Data
BR By Neil Munro If time is money, data is gobs of money. Just ask the federal Health Care Financing Administration or the Texas state government, which are trawling through multibillion-dollar medical programs and millions of patient reports in search of fraudulent schemes, doctors on the lam, promising medical procedures and estimates of federal health care spending.
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By Neil Munro
If time is money, data is gobs of money.
Just ask the federal Health Care Financing Administration or the Texas state government, which are trawling through multibillion-dollar medical programs and millions of patient reports in search of fraudulent schemes, doctors on the lam, promising medical procedures and estimates of federal health care spending.
Given this outlook, it's only natural that dollar signs are dancing before vendors' eyes, especially those selling databases tailored for PC networks.
(in billions) | ||
Fiscal Year | Medicare | Medicaid |
1980 | $33.9 | $24.0 |
1985 | 69.5 | 39.3 |
1990 | 107.2 | 68.7 |
1991 | 113.9 | 90.5 |
1992 | 129.2 | 115.9 |
1993 | 142.9 | 125.8 |
1994 | 159.3 | 137.6 |
1995 | 176.9 | 149.8 |
Current Budget | Medicare | Medicaid |
1996 | 193.9 | 160.1 |
1997 | 213.1 | 173.7 |
Source: Health Care Financing Administration |
Of the 3.5 terabytes, roughly 2.5 terabytes are stored online, organized by Oracle 7 database software developed by Oracle. The older data is stored "near-line" on automated tape- and cartridge-handling devices, said Broseker. The older data is organized by Model 204 database software owned by Computer Corp. of America. The software was selected before managers grew confident with Oracle's ability to handle mainframe-sized databases, he said.
Broseker's data center has a herd of IBM ES-9000 series of mainframes capable of processing 200 million instructions per second and feeding data to 100 simultaneous online users nationwide.
Broseker's volcano of data is used to look for signs of fraud, evidence of medical treatments and to gauge the fees to be paid by Medicare managers to the commercial health care companies that are taking more Medicare patients, he said.
And the flow of data will only increase - Medicare costs are expected to grow rapidly during the next several years, breaking the $200 billion-per-year barrier this year.