Announcing HCC in Python and Datalog

May 27, 2017 in Technology

The CMS division of HHS produces a freely available algorithm for determining the diagnosis risk of cost for beneficiaries. The problem with this freely available algorithm is that it is written in a technology, SAS , that is not freely usable.1 We at Algorex Health have reimplemented the HCC algorithm in Python with two aims in mind. First, we want to promote truly free algorithms for value-based analytics, contributing to a community ethos of open-source population health libraries.
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Algorex Health Technologies

A blog for technology, policy, and grievances in the Open Health World

Opening the Healthcare Technology Doors

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A Practo-Theoretical Introduction to Logic Programming

Nov 11, 2018

This post is part of a larger series of posts that examines the use of declarative logic programming in implementing a healthcare-specific risk score called the HCC Risk Score. The scope of this series runs through such topics as healthcare-intensive dissection of SAS code and translation into Python and PyDatalog a generic introduction to Logic Programming with Prolog and SQL (this post) discussions on the role of declarative programming in a technical organization the difference between forward-chaining and backward-chaining as an implementation strategy in logical/declarative technologies the choice of a forward-chaining embedded language called CHR for re-implementing our code from PyDatalog This post has the following characteristics:

Introduction to Series: Declarative Programming in Healthcare

Oct 10, 2018

The following post is an introduction and summary on what will be a series of posts about the use of declarative programming, specifically logical programing, within one of Algorex’s more important libraries – the HCC (hierarchical code categories) risk calculator. It is our hope that this series of posts might be interesting to several classes of reader: The imperative programmer (regardless of field) who has never encountered the term ‘logical programming’ before.

Calculating Growth and Obesity from FHIR Messages

Aug 8, 2018

Calculating Growth and Obesity from FHIR Messages When parents bring their kids to the pediatrician, one of the most important checks is to have the child’s height, weight, and BMI plotted on growth charts to understand their development. The charts, a image of which appears below, are ubiquitous and critical to the tracking the health of kids. Sure enough, many many EHRs automatically show the graph and the patient’s position on the chart right inside the workflow making it easy for physicians and patients to review.

A Listening Tour: Stops for Dr. Gawande

Jul 7, 2018

A Listening Tour There has been much speculation about Amazon & JP Morgan & Berkshire Hathaway healthcare joint venture. Recently, the newly appointed CEO of the effort, Atul Gawande, announced he was embarking on a “listening tour” of the 1.2 million employees who work under that umbrella. We thought we would compile the dream health care itinerary. Each stop, according to publicly available data, shines a light on the tremendous hurdles in the healthcare sector that any policy maker or executive needs tackle.

What Supplements health?

May 5, 2018

What Supplements Health? Buried in a recent CMS announcement was a seemingly small policy change related to helping Medicare members with their social determinants of health. Medicare, the insurance program for the elderly and disabled in the United States, is really two independent programs. In one, the beneficiary medical costs are covered directly by the federal government. This is often referred to as Original Medicare or Medicare Fee-For-Service. The second option is for individuals to obtain Medicare insurance through private insurance companies.

Everything You Never Wanted to Know about Geographic Charting

Apr 4, 2018

Everything You Never Wanted to Know about Geographic Charting Before the start of seventh grade, my family moved, and I started a new school that had as required module, cartography. Over a few weeks, we painstakingly drew maps of states, continents and eventually the entire world. My backpack became filled with various stencils, a compass, colored pencils, pens of multiple weights, and even tracing paper. It was one of the more frustrating parts of my schooling and I remember thinking “Why would I ever need this?

Almost 10 Pie Charts in 10 Python Libraries

Mar 3, 2018

Almost 10 PieCharts 10 Python Libraries Here is a follow-up to our “10 Heatmaps 10 Libraries” post. For those of you who don’t remember, the goal is to create the same chart in 10 different python visualization libraries and compare the effort involved. All of the Jupyter notebooks to create these charts are stored in a public github repo Python-Viz-Compared. Each Jupyter notebook will contain one chart (bar, scatter etc) and then up to 10 different ways of implementing them.

Trump Administration and Medicaid

Feb 2, 2018

The Trump administration, as portrayed in an recent Axios piece by Sam Baker is more than quietly revolutionizing Medicaid, it is reducing membership in the safety net payor through administrative gates, work requirements, and enforcing premiums as low as $1. Readers note: Medicaid has historically not charged premiums and this action reduces membership by adding additional barries. Additionally, most billings activities are more expense than the revenue gained. These efforts have one goal - reduce the number of individuals on Medicaid.

Deep Dive: Food Security

Jan 1, 2018

Food Access is loosely defined as “people’s ability to find and afford food”. However, there are a number of related concepts and terms depending on the mode of study being employed. A recent Tufts University study, categorized ten variations on the term including the colorful geographic nomenclature “food desert”, “food swamp”, and “food hinterland”. Food access is a difficult issue to categorize because of tremendous variation in prices, cultural preferences, and skill sets.

What's the price?

Jan 1, 2018

Today the Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI) posted their annual report of United States health care spending. With an enviable data set of claims from commercial under 65-yr populations from. Aetna, Humana, Kaiser and UnitedHealthcare, HCCI concluded that health spending grew by 4.6% in 2016. In a vacuum that number may be seen as a success given historical year over year growth. Diving into the details we can view multiple trends that create opportunities in better managing care and ultimately supporting a reduction of costs in the future.