06 Jun 2005
Did you pay that doctor?

This says more about the state of US healthcare than all the blue ribbon panels and pontificating commissions that have held forth on "the cure" for the last quarter century.

It's testament to the mess that is our medical payments system–where providers, insurers, and patients pass paper like cards in some high-stakes game of "Go Fish"–that it takes a computer program to help you keep track of everything. Introducing the new Quicken Medical Expense Manager (initially $50, going later to $70, at intuit.com), designed to document doctor visits, prescriptions, and other costly medical events, as well as the resulting insurance payments, rejections, and disputes. It even includes form letters for resolving those disputes, but you'll have to provide your own expletives.

(link) [U.S. News & World Report]

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Court: Patients May Not Use Pot Legally

So much for the principles of federalism: how growing a plant in your backyard constitutes interstate commerce is utterly beyond this poor farm boy.

We are no longer a federal republic, but one nation-state consisting of many provinces, each of which is forced to toe the central government line.

AP - People who smoke marijuana because their doctors recommend it to ease pain can be prosecuted for violating federal drug laws, the Supreme Court ruled Monday, overriding medical marijuana statutes in 10 states.

(link) [Yahoo! News: Top Stories]

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Apple to ditch IBM, switch to Intel chips

Not sure if I believe this or not ... I guess we'll have to wait for Monday to know the truth. But things could get very, very interesting in the tech world if it is indeed as CNet reports ...

Apple will announce its plans Monday, CNET News.com has learned, in a move that raises questions about the Mac maker's future computer strategy.

(link) [CNET News.com]

Update: They did it.

00:00 /Technology | 4 comments | permanent link

Closed Source -> Charges Dismissed?

Companies that make devices for deciding illegal actions should have no more recourse to copyright than trade associations that formerly attempted to claim copyright on building codes. But at least in this case, the market will undoubtedly take over. If I were the police chief in this jurisdiction, I'd be looking for a new source of Breathalyzers.

According to the Tampa Tribune, judges in the central Florida county of Seminole are dismissing DUI charges when the defendant asks for information on how the breath test works. Apparently the manufacture of the device is unwilling to release the code to the state, and all four judges in the county have been dismissing DUI cases when the state cannot provide the requested information.

(link) [Slashdot]

00:00 /Copywrongs | 0 comments | permanent link