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Headway Therapy Patients Forced to Scan Their Faces to Keep Getting Care

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Re: Headway Therapy Patients Forced to Scan Their Faces to Keep Getting Care

#31

Post by sonofhans »

smelendez wrote: post #15
sonofhans wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Government-issued IDs work and human verification of them is largely successful. This is not about correct verification, it’s about cheap machine-based verification. The dehumanization of it is part of how they plan to make money. So yes verification is needed. We can do that just fine without more facial recognition intruding into everyday affairs.

I was trying to think what the least intrusive option here would be. You need to verify that the patient has ID matching their name and face, which could be done offline by a notary or other trusted party if a patient prefers. But you also need to confirm the person showing up for the online sessions is actually the verified patient, and I'm not sure how you do that to maximize privacy. I guess you could take a photo…

Right, it’s a hairball. And all to enable a remote-first, VC-backed business model. Most people would rather see doctors in person.

Re: Headway Therapy Patients Forced to Scan Their Faces to Keep Getting Care

#32

Post by next_xibalba »

mountainriver wrote: post #14
hdwythrowaway wrote: post #10

I interviewed with Headway. Fun fact: a bunch of their engineers are ex-Palantir and they use Foundry as part of their data platform. Don't trust these people with your mental health data.

That is unbelievably terrifying

[flagged]

Re: Headway Therapy Patients Forced to Scan Their Faces to Keep Getting Care

#34

Post by siva7 »

smelendez wrote: post #7
sleazebreeze wrote: post #4

What exactly is the concern here by Headway? Are they afraid AI deep fakes will be receiving therapy? Obviously they are doing data collection and selling training data of emotional conversations to AI labs. But what's their stated justification? I can't figure it out.

Probably medication fraud. They mention heightened scrutiny around controlled substances (with amphetamines for ADHD as an example) on the FAQ. https://help.headway.co/hc/en-us/articles/29673299878676-Doc... The risk is that a drug dealer or addict pays people to use their identities and possibly insurance info, pretends to be them and to have ADHD in telehealth sessions, and stockpiles Adderall.

Well, that doesn't scale to be worth the risk, and should be immidiately obvious to any dealer with an iq higher than room temperature.

Re: Headway Therapy Patients Forced to Scan Their Faces to Keep Getting Care

#37

Post by smelendez »

sonofhans wrote: post #31
smelendez wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was trying to think what the least intrusive option here would be. You need to verify that the patient has ID matching their name and face, which could be done offline by a notary or other trusted party if a patient prefers. But you also need to confirm the person showing up for the online sessions is actually the verified patient, and I'm not sure how you do that to maximize privacy. I guess you could take a photo…

Right, it’s a hairball. And all to enable a remote-first, VC-backed business model. Most people would rather see doctors in person.

I definitely know people who prefer online therapy because they have a busy schedule or live far from a therapist who meets their needs (e.g., people in rural areas).

Some people also prefer online visits for other care, usually things they can self-diagnose: a recurring sinus infection, erectile dysfunction, hair loss, etc.

Re: Headway Therapy Patients Forced to Scan Their Faces to Keep Getting Care

#38

Post by smelendez »

olyjohn wrote: post #29
smelendez wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably medication fraud. They mention heightened scrutiny around controlled substances (with amphetamines for ADHD as an example) on the FAQ. https://help.headway.co/hc/en-us/articles/29673299878676-Doc... The risk is that a drug dealer or addict pays people to use their identities and possibly insurance info, pretends to be them and to have ADHD in telehealth sessions, and stockpiles Adderall.

How many people would you need to stack up in therapy just to get enough Adderall to sell to make money? One person is only going to be able to get a 30 day supply at a time. Most people taking it for recreation are taking much higher doses than prescribed. I don't think that a drug dealer is going to be organized enough to do hour long sessions every week for 30 different people and not get noticed.

The ADHD patients aren’t necessarily the ones doing weekly talk therapy. They’re meeting occasionally for a quick chat with a psychiatrist.

I agree, if you’re just doing talk therapy it seems overkill. But they may have concerns about emergencies, where a patient is in crisis and you realize you don’t actually know who they are.

And insurance fraud: Alice has health insurance, her friend Betty does not but needs therapy, so she signs up under Alice’s name (“oh, I actually go by Betty.”)

In general, I don’t think it’s that outlandish that the company wants to know definitively who its patients are and be able to demonstrate it does, but hopefully they can come up with more options for verification.

Re: Headway Therapy Patients Forced to Scan Their Faces to Keep Getting Care

#39

Post by banannaeugene »

chrisweekly wrote: post #28
jdgoesmarching wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every user of Headway is required to submit to this, regardless of medication status, or they lose access to the platform (and their therapist). HN has come a long way if we’re considering it a nothing burger that sending scans of your face to a 3rd party verification company is required to not lose access to your healthcare provider.

wait - even for interactions with non-prescribers? that's even less defensible!

[dead]

Re: Headway Therapy Patients Forced to Scan Their Faces to Keep Getting Care

#40

Post by banannaeugene »

germinalphrase wrote: post #6
sleazebreeze wrote: post #4

What exactly is the concern here by Headway? Are they afraid AI deep fakes will be receiving therapy? Obviously they are doing data collection and selling training data of emotional conversations to AI labs. But what's their stated justification? I can't figure it out.

insurance compliance?

[dead]
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