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A petabyte of health insurance prices per month

blog.turquoise.health

11–20 of 275 posts

Re: A petabyte of health insurance prices per month

#11
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hanlon's razor. Never attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity. The US healthcare system is a mess, but I don't think it's intentionally malicious. It is just a mash of a thousand different systems, creating one big stupid system.

I think there's plenty of malice in the system, for example https://www.propublica.org/article/cigna-pxdx-medical-health...

I agree, but is the design of the system malicious? I don't think so. It's just stupid, and exploited by malicious people.

Re: A petabyte of health insurance prices per month

#12
Lol

Cardiac Services ---- 44.8% of billed rate

This screams pads and buffers. As in, the administrator adds random line-items to things as long as the name of the service is "similar enough" so that they can justify whatever amount they want in the end.

It reminds me of the auto industry. I've been replacing transmission selonoids, serpentine belts, brakes, fluids, etc... last 3 years ( I bought a dodge ram 3500 and if you don't do these things yourself you end up owing the cost of the truck 3 times over during its lifetime).

And I have to say, when I replace something it costs me 45 minutes + part cost. The repair shop instead lists it as "Transmission Flush Service" and charges $1500 when in reality it's running the engine for a minute with the pan off, then refilling it with about $200 in new transmission fluid.

Again, the repair shop is banking on no one wanting to fix their car. I can say the same thing about healthcare and specific supplements instead of getting superfluous EKGs and other "med junk science" or worse actually dangerous drugs that the doctor is getting paid to prescribe to you. However even I would get a cast put on by a doctor, just as I would have my break calipers replaced and my tires rotated simply because that service is much more highly competitive, and regular. I would also, of course opt for a heart transplant just as I would buy a new cummins engine if mine went out. (The joke about ram is that the engine is the only thing that will hold up, while the rest of the truck falls apart all around it 4 times over)

Re: A petabyte of health insurance prices per month

#14

They are making it impossible to handle the data so everyone gives up trying so they can go on screwing people over.

The standard is excessively verbose. Instead of being able to represent a price of a range of procedure codes (as most of the rules engines define it), you have to list every single code individually when often the price is the same. How that standard was set is probably an interesting questions.

Re: A petabyte of health insurance prices per month

#15
There are separate charge codes for everything, and all of those codes need to be reflected in the pricing data.

There's a price to slap on a bandaid.

There's a price to give someone a Tylenol.

Hell, W61.61XA is the medical code for "Bitten by duck, initial encounter." Presumably, this means there's also a code for "Bitten by duck, again."

Medical billing is broken, and it's no surprise that the amount of data is overwhelming.

Re: A petabyte of health insurance prices per month

#16
post #6

They are making it impossible to handle the data so everyone gives up trying so they can go on screwing people over.

Hanlon's razor. Never attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity. The US healthcare system is a mess, but I don't think it's intentionally malicious. It is just a mash of a thousand different systems, creating one big stupid system.

They made a ridiculously complex and obscure system because it was insanely profitable. It's not really stupidity or maliciousness that's responsible, but simple greed.

Re: A petabyte of health insurance prices per month

#17
post #6

They are making it impossible to handle the data so everyone gives up trying so they can go on screwing people over.

Hanlon's razor. Never attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity. The US healthcare system is a mess, but I don't think it's intentionally malicious. It is just a mash of a thousand different systems, creating one big stupid system.

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day. Stupidity can't explain why everything is wrong. The American healthcare system is so totally broken, and broken in ways which so consistently benefit the rich at the expense of everyone else, that I can't see any way it could come about by accident.

(Plus we have seen some of the corruption that goes on inside insurance companies.)

Re: A petabyte of health insurance prices per month

#18
post #6

They are making it impossible to handle the data so everyone gives up trying so they can go on screwing people over.

Hanlon's razor. Never attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity. The US healthcare system is a mess, but I don't think it's intentionally malicious. It is just a mash of a thousand different systems, creating one big stupid system.

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity. In this case stupidity is not adequate - obviously insurance companies know how to make this data usable, otherwise they couldn't exist. They have just chosen not to make the public format usable.

Re: A petabyte of health insurance prices per month

#19

There are separate charge codes for everything , and all of those codes need to be reflected in the pricing data. There's a price to slap on a bandaid. There's a price to give someone a Tylenol. Hell, W61.61XA is the medical code for "Bitten by duck, initial encounter." Presumably, this means there's also a code for "Bitten by duck, again." Medical billing is broken , and it's no surprise that the amount of data is o…

“Bitten by a duck, initial encounter” needs to be Bon Iver’s next single.

Re: A petabyte of health insurance prices per month

#20

There are separate charge codes for everything , and all of those codes need to be reflected in the pricing data. There's a price to slap on a bandaid. There's a price to give someone a Tylenol. Hell, W61.61XA is the medical code for "Bitten by duck, initial encounter." Presumably, this means there's also a code for "Bitten by duck, again." Medical billing is broken , and it's no surprise that the amount of data is o…

Here's the full list of codes for "Bitten by ____, _____ encounter"

https://www.icd10data.com/ICD10CM/Codes/V00-Y99/W50-W64/W61-

The hierarchy looks like this:

W61.6 Contact with duck

= W61.61 Bitten by duck

== W61.61XA …… initial encounter

== W61.61XD …… subsequent encounter

== W61.61XS …… sequela

= W61.62 Struck by duck

== W61.62XA …… initial encounter

== W61.62XD …… subsequent encounter

== W61.62XS …… sequela

= W61.69 Other contact with duck

== W61.69XA …… initial encounter

== W61.69XD …… subsequent encounter

== W61.69XS …… sequela

There's codings like this for parrots, macaws, chickens, turkey, etc.

Hell there's an entire section for alligators and crocodiles at https://www.icd10data.com/ICD10CM/Codes/V00-Y99/W50-W64/W58- that includes crushing, bites, etc.

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