary drug distributors will be pushed out of business.  Effective October 1st, all prescription claims not not filled via a VAWD distributor could be denied.  There’s a long list of VAWD credited distributors.  Wholesalers in most states are already subject to inspection by state and/or federal regulators to ensure compliance so what’s the action with OptumRX to act as a 3rd party regulator of sorts?  All pharmacies who fill prescriptions are required to sign a contract with Optum, which I have read in some instances includes the pharmacists not being able to offer a cheaper cash price to the customer as they would be in violation of the contract.  </p> <p>Here’s an interesting tidbit on how OptumRX makes a ton of money from diabetes test strips, take notice of this and the <a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/www.pharmacychoice.com/news/article.cfm=3fArticle_ID=3d1608884">entire article can be read here.</a>  Look at how this winds around with insurer United making big deals on test strips, but does this savings get passed on to the consumers, apparently not. </p> <p><em>“Tackling OTC supplies was the logical next step for OptumRX. OptumRX has a booming mail-order pharmacy business and diabetic test strips play a big role in their profitability. They champion one brand, Roche’s Accu-Chek, and by pooling their purchasing power get manufacturers to compete against each they secure steep discounts. To put this in real world terms: from a retail pharmacy, these <strong>test strips cost about $90 per 50 test strips to the consumer</strong> and is then adjudicated with<strong> insurance companies for about $95</strong>. However, with their steep discounts, it is <strong>estimated that OptumRX pays only about $10 per box of 50 test strip</strong>s because <strong>Roche only charges Medicare about $5 for that same box</strong>. </em></p> <p><em>This means that<strong> OptumRX stands to make up to $85 in gross profit per box, per month</strong>; multiplied by the diabetic population of their 65 million members, OptumRX is playing with real numbers. It sheds a lot of light onto American’s high insurance premiums and the resources they can call on to fight the legal action brought against their new bold policies in court.”</em></p> <p>If noting else, when you look at the big money that the OptumRX subsidiary of United is making, the paragraphs above shed some light on how this is happening and it’s all done with algorithmic business models with a series of algorithms for distributors and drug stores to jump through.  </p> <h5><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2016/04/united-healthcare-reports-1st-quarter.html">United Healthcare Reports 1st Quarter-OptumRX (Pharmacy Benefit Manager) Produces More Revenue Than Its Health Insurance Groups</a></h5> <p>Again states have regulations but now OptumRX in fact is becoming a 3PL regulation enforcer via the government on some of this?  I have read that OptumRX is giving folks some extended time to become VAWD certified before cancelling payments here and there, and wholesalers must already comply with the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) which requires the FDA to issue regulations regarding wholesale distributor and third-party logistics provider licensure.</p> <p>So basically smaller distributors who provide better drug prices might be edged out completely.  So again with more certification policies and adherence, is this going to fix any</p> <p> </p> <p>thing other than to allow OptumRX to charge more a the drug store counter and really accomplishe much?  Here’s the lawsuit on the “clawbacks” that are taking place when you arrive to get your prescription at the drug store with the OptumRX algorithms “front running” the script cost via the pharmacy software networks in place all over the US before you can physically even get there to fill your prescription too. </p> <h5><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2016/10/cigna-united-healthcare-face-class_16.html">Cigna & United Healthcare Face Class Action Suits-PBM Over Charging Customers for Prescriptions, OptumRX Pharmacy Benefit Management Software-“Front Running” Consumers With Killer Algorithms at the Drug Store</a></h5> <p>I’ve often said it would be of real interest to have a video of a pharmacist filling a prescription via the software of the pharmacy benefit management systems in place at pharmacies today so the public can see what the process is for the pharmacist just to get you your bottle of pills, and maybe involving a call or two to the dreaded PBM pharmacy tech.  <p>Don’t forget that Optum 360 is now taking care of all your Quest Diagnositics lab bills too as their outsourcer.  Pay attention to the “too big to fail” health insurer, United with close to 300 subsidiaires that do all kinds of things out there outside of just insurance.  BD <h5><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2016/09/quants-of-optum-carve-out-new.html">Quants of Optum Carve Out New Outsourced Billing Deal with Quest Labs, Will Also Serve to Enhance The Scoring & Data Selling Business Conducted by Both Companies via Powerful Subsidiaries</a></h5> <p>They’re buying up your doctors too, another reason you can’t keep your doctor as they own and manage physicians groups all over the US today.  </p> <h5><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2016/08/optumcare-doctors-to-get-allscripts.html">OptumCare Doctors to Get Allscripts Medical Records EHR–Optum Continues to Buy More Practices and Manage More Doctors Through Independent Physician Associations, Many of Which They Own</a></h5> <p>By thew way, if you have never seen how the automated prescription services work, take a look at this…complete audit trails that also feed <a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2015/06/medication-adherence-predictions-enter.html">medication compliance software data systems.</a>  That is yet another topic for conversation with flawed data using metrics about us that are flawed.  BD  </p> <p><iframe width="560" src="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000101A/https/www.youtube.com/embed/SfXoQWnpIb4" height="315" allowfullscreen frameborder="0"></iframe></p> <p> <hr> WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - A not-for-profit trade association that represents independently-owned pharmaceutical wholesalers is suing a pharmacy benefit manager and the federal government over a new accreditation policy, arguing it violates various state and federal laws. The Association of Independent Pharmaceutical Wholesalers Inc., based in Pine Brook, N.J., filed its complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Nov. 4. </p> <p>The named defendants include OptumRx Inc., based in Irvine, Calif.; the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Sylvia Burwell, secretary of the DHHS; the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; and Andrew Slavitt, acting administrator of the CMS.</p> <p>“OptumRx’s business relationships with the Big Three have resulted in the implementation of bad faith policies designed to steer market share away from the Secondary Wholesale Market and toward the Big Three,” AIPW alleges. </p> <p>For instance, AIPW claims OptumRx, in August, informed its participating pharmacies that effective Oct. 1, participating pharmacies were required to purchase all medications being dispensed to OptumRx members from a VAWD. VAWD, an accreditation offered by the National Association Boards of Pharmacy, essentially eliminates the secondary wholesale market, AIPW argues.</p> <p>“Plaintiff’s members have already been informed by their pharmacy customers that the pharmacies will cease ordering medications and supplies from Plaintiff’s members due to OptumRx’s VAWD-Accreditation Policy,” the association alleges. “This is because the pharmacy customers face PBM audits from OptumRx, whereby OptumRx actively threatens to ‘recoup’ 100 percent of funds paid to the pharmacy arising from the purchase of drugs from wholesalers such as Plaintiff’s members that are not VAWD accredited.”</p> <p><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/legalnewsline.com/stories/511045586-pharmaceutical-wholesale-group-says-accreditation-policy-will-irreparably-damage-the-nation-s-prescription-drug-delivery-system" title="http://legalnewsline.com/stories/511045586-pharmaceutical-wholesale-group-says-accreditation-policy-will-irreparably-damage-the-nation-s-prescription-drug-delivery-system">http://legalnewsline.com/stories/511045586-pharmaceutical-wholesale-group-says-accreditation-policy-will-irreparably-damage-the-nation-s-prescription-drug-delivery-system</a></p>

Pharmaceutical Wholesalers Inc. File Legal Complaint Against OptumRx “Aligning Its Interests” with the Big Three Drug Distributors in US, Thus Acting as an Agent of the Government With Accreditation Processes

This is a pretty interesting lawsuit and it includes named invidituals at HHS and CMS as well as participants.  You can view all the defenda...

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Quants of Optum Carve Out New Outsourced Billing Deal with Quest Labs, Will Also Serve to Enhance The Scoring & Data Selling Business Conducted by Both Companies via Powerful Subsidiaries

<p>If you don’t know what a Quant is, take time out and watch video #2 in the footer of this blog as they are not just limited to working at financial firms.  As a matter of fact, hedge funds and banks can’t hire enough of the and the same holds true for insurers and other healthcare entities.  These are the math wizards today that are working without a net of any “proof of concept” any more and are just tossing a lot of models out there to see if they stick.  I know that’s a crummy way of putting it, but that’s the reality of folks being soaked on models and numbers<a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/https/lh3.googleusercontent.com/-QO1huLc4Ves/V92AEN8UY9I/AAAAAAABM0E/wF13WZgVGJU/s1600-h/image=2525255B15=2525255D.png"><img width="244" alt="image" align="right" src="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/https/lh3.googleusercontent.com/-CtZcwaQXId4/V92AE7cCDcI/AAAAAAABM0I/5rN3NG1tJRI/image_thumb=2525255B9=2525255D.png=3fimgmax=3d800" 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" height="78" border="0" title="image"></a> they don’t question, it’s the Dupes of Hazard society that exists everywhere today.  What the Quant do well, is to use math to create profits, no matter if it hurts individuals or not.  Look at what was recently done at Wells Fargo with the low level employees, as they didn’t just decide to sell fake accounts on their own, there was a pay for performance model created by quants with a number of carrots and probably some sticks attached.</p> <p>If you have not heard of the Optum 360 subsidiary, the link below will explain how it works and how the subsidiary solicits hospitals and other healthcare entities (now Quest Labs) to hand over their billing, also know as revenue cycling with the big hopes of saving money and collecting more money.  Employees are usually let go by the healthcare entity and rehired as an Optum 360 employee with maybe less pay and worse benefits.  I read some of the reviews from Dignity Hospital reviews on GlassDoor and they said the benefits were a lot worse once they came under the Optum umbrella.  You could almost say it’s an internal US H1B process as the pay and benefit results seem to follow the same pattern.  </p> <h5><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2015/04/mayo-clinic-is-latest-to-outsource.html">Mayo Clinic is the Latest to Outsource Revenue Cycling to Optum 360, A United Healthcare/Dignity Health Company Pursuing Hospital Contracts All Over the US For Profit…</a></h5> <p>The real deal here of course is the access to all the data as the data miners and sellers of the healthcare industry will take the data, score you and put the data into other “new” data bases and turn around and sell it.  This process is called repackaging and when this occurs, most of the time as consumers we have no idea where it goes or who originated the data.  As long as prescription data is not taken from a HIPAA covered entity such as a medical record, it’s out there for sale to who ever has the money.  Quest is also promoting their own “outsourcing” program with hospitals and <a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/search/label/www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/quest-diagnostics-completes-acquisition-of-clinical-laboratory-partners-outreach-laboratory-service-business-in-connecticut-300227605.html">just bought another hospital lab service,</a> so that makes about 5 or more they have bought.  20-30% of the services performed for hospitals with this service end up going to their own Quest diagnostic centers to be worked.  </p> <p>Subsidiaries of companies are something I have told all for years to pay attention to as that’s where all the data work is done and<a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/https/lh3.googleusercontent.com/-sUPaYPmhyqY/V92AFd84B4I/AAAAAAABM0M/LqEegYGImOk/s1600-h/image=2525255B4=2525255D.png"><img width="288" alt="image" align="right" src="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/https/lh3.googleusercontent.com/-DCiT1MZO3zc/V92AF8wyKTI/AAAAAAABM0Q/WM0FsT80Jtc/image_thumb=2525255B2=2525255D.png=3fimgmax=3d800" 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" height="138" border="0" title="image"></a> computer code is written to create big profits with running proprietary code that nobody ever gets to see or audit for accuracy.  </p> <p>ScriptCheck, offered by ExamOne, a subsidiary of Quest Diagnostics is a big data mining firm, and so how many were not aware that Quest has been in the data mining and selling business for years?  Anyone buying a life insurance policy could very well be investigated and a full data pull created to get information for underwriting.  Sure we know some of this is necessary, but when do they cross the line?  Any more it’s all the time as the data gets repackaged and resold with data mining.  They take the list of meds and try to “guess” what medical conditions you have or “might” get.  That’s the scary part is the “might” or what is abused today and openly called predictive analytics.  In this <a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/articles.latimes.com/2013/oct/21/business/la-fi-lazarus-20131022">article written in 2013, David Lazarius</a> does a pretty job with explaining how this works.  <p><strong>There is an update though as ExamOne bought a bunch of Ingenix (now called Optum Insights) algorithms in 2014</strong>.  We maybe all know that the former Ingenix subsidiary of United Healthcare is where current acting CMS administrator Andy Slavitt called home for a number of years and was taken to court over cheating on out of nextwork payment for MDs by using formulas beyond comprehension of most to inflate United Healthcare profits. <strong> I call it “Code Hosing”</strong> when I see this occur as you and I as a consumer have no access to either the math or the models used to create these profit centers and it ends up being a bunch of <a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2016/05/the-rise-of-quants-again-this-time-in.html">quantitated madness due to the fact that people are afraid to contest any form of math,</a> good math or bad math. <p><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/https/www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141027182707-39299902-examone-acquires-assets-from-optuminsight=3fforceNoSplash=3dtrue">Heres a few clips that tell you all about Quest Diagnostics ExamOne service</a> and their purchase of the Ingenix MedPoint (OptumInsights) Algorithms in 2014 and what ScriptCheck is all about.    <p><em>“LENEXA, KS, October 27, 2014 / -- ExamOne, a Quest Diagnostics company and leader in helping insurers meet their underwriting needs, is pleased to announce the acquisition of certain proprietary assets from OptumInsight that support the ability to provide rapid responses to data inquiries for use in life and health risk assessments. The acquired assets will streamline and improve the ScriptCheck® service offered through ExamOne.”</em> <p><em>Along with ExamOne’s expansive suite of insurance services (also known as Policy Express) the acquired technology is designed to accelerate the underwriting process, improve risk assessment, assess the accuracy of health statements and discover undisclosed doctors<img align="right" src="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/lh5.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SkL9GOgy_rI/AAAAAAAATec/4yxb2jf7CV8/image_thumb=255B5=255D.png=3fimgmax=3d800" 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" border="0"> or medical conditions for underwriters.</em> <p><em><strong>About ExamOne</strong><br>ExamOne has provided a portfolio of services to the insurance industry since 1972. It has grown significantly through continuous innovation that meets the evolving needs of life, health and disability insurance providers and their customers. Laboratory testing was part of the company’s original services, which over time have expanded to include paramedical examinations, fraud detection, electronic data collection, and gathering attending physician statements and motor vehicle records. ExamOne also has expanded into helping individuals learn about their own health through its Inside Look™ product.</em></p> <p>Part of the real scary part about this agreement is that now Optum also will be able to get any biometric screenings provided by Quest as well.  We have all seen the nighmare Orwelian companies like Red Brick (which was started by a one time United Healthcare young exec) that are into<a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/https/lh3.googleusercontent.com/-DRG5tPihlZE/V92AGSOr7MI/AAAAAAABM0U/O5NN6zkMnyk/s1600-h/EQUIPP=2525255B5=2525255D.png"><img width="449" alt="EQUIPP" align="right" src="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/https/lh3.googleusercontent.com/-rKZvRY4yzrk/V92AG2s461I/AAAAAAABM0Y/Rc7GljKudEM/EQUIPP_thumb=2525255B3=2525255D.png=3fimgmax=3d800" 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" height="457" border="0" title="EQUIPP"></a> monitoring every move we make and this looks like an open loop hole here for United Heatlhcare/Optum to get that data, what else can you say?  There’s nobody in their right mind that wants their insurance company to have all types of data and information that the insurer could easily miscontrue and take out of context to avoid paying a claim!  That’s what this does.  Actually it’s not just Quest and United Healthcare/Optum deal alone, we have a huge problem of “Excess Scoring” in the US taking place with consumer using flawed data, queries and proprietary code to where we do not have the ability to even correct it.  </p> <h5><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2015/09/excess-scoring-of-us-consumers-us.html">Excess Scoring of US Consumers, US Citizens-Scored into Oblivion By Proprietary Algorithms and Formulas, Never Duplicated or Tested for Accuracy-Profits of Big Business And A White House Executive Command To Continue the Abuse..</a></h5> <p>If you get a chance to talk candidly to pharmacists today, they’ll tell you all about what’s going on and how you are “scored” with every prescription you fill too.  There’s this EQUIPP program out there that tells them what to do and how to dig in and find outliers, some of which are diabetics who are not on statins.  The pharmacists who are forced to work this EQUIPP program model have to find their “outliers” or they could end up like the employees at Wells Fargo and be be out of a job if they don’t play the game.  In the drug industry, they couldn’t get doctors to push statins and other monitoring flawed data programs, so now the boom is lowered on your retail pharmacists who need their jobs.  Click on the image at the right and see what I’m talking about.  <h5><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2015/06/medication-adherence-predictions-enter.html">Medication Adherence Predictions Enter the World of Quantitated Justifications For Things That Are Just Not True, Members of the Proprietary “Code Hosing” Clubs Out There Destroying Your Privacy</a></h5> <p>So my guess here is that with United Healthcare/Optum having this new additional data of labs to query into the prescriptions, your lab tech could very well be the next person out there suggesting not only monitoring but also in a round about way, pushing more drugs.  <p><strong>This really even gets more interesting with the Quants of Optum and their models for profit as United Healthcare has a contract with LabCorp as their exclusive Lab and has had that contract since 2007.</strong>  Optum and United Healthcare already get all that lab<a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/https/lh3.googleusercontent.com/-k-dnOpmw8Ow/V92AHa6pxII/AAAAAAABM0c/SxBgk_dHybQ/s1600-h/image=2525255B19=2525255D.png"><img width="187" alt="image" align="right" src="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/https/lh3.googleusercontent.com/-W_L3qRa38CQ/V92AH4GFwtI/AAAAAAABM0g/qfsi9ppy29s/image_thumb=2525255B11=2525255D.png=3fimgmax=3d800" 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" height="101" border="0" title="image"></a> information from LabCorp and the contract continues until 2018, so that’s what makes this Quest deal interesting and data rich with data selling.  If patients all over the country are already being directed to LabCorp facilities, how would Optum get a chunk of this money?  I suppose the answer is what just happened with the Optum 360 subsidiary now getting do most all of the billing for Quest Diagnositcs, right?  <p><strong>Talk about quants working over time working both models of each lab to increase revenue, right?</strong>  Again watch video #2 in the footer and learn what a quant does as we have that same mentality running CMS with Andy Slavitt being both a former McKinsey consultant and a Goldman banker running everything.  All he is concerned about is numbers as he’s just an Algo Man who cares little about anything else.  Follow him on Twitter and it’s not hard to see at all. <h5><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2016/05/the-rise-of-quants-again-this-time-in.html">The Rise of the Quants, Again! This Time In US Healthcare- Taming the MACRA Beast of Quantitated Madness For A Lot of Things That Are Probably Just Not True</a></h5> <p>So what happens when you get a lab test done?  Depending on the result of course, you might get a prescription for a drug, we all know that by now (grin), so look at how this data mining is working today.  With Optum having all the lab information will this have a tendency to push more drugs, and the drugs that are covered by pharmacy benefit managers that make the most profit for them?  It is not far fetched in my book <a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/https/lh3.googleusercontent.com/-XgfibL-ArlQ/V92AIYYGhaI/AAAAAAABM0k/HXiYtXMIqGc/s1600-h/image=2525255B9=2525255D.png"><img width="265" alt="image" align="right" src="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/https/lh3.googleusercontent.com/-suvBkbofYL0/V92AI4FEAxI/AAAAAAABM0o/4R765Soth94/image_thumb=2525255B5=2525255D.png=3fimgmax=3d800" 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" height="194" border="0" title="image"></a>at all as I used to work with data, wrote software and it’s how the mentality works.  If you haven’t noticed by the way, the OptumRX is the largest revenue stream that United Healthcare has now, larger than each of their insurance groups when compared.  </p> <h5><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2016/04/united-healthcare-reports-1st-quarter.html">United Healthcare Reports 1st Quarter-OptumRX (Pharmacy Benefit Manager) Produces More Revenue Than Its Health Insurance Groups</a></h5> <p>So this is adding yet another element of behaviorial scoring and data mining for profit if you will and we’re not getting any breaks on cost.  As a matter of fact, this is a good link to look at that explains the coupons and discount cards at the pharmacy, as they tell you how it works. </p> <h5><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2016/06/the-truth-about-pharmacy-benefit.html">The Truth About Pharmacy Benefit Managers and Prescription Discount Cards–Created With Automated Algorithmic Processes That Enable Huge Profits-Consumers at Risk!</a></h5> <p>Again, look at the subsidiaries of these big corporations and what are doing with data for your answers as it’s all there as the<strong> quants in healthcare keep modeling away to attain the best models for profit,</strong> not necessarily for better care, Moneyball as Optum calls it, which really only works well for baseball where everyone knows the rules, but with healthcare the rules change every day.  BD <p> <hr> UnitedHealth Group Inc.’s Optum health-services arm has struck a deal to oversee billing processes for lab giant Quest Diagnostics Inc., substantially expanding its growing business of handling such transactions for health-care companies. Under the 10-year pact, Optum will take over a number of key revenue-related services for Quest, including billing health insurers and consumers, and collecting and processing payments from both. About 2.400 employees who did such work for Quest will become Optum employees, but they will generally remain physically in their current locations.</p> <p><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/www.wsj.com/articles/unitedhealths-optum-unit-to-oversee-quest-diagnostics-billing-processes-1473760800" title="http://www.wsj.com/articles/unitedhealths-optum-unit-to-oversee-quest-diagnostics-billing-processes-1473760800">http://www.wsj.com/articles/unitedhealths-optum-unit-to-oversee-quest-diagnostics-billing-processes-1473760800</a></p>

Quants of Optum Carve Out New Outsourced Billing Deal with Quest Labs, Will Also Serve to Enhance The Scoring & Data Selling Business Conducted by Both Companies via Powerful Subsidiaries

If you don’t know what a Quant is, take time out and watch video #2 in the footer of this blog as they are not just limited to working at fi...

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“Sully”, The Government’s Flawed Algorithms and Simulations Were Wrong, What Doctors Can Learn From Pilots…

<p>I had to include the bit about the comparison here about doctors and pilots as this correlation over the years has been used so many times and some very strange writings as doctor are not pilots, but some folks seem to think the two are more similar than they really are.  What is similar is how they are “scored” by algorithms though, which are proprietary for the most part and nobody gets to see the magic black box formulas.  Aviation though does have one advantage though as they do have a real “black box” that does record data and the conversations and actions of pilots.  They try to do something like this in healthcare, but it doesn’t work as pilots are dealing with an object, which is a jet, but doctors are dealing with humans, a person, not a jet.</p> <p>As a matter of fact the only real correlation between doctors and pilots was revealed a few years ago where a <a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/https/lh3.googleusercontent.com/-yUVXdZ6cAzo/V9WFyFxYJoI/AAAAAAABMzk/3tCAymVzC10/s1600-h/Sully=2525255B3=2525255D.png"><img width="205" alt="Sully" align="right" src="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/https/lh3.googleusercontent.com/-uDmgPHpT3-Y/V9WFy30eB3I/AAAAAAABMzo/o3sQqr9C6VQ/Sully_thumb=2525255B1=2525255D.png=3fimgmax=3d800" 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" height="309" border="0" title="Sully"></a>former United Airlines pilot duped even the AMA on the fact that he was a cardiologist and even had to <a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/retractionwatch.com/2011/04/13/remember-william-hamman-the-pilot-who-claimed-to-be-a-cardiologist-a-retraction-appears/">retract several papers he had written.</a>  William Hamman was a pilot for United Airlines who had started in med school years ago but never finished.  After he was exposed, <a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/abcnews.go.com/Health/MindMoodNews/fake-cardiologist-william-hamman-duped-real-doctors/story=3fid=3d12395288">his pilot job at United</a> soon disappeared.  So in my opinion only, this is really the correlation between doctors and pilots I ever found (grin).</p> <h5><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/02/what-can-healthcare-learn-from-aviation.html">What Can Healthcare Learn From Aviation? Watch Your Models As The Virtual World Can Be Far Different From the Real World When It Comes to Designing And Implementing Software & Hardware</a></h5> <p>I went to see the move “Sully” yesterday and that is the screaming value that I walked away with, <strong>don’t let flawed data and bad algorithms (flawed) produce inaccurate information that makes you begin to question who you are</strong> and use data to turn an individual who is hero into a zero.  The NTSB with their algorithms had it all wrong.  If you have read my blog for any amount of time, I preach this all the time on how folks get too wrapped up in stats and numbers and forget the “human” element and that’s what this move was all about.  Sure algorithms can be good as well and its more in the fact about how we use them for knowledge, and not about scoring people into data oblivion with flawed data and assumptions from Quants and Data Scientists who “think” they have the ultimate answers, especially in the area of predictive analytics.  </p> <p>Due to a lot of the over hype of the power of algorithms and how they are marketed, we have a real problem today in the fact that people can’t seem to tell the difference anymore on what’s a “real world” value and what’s a “virtual world” value.  I wrote about that initially in 2013 and it seems to be getting worse all the time, and so far I have not read any news stories of folks looking for Pokemon on a commercial airliner yet, but I have this feeling that the “dupes” who confuse both values will show up there soon as they have appeared everywhere else such as hospitals and police departments (grin). If you follow me on Twitter at all, I have a special name for this scenario, “The Dupes of Hazard Society”.  </p> <h5><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2015/06/virtual-world-values-and-real-world-we.html">Virtual World Values and The Real World, We Have A Big Problem: People Can’t Tell the Difference Anymore as Perceptual Madness Grows to Further Accelerate Inequality…</a></h5> <p>In the course of my life I have happened to run across and meet a couple other pilots who were in these types of life and death situations and there’s not a lot of time and in both of those instances, it too was the human element that saved the day, just like Sully did.  As a matter of fact, there is an airmanship award given every year by the Fraternal Order of Daedalians for the act of heroism by a commercial airline pilot. After seeing the movie and how the NTSB was stuck on their algorithms to turn the tide into discounting Sully, I feel he was left out of the award given in 2009.  <a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/www.daedalians.org/awards/george.htm">You can read about the award here</a> and see how no award was given in 2009.  Here’s a clip from the page that tells what the award is.  There are a number of awards and it’s mostly for the military but this is one award given to commercial airline crews.  If you look and see, in 2009, there’s no award for Sully on the Hudson river.  In 1998 you can see the award for <a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/www.memphisflyer.com/memphis/bruce-harris/Profile=3foid=3d3704124">Bruce Harris from Delta,</a> who also “sucked in birds” and was able to save the day and all the passengers.  </p> <p><em><strong>“Lieutenant General Harold L. George Civilian Airmanship Award: A Daedalian trophy and award presented annually to the pilot, copilot and/or crew of a United States certified commercial airline selected by a Federal Aviation committee to have demonstrated ability, judgment and/or heroism above and beyond normal operational requirements. (First awarded in 1956.)”</strong></em></p> <p>Back on course, I couldn’t help  but notice how the movie created a “personal struggle” with Sully in the fact that after a while, you do have a tendency to doubt yourself and we all do it, so there’s nothing new about that, but when you have forces such at the NTSB pushing the envelope with flawed data and simulations, anyone would start to wonder if there was anything that could have been done differently.  The item they forgot which was brought out in the movie is the fact that this as a life or death panic situation and the flipping algorithms after the fact to try to show that the judgement on the part of Sully was purely wrong.  Sure continue the investigation to get to the truth, but to try and take away the heroism shown with this type of decision that had to be made with very little notice and the lives of 155 passengers, was obscene.  <strong>It’s like being in the “panic room” with a lot of company, the passengers.</strong>  </p> <p>Perceptions are a big part of our world and I liked the fact that the movie did address what I call Perception-Deception with the NTSB and their attitudes with their simulation algorithms.  I see this all the time where the Dupes of Hazard will fight with some math formulas and algorithms to death to defend their numbers which are usually based in an idea or thought that has no proof of concept.  Ok so now I get the chance to be tacky and take a dig as I see this every day with Andy Slavitt who runs Medicare in this country.  Everything he authors, talks about, etc. is all about numbers and he never goes to human side and we end up with a bunch of Quant models running healthcare with flawed data and methodologies.  </p> <h5><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2015/06/operation-perception-deception-into.html">Operation “perception-Deception” Into Full Swing in the US, With Killer Algorithms, Algo Fairies, Algo Duping, The Grays, and Of Course, Flags As Consumers Confuse Virtual World Values With the Real World…</a></h5> <p><strong>Indeed in the movie, Sully too had a bunch of “quantiated madness” and faulty simulations to deal with as well.</strong>  Doctors every day are getting ripped with flawed data and algorithms and scored into oblivion with things that are just not true as well.  You can read more about this at the link below at the quantitated madness dished out to their occupations by folks who bow to the all mighty algorithms without looking at the human side of care.</p> <h5><strong><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2016/05/the-rise-of-quants-again-this-time-in.html">The Rise of the Quants, Again! This Time In US Healthcare- Taming the MACRA Beast of Quantitated Madness For A Lot of Things That Are Probably Just Not True</a></strong></h5> <p>So, sure Sully gets offered mental health counseling after the incident, and not being there, we have no <img align="right" src="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/lh3.ggpht.com/-6HDDm04lOwA/Ts0zq-EuFHI/AAAAAAAA4d8/nMT-KL0JEDY/image_thumb=2525255B12=2525255D.png=3fimgmax=3d172" style="float: right; display: inline">clue on what it could have entailed but again one could ask would such behavioral analytics serve a purpose to make one doubt themselves even further?  It could if the therapie were tweaked the wrong way.</p> <p><strong>Turns out I’m not the only one who writes about this topic</strong>.  I’ve writing about what I call <strong><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/www.ducknet.net/attack-of-the-killer-algorithms/">“The Attack of the Killer Algorithms”</a></strong> for a number of years.  I saw it come to surface with the Occupy Movement as that was a cause without a cause you could say as the perception of the general public seemed to view it.  Deep down it was not without a cause, but they couldn’t find the focus and that’s because it was hidden in proprietary algorithms they couldn’t see, talk or relate too, but they knew something was wrong and that was sufficient to make a statement.  There’s a new book out by <a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/https/mathbabe.org/">Cathy O’Neil, a former Wall Street Quant</a> during the financial crisis that’s worth a read.  I have to be honest and say I have not read the full book yet, although I feel like I almost have as I have read her blog for years on the same topic, the dark side of big data that she covers.  I try to group together other like minds on the Killer Algorithms page of videos and links to help folks understand what’s going on out there.  For a preview of such, just scroll on down to the footer here and watch the 4 videos.  </p> <p><strong>“Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy”</strong> is the name of the new book and you can <a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/https/www.amazon.com/Weapons-Math-Destruction-Increases-Inequality/dp/0553418815/ref=3dcm_cr_arp_d_product_top=3fie=3dUTF8">link here to Amazon</a> to find out more about it.  The book has been longer over due and she tells you how this insideous insidious “scoring” systems of algorithms works.  There’s some good examples on how teachers are “scored” and what happens to them when subjected to flawed data and flawed methodologies of “scoring”. <a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/https/lh3.googleusercontent.com/-1T-X0vt3giE/V9WFzQijODI/AAAAAAABMzs/yZI7oAgqSOg/s1600-h/image=2525255B4=2525255D.png"><img width="133" alt="image" align="right" src="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/https/lh3.googleusercontent.com/-KJ672vOBiEw/V9WFz-Y0qlI/AAAAAAABMzw/Tpnl68wFr3o/image_thumb=2525255B2=2525255D.png=3fimgmax=3d800" 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" height="193" border="0" title="image"></a> She’s a lot smarter than me and I used to develop software so I know as well as anyone does who writes or has written code on how dishonestly for profit can live in proprietary computer code.  </p> <p><strong>Cathy takes you to the next level up which are the mathematical models that are created before the computer code is created to automate “scoring” processes.</strong>  A model is written first and then comes the code that you can’t see, hear or touch.  It’s just there, gathering all kinds of data about you from God knows where and “scoring” you into some value system.  In her words, Cathy states we are all members of a cult without knowing we’re in one and that’s pretty much how it is.  To understand how this works, watch video #2 in the footer as the Quant documentary does a pretty good job for the layman to understand the basis of how these complicated formulas work.  <strong>In the words of Bill Gates “software is just a bunch of algorithms working together”.</strong>  </p> <p>As people we can’t be bias or are not supposed to to be, <strong>but what happens when the algorithms (that are created by humans) are bias?</strong>  Nobody’s doing anything about the <strong>“Code Hosing”</strong> that is taking place out there.  Again if you follow me on Twitter, I call <strong>it Code Hosing as that’s what it is, people being hosed with computer code they know nothing about other than how they are marketed to “trust it”.</strong>  People like Cathy have been urging the release of some of this proprietary “scoring” algorithms and code so we can see what makes it work, as how else can you validate models and code?  Want to see how you get scored every time you fill a prescription, something that all of us do?  Read the link below and see how these bias algorithms use all kinds of non scientific metrics to “score” you.  Pharmacy benefit managers get away with this garbage and soon the score may block you from access to some expensive drugs too.  This too is secret and you have no access to the score of methodology used to give you a prediction grade.</p> <h5><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2015/06/medication-adherence-predictions-enter.html">Medication Adherence Predictions Enter the World of Quantitated Justifications For Things That Are Just Not True, Members of the Proprietary “Code Hosing” Clubs Out There Destroying Your Privacy</a></h5> <p>If you watch the Quant documentary in the footer, <strong>Mike Osinski who wrote the software for the mortgage scams</strong> that took place and crashed the economy, he’s has some real words of wisdom for his part.  He wrote the software the banks used and states is was never meant to be used the way it was to refinance loans.  His best quote from the video is <strong>“with software you can do something about anything, create all kinds of virtual worlds to function in, but what really matters is what happens in the real world”.</strong>  That’s a fact as again as I mentioned above people get involved in chasing all types of virtual values and forget about the “real” world and God knows he saw it first hand.  I like the part where he coudn’t even sleep at night for all the bankers and financial folks wanting more code and as he said “you have to right, you can’t be wrong”.  What those words really meant though during that time was<strong> “you have to be right and shove the money to the direction of the banks”.  </strong></p> <p><strong>Virtual worlds impact and affect all of us</strong>.  I like to use the world of <strong>Volkswagon who cheated with their computer code</strong> as a damning example as everyone knows about it by now that they cheated with their proprietary computer code.  Stop and think about this as the company created a perfect little “virtual” world of cars that did not pollute; however, in the real world they did pollute, so be a <a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/10/on-being-data-skeptic-modelers-have.html">skeptic when you need to be.</a>  Sometimes the only way get “get on” to the cheaters is when we notice the output of the algorithms not putting out results that can be trusted.  The link below is also another of Cathy’s publications that is worth a read as well from a few years ago. </p> <h5><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/10/on-being-data-skeptic-modelers-have.html">“On Being a Data skeptic- Modelers Have A Bigger Responsibility Now Than Ever Before”–A Must Read Essay, Start “Sniffing the Data”…</a></h5> <p>Charlie Siefe, NYU, in video #1 in the footer also tells you about the Code Hosing taking place today and how we all take in numbers that are tossed at us with nobody questioning what is written, context is everything indeed.   It’s interesting as his talk is a Google’s NY headquarters telling their employees how they get duped.  Big people with money and somewhat good intentions get duped.<strong>  We all remember how Bloomberg and Frieden who now runs CDS were duped on Big Gulp.  I</strong>t was just another model created that was supposed to change behavior on what size of soft drinks people could buy and it failed miserably.  I’m sure both of them would maybe like to erase this chapter in their lives of the <strong>Big Gulp Dupe</strong>, as it was so much in the news as well as it’s failure.  They sucked in flawed data and a big failed model.  </p> <h5><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/11/how-many-more-bloomberg-big-gulp-failed.html">How Many More “Bloomberg Big Gulp” Failed “Proof of Concept” Models Can We Sustain Before Everyone Splits a Gasket?</a></h5> <p><strong>Bottom line is that all of us as citizens in the US are “scored” into oblivion</strong> and why even get out of bed every day (satire) as <strong>we have these huge, heavy ball and chains of what are called “risk assessments” that are tied to our ankles</strong>.  We get tired of walking around with that excess weight, which is exactly what it is.  Shoot we are so risk assessed that one wonders so any of us have the right to walk around this earth as we are a risk to everything!  Sure there is legit scoring and qualifications that need to exist and those models are not going anywhere soon but we’ve taken “scoring” to a new limit to where nobody has much worth except the algorithms and those who worship those virtual values!  This not how the world is supposed to work.  </p> <h5><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.ca/2015/09/excess-scoring-of-us-consumers-us.html">Excess Scoring of US Consumers, US Citizens-Scored into Oblivion By Proprietary Algorithms and Formulas, Never Duplicated or Tested for Accuracy-Profits of Big Business And A White House Executive Command To Continue the Abuse</a></h5> <p>Anway, back on course here with <strong>Sully, my big take from this movie is the fact that it did put “scoring”, flawed data, and bad models flat in your face</strong> on how we are looking at value today and the NTS<strong>B was worshipping the Holy ground of some flipping algorithms </strong>and tried to denounce a real hero named Sully.  </p> <p>All algorithms are not bad and they do help us with knowledge and better managment and skills, <strong>but somewhere along the line we got off course and are somehow bowing down to the all mighty algorithms and functioning in virtual worlds instead of the real world</strong>.  Give that some thought next time before you go hook line and sinker into a set of numbers, statistics or scores that are presented to you, before you give the numbers more credit than deserved. BD</p> <p>Just for good measure, here’s a few related posts from the archives here…</p> <h5><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/01/movie-her-good-example-on-how-folks.html">Movie “HER”– Good Example On How Folks Can’t Separate And/Or Unite The Virtual With The Real World, Billionaires Are Made Out of Those Who Know How to Keep These Areas “Gray” With Creating and Maintaining The Addictive Code That Does It…</a></h5> <h5><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/06/virtual-unreality-maybe-good-read-after.html">“Virtual Unreality” - Maybe A Good Read After the Fake Facebook “Science” Report To Help You Figure Out What’s A Virtual Value and What’s A Real Value Out There</a></h5> <h5><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2016/01/silicon-valley-is-at-it-again-confusing.html">Silicon Valley Is At It Again Confusing the Public With Calling Risk Assessments a Form of A Diagnosis Tool…</a></h5> <h5><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2015/10/citizen-score-in-china-huge-warning-for.html">“Citizen Score” in China, A Huge Warning For America About the Loss of Privacy, Lifestyle and Personal Worth As Noted by the ACLU With This Orwellian Nightmare</a></h5> <h5><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-great-math-mysterysoftware.html">“The Great Math Mystery”–Software Engineering-Looking for Where It Does and Doesn’t Work-The Physics Connection…</a></h5> <h5><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/06/when-models-are-too-complex-with-too.html">When The Models Are Too Complex With Too Many Bits of Data-Sometimes Quants, Data Scientists Just Guess and Assign a Number Value And “That’s Not Science At All “</a></h5> <h5><a href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/03/obamacare-one-big-attack-of-killer.html">Obamacare - One Big “Attack of the Killer Algorithms” No Matter Which Direction You Turn, Compounded With a Lot of Government and Consumer “Algo Duping”….</a></h5>

“Sully”, The Government’s Flawed Algorithms and Simulations Were Wrong, What Doctors Can Learn From Pilots…

I had to include the bit about the comparison here about doctors and pilots as this correlation over the years has been used so many times a...

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