Small Data

Health care and health reform are being influenced by seemingly unrelated spheres of influence. Many industries are effected by these same interactions in banking, transportation, defense, technology, basic science, education and government.

The age in which we live is both exciting and terrifying. Now that I am a septagenerian I see it is both. And somehow we will survive, grow stronger and thrive.

The catalyst is largely information technology and cyber technology, whether it is functions for gathering data, analytics,pseudo artificial intelligence, or robotics.  All of it is shaped by bits and bytes.  Even the basic materials of the integrated circuit and computer microprocessors will undergo basic changes perhaps away from silicon to carbon or even biological compounds such as the building blocks of DNA, nucleic acids.

Rather than having a simple bit or byte, nucleic acids as we know them, offer 4 different subunits that form a lexicon for building proteins from amino acids.

Big Data is often quoted in health care for analytics, for biological and research discoveries.

We in health care are now being continuously bombarded about the essentiality of gathering more and more information. Our government is underwriting some of the costs and also placing a large burden upon not only physicians but all providers, and hospitals to enter health data into the IT infrastrucure for some future use, some of which is still not defined, and some which is truly unproven.  Despite this billions of dollars have been and will be spent on this endeavor.

There have been some precautionary notes offered from other sectors:

Viewpoint: Why your company should NOT use “Big Data”

The latest trend is “Big Data”. The original concept of Big Data was the concept of using all of the information a company collect that was being thrown away due to costs and capacity constraints. With the rapidly declining cost of storage and retrieval, combined with machine learning, we should be able to find insights in all that ‘garbage data’ and use it to make better decisions in the core business. At least that’s the theory. As far as the basic theory goes it’s all true, but it’s not the full story.

Like a lot of trends, the drive to mastering Big Data has gone a little overboard. Google searches for the term “Big Data” has grown from practically nothing in 2010 to almost 200,000 searches a month by the end of 2013

It has become so ingrained in company cultures that to say you don’t want to use Big Data is a bit like saying you are against data-driven decision making. It would be career suicide to say Big Data is a waste of company time and resources.

The graph below depicts the exponential growth of big data over time.

The details can be found at the original article on ViewPoint

Survey on the Affordable Care Act

Following the botched rollout of the affordable care act, people are dazed (perhaps a better term would be "shock and awed' by the limp and incompetent rush to open the exchange on time rather than do  it right the first time.  Having to do it  over must have cost big time !

The good news for those of us who see the ACA as a mis-step toward uniform health care (note I did not call it Universal Health Care.   An inadequate and poorly constructed Universal Payer Plan is not necessarily uniform.

The very public event has opened the door for much discussion and now the time is ripe for changing the plan to something much better, less expensive and equitable, not designed to redistribute wealth. That is not what health care is about.  Obama's plan is deceitful in most ways..  The only redistribution of wealth would be to insurers, big  pharma, and the U.S. government at taxpayer expense.

Freedom Works has just released a survey that you should look at and participate.  This is your chance to participate with new ideas.

Freedom Works is an organization now intent upon  health reform and maintaining the underlying freedoms we as all Americans cherish.

How will Freedom Works support our goals for health reform? Freedom Works not only is interested in health care, it also  works across a wide variety of niches with a consistent underlying standard based on our most fundamental beliefs of freedom and constitutional law.

An email arrived in my inbox from Freedom Works that i would share with all my readers, providers, patients, employees of our health system and leaders in Congress.

This is your chance to weigh in on improving the Accountable Care Act.  Take the Survey constructed by Freedom Works.

Happy New Year .... NOT for Health Reform

Should we be content that we made it through 2013, it seems we always do, no matter what happpens.  Now is the time to become accountable and assertive to determine our future health care.

Many aspects come together to produce 'the perfect storm'.  This storm is not necessarily a destructive one. It has set off an early warning signal for our country that we must be cautious of how we reform our health system.

Nevertheless our health system is in shambles, further delays in revising it, or continuing on with the ACA will lead to a train wreck.

Obamacare is focused on health insurance, with caveats, rewards, and penalties.. Neither patients or providers were the center of the reform.  The  item that did serve patients was solving the pre-existing conditions as a reason  for denying coverage,and eliminating the cap on coverage.

Health Reform will not take place in isolation or in one swoop,  and despite the ACA we will not yet have a functioning plan, nor will we if we continue with the present legislation.

Health Train Express receives a daily stream of analysis and recommendations for future modification to our system.  Neither hype, grandiosity, political motives nor slick marketing by 'celebrities' is going to 'fix' our system.

The good news is that we do have the finest scientific and technical resources already at our beck and call. All of this is available, it's a question of distribution, and we can compare it to supply line  management. We do not need a "Manhattan Project" to invent a new technology.  We already possess it. Perhaps this is an oversimplification, however many have compared our system to other industries, such as the airline business, the banking business and shipping businesses. No one model correctly addresses health financing.

There are aspects, accessibility, funding, prevention, and correcting the huge cost disparites and how to correct the burden for deficits & reimbursements.

Although  the ACA passed in 2010, we are more than three years down the road,  and most of the ACA has not occurred.  Further delays will occur now due to the inability to implement the first stages and mandates.  What has happened is the insurance companies have been sent into disarray, and have been asked already to double back.

The extent of increases in implementation cost will accelerate further and even cancel whatever cost reductions are predicted by the ACA.   Some studies have already demonstrated this fact.

Fortunately, the disagreements and controversy have focused attention on our health system for many who have been  passive and willing to accept the system for what it is. Each  year we witness a steady increase in premiums, increasing deductibles, increasing co-payments and decreasing reimbursements. We have mistakenly used tax law to minimize or maximize gains from insurance coverage with MSPs, HSAs, and now face a myriad of new, unproven schemes such as Accountable Care Organizations (ACO) predicted to decrease cost and improve quality.

It is a highly complex equation, involving some market economics, and a system of reimbursement that defies logic.  For some time the financing has been approached as a point of service transaction(POS) with creative financing such as capitation, some tax credits, and deductions. A portion of the state's public social service system is deemed 'free care' although it is not.

There are many 'misnomers' , such as 'usual and customary charges', pre-paid rates, adjustments, and cash deductions, Insurance companies have based their rates and policies upon algorithms and actuarial analysis, and a 'fudge factor' for unpredictability.

Many have sad, health care is a right, based upon aspects of the constitution in regard to the pursuit of happiness and freedom.  Although the word health does not appear in the  constitution, health can be construed to be a part of pursuing........life and happiness.

Others state that health care is not a right and not everyone should have health coverage, with a bit of 'they don't deserve it.  Neither truly can be legitimized by such a callous attitude.

What we need is a steady hand on the system that will deal equitably and with imperturbability the illnesses of human life and the equal ability to cope with it.

Freedom Works is an organization now intent upon  health reform and maintaining the underlying freedoms we as all Americans cherish.

How will Freedom Works support our goals for health reform? Freedom Works not only is interested in health care, it also  works across a wide variety of niches with a consistent underlying standard based on our most fundamental beliefs of freedom and constitutional law.

An email arrived in my inbox from Freedom Works that i would share with all my readers, providers, patients, employees of our health system and leaders in Congress.

This is your chance to weigh in on improving the Accountable Care Act.  Take the Survey constructed by Freedom Works.