Comment by danaris

Boo fucking hoo?

I've worked within the health insurance industry (workers' comp, specifically); I know what a shitshow it is. As a fairly green programmer, I was tasked with creating a flat file export from our IBM mainframe's database for a new/changed regulatory requirement, and within just a few weeks (including a bunch of time spent waiting for return files from overnight batches), my export complied with the stated spec better than the agency's own files did.

But the health insurance industry makes absolutely jaw-dropping profits. The only reasons they can't harmonize their systems and produce something at least resembling standard outputs are because it would cost them slightly (on their scales) more money than just continuing to do what they're doing now, and because the higher-ups are (as with many industries) chronically unwilling to commit to one particular standard if it will make it even a little bit harder for them to change their minds whenever they want.