Finally, some good healthcare news
These are tough times for healthcare companies, as noted in a story this morning about declining Medicaid Advantage options makes clear. Still, there are some positive notes. On Friday, the Virginia Health Care Foundation announced 25 awards totaling $14.39 million through Virginia’s Rural Health Transformation Program. According to the press release, “The projects reach all six of Virginia’s rural regions, from Southwest Virginia to the Eastern Shore, and are expected to benefit more than 845,000 rural Virginians. They will help hospitals, community health centers, free clinics, independent practices, pharmacies, community services boards, and local agencies secure patient data, modernize electronic health records, strengthen networks, and coordinate care with other providers.”
What’s going on with AI and pricing?
Perhaps you’ve seen Sen. Mark Warner’s commercial talking about how companies are using data in grocery stories to set prices “dynamically.” But what about at chains like McDonald’s? Well, turns out that these companies are using some of the same techniques.
A piece in AI News reports that “McDonald’s is using machine-learning technology to recommend menu prices at individual restaurants, extending the use of AI into pricing decisions across its franchise network.” Reuters did the original reporting, which AI News described this way. “Reuters reviewed screenshots of the McDonald’s pricing platform and interviewed nine people with direct knowledge of the company’s pricing strategy. The platform includes information about nearby competitors, including publicly available menu prices from other restaurant chains.”
The story reports that two restaurants in Fresno, California, two miles apart charged very different prices for a Big Mac in September: $5.69 and $6.89.
“Company documents reviewed as part of the reporting,” AI News writes, “show that recommendations are distributed to franchisees periodically. McDonald’s said the platform is optional and provides restaurant-specific recommendations that operators can consider when setting menu prices. The system estimates willingness to pay at the restaurant level and generates recommendations for each location. The reporting did not indicate that McDonald’s uses individual customers’ personal data to generate customer-specific prices. That separates the system from personalised pricing, where companies use information about individual consumers to determine what they should be charged. US regulators are examining those practices separately, including how personal data is used in pricing decisions.”
So the next time you get a craving for a Big Mac, remember that even here it can pay to comparison shop.
