If this story didn’t have a Bloomberg byline, I would swear it was from last night’s edition of The Daily Show. Hospitals are now buying consumer purchasing data to figure out who smokes, who has a car, and who shops at Walmart or Whole Foods. The idea is to identify high-risk patients and help them choose a different path before it’s too late.
Does anyone remember Snowden? Does anyone still think big institutions can manage enormous sets of data carefully and ethically? What are the chances that the bottom line will win out over individuals?
These bits of story are the most laughable. Insert the appropriate Jon Stewart shocked or disgusted face as appropriate.
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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.
Yeah, I bought that gun, but I have no plans to use it.
Carolinas HealthCare System … is placing its data, which include purchases a patient has made using a credit card or store loyalty card, into predictive models that give a risk score to patients.
Within the next two years, Michael Dulin, director of research and evidence-based medicine at Carolinas, plans for that score to be regularly passed to doctors and nurses who can reach out to high-risk patients to suggest interventions before patients fall ill.
So now my doctor can lecture me with certainty about my eating habits. Will I get co-pay points as well as Kroger fuel points if I buy store brand organic?
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While the hospital can share a patient’s risk assessment with their doctor, they aren’t allowed to disclose details of the data, such as specific transactions by an individual, under the hospital’s contract with its data provider. Dulin said that if the early steps are successful, though, he would like to renegotiate to get the data provider to share more specific details on patient spending with doctors.
We’re so good at reimbursing wellness counseling now, why not add a bunch more data to my EMR that the doctor does not get paid to review?
While all information would be bound by doctor-patient confidentiality, he said he’s aware some people may be uncomfortable with data going to doctors and hospitals. For these people, the system is considering an opt-out mechanism that will keep their data private, Dulin said.
We have your data, but we’re not looking it.
Jorjanne Murry, an accountant in Charlotte, North Carolina, who has Type 1 diabetes, said she already gets calls from her health insurer to try to discuss her daily habits. She usually ignores them, she said.
Let’s spend more money on completely misguided patient education plans.
Hospitals and insurers need to be mindful about crossing the “creepiness line” on how much to pry into their patients’ lives with big data, said Robert Booz, an analyst at the technology research and consulting firm Gartner Inc. It could also interfere with the doctor-patient relationship.
Oh surely not.
[DoD photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley via flickr]
