So just when you thought things on the healthcare front could not get much worse, we learn yesterday that a man decided to rob a bank, to save his life. You do know, I hope that we are all Richard James Verone. His tragedy is our great national shame.
Today, we are indeed sinking to a new level of unacceptability. We're learning that the credit rating agency FICO, is rolling out a new product called the FICO Medication Adherence Scorewhich will rate millions of us on our medication compliance. Yes, you read this correctly, if you take medications, it's very likely, you're going to get rated.
This is from the FICO web site:
The FICO® Medication Adherence Score helps health care organizations improve the effectiveness of their care, case and utilization management programs, and helps pharmaceutical manufacturers strengthen their programs for education and outreach. By identifying each patient’s propensity toward medication adherence over the next 12 months, this fully HIPAA-compliant solution helps direct activities to patients at highest risk of noncompliance, improving program efficiency and maximizing results.
FICO is able to systematically invade our privacy because, I would suppose, they get data on all of us from the insurance industry, because if you still have insurance, every time you fill a prescription, the insurance company carefully tracks and monitors this.
In the highly influential Well column in the New York Times, the 'journalist' who writes it Tara Parker-Pope, who usually does a decent job, has totally omitted any discussion of cost as being a factor in non-compliance. It's as if she just republished a FICO press release.
Here's what she has to say:
Others forget to pick up their drugs from the pharmacy, skip doses, take their pills at the wrong time or take too much or too little. And even for those who follow recommendations at the start, some eventually stop taking the medication altogether.
No Tara, get your damn facts straight! Americans don't forget, they don't skip doses, or take too little. They cannot afford to fill the prescription in the first place, and they cut pills in half, all because in our country, health care remains a privilege, and most Americans have woefully inadequate insurance coverage. Why is it woefully inadequate? Because high deductible junk insurance, is all most of us can pay for any longer.
Here's reality. According to a 2008 study by the nonprofit Commonwealth Fund, an estimated 28 million Americans were contacted by collection agencies on medical-debt issues during a two-year period, and 72 million reported difficulties in paying outstanding medical bills. Could this be why Americans don't fill prescriptions?
In fact, cost is probably the single biggest reason people don't fill and then refill prescription medications. For cancer patients, the costs of their medications makes compliance particularly brutal.
And since we spend so damn much on premiums for junk insurance, we don't have much left after buying food, paying for gas, shoes for the kids, etc.
Not mad yet? How's this, also from the New York Times article.
The FICO medication score is based on publicly available data, like home ownership and job status, and does not rely on a patient’s medical history or financial information to predict whether he or she will take medication as directed. So, like a credit rating, it can be compiled without a person’s knowledge or permission.
And finally, here's an interesting, if scary analysis from a tech geek. This is real bad stuff, dear friends. As sure as night follows day, I can guarantee, the insurance industry has very, very bad things up its sleeve, and bad ways it will use this data.