This is part 1 of an ongoing investigative series.
An algorithm, not a doctor, predicted a rapid recovery for Frances Walter, an 85-year-old Wisconsin woman with a shattered left shoulder and an allergy to pain medicine. In 16.6 days, it estimated, she would be ready to leave her nursing home.
On the 17th day, her Medicare Advantage insurer, Security Health Plan, followed the algorithm and cut off payment for her care, concluding she was ready to return to the apartment where she lived alone. Meanwhile, medical notes in June 2019 showed Walter’s pain was maxing out the scales and that she could not dress herself, go to the bathroom, or even push a walker without help.
- Part 2: Denied By AI: How UnitedHealth’s acquisition of a popular Medicare Advantage algorithm sparked internal dissent over denied care
- Part 3: Denied By AI: UnitedHealth pushed employees to follow an algorithm to cut off Medicare patients’ rehab care
- Part 4: Denied By AI: UnitedHealth used secret rules to restrict rehab care for seriously ill Medicare Advantage patients
Not all algorithms are AI
Unfortunately, AI in current media is a catch-all term that applies to anything more complicated than a switch statement. (And sometimes even that)
At this point I wouldn’t be surprised to see people calling something as basic as a bash script that adds 2 numbers AI due to lack of actual understanding of what AI is.
I legitimately had someone pitch an idea for an AI that could’ve just been a 15min bash adventure lol
there are rice cookers and other appliances that advertise ai features with no explanation, and when you take them apart they are literally the same as the standard version.
The sad part is that they’re probably more expensive than the standard version, but marketing teams are using the AI hype bubble to trick ignorant consumers to believe that the AI appliance that has no differences is somehow better.
Some weigh the clothes and adjust the wash time or prolong the centrifuge cycle if the clothes are still too wet (not sure if this is using the scale or the water flow)…BOOM comes with AI now :D at this point we need certification labels to end this bullshit.
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