Media Coverage

Media articles featuring INFORMS members in the news.

Most Recent Media Coverage

Topic
The end of free returns could be good for the environment

The end of free returns could be good for the environment

WRAL, January 6, 2023

Returns have been growing year over year, creating millions of pounds of waste and needless emissions from shipping. Major retailers are starting to charge for returns, which could have a positive impact on the environment.

Cherry-picking profitable patients: New research identifies unintended consequences for some Medicare patients

Cherry-picking profitable patients: New research identifies unintended consequences for some Medicare patients

Singapore Management University, January 6, 2023

A new research in the INFORMS journal Manufacturing & Service Operations Management finds that Medicare Advantage (MA), the largest healthcare capitation program in the U.S., unintentionally incentivises health plans to cherry-pick profitable patients from traditional Medicare (TM). The study, “Can Big Data Cure Risk Selection in Healthcare Capitation Program? A Game Theoretical Analysis,” shows that even if the current MA risk adjustment design became informationally perfect through increased availability of big data, incentives would continue to persist for risk selection, primarily because of the way the current risk adjustment model is designed. Co-author SMU Assistant Professor of Operations Management Zhaowei She said, “No generic risk adjustment algorithm can solve the strategic prediction problem in risk adjustment without explicitly taking into account the underlying mechanism in healthcare capitation programs.” The study calls for practitioners and policymakers to change their views of seeing risk adjustment as a pure statistical and machine learning problem and to look more comprehensively at the human impact.

Understanding Pharmaceutical Supply Chains

Understanding Pharmaceutical Supply Chains

Medium, January 6, 2023

Since the onset of the pandemic, we have all learned just how crucial supply chains are in our economy and daily lives; even more so, have we all learned how important pharmaceutical supply chains are, especially when considering the mechanisms of disease spread. Supply chains in the pharmaceutical industry are extremely complicated due to all the different entities involved in decision-making, including actors specific to the industry: regulatory organizations, insurance companies, and GPOs. This is what a recently awarded Northeastern University NSF grant project sets out to investigate.

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Artificial Intelligence

Why 23andMe’s Genetic Data Could Be a ‘Gold Mine’ for AI Companies

Why 23andMe’s Genetic Data Could Be a ‘Gold Mine’ for AI Companies

TIME, March 26, 2025

The genetic testing company 23andMe, which holds the genetic data of 15 million people, declared bankruptcy on Sunday night after years of financial struggles. This means that all of the extremely personal user data could be up for sale—and that vast trove of genetic data could draw interest from AI companies looking to train their data sets, experts say.

Healthcare

Want to reduce the cost of healthcare? Start with our billing practices.

Want to reduce the cost of healthcare? Start with our billing practices.

The Hill, March 11, 2025

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as the new secretary of Health and Human Services, is the nation’s de facto healthcare czar. He will have influence over numerous highly visible agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration, among others. Given that healthcare is something that touches everyone’s life, his footprint of influence will be expansive. 

We all benefit from and are hurt by health insurance claim denials

We all benefit from and are hurt by health insurance claim denials

Atlanta Journal Constitution, January 23, 2025

Health insurance has become necessary, with large and unpredictable health care costs always looming before each of us. Unfortunately, the majority of people have experienced problems when using their health insurance to pay for their medical care. Health insurance serves as the buffer between patients and the medical care system, using population pooling to mitigate the risk exposure on any one individual.

Supply Chain

Experts warn logistics industry stakeholders to make contingency plans

Experts warn logistics industry stakeholders to make contingency plans

Seafood Source, March 10, 2025

In their March 2025 forecasts, shipping and logistics experts are warning those who rely on the industry to expect continued disruption, and in order to survive a chaotic landscape, they are advising businesses to spend money conservatively, work with trusted partners, and make comprehensive contingency plans.

Climate