Article on possible Medical Credit Scores

[MotorTink]

Posted: 1/18/08 at 11:50am

THE DOCTOR WILL SEE YOUR CREDIT NOW

The folks who invented the credit score for lenders are hard at work developing a similar tool for hospitals and other health care providers.

The project, dubbed “MedFICO” in some early press reports, will aid hospitals in assessing a patient’s ability to pay their medical bills. But privacy advocates are worried that the notorious errors that have caused frequent criticism of the credit system will also cause trouble with any attempt to create a health-related risk score. They also fear that a low score might impact the quality of the health care that patients receive.

Fair Issac Corp., developer of the FICO credit score, is one of several investors in Healthcare Analytics, the Massachusetts start-up that is developing the hospital risk tool. Another investor is Tenet Healthcare Corp, one of the nation's largest hospital operators. Stephen Farber, who resigned as chief financial officer of Tenet in 2004, is the CEO of Healthcare Analytics.


Full Articile - http://redtape.msnbc.com/2008/01/the-doctor-wi-1.html#posts

I'm up a creek without a paddle if this happens.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 1/18/08 at 11:56am

The Democrats control Congress. They should do something about it. Unless this is part of their plan for national healthcare.

[DG]

Posted: 1/18/08 at 12:04pm

This is too scary. The gulf between the 'haves' and 'have nots' grows ever wider. Now even your health will be a bargaining tool.

[The Boy From Ohio]

Posted: 1/18/08 at 1:13pm

It does sound very scary. Our healthcare will get even worse.

Updated On: 1/18/08 at 01:13 PM

[iHeartMyGeek]

Posted: 1/18/08 at 1:20pm

Wow, that's positively ridiculous. Who possibly thought this was a good idea?