What happens when an algorithm cuts your health care

The Verge ^ | 21 March 2018 | Colin Lecher

[blueplum]

....Algorithmic tools like the one Arkansas instituted in 2016 are everywhere from health care to law enforcement, altering lives in ways the people affected can usually only glimpse, if they know they’re being used at all. Even if the details of the algorithms are accessible, which isn’t always the case, they’re often beyond the understanding even of the people using them, raising questions about what transparency means in an automated age, and concerns about people’s ability to contest decisions made by machines. {snip}

...Arkansas has said the previous, human-based system was ripe for favoritism and arbitrary decisions. “We knew there would be changes for some individuals because, again, this assessment is much more objective,” a spokesperson told the Arkansas Times after the system was implemented. Aid recipients have pointed to a lack of evidence showing such bias in the state... The Arkansas Department of Human Services, which administers the program, declined to answer any questions for this story, citing a lawsuit unfolding in state court.{snip}

One of the most bizarre cases happened in Idaho, where the state made an attempt, like Arkansas, to institute an algorithm for allocating home care and community integration funds, but built it in-house. The state’s home care program calculated what it would cost to care for severely disabled people, then allotted funds to pay for help. But around 2011, when a new formula was instituted, those funds suddenly dropped precipitously for many people, by as much as 42 percent. When the people whose benefits were cut tried to determine how their benefits were determined, the state declined to disclose the formula it was using, saying that its math qualified as a trade secret...

[Wolfie]

So everyone should be entitled to all care all the time? On whose dime?

[blueplum]

well, that’s very true. But who’s checking the person(s) writing code for accuracy/inclusiveness of all variables? From the article, coders in Colorado made over 900 ‘rules’ errors -resulting in denying benefits to pregnant women, among others. A double amputee in another state had benefits cut because he had ‘no foot problems’. The largest problem is - there’s no appeal process that would initiate human intervention. And even with human intervention, they don’t understand the coding (in the case in the article, over 20 pages) and so don’t know how to easily correct obvious errors in real time, or who even has the authority to do so.

[Nifster]

I lived your question

Works perfect? Bwahahahaha

[WayneS]

I was pretty sure I knew what you meant.

[Nifster]

I got the wink

Just thought I’d give you a hat tip

[Salvavida]

I don't know your condition. You described blunt force trauma. Emergency medicine will always have its place.

I cured myself of advanced degenerative disc disease, plantar faciatis (twice), pre-diabetes, tinnitus, GERD, arthritis, and I know how to deal with pain management without a pill. And I don't get sick. Ever.

I also told a co-worker's wife how to recover from her stroke, and explained why she got it, and how to never have another one. Some thing the doctors couldn't do. I even showed her the NIH studies and proved they didn't know what they were talking about.

[WayneS]

Yes, blunt force trauma - quite a bit of it, actually.

But emergency medicine has nothing to do with it. None of the orthopedic surgeries I have undergone was done on an emergency basis.

[Salvavida]

Bone can be rebuilt once the structure is reset. You have to deal with the bone matrix, and that is nutrition. But it is not an overnight fix-- it takes time. You will have to deal with it before significant arthritis sets in, and the is understanding how calcium works with and requires other co-factors in order to be absorbed (bioavailability).

I've already given you the terms in which to conduct the research. Calcium, co-foactors, re-build bone matrix, arthritis, nutrition, absorption, bioavailability

I was discharged from the military because of my back. Today, there isn't a orthopedic surgeon that can find a trace of what my medical records says I had-- which was diagnosed by three separate teams of doctors.

[editor-surveyor]

.
You are 100% correct; nutrition is the whole answer.

I would suggest adding high dose vitamin D3, and also vitamin K2 and MSM to promote rapid healing in bones and joints. K2 will actually remove calcium from your eyes and arteries where it doesn’t belong, and deposit it in your bones.

[WayneS]

No one ever has any trouble finding the problems my doctors originally diagnosed. Stainless steel and titanium stand out like contrasting dye on X-rays.

[Jim Noble]

It does not “cut your health care”.

It cuts how much of other people’s money you can use for your health care.

[Yaelle]

Get the hell out of insurance and switch to a health share where you decide when you need medical care.

[cherry]

addressing fraud would embarrass the govt statism...

this is the future folks...vague rules and regs nobody understands and your life depends on it...

communism..where govt statists/party people dictate what you eat, when, your health care, your meds, what kind of house you live in, etc...