The term artificial intelligence (AI) has been in use for many years. Indeed, it includes many names, such as AI, neural networks, machine learning and a few other buzzwords. The preceding linked article from IBM tries to explain the meaning of all these terms. A few years ago, IBM made headlines as the developer of Watson, which famously competed on the game show Jeopardy, beating Ken Jennings. There is a new AI interface on the Internet that anyone can try out called ChatGPT. ChatGPT is a language-based AI chatbot that can do many things humans can do, including correcting computer code, writing college entrance essays and a host of other things.
Category: Direct Primary Care
Amazon Wants to be Your Primary Care Provider
What living man or woman has done more to make your life better than any other person? This is probably not something you have thought about. Most people would likely say their parents, although my parents are no longer living. I’ve thought about this question and I have a definitive answer: Jeff Bezos. Yes, Jeff Bezos. An Amazon truck stops at my house on a daily basis dropping off purchases, sometimes multiple items per day. In the early 1990s who would have thought that in the future you could go to a website and choose among 353 million products, most of which are priced lower than you can find locally. Furthermore, the prices elsewhere are lower than they otherwise would be because of the competition created by Amazon. In addition, these products are delivered to your doorstep, sometimes only a day or two after you ordered them.
Thursday Links
- Transparency: Hospitals still don’t want you to know how much you are going to have to pay. CMS has issued nearly 500 warning notices and over 230 requests for corrective action. The penalty for non-compliance in 2022 is up to $5,500 per day (more than $2 million a year).
- Hospitals still don’t want you to know what you are going to be charged: Nearly 500 get a warning from CMS.
- Study: 57 percent of nurses felt “exhausted” over the past two weeks, 43 percent felt “burned out,” and just 20 percent said they felt valued.
- Light pollution: one-third of the people in the world can’t see the Milky Way. (NYT)
- Not following the science. The most rigorous and comprehensive study to date: masks don’t work. CDC tells schools to require them anyway.
More Americans Delay Care Due to Cost
It’s no mystery that Americans are paying a bigger share of their medical bills out-of-pocket these days. Health plan deductibles have about doubled in the past two decades. My 2023 health plan deductible is nearly $9,000. Some family plans have combined deductibles of $15,000. High deductibles are causing more Americans to delay medical care according to The New York Times.