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Dead Constitution See other Dead Constitution Articles Title: Blue Cross launches vast medical data mining operation. Be warned. Bad things often happen late on Friday. This is when government and organizations make announcements of assaults against the American people they hope will disappear under the radar. The sorts of depraved initiatives or legislation they really don't want you and me to know too much about. Such a bad thing happened late this past Friday. Blue Cross announced a vast medical data mining operation. What they've chosen to call should inspire fear. It's called, The Blue Health Intelligence Initiative. If it sounds ominous that's because it is--and it's just the latest assualt on your privacy and mine. The Blue Health Intelligence database, being tested now and expected to be operational in 2007, initially is designed to aid employer customers in comparing their costs and the quality of care provided to their employees against other similar businesses. Employers will work with their local plans to develop queries for the database. I have seen almost no reporting on this yet by the MSM. But be warned it's here and it's happening. And if this doesn't scare the crap out of you, nothing will. Although Blue Cross is stating publically that indivduals will not be identified, let's just wait and see what happens. Blue Cross is not protecting the anonymity of physicians. Now I ask you, connect the dots. Blue Cross is stating that the reason for the data mining is to encourage more efficient health care--what some call best practices. But the real motive to to get a handle on skyrocketing costs. Employers want this information. They want to know why Joe Smith is using such an expensive cholesterol drug. The mind reels when you start to think about the ways employers will use this medical data. The project rolled out Friday, called Blue Health Intelligence, is being tested now and will debut next year. Improving care is a key aim, Blues officials say, but they also acknowledge another key driver: getting a handle on rising costs. "Employers are always asking for the best possible data sets to help them understand health care costs and also the quality of care they are purchasing for their employees," said Mark Banks, chief executive of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota. Do you ask yourself, as I do when you submit a health insurance claim, whether the simple fact of filing a claim puts you on a black list. What you're reading here should answer that question. Of course it does. We're being carefully tracked and monitored--every prescription you fill, every doctor you visit. Now this information will be available to your employer. The Minnetonka-based insurer also uses the information to monitor how doctors treat patients, including how many tests they order, what drugs they prescribe, and how often patients return. Big companies that employ workers in several states have been the most vocal in demanding information about what's making their health care costs skyrocket, insurers say. . . .Employers have different goals, acknowledged David Ostler, an executive vice president at UnitedHealth's information division, called Ingenix. "In some circumstances, they are trying to improve the health care of their work force, and in other situations they are trying to control costs." To employers, data is power when it comes to watching costs. The more an employer can find out about how diseases and treatments are driving their health costs, the better job they can do at putting in place strategies to tamp down those expenses, Ostler said. The truth is, it is inevitable that your employer will identify those employees responsible for the majority of health care expenditures. There is a rule-of-thumb in the insurance industry that postulates that 20% of the people consume 80% of the health care dollars. And when they identify your doctor, you can count on them identifying you. Although patient names and other personal identifiers are stripped out, specific doctors with their treatment patterns typically are identified when insurers mine their databases for information. This can enable insurers to talk to doctors about their practices or redirect employees to doctors who might have better results, or less costly treatments. Blue Cross will likely share your health records and they way you and I consume health care with the pharmaceutical industry and medical device makers. Now regardless of the self-serving claims being made by Blue Cross, this is an unmitigated invasion of your privacy and mine. Even worse, it will relegate those of us who legitimately need health care and consume it to insurance company black lists and employer black lists. This is not good, my friends.
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#1. To: Zipporah (#0)
But that just puts you on another special list, I suppose.
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