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Daily Archives: August 23, 2021

Hospitals and Insurers Didn’t Want You to See These Prices. Here’s Why.

New York Times – “This year, the federal government ordered hospitals to begin publishing a prized secret: a complete list of the prices they negotiate with private insurers. The insurers’ trade association had called the rule unconstitutional and said it would “undermine competitive negotiations.” Four hospital associations jointly sued the government to block it, and appealed when they lost. They lost again, and seven months later, many hospitals are simply ignoring the requirement and posting nothing. But data from the hospitals that have complied hints at why the powerful industries wanted this information to remain hidden. It shows hospitals are charging patients wildly different amounts for the same basic services: procedures as simple as an X-ray or a pregnancy test. And it provides numerous examples of major health insurers — some of the world’s largest companies, with billions in annual profits — negotiating surprisingly unfavorable rates for their customers. In many cases, insured patients are getting prices that are higher than they would if they pretended to have no coverage at all…”

Robots are coming for the lawyers – which may be bad for tomorrow’s attorneys but great for anyone in need of cheap legal assistance

Via LLRX – Robots are coming for the lawyers – which may be bad for tomorrow’s attorneys but great for anyone in need of cheap legal assistance – Imagine what a lawyer does on a given day: researching cases, drafting briefs, advising clients. While technology has been nibbling around the edges of the legal profession… Continue Reading

Museum of Failure

“Museum of Failure is a collection of failed products and services from around the world. The majority of all innovation projects fail and the museum showcases these failures to provide visitors a fascinating learning experience. Every item provides unique insight into the risky business of innovation. Innovation and progress require an acceptance of failure. The… Continue Reading

Study – Why your COVID-19 vaccination status might impact whether you’re hired

Tech Republic: “Over three in five hiring managers would ask about the vaccination status of a job candidate, with Republicans (69%) more likely to ask than Democrats (54%), a new study finds. An even higher percentage (61%) said the answers to those vaccination questions would impact their ultimate hiring decision, according to a study by… Continue Reading

Delta variant: this interactive COVID-19 map shows if cases are rising or falling in your area

Fast Company: “The delta variant is still surging across America, resulting in some steep rises in COVID-19 infections for select counties. Other areas, however, are thankfully seeing decreases in COVID-19 infection. But what about where you live? Are COVID cases rising or falling? There’s a cool new map out from Esri, the geographic information system… Continue Reading

Vaccine Mandates Are Lawful, Effective and Based on Rock-Solid Science

Scientific American: “The U.S. has reached a worrying plateau in its COVID-19 vaccination coverage, with just half of the population fully vaccinated. This coincides with pandemic fatigue, or weak compliance with COVID-19 risk-mitigation measures such as masking and distancing, and the highly infectious Delta variant, which accounts for more than 83 percent of infections. We’re… Continue Reading

How You Can Leverage Census Bureau’s New Building Permit Visualization Tool

Census Bureau: “Building permits are one of the earliest indicators of economic activity. For decades, building permit data has been available online in a very unusable, clunky format. The Census Bureau’s new visualization and extraction tool empowers users to engage this rich, sub county-level source of information about the critical first step in construction –… Continue Reading

Should You Get a Booster Shot? Here’s What We Know

Scientific American – “Experts weigh in on common questions about whether and when additional doses of coronavirus vaccines may be needed…The groups it is clear should be getting additional doses include highly immunocompromised people: recipients of solid organ transplants, those with AIDS, those taking highly immunosuppressive drugs for cancer or autoimmune disease—these people have less… Continue Reading

Animals Count and Use Zero. How Far Does Their Number Sense Go?

Quanta Magazine: “Crows recently demonstrated an understanding of the concept of zero. It’s only the latest evidence of animals’ talents for numerical abstraction — which may still differ from our own grasp of numbers…In understanding of numbers is often viewed as a distinctly human faculty — a hallmark of our intelligence that, along with language,… Continue Reading