During last week’s long run, I cried.
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Saturday, October 26, 2019
Surprise! Popular health care software fails Black folks
Blacks are more likely to get overlooked for health care programs than white patients, and this could be because of a widely used by flawed software program that puts money over need.
READ MORE: Virginia woman gives birth to healthy son in bathtub after hospital sends her home
A new research study led by Dr. Ziad Obermeyer of the University of California, Berkeley, and published in the Science journal, found that the software program directed millions of high-cost patients, who are disproportionately white, into health care risk management programs even if they were healthier, than Blacks who were reportedly not as healthy and in greater need for the programs, according to The Associated Press.
This flaw is due to the software predicting costs rather than need, according to Dr. Obermeyer. Fixing it could result in a huge hike in the number of Black patients who will become eligible to participate in these programs.
“The problem was the algorithm was built to predict who’s going to cost money next year, not who’s going to need health care,” Obermeyer, who studies machine learning in medicine, told The Associated Press.
The study looked at patient data from a large hospital system and found that Blacks cost $1,800 less per year than whites who had the same number of chronic illnesses. That pattern has been duplicated at other hospitals across the country.
The software developer, a company called Optum, called the study’s findings “misleading” and said it was ever intended to be the sole determinant for health care decisions.
“The cost model is just one of many data elements intended to be used to select patients for clinical engagement programs, including, most importantly, the doctor’s expertise and knowledge of his or her patient’s individual needs,” Optum spokesman Tyler Mason told the Associated Press.
READ MORE: Millions of children to lose health care because GOP was too busy passing unpopular tax bill
In recent years, health insurers have attempted to identify patients with chronic medical conditions to sign them up for health care management programs designed to help them maintain a certain level of consistency and care. This reduces emergency room visits and hospital stays and ultimately brings down huge health care costs.
But as this study indicates, big data is not immune from bias and inherent flaws as well and could end up resulting in racial disparities in health care delivery and services the same as poverty, doctors’ unconscious beliefs and Black people’s distrust of hospitals and the health care system.
The post Surprise! Popular health care software fails Black folks appeared first on theGrio.
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Eddie Murphy dishes about that time Barack Obama asked him two questions
Eddie Murphy, who sizzled in his portrayal of Rudy Ray Moore in “Dolemite Is My Name,” dropped by “The Late Show” Friday night to talk movies, his upcoming gig hosting Saturday Night Live and Barack Obama.
READ MORE: Eddie Murphy on playing Rudy Ray Moore in ‘Dolemite Is My Name’: ‘He wasn’t a genius’
When Murphy received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2015, it was President Obama who surprised him by asking him two questions: when he was coming back to standup, and what dye he used in his hair, according to The Huffington Post.
“It’s a great picture I have of me talking to him in the White House … and it looks like we’re having this thing, and at that moment he’s going, ‘so, what kind of rinse do you use?’” Murphy told Stephen Colbert. “I was like, what?”
Murphy said he is several months older than Obama but still gets gray hairs in his mustache and nose. Those he just cuts out, he said.
Murphy’s star continues to rise with his electric performance in Dolemite, which is in theaters and playing on Netflix. Fans also eagerly await his hosting job at SNL in December, where he said he may revive old character favorites like Gumby, Buckwheat and Mr. Robinson’s Neighborhood. “I would imagine yes,” Murphy told Colbert, who asked him if he missed playing those roles. “I don’t miss (it), but I’m looking forward to going back and doing that stuff, but I hope it’s funny.
“I always wanted it to be funny, as funny as it can be,” Murphy said. “SNL is such a big part of who I am. I don’t want to go back after 35 years and they say oh it was alright.”
Murphy said he started doing standup at 15 and when Colbert asked if his mom was ok with it, Murphy shot back: “Ummm yes, when I started bringing them checks home.”
READ MORE: Eddie Murphy talks about making his comeback with…well, comic timing
Next year, Murphy is also slated to revive his stand-up career, and he will soon begin shooting the second installment of “Coming to America,” a cult-classic that also starred Arsenio Hall.
Thanks for asking, Obama!
The post Eddie Murphy dishes about that time Barack Obama asked him two questions appeared first on theGrio.
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Friday, October 25, 2019
Trump Organization Is Thinking of Selling the Lease to Its Controversial DC Hotel
Amid criticism that Donald Trump has been wrongly profiting from his swank Washington, D.C., hotel, the Trump Organization now is reportedly thinking of selling the lease it holds on it.
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