This is a good move probably from both sides and the Nook has
been doing well and this might be the tablet jolt that Microsoft needs. I have been a tablet owner since day one and 5 years ago people used to think I was a Goober as I said one day all will be using tablets, and look where we are today. On my current Windows Tablet I have the Nook Reader.
Will it also function as a Windows e-reader too? I would guess Office Apps would be a natural and could there maybe even be a Windows Phone operating system tossed in here too? This big move will compete with Apple and Amazon in the tablet area and by the way you can subscribe to the Quack on the Kindle if you follow down on the right hand side of the page. At any rate this development will be interesting to follow and I can bet it will move pretty quickly. BD
Microsoft agreed to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in Barnes & Noble’s Nook division on Monday, giving the bookstore chain stronger footing in the hotly contested electronic book market and creating an alliance that could intensify the fight over the future of digital reading.
The announcement was the latest surprise in an unpredictable and rapidly shifting e-book market, which is crowded with technology giants trying to chip away at Amazon.com’s dominance. Amazon once had close to 90 percent of the e-book market, but since then, a handful of players, including Apple, Google and now Microsoft, have edged in.
As part of the deal announced Monday, the two companies will settle their disputes over an array of technology patents. Barnes & Noble will also produce a Nook app for the forthcoming Windows 8, a revamping of the Microsoft operating system that will take advantage of touch screens. While Windows 8 will have an app store, analysts expect it will need to be more tightly coupled with a service for buying books and other forms of entertainment to better match the offerings from rivals.
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/04/30/microsoft-deal-adds-to-battle-over-e-books/?smid=tw-nytimesbusiness&seid=auto
Monday, April 30, 2012
Microsoft Invests in Barnes and Noble Nook Division So It Appears a Windows 8 Tablet Is In the Works Or Will It Be the Windows Phone OS?
Harvard Health Teacher Gets Caught With Small Amount of Marijuana in Bermuda
This is an interesting story and could happen to anyone and the
amount was small but hopefully she will be able to provide proof to show as medical marijuana. The whole battle over small amounts of marijuana with the federal and state laws some day need to be ironed out. BD
HAMILTON, Bermuda (AP) - A Bermuda judge has released a Harvard instructor who was caught with marijuana at the U.K. territory's airport.
Mey Akashah teaches environmental health at the Harvard School of Public Health.
On Monday, the Boston resident admitted bringing 6 grams (0.21 ounce) of pot into Bermuda for a weekend trip but says a doctor prescribed it for medical reasons.
She could provide no proof that she had legally been prescribed pot for pain. She says her doctor in California had the documentation.
http://www.todaysthv.com/news/story.aspx?storyid=209330
“Subsidiary Watch” Tracked With Health Insurance Companies–Just Search Those Words for A Wealth of Information at the Medical Quack–Washington Post Writer Finally Got a Big Clue Too With A Recent Article…
It’s been about 3 years that I have been covering all the various subsidiaries purchased by insurance companies and nice to see someone 
else finally touch this topic as with massive daisy chains of subsidiaries most consumers have a not a clue on how they function today and it’s not all about insurance as it could be Health IT for an example as UnitedHealthCare has 3 EMRS they sell through subsidiaries they purchased, plus their own CareTracker. They also have a bank with over a billion or more on deposit. Again search “subsidiary watch” here and you will find a wealth of information as well as searching by carrier name too. Harvard was supposed to do a study and maybe they still are on the impact of mergers and acquisitions in healthcare.
This is a good article that addresses how “one
” subsidiary functions but hat is one of many and United by far is the biggest of all of them as they started analytics and risk management by the algorithms long before others even thought of it. With the old Ingenix data base they had which low balled customary fees, all the insurers licensed it so they were making money both ways, but there are a lot of lawsuits out there. They do own some “killer algorithms” out there for sure. They took the DOD to court over the Tri-Care agreement, it was all about those risk analysis reports. They recently hired the former Assistant Attorney General as General Counsel a few months back. Where does that leave us?
Update: UnitedHealthcare Sues Department of Defense Over Tri-Care Contracts–They Said They Would Do This – Is This A Case Of My Algorithms Are Better Than Yours?
I can’t even keep up with all their companies they own but report
in here so that folks who are buying services know when their money spent hits a corporate bottom line. When you work around a lot of data, like I did a few years ago writing an EMR and integrating billing software with it you see a lot of stuff that the consumer would never see. With the number of subsidiaries they have and with perfect conditions of winning every contract they company could start with their consulting services who help introduce a drug to the FDA and handle almost every step right down to MD reimbursement.
United Healthcare (Optum) Owns A Consulting Firm for FDA Drug and Device Approvals, Clinical Trials–CanReg - Subsidiary Watch
Of course this may not happen but there are multiples in here and they could secure enough of them. A couple years ago they kind of muscled HealthNet out of the northeast in several states and purchased a lot of their agreements and clients. What’s to say in the world of data today that the sales end of one company may or may not know about compensation reductions from the clinical end and then rush in with another subsidiary to sell them analytics.
Subsidiary Watch-Corporate Conglomerate Insurers Reduce Compensation Contracts Using One Subsidiary Then Market Same MDs With Another Subsidiary in Health IT
Here’s another example of a new company they set up with clearinghouse services and who are they working with, Epic medical records.
I talked to an executive in healthcare not too long ago and it was kind of funny as he said it’s too bad that Optum had to be related to UnitedHealthcare so that just goes to show you that he had no clue on the history here and how Ingenix, who short all is now part of the Optum division. They get a chunk of money from their Picis subsidiary who operates for example in many VA hospitals.
OptumInsight (A Wholly Owned Subsidiary of United HealthCare Optum Division) Creates Medical Clearinghouse Integrated With Epic Practice Management Software-Subsidiary Watch
It was almost 3 years ago I wrote this post..the title is self explanatory and has more content at the link about subsidiaries. I just don’t want to see small and medium size businesses go away and there’s a lot of that out there today. Big business does data analytics and again search here and you will find a lot on insurer subsidiaries in businesses you would never even dream of. VCs said not too long ago 
that they combine data from very different kinds of companies so what’s to stop insurers other than HIPAA and everything is not covered by HIPAA. United makes a ton of money selling your data too and has for years under the Ingenix (now Optum) subsidiary.
Are You Insured by a Technology or Insurance Company – UnitedHealthCare
The one subsidiary that is kind of interesting is the China Gate company in China of course and they work on getting more Chinese drugs and devices in the US and world wide.
UnitedHealth subsidiary (Ingenix Subsidiary I3) Acquires ChinaGate – Working to Sell Chinese Products Globally
I don’t know but do wonder if this subsidiary helped get the cheap hearing aids over here now that are marketed and sold yet by another United subsidiary. They make money here too and I’m kind of surprised that this incentive has not kind of irked the other insurers.
UnitedHealthCare Throws in Free Hearing Aids for Those Who Enroll In AARP Medicare Advantage, HMO & POS Plans in Miami-Dade County From Their New Subsidiary
Who knows what’s next, maybe they might be renting houses next in the US?
United Healthcare Gets in The Low Income Housing Business With Partnership to Finance Housing Projects in New Mexico
Of course there’s been all the talk about buying up the HMOs and IPAs around the US and being in the OC I’m kind of right in the middle of a lot of that news and crying towels came out after listening to a few doctors and hospital CEOs because it’s such a huge chunk of business. Up in Long Beach via subsidiaries they own and IPA Memorial Care and even I had a hard time keeping it straight on reporting it as it was with subsidiaries who owned another company that contracted to manage the other IPA, and I still don’t know if I got it right. I spoke to one person at the IPA and even was confused he works there and the names and relationships were very confusing.
United Healthcare Acquisition of Monarch Healthcare HMO Already Causing Confusion and Access Problems for Blue Shield Patients in Orange County
UnitedHealth Group Owns a Bank With Deposits Surpassing a Billion – OptumHealth Bank FDIC Insured
Again just use that Google Search Box and there’s
a ton of information here if you are curious about United and some of the others and all the types of companies they own and how they do business. Use the words “subsidiary watch” and they’ll all come up and many posts have more links inside the post with even more information. In some parts of the country they even have pay for performance for pharmacists too who sign you up with the YMCA or one of their other wellness programs as they own a bunch of those companies too.
UnitedHealthCare To Use Data Mining Algorithms On Claim Data To Look For Those At “Risk” of Developing Diabetes – Walgreens and the YMCA Benefit With Pay for Performance Dollars to Promote and Supply The Tools
Again happy to see someone see the light here at one of the big papers here on how big and controlling this is getting to be and the key word is data and business analytics. Insurance companies have 
their share of Killer Algorithms too. Aetna has had problems with theirs of late as well. Scroll down to the bottom left of the blog here and watch the videos on how Algorithms affect your life and Professor Siefe explain how naïve we all are with numbers and there’s there on clinical trial data. You won’t be a gullible again when numbers get tossed your way and search “Killer Algorithms” here too. The
National Institute of Statistical Sciences took time out recently to write to me as well and said I was right on track with all the flawed data out there as well.
Aetna States Letters Mailed to Thousands of California Customers Were A Mistake–Their Doctors Are Still In Network–”Rogue Algorithms and Flawed Data”–Attack of the Killer Algorithms Chapter 25
We don’t really know what information is being queried, compared and sold and in the world of data today we have a lot of flaws and data mismatches for the sake to sell more software, so keep your eyes open. Read the article at the link from the Washington Post and come back and search if you want to know more. BD
As insurers eager to add revenue streams convert themselves into diversified health-services companies, they often buy traditional business adversaries, including physician groups and hospital consultants such as EHR. They’re also buying technology companies and research firms that serve medical-care providers, raising questions not only about independence but about the privacy of patient information.
UnitedHealthcare is often deemed one of the most reluctant payers. Hospital managers repeatedly give it the lowest marks in an annual survey by Revive Public Relations, a California firm that represents hospitals.
Claims consultants such as EHR typically gain access to millions of patient records and confidential contracts between hospitals and insurers, industry officials say. If UnitedHealthcare, United’s insurance wing, gained access to that data, it would obtain “a huge business advantage” over insurance rivals as well as the hospitals, Kofman said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/health-insurance-companies-push-to-diversify-raises-concerns/2012/04/27/gIQAWoSkoT_story_3.html
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Incoming J and J CEO, Alex Gorsky Linked To Fraud as Relates Back to Omnicare States Motion Filed By the Federal Government
The board has given him the job but will he keep it? The investigation goes back to 1999 when the FDA did not approve Risperdal for behavioral disturbances with dementia and stated there was not enough data. 
The FDA warned it was not safe enough to market for the elderly. The link below has some history from 2010. Omnicare itself paid $100 million to settle the case with the justice department. Risperdal of course is now off patent but at the time there was a lot of money to be made out there.
Omnicare, Johnson & Johnson, Risperdal, Whistleblowers and Legal Woes Back in the News Again
Here’s a bit of a tongue and cheek post that kind of fits here from a few years ago…it’s what and who’s making money in healthcare today.
The Two Hot Words in Healthcare today Whistleblowers and Algorithms
Omnicare Inc. paid kickbacks to one of Illinois' most prominent nursing home families. Just a couple weeks ago J and J received a $1.1 billion dollar fine from a judge in Arkansas over Risperdal. I believe J and J is appealing that one so more time in the courts perhaps. I guess we will find out how much J and J knows about their new CEO and more about how the board came to their decision. I might think shareholders could want a little more information too. When you add on recalls, J and J seems to have more housecleaning than ever thought could be possible.
Johnson and Johnson Gets a $1.1 Billion Dollar Penalty in Arkansas Risperdal Case
Gorsky recently stated that his big effort was going to be on recalls, but gee which area does one tackle first? Implants are probably right up there on the top but it’s mostly legal actions at this point and I would guess the drug manufacturing facilities are right up there being number one. BD
The federal government states in a motion that Alex Gorsky, who is set to become Johnson & Johnson’s next chief executive officer this month, “was actively involved in matters at issue in this case,” which alleges Johnson & Johnson paid kickbacks to induce Omnicare, the nation’s largest nursing home pharmacy, to purchase and recommend Risperdal and other J&J drugs. Gorsky, the government says, “has firsthand knowledge of the alleged fraud.”
The government says Gorsky “also was involved in approving payments to Omnicare under the 2000 Consulting and Services Agreement,” which the government alleges were actually kickbacks.
Despite the weight of federal and state investigations of the Risperdal allegations, Johnson & Johnson’s board of directors rewarded Gorsky by selecting him to be the next CEO.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikakelton/2012/04/17/new-jj-ceos-ties-to-fraud-case-show-jj-sees-no-need-for-a-cure/
FDA Approves Votrient to Treat Patients With Advanced Soft Tissue Sarcoma Who Previously Have Had Chemotherapy
This is a drug that extends life and the clinical trials stated there 
were around 3 additional months of life versus non treatment.
The drug is also very toxic to the liver and can cause death, but when the cancer is advanced at this stage I wonder if the toxic nature to the liver is worth it? BD
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Votrient (pazopanib) to treat patients with advanced soft tissue sarcoma who have previously received chemotherapy.
Soft tissue sarcoma is a cancer that begins in the muscle, fat, fibrous tissue, and other tissues.
Votrient is a pill that works by interfering with angiogenesis, the growth of new blood vessels needed for solid tumors to grow and survive.
A rare cancer with many subtypes, soft tissue sarcoma occurs in about 10,000 cases annually in the United States. More than 20 subtypes of sarcoma were included in the clinical trial leading to approval of Votrient. The drug is not approved for patients with adipocytic soft tissue sarcoma and gastrointestinal stromal tumors.
The most common side effects in Votrient-treated patients were fatigue, diarrhea, nausea, weight loss, high blood pressure, decreased appetite, vomiting, tumor and muscle pain, hair color changes, headache, a distorted sense of taste, shortness of breath, and skin discoloration.
Votrient carries a boxed warning alerting patients and health care professionals to the potential risk of liver damage (hepatotoxicity), which can be fatal. Patients should be monitored for liver function and treatment should be discontinued if liver function declines.
http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm302065.htm
Goldman Insider Trading Investigation Revolves Around Abbott Labs Purchase of Advanced Medical Optics in Santa Ana, CA
In an unrelated case one settlement has already 
been reached with a professional baseball player who cashed in and is paying $2.5 million to settle the SEC inquiry. Money was just paid without any comments as far as guilt or innocence on that one.
Matthew Korenberg, is a San Francisco-based managing director for Goldman and federal prosecutors in LA are working the case where the insider trading deal goes back to 2009. So far nobody has been charged. Connected again is the Galleon Group founder Raj Rajaratnam. BD
LOS ANGELES — Prosecutors probing insider trading in the medical devices industry are investigating a senior Goldman Sachs banker and a former employee of the notorious hedge fund Galleon Group.
The investigation, according to a person briefed on the matter, is focused on the 2009 takeover of Advanced Medical Optics in Santa Ana, Calif.
The U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles has been scrutinizing the ties between Goldman managing partner Matthew Korenberg, who worked on the Advanced Medical Optics deal, and Paul Yook, a former portfolio manager at Galleon, the person said.
Korenberg’s attorney, John Hueston of Irell & Manella, said the San Francisco-based banker had done nothing wrong. Yook couldn’t be reached for comment.
The investigation of Abbott Laboratories’ takeover of Advanced Medical Optics is part of a broader inquiry of mergers and acquisitions in the medical devices industry, according to the person briefed on the matter, who was not authorized to discuss the case publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
http://www.ecollegetimes.com/insider-trading-inquiry-focuses-on-medical-devices-deal-source-says-1.2737057#.T54RENnl-wE
FDA Approves Another Drug for Erectile Dysfunction to Compete with Viagra and Others–Stendra And the Need for Speed
The drug is in the same class and this one is supposed to work faster than the competition according to what is around the 
web with a few MD comments. This one gets the time down to 30 minutes so that dual bathtub or whatever arrangements are made don’t have to wait as long. I could never figure out the dual bathtub commercials for Cialis. Viagra is still out here with big sales but we know the patent time is running short so the new drug will no less have to compete in that end soon. I think it was New Zealand that already as a generic Viagra available. If medication doesn’t work there’s also this vibrator that is FDA approved and available by prescription.
FDA Approves First Male Vibrator for Use for Men Suffering From ED–Available By Prescription Only
Side effects include headache, flushing of the face and other areas, nasal congestion, and common cold-like symptoms. BD
A medication that could be a faster-working alternative to Viagra and other erectile dysfunction drugs got approval from the Food and Drug Administration Friday.
The brand name you will be hearing in those inevitable ads: Stendra.
It's made by a company called Vivus, Inc., and belongs to the same class of medicines as Viagra, from Pfizer Inc., Cialis, from Eli Lilly, and Levitra, from GlaxoSmithKline and Bayer. All inhibit the same enzyme, PDE5, and work by increasing blood flow to the penis.
http://www.freep.com/article/20120428/FEATURES08/120428006/FDA-approves-new-drug-for-erectile-dysfunction?odyssey=nav|head
Friday, April 27, 2012
Practicing Rationale Medicine–Otis Brawley MD Keynote Address at the Association of Healthcare Journalists–Screenings, Treatments and More…
Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer for the American Cancer 
Society spoke at the Association of Healthcare Journalists. This is good thing and well worth listening to. He explains tests, marketing and treatments especially with cancer as that is his field, an oncologist. He says we need doctors who appreciate science and better informed patients. He says people in the US may not always live longer but we sure do a great job of taking pictures (medical imaging).
He says we don’t get what we pay for. The video is well worth watching as he brings in the pharma side of all of this and he attacks insurance companies as well. He also talks about screenings that are not needed and some old laws on the books relative to treatment that maybe don’t need to be there.
As an encore here, another point of view but related on statistics and numbers, give it a listen and watch his video on the front page of this blog. BD
“Numbers Don’t Lie, But People Do”–Radio Interview from Charles Siefe–Journalists Take Note, He Addresses How Marketing And Bogus Statistics Are Sources of Problems That Mislead the Public & Government
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Allscripts CFO Resigns Along With A Few Other Key Individuals, Board Fires Chairman–1st Quarter Had Lower Sales And Net Earnings Down–Long Haul to Get Software Technologies Merged So They Work
The merger actually took place back in 2010 and both companies have a lot of EMR/EHR technologies. Allscripts was already a bundle of
merged technologies over the years. So what does this say about the sales of electronic medical records, is it down all over or are folks buying other products? All over the US IT expenditures are beginning to fall within and without Healthcare too. How much can one afford to sell and use.
Allscripts and Eclipsys Merger Complete–New Name Allscripts
The company was even buddying up with Humana to give incentives for the purchase of their systems too. Maybe that was it with getting too close to insurers? I said a while back that would be the next collaboration and some insurers like UnitedHealthcare via owned subsidiaries already market 3 branded medical record systems. The Allscripts deal used a company that had a big proud spot on their website with a Newt Gingrich endorsement to aggregate data:)
Allscripts And Humana Collaborate to Provide Decision Support Software for MDs Along With Financial Assistance and Incentives For Adopting Allscripts EHR System
Back on track here it seems that most of folks that left were from the Eclipsys side of the table. The CEO said delayed commitments were part of the reason for the drop, and that happens when doctors and hospitals are tight or running out of money. Being I worked and integrated desktop software that was much simpler in nature a few years ago, this is becoming a big task and required tons of programmers to merge all of this. Time will tell if the CEO stays in place and if their new dynamic “merged” program will fit the bill and oh yes, still be affordable as someone has to pay those programmers for this massive project:) BD
Electronic health record vendor Allscripts surprised Wall Street today by announcing that net earnings for the first quarter were down by half to $5.8 million on revenues of $364.7 million—a 9% increase. Allscripts’ stock fell 45% as a result. Chief executive officer Glen Tullman blamed the drop on “delayed commitments from them [clients] as they wait for us to introduce new releases and demonstrate more robust integration.”
The bigger surprise, however, was the firing of chairman Phil Pead, the resignation of CFO Bill Davis for another job, and the resignation of three board members who didn’t agree with the decision to terminate Pead. The now ex-chairman was CEO of Eclipsys, when it merged two years ago with Allscripts which wanted to gain entry into the hospital market.
Those who had adopted a wait-and-see attitude over the new product might decide to drop Allscripts altogether from consideration. Competitors, such as Cerner and Epic would also no doubt be ready to swoop in, and offer themselves as solid alternatives.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/zinamoukheiber/2012/04/26/with-allscripts-in-turmoil-ceo-glen-tullman-should-resign/?feed=rss_home
Aetna First Quarter Results for 2012 Down 13% As Medical Claims Rise And Retail Marketing Efforts Continue With More Algorithm and Extensive Parameters Set for Qualification and Risk Assessments
So far the only one who’s profits in the major insurance
business that keep rising are United as Blue Cross also experienced a drop in profits. United has so many subsidiaries in their daisy chain that they get a cut of money it seems in almost every area today. As a matter of fact it’s almost scary when you sit down and look at all the United subsidiaries as there are many and most have no clue and don’t even know they have a bank with a billion ore more on deposit. Back with Aetna with what’s the news of late, they seem to be having some IT issues with client relations as well. They did cut loose a number of doctors upcoming in Texas and yet in California sent out letters to patients stating doctors were no longer in network by error and had to fix that.
Aetna States Letters Mailed to Thousands of California Customers Were A Mistake–Their Doctors Are Still In Network–”Rogue Algorithms and Flawed Data”–Attack of the Killer Algorithms Chapter 25
If you read often enough then you kind of know I dig a little deeper with looking at what’s in the news as far as the “data” side of how insurers operate. Aetna has tried some different things to include selling their software at Best Buy and now in several states they are going to begin selling insurance at Costco. Below is the post from a short while back relating to the situation in Texas and mind you Aetna is not broke, just earnings are down.
Aetna Notifies 130 Texas Doctors That It Will Terminate Their Contracts on July 1 – E & M Codes Primary Levels 4 and 5 Billing Analytics For Peer Comparison Used To Substantiate the Decision – Video
Again today we have to be aware of all the massive amounts of data out there and frankly as a country we are trying to run our economy on algorithms and it’s kind of starting to bottom out a bit as we still need companies who “make” products and not just collect and sell consumers as products. Maybe we are finally reaching that tipping point to where we need to step back and stop commoditizing humans as the algorithms and parameters are getting harder to meet as corporate USA keeps drilling them down. BD
Aetna Inc.'s first-quarter profit fell 13 percent as expenses rose and the health insurer faced a tough comparison to year-ago earnings that included a one-time gain.
The Hartford, Conn., company's adjusted earnings missed Wall Street expectations, and its shares tumbled more than 7 percent in premarket trading.
The amount Aetna paid in medical claims, its largest expense, climbed more than 9 percent to $5.86 billion in the first quarter. An Aetna spokeswoman said the big jump was partially due to the relatively low total from last year's quarter.
http://insurancenewsnet.com/article.aspx?id=340001&type=lifehealth
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Watson Pharma Buys Swiss Company Actavis for Just Under $6 Billion
Generic Lipitor has been the big blockbuster that has helped Watson
and Actavis is also a generic drug company, mainly in Europe and Watson is looking for a bigger footprint there. Watson also has some of their own brand name products they market as well and they have partnered with Amgen with creating/marketing “biosimilar” drugs for cancer. Actavis also has more employees than does Watson.
One product though that has been a little controversial is the generic version of Yaz. BD
Watson Pharma Gets FDA Approval for Generic Version of Contraceptive Yaz–A Drug That Has Suffered Recalls & Other Issues
Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc. (WPI) agreed to acquire Swiss rival
Actavis in a widely expected deal potentially valued at roughly EUR4.5 billion ($5.94 billion), which will give the U.S.-based group a boost in the global rankings of generic drug makers to No. 3.
Watson has received a bump from sales of no-name drugs like the generic version of Pfizer Inc.'s (PFE) blockbuster anticholesterol drug Lipitor. But like a lot of generic drug makers, Watson has been trying to diversify ahead of the anticipated dropoff in branded drug patent expirations over the next few years.
Actavis was taken private in 2007 by the private-equity firm Novator in a roughly $5 billion deal. Actavis then went on an acquisition spree, snapping up generic-drug companies all over the world and building a big debt load in the process. But that gave the company a strong presence in fast-growing emerging markets such as Eastern Europe, which could help explain Watson's interest in doing the deal.
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20120425-723706.html
Another Study that Shows Pay for Performance is Not Bringing About Better Patient Outcomes…Why Do They Keep Doing It? What’s CMS Going to Do?
The only company I hear talk about pay for performance all the time is
United Healthcare and it certainly must help their profits. Pay for performance has it’s place in sales but with steroid marketing of late and naïve consumers believing every report they hear, I think we are a little heavy on this incentive practice, especially in medicine. What about all these incentives that need to be met? I agree goals are good but when money get pinned on some of this, especially with the way Health IT is going how do you do this so it fair for all?
Pay For Performance Is Not All That It Has Cracked Up to Be-Time to Rethink As Money Is Not Creating Better Health Outcomes
Insurance companies jump in on this game too, make it tough for hospitals and that means they need to buy more analytics and UnitedHealthCare and Aetna are right at their door with subsidiaries to sell software to hospitals. Is this not a little strange you think that the same companies that pay incentives have subsidiaries ready to jump in and get more money from the hospitals for more analytics? Doctors also have reviews and sometimes they are told they have not met their admitting quotas. Yes that has been said to MDs and heard it from a few doctors. BD
Performance Reviews at the Hospital Means Pay for Performance for the Facility – Are the Quotas Being Met
(Reuters) - A program to pay hospitals bonuses for hitting key performance measures, or dock them if they miss, failed to improve the health outcomes of patients, according to a large, long-term study.
The study could lead to a re-examination of financial incentives in healthcare, as policymakers seek ways to reward results rather than paying doctors and other providers for each service they provide, such as a diagnostic test.
Such an incentive program for hospitals is a key provision of the U.S. healthcare overhaul law that is being challenged this week before the Supreme Court.
The study looked at pay-for-performance incentives similar to those in the law and found no evidence that the program helped more patients live longer. It was published on Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Sandbox VC Firm that Manages Blue Cross/Blue Shield VC Funds Is Moving to San Francisco–An Incubator for Some New Coders To Write Algorithms for Profit?
What else would you think? Why would they not stay in Chicago? When you see those orange tablets sitting in doctors offices, those are funded by the Blues Venture Capital arm. Who would have ever thought health insurance companies would turn into VC. Look what happened here as Wellpoint buys a company from their own Venture Capital company.
WellPoint & Partners Buy Bloom Private Health Insurance Exchange From Their Own Venture Capital Company (Sandbox) –Subsidiary Watch
The only reason I see health insurance companies wanting an incubator is to make money and by the way Blue Cross was down a little the first quarter and membership too as United Healthcare seems to beating them over the head with their aggressive marketing efforts and in some states Blue Cross and United are at odds right now over government insurance administration contracts. BD
Sandbox Industries, with its internally focused startup incubator, is opening its doors in San Francisco.
The Chicago-based venture firm that manages an $18.8 million vintage 2008 seed fund will unveil on Tuesday plans for a West Coast “startup foundry” in the trendy South of Market neighborhood of the city.
Accretive Medical Collections and Analytics Cited by Minnesota by Attorney General For Collecting from Patients At Bedside and Worse–Employees on Pay for Performance Too? Killer Algorithms Chapter 28
Ok we all know collection folks put employees on pay for performance or they
get a bonus but this went a little too far. We already know they were in trouble for their past practice of showing actual patient records to investors on Wall Street and that was uncovered over due to a lost notebook. This is where the Killer Algorithms come in to play as they sell hospitals on what kind of return they can have in revenue by using their services. Business analytics on steroids violating humans ethics is what we have here.
Accretive Health Debt Collector Employee Has Laptop Stolen With Non Encrypted Patient Data from 2 Hospitals And Had Access to All the Data Via Revenue Cycling - Patient Information Was Shared With Wall Street Investors – Algorithms For Profit Again?
Every time you think it can’t get worse, it does as people were getting turned away as they wanted money up front before treatment. Doctors complained about it. When you read the one employee’s comment about more money out there, well here speaks pay for performance. There’s a time and place for incentives and this at bedside and harassing patients is not the place. One employee sounded scared they would get fired too so it sounds like we had some negative threats here too.
I keep telling all to look at the math and the formulas and you have the whole story and how far will some go. These folks were brutal. Last year we had these folks running some bad algorithms…wake up folks..algorithms have teeth and grade and rate you and sadly you treated badly if those numbers are low. We don’t’ have enough trained people that know “how” to work with analytics and employees sometimes think one little glitch on a screen is bad, well heck we have so many analytics running, everyone at least one glitch. Med Solutions shut their site down over their analytics activities when caught.
Med Solutions and Blue Cross Caught On the Stress Test Denial Algorithm (video)
If you need some additional real life examples see the 20 some links I have compiled below with every day events with bad math and formulas that deny and create flawed data. BD
Attack of the Killer Algorithms–Digest & Links for All Chapters–How Math and Crafty Formulas Today Running on Servers 24/7 Make Life Impacting Decisions About You–Updated 3-11-2012
ST. PAUL, Minn.—An Illinois medical debt collection company routinely pressured patients in Minnesota hospitals to pay for services before treatment was given, going so far as to collect at a patient's bedside and in some cases leading patients to decide to skip treatment, according to a report from the Minnesota attorney general.
The allegations are detailed in a six-volume report released by Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson as part of a lawsuit she filed in January against Chicago-based Accretive Health Inc., which has contracts with two Minnesota hospital operations. The report accuses Accretive of misusing private patient information and creating "high-pressure, boiler room-style sales atmospheres" in which employees were coached to aggressively collect debt
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2012/04/25/minn_ag_cites_accretive_for_debt_tactics/
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
More Clues to Systemic Inflammation in Mood Disorders
(Classical today - Bizet, L'Arlesienne, starting in the middle. At three minutes is one of my favorite classical lullabies, the Adagietto from the Suite L'Arlesienne.)
The researchers measured a bunch of things in the blood known to be associated with systemic inflammation both in serious disease (blood infections, for example) and in mental illness, including the inflammatory cytokines IL-10, IL-6, TNFalpha, the brain "fertilizer" known to be low in depression and manic episodes, BDNF, and other measures of oxidative stress (which means, imperfectly, that the engines in the cells aren't running efficiently and pumping out some toxic byproducts, causing damage to proteins and fats) and lipid peroxidation such as PCC, TRAP, and TBARS. There's an awful lot of statistics in the paper, which is always suspicious ;-) but also seems to be a fair way of dealing with a complex set of observational data.
Several groups of people were compared. A set of healthy controls without any major medical illness or any personal or close family psychiatric history, known bipolar patients who were currently experiencing normal mood (or "euthymic" as they say in the biz), bipolar patients who were depressed, bipolar patients who were hospitalized for mania, and seriously medically ill patients who were hospitalized in the ICU for infection. This last group was a "negative control" to see if there were any similarities or differences in the cytokine and measures of stress in the body in the very medically ill compared to the psychiatric patients.
The researchers found that the healthy controls and euthymic bipolar patients were fairly similar. They also found that the manic and depressed patients (more the manic, who were hospitalized, while the depressed were selected from an outpatient population) had surprising measures of lipid peroxidation, protein damage, and oxidative stress. These measures in some cases were similar to the medically ill patients who were basically on death's door with sepsis.
The sobering conclusion one could think about is that mood episodes are very stressful and potentially very damaging to the body. None of these measures were of the cerebrospinal fluid. Everything was done with a blood draw from the body. The other conclusion is that folks with known bipolar disorder who were not acutely ill had bounced back to a healthy state, cellularly speaking. The researchers, most of whom had funding from one pharmaceutical company or another, made the case that aggressive prophylactic treatment of mood disorders was warranted to prevent serious mood episodes.
This argument, along with other evidence from certain longitudinal studies, is used in psychiatry today to promote aggressive pharmacologic treatment. It is absolutely true that the more mood episodes one has, the more likely one is to have even more episodes in the future, and the harder the future episodes are to get under control. If these illnesses are pounding your brain and body, decreasing number of manic or depressive episodes via any means necessary would seem to be the logical thing to do.
The problem for a psychiatrist in the field is that we know the studies are stacked in favor of pharmaceuticals. These issues are discussed at length and in detail in many better blogs than mine (I'll link to the Carlat Psychiatry Blog* as an example). I'm a psychiatrist, I've seen meds work, I've seen them work and cause major problems, and I've seen them fail miserably. I've seen EMDR, DBT, neurofeedback, and various forms of behavioral and psychodynamic therapy also work or not (sometimes causing major problems) depending upon the circumstances. But part of the reason I look at alternatives is because I think there is too much focus on both meds (and talk therapy, in the classic psychiatry circles and in psychology in general) when there are so many other modalities of treatment and lifestyle modification that could also be helpful, and in many cases less likely to cause harm. What I pull from studies like the one I linked above is that bipolar disorder, like diabetes, deserves a full-bore approach, with support focusing on good nutrition, appropriate sleep and exercise, addressing problems with coping strategies or relationships, and medications when indicated.
Common sense. Wedded with an understanding of the patient born of time and attention and experience dealing with people.
*That particular blog article discusses what I found to be a surprising rant by Stephan Stahl, a celebrated and likable psychiatrist who has written several textbooks on pharmacology and runs an education company. He's a biological psychiatrist and a whiz with meds, but when I read his books I feel a bit empty, because there is so much we do not know about what these medications do in vivo compared to the theory, particulary in the combinations used in common practice today.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Look No Further Than Wisconsin To See the Connection Between “Digital Illiterate Lawmakers” With New Law “No Web Cams During a Non Surgical Abortion Procedure” - This Says It All!
I talk a lot about digital illiteracy with many lawmakers, why? Because it’s true 
and all you have to do is read the news. It’s amazing that in the rapidly developing world of technology we have today that you still see these throw backs to the 70s. They haven’t quite figured it out yet that technology in healthcare is here and is developing and changing rapidly. Those of us in technology literally “laugh” at laws as such as we see right to the point here and scratch our heads as to “why” laws as such are created. Even those who are not big techs scratch their heads too as web cams are like part of every part of life. One wonders if these folks use smart phones too? Outside the US when news of such is read I kind of wonder what other countries have to say about some of this too?
We all know the governor is not too smart if you go back to the phone call to where a radio personality sucked him in to a “fake” call from one of the Koch brothers, which was really hysterical, but in another way very sad as that’s’ the level of intelligence sitting in that office, scary. These folks that put so much effort into controlling abortions could really re-direct themselves to work on some very serious issues by all means. Back in 2011, about a year ago I wrote on this topic and it was bringing to the forefront how digital illiteracy was leading back to this “default” topic of abortions and as far as I can tell, it’s about all they can muster up to control and talk about as laws dealing with technology certainly seem to be over their heads. So even a year ago the connection I made between digital literacy and lawmakers was pretty much on target.
Digital Illiteracy Still Plagues Law Makers–Severe Focus on Abortion Rights Proves It–Is This Where Our Lawmaking Knowledge Leaves Off or Even Begins? Scary…
I just wonder if they even think about how they look to the rest of the world, and seriously it’s like a bunch of “loose cannons” running around and of course a “digital formatted law” would probably even be a bigger crime <grin>.
In a time when everyone else is looking at big data and have the ability to better sort large amounts of data, do you think lawmakers have thought this could be a good idea to help them? So far I have not seen any evidence in that direction either, and on a federal level too.
IBM Watson Capabilities Being Pitched to Financial Industry-Congress Must Not Have Felt They Needed This So Further Behind We Fall With Effective Intelligent Lawmaking
So now we have a “no web cam” consultation law…when the rest of the world is moving forward with telehealth, I swear others looking in too have to 
just be rolling over laughing at such a law as it saves money and gives people better access to care. I guess they don’t read the news and are not too concerned over better healthcare because this is related to that “default topic of abortions for the digitally illiterates”. Last year a federal judge blocked abortion rules in Kansas, so I mean what is up with these out of touch folks as there’s yet another bunch of digital illiterates in lawmaking.
Kansas Health Abortion Rules Blocked by Federal Judge Who Put The “Digital Illiterate Whack Job” Lawmakers” In Their Place And Maybe That is the 70s
In a round about way even the Vatican is getting tired of the digital illiterates in office even though they have their beliefs regarding abortions, they are not out trying create laws and they too see a need for better digital literacy, especially in the financial world, so again these folks in Wisconsin and their “web cam” law are really looking pathetic and the link below fell into one of my posts about “The Attack of the Killer Algorithms”, which basically again talks about digital illiteracy of lawmakers and how banks and big business control all with servers running 24/7 making life impacting decisions about all of us, and the lawmakers in Wisconsin can’t see this and continue this battle on abortions with huge amounts of time and money spent on this. This is really sad that this is what is in office today.
“Attack of the Killer Algorithms” Part 3–Vatican Doesn’t Like It Either–Occupy Wall Street Belongs in New York As They Don’t Do Code or Algorithms in Washington–Only Find time To Talk Abortions
The time and money spent here even made it’s way to Washington and a couple months ago there was a hearing on women’s health and no women were invited. I have respect for all their views but please keep it out of lawmaking and respect the views of others. Again the latest on no web cams has more than just me looking at the severe digital literacy and mental capacities of those in office for sure as how in the world can this be controlled?
How is one going to determine that an “illegal web cam” consult was done? These folks just don’t get technology at all and are looking “dumber” all the time as I would rather have them jump on the 
band wagon and get up to speed with where many already are. I took my link for the Komen foundation off my page and replaced it with Planned Parenthood when the analytics of where to best spend their money became a big political issue for the “digital illiterates” as they don’t realize how analytics are moving the money around, see the picture below at the post on how this intertwines too with the big even on Wall Street as some of philanthropy today has gotten out of touch too. The analytic folks though are smart and know the digital illiterates can be manipulated and they do that, get their money where they want it and I wonder if corporate US sits back and somewhat laughs at the fact that they can manipulate the digital illiterate lawmakers too? Komen also last year got a little out of bounds for suing other charities for the use of the word “Cure”, so what’s that tell you, big business and business intelligence analytics at work.
Komen Foundation Cuts of Funds to Planned Parenthood - Wall Street Was Lit up in “Pink” Last Week For Fund Raising from Hedge Funds and Other Financial Companies
Poor Planned Parenthood is once again in the middle of this battle so again who’s going to monitor those dastardly web cams in the potential case that one might be doing a consult for an abortion? Clearly they have no clue what this would entail with data trails and so forth…hysterically sad on on the levels of digital literacy. In addition physicians can face felonies if violating the law. The web cam phrase really takes the cake though and shows how far behind these lawmakers are and how they need to somehow attach themselves to “real” world out there as they are looking “dumb” and “dumber” every day when the need for “control” forces them into a box to where they think they can control “web cams” and how they are used, while the rest of the world moves forward. I don’t know how else to say this but these folks just look plain stupid and in my opinion are the “whack jobs” that somehow work on the emotions of the public when we all know the math and the algorithms are controlling who gets what today. BD
MILWAUKEE (Reuters) - Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin has suspended non-surgical abortions in response to a new state law that makes it harder for women to have the procedure, a move that followed anti-abortion measures in several Republican-controlled states.
T
he law, which took effect on Friday, requires women visit a doctor at least three times before having a drug-induced abortion, forces physicians to determine whether women are being coerced into having an abortion and prohibits women and doctors from using web cams during the procedure.
http://news.yahoo.com/wisconsins-planned-parenthood-suspends-non-surgical-abortions-175324214.html
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Mislabeling Work in Labs Sends Years of Cancer Research Down the Drain With Misidentified Contaminated Cells
Can you imagine being a scientist and then finding out later that the cells
given for research were contaminated? This is also hidden at times with researchers and journal publications have been in error as well and have had to be rescinded. According to the article here there’s not much being done to ensure labeling is correct. Researchers end up studying the wrong cancer cells and of course this directly impacts finding cures and treatments.
Some researchers have tried to bring this to light but are ignored by others they work with in fear that the errors, if brought forward would discredit an entire lab operation. One doctor states that cell banks reported that 20% of cell lines for use in research are not properly identified and that’s a pretty large number. When researching a specific tumor with misidentified cells, it becomes a waste of time, money an so on.
Cell lines are stored for years in freezers and the cells are what researchers study and are even shared with other scientists so one mislabel can have a bit of a daisy chain effect. One of the noted mix ups has been between breast cancer cells and melanoma and when it was further researched in one case the breast cancer cells were melanoma and not from a patient who had both.
The cell lines uses are also published in journals so they can be identified for their point of origin. One big concern is the financial end where many who donate and contribute money could possibly learn of such mistakes and the donation rates would drop. With biotech financing being so tough to get, this is the last thing anyone would want to have hit with contaminated cell lines. BD
Cancer experts seeking to solve the problem have found that a fifth to a third or more of cancer cell lines tested were mistakenly identified—with researchers unwittingly studying the wrong cancers, slowing progress toward new treatments and wasting precious time and money.
In hundreds of documented cases that undermine a broad swath of research, cancer samples that were supposed to be one type of tumor have turned out to be another, through either careless laboratory handling, mislabeling or other mistakes.
It is a problem hiding in plain sight. Warnings to properly test cancer cell lines have sounded since the 1960s, a decade after scientists started making human cancer cell lines.
Much of cancer research seeks answers to questions of basic biology, so the proper identification of cell lines may be less important, said Dr. Masters. But when seeking cancer treatment for a specific tumor, he said, such mistakes "are an utter waste of public money, charity money and time."
These mix-ups are maddeningly difficult to pinpoint: an improperly sterilized pipette, a lab worker momentarily distracted, a misread label or a typo on a record sheet.
Cell repositories in the U.S., U.K., Germany and Japan have estimated that 18% to 36% of cancer cell lines are incorrectly identified. Researchers at Glasgow University and CellBank Australia found more than 360 such mistaken cell lines, including 100 that turned out to be the late Ms. Lack's cervical cancer cells.
Other scientists, following up on the observations at Stanford, demonstrated that MDA-MB-435 behaved like melanoma because it likely was melanoma—in particular, a skin-cancer cell line called M14.
Osamu Tetsu, a head-and-neck cancer researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, did a study in 2009 that concluded all six known cell lines used by researchers studying adenoid cystic carcinoma were contaminated.
All of the work done on the rare cancer—published papers, research, drug studies—had been conducted with mislabeled cell lines, Dr. Tetsu concluded. He called the findings "catastrophic."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204571404577257513760102538.html
Medical Marijuana Machine Gets Busted in Orange County–Battle Still Continues Over Access
The medical marijuana business still has issues over laws that don’t agree with one another. In this case the city of Santa Ana closed down this 
dispensary and the machine too. A couple years ago there was a machine installed in downtown Los Angeles that coincided with the “pot cards” that are now issued in California, also saying it was a safer way for patients to get their medications. The machine also came with an “armed guard” and was only accessible during business hours. In the news lately we have had law enforcement carrying out what laws I guess apply to their particular areas and the federal laws. Banks are afraid to take the gamble in many areas.
U.S. Medical Marijuana Business Having Issues With Banks–Is This Going to be a Cash Only Business?
In addition we had the raid in northern California on the school that teaches how to work with medical marijuana.
Medical Marijuana in the Picture Again As DEA Raids Oakland Oaksterdam University
In addition some coupons have tried to make it easier to help patients with getting access.
Medical Marijuana Sellers Offering Online Coupons To Attract Patients
You can watch the vide below for the full story on what happened in Santa Ana.
Dispense Labs, a division of the Dispensary Group, unveiled Autospense Friday, an automated dispensary that distributes medical marijuana and looks like a vending machine.
All that is needed to tap an Autospense machine is a registration card and unique PIN number, said Joe DeRobbio, Dispense Labs’ founder and CEO.
During after hours, Autospense is open only to patients who have agreed to the fingerprint option – they run their prints through a scanner and swipe a registration card, DeRobbio said.
Autospense offers a secure, “businesslike” way to distribute and obtain medical marijuana, said DeRobbio. With cameras, locks and sensors, the machines are difficult to break into.
Although Dispense Labs supplies the machines, it is not involved in growing the product, DeRobbio said.
“We are not associated with the industry,” he said. “We do not provide the medicine that goes in the machine.”
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/04/marijuana-vending-machine-by-calif-company/
Microsoft Research–Where News Ideas Develop to Include Solving Big Problems Like the HIV Virus By Working With Email Spam Filters And Kinect
This is pretty wild that some of the same coding techniques that we use to identify spam mail can also be applied to identify HIV virus mutations and this 
is a great way to use “machine learning” for better research and knowledge. Today there’s so much code written that you can in fact see what parts or portions of existing queries, etc. are built in and use those for another industry outside of the original design. Mashable does some good coverage on this and also you have to love the video when you look at how they are working with augmented reality and the race car.
Of course there’s no better device and technology than Kinect that makes a lot of this happen. In the video they are using the “Beamatron” technology as it is called to control a virtual race car that sees stuff in it’s path and having a virtual toy car as such might put some of the other folks out of business, maybe? They also continue on to the demonstration of using Power Point in the same fashion. We all know that Kinect is coming to Windows and developers are hard at work to make more of this happen. It is very interesting to see a million dollar surgical robot working with the $150 Kinect device, link below at what Johns Hopkins was working with.
Kinect And daVinci Surgical Robot Do Simulated Surgery Suturing Together (Video)
If that isn’t enough you can see another use of Kinect with radiology taking the need to “touch” out of the picture. Last year I attended the Israel Conference and had quite a bit of time to speak with Microsoft/XBOX Corporate VP Ilan Spillinger and of course he was also very high on medical solutions with Kinect.
Microsoft Kinect Working with a PACS Server-Images on Steroids Via Gestures (Video)
When you watch the video with the car and passing the virtual “ball” around you get all kinds of ideas on how lighting, or other information could be shared like even in an operating room or the ER for that matter. BD
24 year Microsoft vet and Microsoft Research General Manager Kevin Schofield told me Microsoft Research is also focused, at least in part, on “solving big problems” like the HIV virus.
Medical Research would seem an odd fit for Microsoft, but the research group is filled with all kinds of experts, including a couple of MDs. One of them is also a computer scientist and became fascinated with how doctors make crucial decisions in high-pressure situations when they have incomplete information (think emergency room visits). This led to work in machine learning (Microsoft Research does a lot of work in this area), which uses what’s known to figure out the unknown. Spam filters work this way. They can look at email and if the word “Viagra” is in it, decide with some degree of certainty that it’s spam. Now, that research is being applied to HIV vaccine research.
The HIV virus is known for its tendency to mutate, which makes it hard for people to develop an immunity. A spam-like filter can find the known in the unknown — in this case the core, recognizable virus.
I asked Schofield, who began his carrier at Microsoft in the OS group, if Microsoft founder and former CEO Bill Gates used the legendary Bell Labs as a model for Microsoft Research. “At a 30,000 foot level,” Schofield said, “Bell
Labs was the model, but on the ground it was more Carnegie Mellon.” There are, apparently, two styles of research lab: The Xerox Parc model, where you isolate research from the business and the other model, where you basically have business fund and drive research. Both approaches can hinder tech transfer. The second method, in particular, said Schofield, tends to guide research too strongly so that most of the work is spent delivering product enhancements. Schofield said Microsoft took the middle road. Like any true research facility, Microsoft Research has its share of duds. I asked Schofield if there was a room where Microsoft Research keeps its failed experiments. “Failures would be a big room,” Schofield said, laughing. But he also counts some of those failures among Microsoft Research’s successes.
http://mashable.com/2012/04/21/microsoft-sexy-peek/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+mashable%2Ftech+%28Mashable+%C2%BB+Tech%29#59981Microsoft-Logo-on-Wall
Friday, April 20, 2012
Obesity, Systemic Inflammation, and Bipolar Disorder
We Pay Gasoline Tax to Keep Up the US Highway Infrastructure–Why Not Tax the Data Selling Companies and Banks to Keep Up the US Government IT Infrastructure? A “Buffett Tax” Alternative
It’s time for another one of these posts since the Buffett Law on taxes is sinking or is sunk. If you have followed any of the news in the last few years about the SEC (Madoff) and other government departments needing IT infrastructure updates, let’s face it, we need a tax for that.
Corporations, Banks, High Frequency Traders, Social Networks, etc. all make Billions, that’s with a big “B” selling data they mine and most of the time get it for free. States already license data miners but now their costs are going up as they have to install software to keep some of the “bots” out as they have tremendously grown in numbers and who pays for that? Taxes are supposed to but they are all running short. This was discussed before under Chapter 17 of “The Attack of the Killer Algorithms”. They have teeth and make money and this is what you can’t see, touch or talk to running on servers 24/7 behind the scenes.
Start Licensing and Taxing the Data Sellers of the Internet Making Billions of Profit Dollars Mining “Free Taxpayer Data”–Attack of the Killer Algorithms Chapter 17 - “Occupy Algorithms”– Help Stop Inequality in the US
I actually started out calling it the “Alternative Millionaires Tax a while back. Not too long ago I saw somewhere that Google was offering a “tiny” bit of money for those to agree to let them use their data. I can’t remember where but it was out there.
The Alternative Millionaire’s Tax–License and Tax Big Corporations Who Mine and Sell Taxpayer Data They Get for Free From the Internet-Phase One to Restore Middle Class With Transparency, Disclosure and Money
CoreLogic, one of the data miners for credit information has formed a partnership with FICO who is already in the process of selling algorithms with mismatched data which connects public information about you and combines it with your credit score to tell if you as a medical patient will take your prescriptions. Somebody needs to start calling some of these folks on “mis matched data” that discriminates as now we have “Discrimination by the Algorithm” and it’s showing in more places all the time. Others actually say it a lot better than I do, video below.
You Are the Product–Privacy Anonymity and Net Neutrality On the Internet - Excellent Stanford University Lecture (Video)
So the next time you are out there buying that tire to keep your car rolling,
and pay a federal excise tax, give this some thought on the millions and billions being made by corporate US today from the “free taxpayer data” they mind and scrape for free and all the money they make off the backs of taxpayers, and this should be a way of corporations giving some of it back and would add some real transparency as we don’t know what all they are selling and to who? Walgreens said in their 2010 SEC statement that they made short of $800 million, just from selling data, so one has to wonder if filling prescriptions is a side business to collect that data and how much profit would they show without this source of income? It’s large enough to be taxed and for them to have a license to mine and sell data. So far I have not had anyone “not” like this idea and separate it from Income Tax and require quarterly payments and an updated license every quarter so we know all are compliant. Here’s a
little hindsight or foresight, a post I made back in August of 2009 and we need this now with the amount of “flawed data” and software out there. “Department of Algorithms – Do We Need One of These to Regulate Upcoming Laws?
As consumers we have become data chasers to fix everything that has been put in data files that for the most part we had nothing to do with, unless you give it all away on Facebook and other social networks.
Attack of the Killer Algorithms Part 6–Discrimination With Consumer Credit-Same As Health Insurance Wanting Consumers to Reconstruct Records From Many Years Past As Middle Class Turns Into Data Chasers-Days of Taking Risks to Get Ahead Will Be Limited For Most…Occupy Algorithms
So again, where’s the tax in the US to keep up the IT Infrastructure, I don’t think there is one and we certainly could use it as big business runs over government all day long and we as consumers suffer with the Attacks of the Killer Algorithms as there’s no system and balance to protect us as the government is outdone over and over in most areas, with the exception of the military for the most part.
When folks get out of the military we hear one story after another though too and how they are not getting their proper benefits either and join the rank and file of the rest of us not protected by an adequate IT Infrastructure. The SEC and the FDA come to mind as 2 departments that could really use the support with IT infrastructure and they are 2 agencies that are supposed to help and protect consumers.
So again where is this IT Infrastructure tax? We can certainly use one as 
without it inequality will continue to thrive as big business continues to reign without much regulation. This is an area where big business benefits and the cost should be reflected from that side of the fence and not more tossed upon the consumer. Consumers also need a federal disclosure page in the name of transparency so we can see who sells what kind of data to who, as right now we are all at the mercy of the crafty written legal privacy statements on websites that are very difficult to interpret for the most part and confuse all and that may be the plan so as not to give out too much information as to what is really happening on servers operating 24/7 making life impacting decisions about all of us. Our lawmakers seem to be out of touch with all of what goes on behind the scenes as well.
IBM Watson Going to Work At Citigroup on Wall Street–Congress Didn’t See Big Data As A Tool (Hadoop Framework) When They Had Their Chance…For Consumers The Attack of the Killer Algorithms–Chapter 22
The government needs to keep up with with the IT infrastructure of big business today and big business should foot that bill, not the consumer. BD