Hospitals Begin Data-Mining Patients

schwit1 (797399) sends word of a new and exciting use for all of the data various entities are collecting about you. From the article: You may soon get a call from your doctor if you've let your gym membership lapse, made a habit of ordering out for pizza or begin shopping at plus-sized stores. That's because some hospitals are starting to use detailed consumer data to create profiles on current and potential patients to identify those most likely to get sick, so the hospitals can intervene before they do. Acxiom Corp. (ACXM) and LexisNexis are two of the largest data brokers who collect such information on individuals. They say their data are supposed to be used only for marketing, not for medical purposes or to be included in medical records. While both sell to health insurers, they said it's to help those companies offer better services to members.

Comments

Doesn't give warm fuzzies

[robstout]

I'm alright with my doctor having this information, in theory, but I really don't trust the insurance companies with this. "So, I see that you like taco bell. We're raising your rates."

Re:Doesn't give warm fuzzies

[timrod]

What frightens me is the idea that they could get the wrong information and give that to my doctor or insurance company. For instance, a couple of weeks ago, my car broke down. While it was in the shop, I was getting a ride to work with a co-worker. They stopped at Dunkin' Donuts every morning and got a coffee and a donut, and I would usually pay for it (along with their gas) in exchange for giving me a ride. This means my purchase history would show me buying a coffee and a donut every morning for around five days, even though I didn't actually consume either of them.

With a system like this in place, I'm sure my insurance company would see that and go "He's buying donuts, raise the premiums!" even though the donut I'm not consuming doesn't really effect me in any way.

Re:Doesn't give warm fuzzies

[plopez]

Couple that with "eventually consistent" databases and you have a recipe for disaster.

Re:Doesn't give warm fuzzies

[L4t3r4lu5]

One step further; You're with a friend and stop at a convenience store, he asks you to get a pack of smokes. Your insurance states you're a non-smoker. They use this data to refuse a claim in the future.

Re:Doesn't give warm fuzzies

[digitalchinky]

I write medical imaging software, surounded by dozens of doctors every day that are not just out of earshot of the patients but sometimes not even in the same country. My sample size is obviously not representative of much at all, though at least in my tiny corner of the world the situation is the total opposite of what you describe. These people sigh and get upset when they see terminal disease, they cry when children are dying, they don't enjoy seeing people hurt and don't waste a second if it means life or death. They are often detached but they still care.

Don't mistake the human factor for doctors that are worried about getting sued because someone broke their pinky finger and had to wait for the guy having a heart attack to be treated first.

Re:Doesn't give warm fuzzies

[CreatureComfort]

Nurse Joke: "You know what you call the guy who graduated last in his class at medical school? Doctor."

Angie's List was created because separating the lousy doctors from the very few good ones is almost impossible. The AMA has lobbied successfully to make it illegal for a patient to find out the malpractice history of physicians.

If you're looking for a new doctor, the best thing you can do is talk to some local nurses. They know which ones are on the ball, and which ones are flat out dangerous.

Re:Doesn't give warm fuzzies

[fahrbot-bot]

What frightens me is the idea that they could get the wrong information and give that to my doctor or insurance company.

To make matters worse, it seems impossible to get erroneous information removed. For example: My wife was misdiagnosed with asthma by an allergist. From then on, until she died 10 years later, every doctor asked her about her asthma, and she would tell them about the error. Even now, 8 years *after* she died, I still get flyers in the mail from BC/BS about asthma addressed to her.

Donut want

[Anonymous Coward]

Thanks a lot autocorrect. Now my insurance premiums are going up.

Re:HIPAA?

[BitZtream]

You have it backwards.

The hospital is taking marketing data and using it for pseudo healthcare related reasons.

They aren't giving Taco Bell your health data from the hospital, they are giving the hospital your Taco Bell receipts.

The hospital then uses this to figure out new ways to rip you off for their already ridiculously over priced health services.

(My wife is a doctor, I'm more than qualified to comment on how ridiculously over priced their rip off services are)

Anathetic?

[khr]

Is data mining patients done under local or general anesthetic?

Ordering Pizza in the Future

[HarryTk]

This youtube video attributed to ACLU has been around at least 8 years, and explains it all. "Ordering Pizza in the Future" -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

Re:Time to Legislate Data Mining

[BitZtream]

You can't allow for consent at all, if you do, every contract will simply require your consent in order for service to be rendered.

The only way you stop data mining is to make it illegal, no exceptions. Its really no different than outlawing slavery. You can't allow someone to sign away their privacy or bodies to slavery otherwise they'll be duped, tricked or forced into a situation where they have to sign away those rights even if they don't want to.

Want a bank loan? All banks will require you to allow them to mine your data or no loan, so you don't actually have a choice if you want a loan. But it'll just be extended to everything. Cell phone companies already do it. Power companies will start, and they'll add that you have to allow ANY and ALL of their affiliates to mine you as well ... and then everyone will become an affiliate of the power company.

Nope, the only solution is to 100% outlaw data mining, which just isn't going to happen because the general public is basically too ignorant of the issue to care.

Something I'd like to see

[dargaud]

I live in a country with full healthcare. One thing I'd like to see is a (somewhat) obligation to give results on your treatment. Each time you go to the doctor to get some treatment, some time later you'd receive a mail with a link to a webform with a few _simple_ questions such as: did the treatment help ? Did you feel any adverse effect ? For how long were you sick ? For how long did you take your treatment ? Did you take any extra drugs, etc. And if you fail to respond to too many emails, your 'free' health care starts being dinged in you pocket. Of course, with exemption for some people and/or disease.

It wouldn't cost much to implement, and would be a trove of info. Have a public structure derived from the national healthcare in charge of it which enforces strong anonymity, and provide anonymity data to big data analysts. It wouldn't take long to figure out scandals such as the Mediator. I mean, if you can't take ONE minute to answer some questions that WILL help others, why should you get free health care ?

Re:Time to Legislate Data Mining

[gstoddart]

We could start by requiring mandatory reporting to a central agency

We can call it Big Brother. That's a nice name which implies someone looking out for your welfare, right?

a way for that central agency to send a
unsubscribe back to the data collector.

Sorry, citizen, all information once collected can and will be used against you.

In order to maximize corporate profits and governmental control, this information is vital to national interests.