Money and Computing
The 'You Have a Right to Know' Rule: Transparent Hospital Pricing Exposes Wild Fluctuation, Even Within Miles
Editor's Note: Whether you will be able to determine the best prices when you have a need for a hospital is another question. KHN senior correspondent Julie Appleby and California Healthline’s Barbara Feder Ostrov recently wrote about this new rule and found price lists befuddling to most anyone without an advanced medical degree.Even though the sources cited below are from California exclusively, they will give you a framework of differing costs for the same hospital procedures and supplies. In addition, read the article, You Have a Right to Know the Price publis… more »
Smart Systems: Don’t Expect to See the ‘Home of the Future’ by 2020
Editor's Note: We built a new home that has Internet, cable and satellite connections facilitating present and future smart systems. IBM is enabling citizens' smartphones with apps alert cities to the existence of potholes, graffiti, and water issues by taking photos and sending them to city management, where they can be dealt with. Sensors that give readouts about human activity are being embedded in shoes, medicine such as asthma inhalers, and medical exploratory surgery devices. more »
In Search of a Job: Criminal Records as Barriers to Employment
Amy L. Solomon relates her testimony: I am writing this letter … out of desperation and to tell you a little about the struggles of re-entering society as a convicted felon." Thus began a letter that made its way to me at the US Department of Justice. "I have had numerous interviews and sent out more than 200 resumes for jobs which I am more than qualified. I have had denial after denial because of my felony." more »
Nuanced Sexism: Reflections of a female surgery resident
Arghavan Salles writes, "The next time you sit in a meeting where a man takes credit for a woman’s ideas or a woman does all the work on a project for which a man takes credit, think about what you can do to prevent this from happening to your mother, your sister or your daughter." more »