from Hacker News

$1000 bug bounty for better healthcare with the FDA, CDC, and Kaiser Permanente

by jph on 1/28/25, 12:19 AM with 8 comments

I'm offering a $1000 bug bounty toward fixing a computer problem that's interfering with healthcare workers getting RSV vaccines. I'm in the group at risk and highly motivated.

Context:

- The United States Food and Drug Administration (https://www.fda.gov/) has published the correct information about the RSV vaccine for people who are at risk. You can see the section "Preventing RSV in Adults" at https://www.fda.gov/consumers/covid-19-flu-and-rsv/respiratory-syncytial-virus-rsv

- The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (https://www.cdc.gov) is currently escalating the process of publishing the FDA information on the CDC website. But it turns out the Los Angeles wildfires are now causing respiratory issues with higher severity and urgency.

- Kaiser Permanente is a large Los Angeles medical company with 10M+ patients. The company is currently denying the RSV vaccine to healthcare workers, even those at risk of complications, even those who are working in buildings with high RSV patient infection rates. The doctors want to order the vaccine, but can't because the EPIC-based IT system isn't coordinating with the FDA and CDC.

I'm offering $1000 towards a fix. Success looks like this: healthcare workers who say they are at risk and want the RSV vaccine are able to get the RSV vaccine.

Any legal path that accomplishes the goal counts for the $1000 bug bounty. Ideally someone here will know how to adjust EPIC IT systems to do doctor-approved overrides. Or perhaps you're good at social engineering and can find a personal approach, or share this on social networks, or get a news crew, or discover a lead to an employment lawyer who can help.

If you're able, please help share this story-- many people in Los Angeles have lost so much, and anything we all can do to help the healthcare workers will in turn help many more people. This is a total experiment in crowdsolving. I welcome constructive advice. My direct email is joel@joelparkerhenderson.com.

  • by MattGaiser on 1/28/25, 12:24 AM

    I haven't a clue how to help you, but as an avid participant in crowdsolving for other domains, I am fascinated to see if this works.

  • by giantg2 on 1/28/25, 4:17 AM

    This doesn't sound like an Epic/CDC issue. This sounds like an insurance issue where they're not getting the medical coding they need. It's also possibly a hospital admin issue. Legally speaking, your doctors should be able to write a paper order for you to receive the vaccine (admin might disagree). Your medical coding experts in billing should be able to get you the required coding working with the insurance liason for the hospital.

    Based on your definition of success, the paper orders fulfill that even if you don't get the coding and insurance coverage.

  • by ajoseps on 1/28/25, 5:33 AM

    Hey Joel, it’s cool to see you on here. I saw your post on LinkedIn as well. We used to work together a couple of years ago for a short period of time. I honestly don’t know how to help but I’ll share the post, especially since I know a bunch of people impacted by the fires.

  • by jrowley on 1/30/25, 8:59 PM

    Are you able appeal a denied claim to kaiser member services? Maybe you can trigger broader policy change / system update by getting them to look a single case (and having a doctor advocate strongly on your behalf)

    Even if it doesn't trigger broader policy change, you could get a playbook in place to help others get their review processed faster, e.g. send this form letter, linking to document x and y.