Complaining about health care prices is nothing new. The medical component of CPI has been higher than the overall CPI for decades. As far back as 1989 Gerry Anderson and colleagues showed "It's the Prices, Stupid" that explained why our national spending was so high compared to other countries. More recently, Elizabeth Rosenthal detailed those prices in an series of reports in The New York Times. She recently followed those up with her incisive book An American Sickness. Dr. Rosenthal also illustrated some of the clever techniques used to wring the most money out of our pockets, such as the upcoding industry and tacking facility fees onto visits. As the saying goes, if you're sitting at a poker table and you can't figure out who the sucker is, it's you.
transparency
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International Rescue Committee Open Sources First Of Its Kind Humanitarian Digital Tool
The International Rescue Committee (IRC), a leading crisis-focused humanitarian relief and resettlement organization, is open sourcing its Commodity Tracking System (CTS) technology. A first of its kind humanitarian digital tool designed to work in crisis locations, CTS is used to track essential, life-saving commodities such as medical supplies shipped into Syria. By open sourcing CTS, which was made possible by generous grants from the UK and US governments and Stichting Vluchteling, and making it available to all for free, the IRC is giving individuals and other organizations the opportunity to scale this technology and use it in other fragile and destabilized areas of the world.
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Internet Giants, Amid Grumbling, Release New Data On Government Spying
Several Internet behemoths released updated data Monday detailing in broad terms the amount of national security requests for user data they have received from the government, part of transparency reports recently permitted by the Obama administration. Read More »
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Interoperability by Design: FDA Issues New Final Guidance for Connected Medical Devices
The FDA is focusing on safety and effectiveness of interconnected medical devices with the issuance of final guidance on medical device interoperability, released last week. As the FDA notes, medical devices are becoming increasingly connected to one another and to other technologies, and it is critical to address their ability to exchange and use information safely and effectively. For device manufacturers, this guidance provides clarity on how the FDA is thinking about interoperability and patient safety in the premarket submission process and provides considerations for manufacturers in the development and design of interoperability medical devices...
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Interview To Alastair Parvin And Wikihouse Project
For the latest episode of our Meet The Founders interviews we are releasing today the intervivew we made recently with WIkihouse funder Alastair Parvin. The interview come up superbe and it touches a lot of topics, ranging from furniture manufacturing to VC strategies, from crowdfunding to openness. Read More »
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Irish Govt urged to open its data to citizens to prove accountability
The Irish Government has been called upon to follow US President Barack Obama’s lead and join the Open Government Partnership to drive transparency and innovation in Ireland. It would also send out a strong signal about its intentions towards accountability to citizens, an independent TD has said. Read More »
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Is The White House Trying To Blow Up An Open Data Bill?
The case for open data is pretty straightforward: Citizens deserve access to the information created with their tax dollars. Publishing that data in a format that's easy to search, sort and download could unleash a wave of innovation. If the private sector had access to government data it could find new ways to leverage it -- creating new services for consumers and new jobs. Right now, we're a long way from that ideal. Read More »
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Issa Launches The Open Gov Foundation
California Congressman Darrell Issa, a prominent advocate for Internet users, open government, and transparency issues unveiled a new initiative Monday called the Open Gov Foundation. Read More »
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J&J Sets Drug Data Free In ‘YODA’ Collaboration With Yale
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) will give academics access to data on clinical trials, a move that may prompt more companies to do the same. Read More »
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Japan Was The First To Ratify ACTA. Will They Join TPP Next?
Two of the biggest threats to the Internet are two international agreements: the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP) and the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). [...] With these two agreements, both of which contain intellectual property (IP) provisions that would negatively impact digital rights and innovation, the country that sits at the center of play is Japan. Read More »
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Kangaroos, Insurance Companies, and the Rising Cost of Healthcare
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Key Lesson from the NPfIT
Listening to critics is critical to the success of big projects. But has this lesson been learnt? Read More »
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Kitware Co-Founder And Chairman Ken Martin Named CFO Of The Year
Kitware, an advanced R&D software solutions provider, today announces the recognition of Dr. Ken Martin, Chairman and CFO of Kitware, as CFO of the Year by the Albany Business Review. Dr. Martin was selected as a finalist last month from among over 100 nominations in the small business category, and was named the category winner at an awards ceremony in Troy, New York. Read More »
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Kuhonga’s Anti-Corruption Strategy In Kenya
We’ve seen a rise in anti-corruption mapping. In the past few months, we’ve featured projects from Kosovo, Zimbabwe and even provided global overviews. [...] Today we are proud to share Kuhonga‘s journey, because it is both a global story and a Kenyan story. Read More »
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Late Digital Rights Activist, International Access To Knowledge Advocate, And NSA Spying Journalists Win EFF Pioneer Awards
EFF to Honor Aaron Swartz, James Love, and Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras Next Month in San Francisco Ceremony Read More »
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Law for All: Free Law Project’s Radical Approach to Legal Transparency
What does open access look like for the law? Through free access to primary legal sources, the Free Law Project provides an important service to advocates, journalists, researchers, and the public. Joining with an international movement for Free Access to Law, the US-based organization helps people know their rights in an increasingly uncertain and rapidly changing legal era. The Free Law Project is an umbrella organization for a variety of projects, including Court Listener for millions of pieces of legal data, the RECAP project (begun by Aaron Swartz in 2009) to freely open the PACER archive of legal data, a complete repository of Supreme Court Data, a repository of judicial opinions and seals, and a Free Law Reporters Database...
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