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Data Science for HealthCare.gov

Dr. Brand NiemannDirector and Senior Data Scientist

Semantic Communityhttp://semanticommunity.info/

http://datacommunitydc.org/blog/2013/08/cloud-soa-semantics-and-data-science-conference/ http://semanticommunity.info/Healthcare.gov

October 31, 2013

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Background

• HealthCare.gov was launched October 1st by President Obama.• HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius accepted responsibility for

problems with HealthCare.gov before Congress on October 30th.

• I followed Gall’s Law to better understand the Web site content and online application process and to build a simple system that works.

• I repurposed the content to build a taxonomy (from the application process) and thesaurus (from the glossary), to create knowledge bases for Data Science and Be Informed Applications.

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Healthcare.gov

https://www.healthcare.gov/

My Note: I found this interface to be overwhelmingly complex.

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Site Map and Glossary

https://www.healthcare.gov/sitemap/

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Goals and Process• The goal was to build simple system that works and can be scaled up according to

Gall's Law.• The process was:

– A Simplified HealthCare.gov Metamodel– HealthCare.gov By State– HealthCare.gov Plan Information Example

• Answer a few quick questions to see the premium estimates• What type of coverage do you need?• What state do you live in?• What county do you live in?• Who will you apply for health coverage for?• Message• Most people who apply will qualify for lower costs• Plans are put into 5 categories

– Results• The results are shown in MindTouch, Spreadsheet, Spotfire, and Be Informed

Knowledge Bases.

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Knowledge Base: MindTouch

http://semanticommunity.info/Healthcare.gov

My Note: The entire platform can be searched.

My Note: The Semantic Community Platform includes MindTouch (Wiki), Spotfire (Analytics), and Be Informed (Be Free).This page can be search by Google Chrome Find.

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Knowledge Base: Spreadsheet

http://semanticommunity.info/@api/deki/files/26890/Healthcare.gov.xlsx

My Note: All of these spreadsheets can be searched.

My Note: The Semantic Community approach is consistent with the European ISA Recommended URI Design and Management Principles.

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Knowledge Base: Spotfire

https://silverspotfire.tibco.com/us/library#/users/bniemann/Public?Healthcare.gov-Spotfire.dxp

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Knowledge Base: Be Informed

http://www.beinformed.com/BeInformed/website/en/EN/CommunityEventsArchivehttp://www.beinformed.com/BeInformed/website/en/EN/CommunityEvents

Building a Permit Application in 30 minutesGetting Started with Be Informed Personal EditionBuilding a working application in less than an hourWhat's new in Be Informed 4.2.4The technical features and possibilities of Be InformedUsing semantic technology to create process-driven documentation

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Conclusions and Recommendations

• Gall’s Law can be used to better understand the HealthCare.gov Web site content and online application process and to build a simple system that works.

• The background information mentions that the "Data Hub" is working well, but it is not openly exposed so developers could develop their own HealthCare.gov themselves like I am going to do.

• A simple “Data Hub” was built in a spreadsheet and could be scaled up by screen scraping code.

• My HealthCare.gov Results Costs are visualized by Provider and Category to help my decision making.

• Be Informed Be Free is being used in a series of free training events and to pilot agile HealthCare.gov without expensive software development.